The camera somehow got in an interlaced mode for some of these clips, that or I had some hack settings wrong. I almost threw all these clips out, but I'm glad I didn't. I think it actually adds to the look and feel of the video in a strange way.

As always, I love all feedback!

Music Video made with GH2 and 7D. 0 Budget, just lot of work. Youtube do not make justise to picture quality. Boht cams hold werry well heavy post procesing. Hope you like it, and pleas comment (if you like). GH2 was hacked with Driftwood settings.

Also, where to see a list of presently available firmwares for either camera, and how can one decide which one to use? Is there like a "10 best" list someplace? Thanks a bunch, ladies & gents.

The sound of this little jewel, built in the well renowned german/austrian AKG house, is superb - very natural and clean, voices sound warm. It has a particular strong directional characteristic/off-axis rejection and wide frequency range. It supports very strong signals as much as it picks up clearly sounds and voices coming from the distance. Reading the reviews you can see how versatil this microphone is http://www.proaudio.com/product_info.php?products_id=3480.

It is very small, 137mm x 9mm, size of a pencil, is very light, perfect for using on any small hybrid or DSLR cameras.

Talking to the AKG tecnicians in Austria, they had their doubts whether it would work with such a low (2.5V) "power supply" of the GH2. Normally it works with 9-52V. But: it did work (Thanks Mr. Amon for your advise).

Connection is: red to "tip" and "ring" and white and ground to "sleeve". Basically the same way as described in @balazers topic. You have to cut off the 48V phantom power plug previously.

The microphone shock mount on the photo, was custom built out of a stainless steel tube, with my local boat-welder in my Marina and a few rubber bands.

The lack of any existing 2.5mm stereo plug in an angled version (I only found crap), made me change the "interor" of an angled 3.5mm plug and substitute it with the interior part of a normal metal 2.5mm plug. Works fine. No need of annoying 3.5/2.5 adapters.

For my purposes this is a very satisfying setup. With the great picture quality of the GH2, using balazers stable cake settings (thanks @Vitaly and @balazer), now I finally found a very small high end on-camera microphone with a wonderful sound quality, no need of any further batteries or power supply, and the whole thing still keeps this small, flexible, moving character which I love to work with.

The AKG C747 is not cheap, the actual version MK II costs around 500€ or more, but the previous version, which is basically the same microphone (a part from a filter and a few other things), you can find it used for around approx 300€, add approx 30€ for the Windscreen.

Would love to hear your opinions about it.

EDIT: Cheap deal on AKG C747 on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150918575896?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_1249wt_1219

I am in need of a little guidance regarding my workflow options for an upcoming project I will be shooting on a Panasonic GH2.

Footage from my GH2 is in the .mts format/AVCHD codec and my usual workflow is to use FCP's 'log and transfer' function to convert the footage to ProRes, for editing in FCP. I usually also archive each SD card as back up.

However, I am wondering whether there is a better method for this project, which will involve heavy use of the Twixtor plugin in After Effects. My initial instinct was to transcode the raw files into ProRes via FCP as per usual and then import these ProRes files into After Effects for processing. But I wonder whether I would be better of editing the .mts files directly in After Effects before exporting for FCP. My understanding is that this method involves one less re-compression and should theoretically result in less artifacts.

I am also unsure about what the most efficient codec for exporting from After Effects to bring back into FCP.

My ultimate goal here is to preserve quality and minimise re-compression artifacts.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers. J

While I cannot see yet an immediate beneficial use of my results, I thought that they may inspire other experiments or just add to the knowledge of the GH2 internals.

At first I wanted to know what precisely a GH2 writes to my 64GB SDXC card when doing the usual "Format" before use. The answer:

The GH2 creates a DOS-style partition table containing one primary partition that starts at an offset of exactly 32768 sectors (of 512 byte, each), or 16MB. This seems like a reasonable choice to me, as it makes sure the start of the filesystem is aligned to a 2^N byte offset that is almost certain to be a multiple of the erase block size of the MLC NAND flash memory that SD cards commonly consist of. The type ID of the primary partition is set to 7, a value used by Windows for NTFS as well as exFAT (and also for HPFS with OS/2, which may rest in peace). (Notice that with SD and SDHC cards, partition type 0xb is used, which is common for use with FAT file systems.) The unused 16MB before the first partition start may also help (when never having been written to) the SD card internal Flash controller and its wear level management to prepare completely empty erase blocks for writing. (NAND Flash can be read and written to when empty in small blocks such as 512 byte, but erasing NAND Flash memory is possible only in much larger "erase blocks" - such as 512k to 4MB - so the controllers in SD cards, USB sticks or SSDs need to employ some sector allocation management of their own to make sure they can erase blocks of that size before new data can be written.)

