New here and looking for some info before I decide which camera I'll buy.

I'm currently working on an art project for which I'm making photos with a particular composition. I'm making series of pictures all based on 4 different geometric constructions. Since I've started this I've dreamt about a firmware hack that would enable me to use custom grid lines. Last week I found out Magic Lantern allows you to make custom crop marks and grid lines in their hack for canon 600D and the likes. But the 95% OVF doesn't fit my shooting style and the live view is slow and cumbersome. And the 7D is too big to take anywhere (I always carry my laptop and drawing stuff as well) I'ld rather go with m43 and EVF.

For the GH2 I only found this quote from Vitaliy:

is it possible to create a custom gridline overlay?

In theory, yes. Right now - no.

So my question - if anyone can answer this one: Do you think custom grid lines will be available within the next months on the GH2? If the G3 gets hacked, will it also get the same functionality?

I could keep working with transparent film with marker lines. But since this is a long term project, having these grid lines in camera would be awesome. And I'm willing to make a donation for this of course!

cheers, pitrak

Thanks for all of the hard work and great utilities for making the GH2 a phenomenal camera. I love the results!

I'm using spanmybitchup v2b settings by @driftwood with the new ptools and firmware 1.1. I shot almost two consecutive hours of video on 24L last night, and I noticed that time remaining seemed very unreliable. I've read that some of the VBR settings will cause the time remaining to change depending on the type of scene shot, but this dropped much faster than it indicated even while shooting a static scene. Is there any reliable way to determine time remaining on a card or should I just test my settings and cards and see how long I get?

Also, I'm obviously interested in settings for shooting long continuous shots and I was thinking about testing out Rocket, but I can't figure out what the differences between it and spanmybitchup are, any info or recommendations on that?

Thanks again!

Q: How can I revert my camera back to the original Panasonic firmware?

Copy the Panasonic firmware file to the root folder of an SD card formatted by your camera.
Make sure there is only one firmware file on the SD card.
Make sure the camera battery is fully charged.
Turn off the camera and insert the SD card.
Turn on the camera and press the green Playback Mode button.
Select Yes in the Version Up screen and press the OK button.

Is this still work with the new Ptool? I tried but it won't. Also I have to bring up the number like Now GH2__v15.bin, next change settign should be Gh2__v15.bin. Worry abt I will end up with GH2__v20 then it won't work any more! Any one could explain?

@mjfeliciano no

@mjfeliciano Its difficult keeping uptodate especially for new users I know. But you have to appreciate settings have names and versions, there's been a lot of settings over the last 6 months, A certain setting attributed to a certain tester together with the title of the setting and its version number is not so bad to follow and understand. Its generally dated anyway. Settings are optimised for different user requirements like top quality, spanning quality, etc... You'll either have to read the threads and keep uptodate or ask someone whats the best setting for your requirement. In my settings, Quantum X is for ptools 3.64d, Rocket is a VBR style setting, Orion is a CBR style setting, and other names are given to settings with lower bitrates for spanning etc... Each of the settings as they progress in time will go from version (v1) to higher like v3 or v3b if its a very minor change to the previous setting of that name.

That probably won't help you !!!

@driftwood Thanks Driftwood... I'm new here (have been reading quietly for a while though), but one thing I learned early is who the leaders are on this community. I know that Vitaliy (Hacker13) is the mastermind that created PTool, the software hack that started the "revolution"; and you, cbrandin, LPowell and others, are the codec and patch masters (half techs/half artists). Without you guys this powerful technology would have been available to many, but only used by a few. You guys are doing for the GH2 and the PTool what Steve Job did for the personal computer, making it user friendly. I've been a GH2 owner for 10 months now, but was a little bit intimidated by the techno-jargon and all the different patches and levels of SD card compatibility. Now I'm getting ready to hack my GH2 for the first time (a little overwhelmed by all the information available at this site); trying to catchup and learn as much as I can. Thank you again for your dedication and continuing work.

@mjfeliciano I understand your confusion...I just hacked mine yesterday with orion v4(or whatever version was newest as of last night). I did breakdown and buy new class 10 cards (sd extreme hd video as per the recommendation). I opted for highest quality I could ascertain (orion) and will back it down from there if/as problems arise. I'd rather have quality than spanning, which it seems like the choice I have to make considering I use 1080 24p. I'm shooting a trailer for my novel, with some greenscreening and set extensions. I read a review of the hacked gh2 that said it wasnt hot for greenscreen, I hope that is just because they keyer they were using (adobe ultra) is not a good one!

@bullet2 I would like to keep the same functionality/stability I have now with the unhacked GH2, but at a much higher data rate, something in the 66-100mbps range. That means, that it needs to span. Picture quality is my number one priority but reliability is my number 2. What I've seen on vimeo and youtube so far, anything under 66mbps doesn't have the Wow! factor, and anything above 100mbps is a waste of storage and kind of tricky when it comes to memory cards. I know that people say not to judge the picture quality by the compressed online video but ultimately that's where my videos are going to be distributed mostly.

Oh and I mentioned the hx9v for a reason...but I forgot to state it...I am mounting my hx9v to a hotshoe, with a 32gb class 6 card, and letting it run the entire time in 1080p 60p I film with the gh2...gives me good slow motion capabilities, though its not as good as the gh2, it is superb with twixtor!

@superset, short answer: for most things, Flow Motion will be more efficient, and Driftwood's will have more consistent frame-to-frame quality. But you might not notice the differences. You need to test for yourself.

There have been various reports of the GH2 recording trash, or nothing to the card when a monitor is connected to the hdmi out. Can anyone specify under what specific conditions this happens, as it seems others have been able to use an external monitor? Thanks

Says everyone: (Banding = Structure of sensor + defective product) Well, why clean photos? I suspect that the GH1 orginal software! What do you think this suspect?

(My English is not good, i’m sorry.)

@davidk while using the HDMI out, the GH2 will only record in 24p or 60i modes with V1.0 and hacks. With V1.1 and hacks it's possible to record in 24p, 25/30p, or 60i. 720 50/60p isn't possible while using HDMI. With V1.1 the unusable settings are greyed out, in V1.0 it's possible to select an unusable setting and the camera will automatically revert to 60i mode.