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GH2 Flow Motion v2 - 100 Mbps Fast Action Performance - Series 2
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  • @BurnetRhoades: Yeah, colored zebras in highlights. Doesn't happen in 8bpc projects but who wants that.

    I ran into the bug on the current 2.3.x codec, I found a post on CreativeCow complaining how this bug was newly introduced so I figured I'd install an older version. Beware that the AvidLE 2.2.3 installer reports failure on Windows 7 but it installs the codecs nevertheless.

  • Running into a small problem with Flow Motion v 2.02. I just installed a Sandisk Extreme Pro card, 36 gig, with gives me about ten minutes of recording time. My first etst was to just run the camera at length, to see if it cut out or spanned. Well, the camera cut out after about seven miniutes. (This may be due to my using ISO 2500.)

    I'm trying a continuous-run at 640 ISO. Much better: it's run for nearly half an hour, so that's good. It still reports a fair amount of storage left: I attribute this to the fact that the scenery's much darker, so it's probably going back to low bitrates. So I'm not certain about the spanning, either: I guess I'll have to try this in sunlight.

    Suggestions, pointers, advice, etc.?

  • Addendum to the previous. I just tried using Flow Motion in daylight: I set the camera up in the morning and just let it run, high bit rate mode, 640 ISO. Came back later to find that it had powered down after recording perhaps fifteen seconds.

    So I basically have two questions: any idea what I might be doing wrong, and what other high-bit-rate patches should I be trying out?

  • videos that i shot with Flow Motion v2.02 24p and 720 for slow mo

    I always try different patches but for some reasons i always come back to this one

  • So I basically have two questions: any idea what I might be doing wrong, and what other high-bit-rate patches should I be trying out?

    Try a 95MB/s Sandisk Exteme Pro SDXC Card or use the lower bitrate modes.

  • I shot a music video last year with Flow Motion 2.02 using available light, mostly handheld. The director of a feature film just hired me to do the BTS on her upcoming movie because she remarked how "cinematic" the look of the video was. So, big kudos to @LPowell for FM, VK and the little camera that we know and love!

  • @spreeni That's the card I've been using: I'd tried Flow Motion with a slower Class 10 card and had problems, so I got the Extreme Pro. I'll try the lower bitrate settings, but I was hoping to really push the camera's capabilities here.

  • @Swiss_Boy The same for me. I look at and test the others but keep coming back to Flow Motion. As well as the look it's been 100% reliable for me. I shoot HBR mode 25PsF.

  • @Alex_K and @spreeni: Turns out that both of you were right: I was actually using the wrong card; I'd installed the patch using the cheap, slow card that came with the camera, and hadn't swapped in the extreme pro. Apologies to all: will try it properly this weekend.

  • Okay, using the proper memory card (Sandisk Extreme Pro) and the Flow Motion patch, I stuck the camera in my window and let it run for a while. It was HBR mode, 30 FPS, ISO 640. I got an odd result that could use some clarification.

    I found three files on the card, which was about half-full. All three MTS files were 3.99 gig in size. When I checked the file properties in Windows, I got: 00000.MTS was 7:27 long, data rate 76mbps 00001.MTS was 7.26 long, data rate 76mbps 00002.MTS was 43:10 long, but the data rate was 12kmbps.

    I imported these into Premiere Pro; all three files run for about 7:30, but PP reports that all three files have a data rate of 9.1 MB/second.

    All three files play back just fine, and they look pretty decent. I'm thinking that, since my battery was drained, maybe it cut out around twenty-two minutes in and caused a minor anomaly in 00002.MTS; Windows reads it incorrectly, but PP reads it fine.

    Thoughts?

  • That's called "spanning". It means when the file size reaches 4GB a new one is created for continued recording. PPro handels those files correct, don't give much on file properties in windows (and windows media player).

  • @spreeni Yeah, I was checking to see if Flow Motion handled spanning-- or, if not, what's the longest single-take that it could handle.