The GH2 writes an exFAT filesystem to the primary partition with the following characteristics:

• Volume serial number: A seemingly random number that changes with each format
• exFat filesystem version: 1.0
• Sector size: 512
• Cluster size: 131072
• First sector: 32768 (consistent with the start of the partition)
• FAT first sector: 16384
• FAT sectors count: 16384
• First cluster sector: 32768
• Root directory cluster: 4
• Volume state: 0x0000
• FATs count: 1
• Drive number: 0x80
• Label: (none, empty)

This is the same filesystem layout that results if you format the partition using e.g. the following Windows command line (replacing X: with your actual drive letter):

format X: /FS:exFAT /Q /A:128k

The GH2 writes a directory structure and some files to the initialized exFAT filesystem:

size name
     0 DCIM/
     0 MISC/
     0 PRIVATE/
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/PLAYLIST/
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/CLIPINF/
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM/
 504 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/INDEX.BDM
   66 PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/MOVIEOBJ.BDM
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/AVCHDTN/
   72 PRIVATE/AVCHD/AVCHDTN/THUMB.TID
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/AVCHDTN/THUMB.TDT
     0 PRIVATE/AVCHD/IISVPL/
607776 PRIVATE/FILEINFO.TBL
   76 PRIVATE/FILEMNG.DAT
1672 PRIVATE/cache.dat

If you archive this directory structure on a computer of yours, you can re-create a "blank" SDXC card for use with the GH2 at any time, just by creating the same filesystem type and copying these files to it. I tested that indeed, the GH2 behaves completely normal if you use a card prepared such, indistinguishable from an "original in-camera formatting".

Now I wanted to know whether changing any aspects of this "formatting" would yield interesting results, and indeed, it does.

First, I checked whether the offset of the first partition does make a difference to the GH2 when changed. Doubling or halving this offset didn't change anything, the GH2 seemed not to take notice of the difference.

Next, I checked what would happen if I used a different allocation unit size, e.g. 256kB or 64kB. Such change causes the GH2 to display a warning when inserting the SDXC card, saying (as far as I can remember the wording): "This card has not been formatted with this camera. It will not be suitable for recording video." After displaying this message for a few seconds, the camera behaves normally regarding the taking of still pictures. When starting to shoot video, it first seems that all is normal, too, but whatever allocation unit size different from 128kB I tried, video recording will stop after a few seconds with the well known error message that "the cards write speed is insufficient". This happenes even when recording low-bandwidth video, so I wonder what special meaning the 128kB allocation unit size has for the GH2 that it is working so badly with other sizes.

Notice that when I benchmark writing to the same card from my PC with allocation unit sizes other than 128kB (within reasonable limits), I do not measure significantly different performance. But of course, the SD card interface of the GH2 may be very different from the Kingston USB 3.0 card reader that I use with my PC.

Well, that's about it with my experiments on this, so far.

BTW: The "SD Formatter" offered at https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/ claims that it has one mode of operation where it pre-erases the Flash memory on the card, which would plausibly allow for faster writing, but only until all the blocks have been written to at least once. I also wonder under which circumstances this tool is able to issue the ERASE_WR_BLK_START/_END etc. SD protocol messages to a SDXC card that is connected via a card reader, the documentation of the formatter indicates that the tool falls back to just overwriting the blocks if it cannot erase them - but just overwriting blocks would not leave the card with empty erase blocks, so subsequent writes would require erase operations by the cards internal controller, resulting in no write performance benefit.

White streaks against dark background (wall):

Dark streaks against bright background(computer screen):

So I invite you all to list your favorite lenses that have helped you to achieve that filmic look on GH1, GH2 and GH3.

I'm selling a 16x9 EX HD7X62 0.7x wide angle adapter for lenses/camcorders with 62mm front diameter. It's in great condition and comes with both caps, a pouch, a 52mm to 62mm step up ring and a 82mm to 77mm step down ring.

