Nice to know they are monitoring.

First request: Since we aren't giving a shit about the standard Blue Ray profiles, I'd like to ask for Variable Frame Rate in AVCHD encoder. I don't want it to encode 30fps when I'm doing 2fps timelapses, thank you very much. The option of recording without sound should also be seriously considered.

@duartix

+1!!!!! Panny open your ears, (or eyes on the forum...) EDIT: I also will higher fps for slow motion.....

This thing is turning nicer and nicer by the minute. Good news Vitaliy.

I think this is as good a time as any to address the current issues that sometimes come up on the camera (as opposed to focusing only on new features).

-Someone already mentioned the gamma shift.

-Issues with narrow angle shutter under artificial lights due to lack of sync with shutter speeds to lighting frequencies (at least in NTSC regions).

-Intermittent issues with flashes in underexposed regions, even at low ISOs.

-Menus not always registering mode change selections (like when you switch from shooting SH mode to Cinema Mode and then have to open the menu again and close it again to get it to switch).

-The noise issue bug on the top ISO row (320, 640, 1250, etc.)

Those were off the top my head. Anyone have other similar types of issues (as in, not adding functionality just fixing what is there)?

@futur2 Glad you remembered that one. Anyone/anything else?

I have a theory about what's going on here and I'd like to propose we test it.

Given Comrade Vitaliy's well-documented impatience with lesser minds than his, I believe his obviously April Fool's inspired announcement about working with Panasonic along with a Justice League style group of super hackers like Driftwood is Vitaliy's subversive way of separating the forum's wheat from its chaff.

In other words, those GROWN MEN here who are actually capable of believing a company like Panasonic would hire on a Russian conspiracy theorist and anti-capitalist firmware hacker to work alongside its engineering team in Japan, in effect admitting that its in-house brains aren't as smart at this guy with a hobbyist tweaker blog? These true believers line up single-file and report to Rocket #1.

The rest of us who call BS and applaud Vitality for a well-played April Fool's gag? We report to Rocket #2.

Tomorrow at noon sharp, both rockets launch. What happens next depends on which rocket got it right.

If Vitaliy's telling the truth and he and Nick are really going to work in an official capacity with Panasonic on future camera designs, Rocket #1 blasts off, orbits the moon, and returns home to a heroes' parade and free lifetime GH-series cameras from Panasonic with full official beta tester privileges.

Rocket #2 will explode on liftoff, killing all aboard.

But if this is all just a well-played April Fool's gag, the following will take place: Rocket #2 makes several spectacular passes around the Earth, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere for a perfect splashdown and we get to rejoin the forum and continue to play with amazing unauthorized 3rd party firmware hacks.

Rocket #1, on the other hand, never returns to Earth. Instead, it keeps hurtling through space, its onboard URL blacklist blocking personal-view.com from its browsers indefinitely. The only URLs the ship's firewall lets through are dvxuser, eoshd, and chixwithdix.com. A week's supply of Red Bull and churros will require severe rationing if it is to support all of the guys who signed onto the "Panasonic Welcomes Employee # 4,000,000,001 Vitaliy "Steve" Kiselev" gag.

Am I saying I endorse this plan? No, I most certainly do not. It is a cruel and heartless solution to improving the S/N ratio, and only a man with ice water in his veins and balls of solid magnesium would ever consider such a thing. No, I am too much of a people person to support this sort of mass moronicide. At the end of the day, the simple truth of the matter is I feel too much.

But que sera. The decision has been made. Report to your self-assigned rocket at 0-eleven-hundred hours tomorrow and may God forgive Vitaliy and perhaps Panasonic for what they have done here.

EDIT: I will try to copy this to a new thread later. But first, thanks VK, Nick, Lee, Ralph_B, mpgxvcd, bkmwcd and the many others that made patches and helped answer questions.

I think we are missing an opportunity here.

Within a day or two, the veracity of the report (or conversely any potential lack of it) will be self-evident. But at this point in time we have been given a unique opportunity to consider things that we took for granted before the weekend came.

1) VK, and so many others on this site have taken a camera that cost less than a mid-level DSLR and brought it to the level of being compared against cameras costing 4 to more than 50 times more.

2) Many people wonder whether such work could have been done working from within the system rather than without but we must also consider how much more could have been done if the firmware had not had to reverse-engineered in order to make any changes at all. We consider this not because of any assuredness that VK will get to "peek behind the curtain" but to look at what he might be able to do if he dedicated all that extra energy into higher level things instead of evolved trial and error.

3) We are put in the position to think about ourselves, both as a community and as individuals, in terms of our identity, priorities, strengths, weaknesses and internal diversity. Being faced with the possibility of a major change can do this just as surely as the change itself.

So I for one would like to take a moment to thank just a handful of the people (among to many to list) that inspired this un-seasonal Thanksgiving. :)

First of all congratulations to vitaliy and group. I think it is real and here is why.

Having been in IT business for 30 years and witnessing development of computer hardware and software, the process for developing camera and associated firmware is no different. Generally, the vendors hire people to do the market research talking to the real users to find out about new requirements and then have real good designers and developers to turn those requirements into actual products. This can cost the vendors a lot of time and money. By turning their firmware loose and allowing them to be hacked, they get the best brain thrust to not only come up with the most extensive requirements list and prioritize it for them but also show them how it is done.

This all good and dandy. But the competition is also monitoring these forums and collecting the same information and benefiting from them. Now, Panasonic by contracting with the brain thrust of this forum, still gets all the benefit exclusively but shuts the door on competition. Of course there are selected cameras as Vitaliy indicated, but chances are the ones that are not included in the contract people care less about them. Additionally, Panasonic will load Vitaliy and the team with so much work that they won't have time to spend on hacking anything else unless they cut from their sleep.

The other side of the coin is that Vitaliy and group would like financial security like everyone else. If this opportunity provides them with good income, they have to think about number one. They would like to retire someday and enjoy their life. If this contract provides them with good compensation I can't blame them and encourage them to make the most out of it. This is capitalism at its best.

Let's not forget that VK and company are there to make a difference for the better. So let's give them a chance and hope for the best.

On one hand I'm glad that Vitaly's and hackers' great work has finally been "recognized" by Pana, on the other I feel @vladnik is 100% right.

Let's wait and see...

@Shaveblog I am not trying to figure out if it is true or not - I am taking it as an opportunity either way. :)

Regarding video priorties for future cameras: -increased dynamic range -improved high ISO performance -higher frame rates/better motion handling (e.g. rolling shutter issues) -higher resolution

These have been the reasons behind every recent camera purchase I have made recently (but only when implemented well). Bitrates have to keep up, though.

It would be nice to have a sort of Tethering like Canon/Nikon.Where external computer via USB could adjust shutter/aperture/ISO/start/stop, etc. Here is an example. For Timelapse you may want to RAMP an exposure as light changes, say Dawn. A company makes a product called the Little Bramper, that can adjust the exposure over the course of a timlapse.

If we could externally ramp a shutter speed or ISO we'd have the best for timelapse.

Also tethering would be nice for video. I can imagine setting shutter, ISO picture profiles, THE NAME of the take via a ipad app or a usb connected laptop. All we'd need is a protocol over USB. All the actual perimeters are already in the menus. Then I'm sure Ipad developers would make the Apps, and Adobe Lightroom would support Panasonic for tethering.

I second Humpman's inquiry on the GF3.