The notion of "crippling" is not nonsense and it is not necessarily a "conspiracy theory" either. Manufacturers have been doing stuff like this for years. Observing that fact doesnt mean that you subscribe to conspiracy theories. It is merely market positioning. And if you do not think manufactures carefully consider feature sets that they offer as a means of maximizing profit, I think you are being naive. Sometimes of these marketing decisions cause features that are easily possible to deliver in hardware to be simply "turned off" or disabled. All of these decisions are not necessarily made in advance of engineering decisions. CPU history is full of this kind of thing - and hackers who exploit it.
Clearly Panasonic could have put 1080P @30 fps if they wanted. Clearly they could have has 24p without putting it in a 60i wrapper. Clearly they could have delivered higher data rates. There is probably more they could have done in firmware given the hardware in this camera.
How about crop mode being used to deliver video streams? Such a mode would not only allow c-mount lenses to be used full frame, but the sensor aliasing would be probably be more optimal as well. But think about that for a minute. Do they really want the GH1 to have excellent antialiasing? Why would they? What they have is "good enough" anti-aliasing for the intended market and better than many of the DSLR "competitors". No need to deliver something better - even if the hardware can do it. Besides, if they add the feature they have to support it - and that would be a semi-pro feature in a consumer camera. Leaving it out is a decent marketing decision. Maybe it becomes a new feature that can be added on the next camera.
It is not unreasonable at all to believe that they did not include these things simply because it was not necessary in order to sell a lot of cameras and because it leaves more room and motivation for customers to purchase a GH2.
Panasonic has announced a $6500 m43s camera specifically made for video. This is surely not a new idea. They probably had notions of doing this when they were settling on the GH1 feature set. Panasonic would be foolish if they did not consider the ramifications of loading up a G type camera with so many strong video options that it competes with their $6500 camera. Recognizing that is not seeing a conspiracy. It is simply recognizing that Panasonic caters to many markets and has to consider all of them when they put a product out.
BTW, my long time idea is that camera makers should make a camera body that can be outfitted with different "grips." No grip and you have a GH1 type camera. Add a video grip, and the camera gains some features. Perhaps better encoding via more powerful processing chips in the grip. Perhaps extra connections. Add a "pro" video grip and get dual card recording, even more connections and more features like fly-by-wire follow focus controls, live HD out and other such things. Of course Panasonic is not taking this route. And odds are that there are some good reasons for that. Reasons that I will probably never know.
BTW, Panasonic simply will not provide AF for certain Olympus lenses - even though Olympus does. Why would that be? Clearly it is technologically possible. And how come my 14-50mm Leica that came with my DMC-L1 will not AF on the GH1, but the camera happily and quicky sets the lens to infinity focus when I power down? And how come the 14-140mm HD lens steps the iris in discrete steps in a very non-video manner and does so more than the non-video 14-50 Leica? No conspiracy. It just was not necesary given the target market.
None of this is conspiracy. None of it is nefarious. It is merely the logical result of competing in a complex and constantly evolving set of interrelated markets. If Panasonic fails to make good profits on the GH1, then maybe there is no GH2. So those of us who buy cameras should not be bothered by any of this. We simply need to deal with it and be aware of it when making buying decisions - and give money to folks like tester13 who help to extend the usefulness of the stuff we have purchased.
Maybe this hack means I will not buy a GH2 when it comes out. But if so, Panasonic has not necessarily lost out. I may pick up a G2 and a nice m43 wide angle lens instead. Time will tell. As it is I am simply glad that some of the hardware capabilities of my GH1 are being "unlocked." Thanks guys.
BTW, while I cannot offer help on the software side of things, I can do some testing. I have Imatest and can make some provide some good and objective feedback on resolution and so forth. I am particularly interested now since it seems like we can now avoid making a gazzillion increments to the firmware and can return to a "pure" unaltered original. Very cool