Please PM me with your offers.

Cheers

Had quite a bit of M4/3 gear for my GH2's & selling some of it on ebay. Just thought I'd post the links here in case anyone's interested. It's all really well looked after stuff.

All separate listings:

GH2 Body Only (Black - LCDVF 16:9 Loupe included) http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880776940?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880787562?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

SLR Magic HyperPrime 12mm f/1.6 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880796144?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

GH2 Batteries (3 additional genuine batteries available) http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880817465?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880818690?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140880819590?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Is there another site or page dedicated to simply listing any and all patches in order from newest to oldest or something like that?

Is this the newest patch at the moment? Cluster v9 'DREWnet' 'Boom 4444 matrix.

Where is the 244mb/s patch I am seeing in youtube/vimeo videos? Unfortunately some users didn't post the name of the hack. I have heard of patches bringing it to 280/290 mb/s..not sure if this is true or not, but where would I find these.

I would like to test the highest bitrate patch, but i am having difficulty finding them. I am looking for the highest possible quality for some situations..even if it doesnt play back in camera..thats what my computer is here for (also, I started with film so this doesn't scare me as with film you can never play back what you recorded)

ALSO, THANKS VITALY & DRIFTWOOD and everyone for everything. If I make some money in the near future I will donate! I am broke atm..

Best,

Mike

this our first episode of a Web Series we produced last year. its my first work as cinematographer and I learned a lot from this site.

shot on GH2 (Non Hacked & Hacked )

Lenses: Canon FD & Lumix

Software used: FCP7, Premier pro CS6, and AE CS6,ColorGHear

please feel free to comment so we can improve and share if you like it.

Special Thanks to Vitaliy & Shian.

I've applied a grad exposure from two sides with Magic bullets and a general lift in exposure and Neat video. This results in banding, washout out colours and the white subject parts disappearing into the white background.

I bounced a very bright tungsten light off the ceiling as that's all that was available in the studio.

Any ideas please.

__http_://vimeo.com/46113751

• Reliable 100Mbps peak performance in AVCHD 24H, HBR, FSH, SH, and MJPEG HD.

• Exclusive 140Mbps turbo mode boosts peak bitrate to handle 80% Slow-Motion 24H mode.

• Records reliably with Class 10 30MB/s cards, with 60Mbps file-spanning in 24L, FH, and H modes.

• 95MB/sec SD cards support file-spanning in all video modes (except NTSC HBR 30p and FSH 60i).

• Full support for all NTSC and PAL video modes and options, including ETC zoom mode.

• In-camera playback of all AVCHD video files. (MJPEG HD videos not playable in-camera.)

• Failsafe operation with any lens, in any video mode, under any type of shooting conditions.

• Consumer-friendly auto-exposure features fully supported in 60Mbps 24L, FH, and H modes.

• Fast Action 3-Frame GOP performance with B-frames visibly indistinguishable from I-frames.

• Optimal motion picture quality consistently maintained in underexposed low-light conditions.

Flow Motion v2 is the culmination of over three months of investigation into the core encoding parameters of the Panasonic GH2 AVCHD encoder. The goal of this project has been to produce a unified patch that combines failsafe reliability with consistent, high quality performance across the entire range of video modes and options provided by the GH2. These criteria include not only still-frame image quality, but frame-to-frame motion picture continuity as well, evaluated perceptually at 24, 25, 30, 50, and 60 frames per second. Rather than simply maximizing the encoder's peak bitrate, Flow Motion v2 is fine-tuned to produce optimal motion picture quality with minimal degradation from undesirable aliasing and digitizing artifacts. The result is an unmistakable improvement in video quality with no significant drawbacks, using Class 10 30MB/sec SD cards and virtually any lens compatible with the GH2.

Functional Limitations of Stock GH2 Video Firmware

Although it offers a wide variety of video modes and options, the GH2's stock firmware is restricted in both functionality and video bitrate. Thanks to the dedication of Vitaliy Kiselev, many of these limitations can be overcome through the custom firmware settings provided by PTool v3.65d. Flow Motion v2 is an integrated set of patches that enable the following extended features:

• Selection among all supported interface languages.

• Access to both PAL 25/50p and NTSC 30/60p frame rates.

• Extended low-light exposure settings up to ISO 12800.

