Yeah, I was wondering if you guys could hack my refrigerator. Increasing my freezing ratio would be awesome.

@Stears

If you ask me, no I can't. And do not use titles made from caps if you want answers.

A lot of those video cameras have full HDMI output. You can then buy a recorder and capture uncompressed. I know the HV20 could do it and while it was 60i, if you set the 24p setting, it was in the wrapper and you could then remove pulldown. The last and only test I saw was 5 years ago, before the cheap BMD shuttle came out so it wasn't very cost effective back then since you needed a PC with a raid setup. Now if you have a old HV20 lying around you could do it cheap now with the BMD Shuttle v1.

Not sure about some of these other cams, but the HV20 recorded HDV 1440 in tape, but output full 1080p and the interlaced wrapped 24p was full resolution, as good as it got until the HDSLRs came out.

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?9670-Uncompressed-grabs-from-Intensity-vs-film-scans

You can get used ones on Ebay for around as cheap as $200 and if you get a "damaged" one with a jammed tape deck, maybe even less.

Used HV20 $200, BMD Shuttle v1 $180, $130 for 120gb SSD, = $510, cheapest uncompressed 1080p you can get. I've got a damaged HV20, but...the GH1/GH2 is good enough. I don't need uncompressed or 4:2:2 just yet.

I have both Vixia cams and Sony top models and I prefer the look of my GH1 . Perhaps you could mix the two as each has certain strengths but I find DSLR to be more artistic in how you can achieve different looks with different glass.

What are you trying to improve in terms of hacking a consumer HD cam?

@Stears @Aria asks a really good question above. It's difficult to see what you're trying to do. I mean, camcorders are really useful for their form factor etc, if you are shooting run and gun etc, but if you are asking why no-one has hacked some of the Vixia Legria models, then I guess it's probably because they're not worth hacking.

@Stears, I do realize that those small chip HD cams have some high Rez stats, but what sold me on the GH2 was a resolution comparison of a live shot between the GH2 and other top S35 Cams. The GH2 was right up there with a C300. Close enough that it really didn't seem that far off at all and surely enough to satisfy my needs.

There are other factors beside Rez. I think having a Camcorder is a handy part of a tool kit tho and the IQ from them is pretty darned high. I don't know why someone wouldn't just hook up a Black Magic Hyperdeck to their Camcorder and gain a higher bit rate if they felt that it would be beneficial. They're actually reasonably affordable and you wouldn't have to wait on a hack, that may never come.

@Stears

I think all here got your position long time ago.
No need to go in circles.

@stears I think you're confused. Sharpness is a tiny part of a quality image. You seem to be basing all your conclusions on the price of high end comsumer camcorders and a sharpness test at camorder info.

To the first- while a gh2 body may be cheaper than these camcorders, an equipped GH2 is way more expensive. It needs multiple lens and a fair amount of other equipment to be truely useable. A camcorder doesn't.

To the second- a DSLR's sensor is several times the size of what's in a camcorder. In theroy at least, that means a lot more as far as a quality final image goes then a sharpness test.

If I wanted a supersharp image out a gh2, I could get it with the right lens, lighting, sharpening in post, etc. I don't. I want it to look organic not machined.

I'd love to have a tm900 for it's ease of use, good image, endless list of features, 60p, etc. But claiming its mage quality is better than a GH2 based on single non real world chart based sharpness test is a fallacy.

@Mark_the_Harp

The good picture quality of high pixelcount video-sensors was nothing more than a wide-spread urban legend/gossip, whithout any scientific background. I heard and read it many times in the last 10 years, but it doesn't change the fact, that it is not more than a wide-spread hebetate gossip. Real professionals, like engineers and official sites of that factories/firms have never stated such gossips.

Nowadays (2011-2012) the downgrade the amount of sensor pixels in professional camcorders is a trend for good video resolution. Perhabs the best solution is a large perfectly 1920*1080 pixel sensor, because there are more amount of light sweep the pohotraster, and therefore it induces stronger electric signal/pixel. There is no need image resize tranformation processes/algorithms which further downgrade the video quality.

GH2 DATA (ISO resolution test chart 12233)

On the resolution front : Camera / Mode/ Vert / Horiz lines / picture height from ISO 12233 chart. (Shot at optimum aperture) LW/PH GH2 / Cin24 / 780 / 800 GH2 / 1080i / 550 / 800 GH2 / 720p / 600 / 650 HMC / 1080p24 / 600 / 650 HMC / 720p24 / 550 / 550

Old AVCHD camcorder: Panasonic HDC-TM700

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-HDC-TM700-Camcorder-Review-37681/Sharpness-Performance.htm

The camcorder measured a horizontal sharpness of 1000 lw/ph and a vertical sharpness of 900 lw/ph.

My question: Is the hacking of a camcorder-firmware more difficult than a firmware-hack of a DSLR camera? Which softwares/hex editors are good to create/edit such a firmware?

Is the hacking of a camcorder-firmware more difficult than a firmware-hack of a DSLR camera?

To hack something you need to have this first. And your question is so general that it became impossible to answer.

Do you think about the hardware (camcorder/camera) or the firmware file?

How do you think yourself?