    I tried the patch again yesterday, after my previous note, with a nice, fresh, fully-charged battery. This time, the camera'd shut down at the points where the files would have to span, i.e., at seven-minute or fourteen-minute intervals. So my own experience so far is that Flow Motion doesn't span reliably.

    There is one last thing I'll try. I'll try re-loading the original v11 firmware, and then loading Flow Motion.

  • @Brian_Siano As you've seen, Windows is confused by high-bitrate Flow Motion files, but video editors like Premiere Pro have no difficulty playing back the files as intended.

    File spanning on the GH2 is a rather fragile mechanism and works reliably only in specific conditions with Flow Motion v2. If you have a 95MB/sec 64GB SD card, file spanning should work in all video modes except for NTSC HBR 1080p30 mode. With slower SD cards, file spanning will work reliably in FM2's 60Mbps modes: 24L, FH, and H video modes in both PAL and NTSC.

  • @lpowell

    That probably explains it: I've been running my tests in NTSC HBRp30 mode, the very mode you say doesn't span. I'd figured that'd be the mode toughest on a patch or memory card. (I'm trying out Intravenus 2, same modes, and that one cuts out after a 4gig file is achieved.)

  • Hi there!

    It's my first post here. I have some questions about Flow Motion. On the first page there is an information that this patch gives me access to both PAL 25/50p and NTSC 30/60p frame rates. Does that mean that I can choose between PAL and NTSC or just PAL (I've bought my gh2 in UE)? The other thing is about FM and TimeBuster. When I add TB, 24P mode is shooting at 2fps. Does it change anything else in other film options or not interfere in FlowMotion settings?

  • What are your favorite Film Modes for Flow Motion? Mine are...

    SMOOTH -2 -1 -2 -2

    NOSTALGIC -2 -1 0 -1

  • Shot with FMv2.02, smooth -2, 14-42.

    Even with all of the overhead lights it was pretty dark in there so I think it was shot at ISO 800.

    One of the lights in the back right corner of the studio was going crazy and no matter what frame rate or shutter speed I tried it still flickered terribly. When I ran AE's noise reduction I used the temporal noise settings to reduce the flicker but there is still a small trace of it in some shots.

  • The other thing is about FM and TimeBuster. When I add TB, 24P mode is shooting at 2fps. Does it change anything else in other film options or not interfere in FlowMotion settings?

    Wasn't it so, that these 2fps settings are only for the MJPEG part? I tried this a while ago. I simply added these timelapse settings to the MJPEG part of the PTools with FlowMotion settings loaded before. So I had FlowMotion in all modes and did timelapse recordings by simply switching to MJPEG. MJPEG is limited to 2GB filesize, but after all changes I can record around an hour or so - enough for most of my timelapse experiments.

  • flowmotion 2.02 24L settings

  • I've been using FlowMotion 2.02 on about 5 dives (I bought the GH2 for underwater filming) so far and have been really impressed with the results:

    On the last dive, however, the camera locked up (picture froze on the lcd about 7 seconds into a clip). I couldn't do anything underwater to unfreeze the camera (turning on/off, mode dial all did nothing. After the dive I removed the camera from the housing and removed and replaced the battery and everything resumed to normal (of course the last clip was not saved). On the next dive I was about to get a few minutes of shooting in with the remaining battery life with no issues (I was not able to charge the battery after the camera was froze with LCD on for about 120 minutes).

    I was shooting in NTSC HBRp30, which I've use successfully before. The only difference was that this was my first time using the Oly 12-50mm macro lens (and was using the power zoom and macro mode). Can this type of behavior be expected every so often with the patch?

  • how is the flowmotion 24l mode compared to the cake 2.3 24h? what is the difference between them?

  • i'm new to flowmotion, just to know, when i hit record the colorson the screen change a bit, is it normal?

  • Yes, it's a normal GH2 behavior, doesn't have to do anything with patches.

  • Anyone test Flowmotion with a different GOP to see if it disappears the Digital Rain on CS6?