• Removal of 30-minute recording restrictions in EU locales.

• Enlargement of MJPEG videos to 1080p FHD frame size.

• Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, thanks to Per Lichtman.

Image Quality Shortcomings of Stock GH2 Video Firmware

The GH2's stock firmware limits its AVCHD encoder to a peak bitrate of 24Mbps in 24H and HBR modes, and to 17Mbps in FSH and SH modes. In addition, it uses long-GOP recording sequences of 12-30 frames that produce only about two keyframes (I-frames) per second. Flow Motion v2 boosts the AVCHD encoder's peak bitrate to 100Mbps in all video modes and uses a short 3-frame GOP in all 1080p video modes (and a 6-frame GOP in 720p modes), that produce 8-10 keyframes per second. These improvements enable Flow Motion v2 to capture highly detailed, fast moving images with far more fidelity than the stock firmware's restricted bandwidth can accommodate.

At a deeper level of operation, the GH2's AVCHD encoder uses built-in Quantization Tables designed to compress the video data as efficiently and compactly as possible. When shooting highly detailed subjects, quantization often produces undesirable rectangular artifacts ("macroblocking") which are then filtered by built-in Deblocking Tables. Unfortunately, the tables used by the stock GH2 firmware sacrifice image quality in favor of compression efficiency, producing consumer-grade results. In a further reduction of image quality, highly compressed P and B-frames are encoded with coarser quantization tables than I-frames, degrading frame-to-frame consistency within each GOP.

Flow Motion v2 replaces the GH2's Quantization and Deblocking Tables with custom matrices, hand-tuned for each video mode, that are crafted to minimize macroblocking and digitization artifacts. This enables the encoder to make full use of its available bitrate to encode genuine image details rather than wasting bits attempting to correct macroblock encoding flaws. In addition, Flow Motion v2 applies equal levels of quantization to all types of frames, producing P and B-frames that are visually indistinguishable from I-frames.

Below is an example of the digitization artifacts produced by the GH2's stock firmware, compared to results produced by Flow Motion v2. On the top is a 200% crop of a 24H mode frame grab from the unhacked GH2 AVCHD encoder. You can clearly see jagged macroblock encoding artifacts due to the stock firmware's inadequate bitrate. Below it is the same stream of water shot with Flow Motion v2 in 24H mode:

Support for GH2 Auto-Exposure Features

Flow Motion v2 works reliably with the GH2's consumer-friendly auto-exposure features in both 24p and HBR video modes. However, in 720p SH video mode, auto-exposure operation may cause recordings to fail sporatically and the camera may need to be restarted. To avoid this pitfall, I recommend using Flow Motion's 60Mbps 1080i FH and 720p H video modes when using any combination of the following features:

• P, A, or S exposure modes or when shooting in iA mode.
• Auto-ISO mode.
• iDynamic auto-contrast mode.
• i.Resolution mode.
• Motorized zoom lens operation.

I've tested and confirmed these features to work reliably at 60Mbps in 1080i FH and 720p H video modes. The 60Mbps FH and H video modes also support 4GB file-spanning on 30MB/sec Class 10 SD cards, and produce excellent motion picture quality that is just a notch more compressed than Flow Motion's 100Mbps FSH and SH video modes.

Flow Motion v2.02 Patch Settings File

This zipped INI file can be used to apply complete patch settings to firmware loaded into PTool 3.65d. To use, unzip the INI file into the same folder as the PTool application. Launch PTool and load the firmware v1.1 binary file for GH2. The settings contained in the Flow Motion v2.0 INI file will automatically be installed in the "F" button at the bottom of the PTool main window.

Note that with the following PTool Settings File, you may at any time re-install the original Panasonic GH2 v1.1 firmware into the camera. You may also copy each patched or original firmware file to separate SD cards, and use them to quickly switch between patches as often as you like.

For my next music video project I'll be shooting scenes in 60p which will be processed using twixtor to emulate approximate speeds between 500-1000fps.

I have invested in some SanDisk Extreme Pro 95 MB/s cards and I've searched around similar threads but most other posters are using slower cards.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has had experience shooting with these cards and if anyone can give recommendations for the best hack to use in this instance. I would like to push the cards to their upper limit without sacrificing stability.

Some of the shots I have in mind will contain large amounts of detail - splashing water, dust, etc so the higher the bit rate the better. They will all almost all be locked off frames.

