Thanks Vitaliy for the hard work. Joined the club and did first test:


Also posted a blog for mac users who want to install. http://www.beeldlab.nl/installing-gh2-hack-with-a-mac/

HD format is 1920*1080, now it's possibly to change the format to 1080*1920 with a hack? The idea is to don't
needed to set the GH2 vertical while recording. Would be handy.

@alexr
I know, it had been asked many times.
Most probably this is impossible.

I need to have the VGA out working also during shooting video, I have to send out the signal trough a video antenna and at the moment there are only vga transmitters on the market.

At the moment gh2 only uses vga out for play recorded stuff..

unfortunately hdmi video transmitters are extremely expensive and have a very short range..
is there anybody who knows how to trasnform hdmi signal to vga?

Yeah - if i was recording audio that was important enough to monitor through headphones whilst shooting, i wouldn't trust the audio codecs in the GH2 with it anyway - probably pretty noisy - most of these devices are because they are not optimized for audio. Also you'll want to record in 24bit ideally, which I don't know if GH2 analog to digital converters even do. If anyone is interested in shooting 2nd system sound on a budget, I recommend the Sony PCM-M10 - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/638090-REG/Sony_PCM_M10_BLACK_PCM_M10_Portable_Audio_Recorder.html . It is small and has a very clean and quiet mic preamp for self-powered mics. I use one to record all my shows and the guy I work with (who does the recordings for all Brown University's concerts) also uses it. Its internal mics are also have a very flat frequency response, though not a good stereo spread or any directionality because they are a pair of omnis. Headphone output is loud - good for monitoring live. I've done sound recording/boom operating for a few short films using it and the small size is great.

+ 1 on being able to adjust contrast, sharpness, etc more than +2 to -2 range. Would be very useful in helping match GH2 to a wider range of A cameras, which would help establish it as the ultimate B camera.

Would 1/48th shutter improve 24p?

Would it be possible to add different EV ranges for Bracket photos?

For example, I would like to shoot 3 photos in a set with a 4 EV range (+/-2 EV or -2/0/+2). This is not possible with the 3 photo bracket set as the max is 2 EV range (+/-1 EV or -1/0/+1).

Currently, to get a minimum 4 EV range, I must shoot a set of 5 photos (or 7 photos with 6 EV range).

Thank you.

@Roberto
It is on list already as I suggested it many months ago:) it's just low priority as it's sth easy to do in post.

@Roberto
in camera avchd aspect ratios is sth I'd like to see too for convenience reasons. look here at avchd encoder
https://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-hack/ptool-software
I had also suggested the 2.0 aspect ratio (1920x960) since it's really a very cool and overlooked ratio.
but we'll have to wait as it's not of huge significance at the moment, but it shouldn't be that hard to do I think, when VK gets some free time.

@hedrox I guess the answer will be no it can't be added. There are better ways of acheiving a shallow DOF, such as a fast lens. The attached image is a still from a video I shot testing a patch, I don't think you would want anything more shallow than this. The lens is a Helios 44 which cost me 10 quid (UK pounds) and the adaptor cost me 20 quid. I've actuallly seen the lenses go for less money, they are very common as many were made between 1966 and the 80's. Real shallow DOF is always going to be more controllable, and better looking than a software solution. If you look on vimeo there are plenty of better examples than mine of a shallow DOF on the GH2.

Right, gotcha. I'd never want to do that in camera though myself.

2fps E-SHUTTER LIMIT

I have been doing some tests using the electronic shutter in the still mode... which I know is not the main focus of the hack... however I have found some very interesting results that might spark the interest in terms of using it to shoot video.

The manual shutter is slow... we know that. However the electronic shutter will shoot 2.3K images at 40fps in SH burst mode, but only for one second before it needs to buffer that info.

I began to wonder... using a modified external controller instead of a shutter release, how many frames could fire through the camera consistently before the camera needs to buffer?

I have come up with some interesting results...

The still's manual shutter, when shooting a full 16 megapixel image will consistently do 1fps on a class 10 card with no buffer. At 2fps it will do 57 frames before skipping three frames to buffer and continue for another 57 frames, then buffer three etc... When you set the camera to burst mode using the H setting, the manual says it can do 4-7fps before "slowing down half way through".

When you lower the size to a 2.3k image (there about, full JPEG 3.8 megapixel) it can take photos at 4fps, no problem, fully buffering as it goes, no lag time (at 6fps it skips frames so we'll say 4fps is its max at 2.3K).

So if the manual shutter can perform at 4or 5fps consistently at 2.3K without slowing, this all makes one think that the electronic shutter could vastly outperform this.

Wrong-- !

The electronic shutter has a built in "cripple limit" at only 2fps!!! Half of what the manual shutter can do with ease!!

This cripple is really disconcerting.. as I feel there is the possibility for the GH2 to perform in the SH burst mode at 24fps (taking single still images) with no buffer on a class 10 or higher card. Seeing how the camera is capable of taking 40 still photos in one second with one second to buffer after... theoretically at 20fps it may have enough time to buffer electronically in between stills and perhaps that could be pushed to 24fps.

So....

I would love to find out, if at all possible, if the 2fps electronic shutter burst mode limit could be removed.

This limit's terminology pretty much states:

"when consecutive (not held down burst) shooting is firing the camera, limit those pulses to only 2 stills
per second".

This is of course arbitrary, because the manual shutter will keep trying to take as many stills as it can physically keep up with no matter how many a second.

In an interesting note, at 1fps the e-shutter is fine. At 2fps the e-shutter is fine. At 4fps the e-shutter skips exactly half the pictures (mathematically) and when you send 100 shots to the camera the number taken is only 50. This continues at 6fps, 8fps etc... the total shots taken only ever amount to 2fps which is how I know it is an imposed limit.

With my present set up I would be able to test the camera's ability to take stills at 1/2/4/6/8/12/16 and 24fps and assemble the stills as a movie (standard procedure for animators). If I am correct and the camera can process 2.3K stills in 24 stills per second, we will have uncovered a new 2K imaging device... with the full range of JPEG settings available (not just video mode and bit rates... but still frames like a film camera!) Perhaps even the hack could rewrite the burst mode to take 24fps instead of 40fps and we'd have a built in mode for shooting those stills as frames.

At the very least, if the camera could only produce a max of 18fps (stills per second) or 16fps, before buffering, then there is the possibility that with a simple timing device, the camera could offer multiple frames per second shooting... an option for fast motion, animation, timelapse.


My request is to see if the 2 stills per second electronic shutter "cripple limit" in the SH still mode on the camera could be removed or modified via the firmware. I strongly feel this could be a breakthrough and would love the opportunity to explore and test this possibility.

Thanks,

Dbdaws