Other posters have suggested the Flowmotion 2.02 is good for this purpose but the bitrate maxes out at 95 MB/s for this patch and if possible I'd like to make the most of the cards' capabilities and record at a higher bitrate. Will I be able to use one of Driftwood's 176MB/s patches? Does anyone have any experience shooting at 60p with these?

Are there other factors that I need to consider here to ensure the best workflow through twixtor?

Thanks JB

Is it still Canis Majora series? Or is it Apocalypse now or 444 or GH3onaGH2?

Anyone give a short answer? I know its complicated, but I just want the most detailed image, file size be damned (I have plenty of 64gb sandisk ultra cards). Reliability and playback also secondary to simply the best image quality.

This is a very short short. I'm not a plus member on Vimeo, so you'll have to click through and watch it over there at Vimeo in HD.

I've made this on my first visit to one of the 22 islands in the archipelago here - the Red Island. I wanted to see what kind of footage can I come up with while going somewhere for the first time, on foot, with no extra gear, just handheld camera.

Lumix GH2 with Lumix 14-140mm + ColorGHear.

Honest criticism is welcome, better yet mandatory :)

You can see it really bad on the statue image, but you can also see it on the parking meter image if you look towards the center of the video...and this was lit well. The odd thing is I took a similar video of the statue, but zoomed out a little and no bad effect. I also took some shots the same night in similar conditions as the statue shot and they came out a little noisy, but no unsightly bands or flickering strips like this. These effects are happening with different lenses, so its not a lens issue.

The only two things I've been doing differently lately is using a B+W ND .6 filter (had it on during the parking meter video) and after all this time I just discovered the Tele EX button (which according to the manual does not degrade image quality). I can't image the ND .6 filter would push the camera to produce this banding, especially in broad daylight.

I have used the Terraquake hack since I bought this camera and its been so good that I haven't really had any need to change it. I never mess around with the ISO. I always light well enough to keep it down to 160, or switch to a faster lens when needed instead of raising ISO.

Oh well, going to head back to the same spot in a few days and take video without ND filter and with Tele EX off and see if this is causing the issue. Wasn't sure if anyone else was familiar with this.

A feature length documentary on life in Dyrafjordur, a beautiful and remote region in the West Fjords of Iceland.

The follow focus should also work with the Pana 7-14 and 14-42, Nikkor: 24 2,8; 35 2.0; 85 2.0; 180 2,8. I guess, with all these lenses there will be no problem - hopefully.

rod

Zeiss Setup - Contax Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 | $650 - Contax Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 | $370 - Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 | $1200 - Olympus 12mm f/2.0 | $800 - Tokina AT-X 270 Pro 28-70mm f2.8 | $290 - Total: $3490

Rokinon Cine Lens Setup - Rokinon 85mm T1.5 Cine Lens| $350 - Rokinon 35mm T1.5 Cine Lens | $550 - Rokinon 14mm T3.1 Cine Lens | $450 - Tokina AT-X 270 Pro 28-70mm f2.8 | $290 - Total: $1640

Nikon Setup - Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8 | $460 - Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AI-S | $170 - Nikon 28mm f/2.0 AI-S | $320 or Nikon 24mm f/2.0 AI-S | $400 - Tokina AT-X 270 Pro 28-70mm f2.8 | $290 - Total: $1240/$1320

Canon FD Setup - Canon FD 85mm f/1.8 S.S.C Lens | $250 - Canon FD 50mm 1.4 | $130 - Canon FD 35mm F2 | $250
- Tokina AT-X 270 Pro 28-70mm f2.8 | $290 - Total: $920

I couldn't find any appropriate wide lenses for the Canon FD or Nikon setups.

Feedback very much appreciated, it is how I learn and improve my craft!

Isco Gottingen Anamorphotic 2x (2.55 or 2.35 aspect ratio) This version does not have a focus ring, which means you will be able to focus with your prime (you will need diopters for close focus)

The best thing is ofcourse that you'll be able to focus with your prime lens, and not both of the lenses, altho its huge, you will need a good adapter, rear diameter is 72mm. This one is very sharp, and has nice contrasts and flares ofcourse ;)

Tested with 50mm and 40mm primes, 28mm works but with vignetting. In mint condition, Asking price 400 $ USD excl. Shipping, accepting offers!