GH2 GH2-X "FOUR" (Quantum + P-frame 720p Patch for Sandisk Extreme30MB/s) [Final Version]

Hey guys, I'm the Tim Sage is referring to. I tested these setting with Sage and it's rock solid with electronic (Panasonic OIS & AF) glass in 720/60p when in the "H" setting and using SanDisk 30mb/sec 32gb cards. Go into "SH" and it's less stable with electronic glass and I wouldn't go there unless it's not an extremely detailed scene or you have non-electronic glass. Sage has much nicer legacy glass than I do and "SH" works great for him.

The testing protocol was to set the camera with a 14-140mm Pany lens, shutter priority at 1/125, WB Auto, and ISO at 128000, on a tripod and let it record this https://vimeo.com/36655624 while hitting AF and zooming in and out wildly. Like I said, "H" is solid. I also hand held and tortured the same way with Crunchy's Chart from Hell. Finally, doing the same stuff, except for the ISO set to auto, while filming my shrubbery of death in my backyard yielded only one write error in "SH" and none in "H".

"H" would record 3.99GB in about 13 minutes before it stopped, so it wouldn't span with the 32GB card. I don't have one of those bad boy 95mb/sec 64gb cards to test.

24P is also rock solid but 1080/60i won't record.

The 720/60p footage is absolutely stunning. Sorry I don't have anything posted to share at the moment, but it's great stuff.

Tim

PS: ETC works great in SH and H!!!
 
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This is reassuring news. Thanks for quick replies both Sage and Tim. The test shots were earlier today. Was outdoors and sunny. Late afternoon - WB set to that setting. ISO 160. Shutter 125. 720 and SH (forgot to test in H). Used a Canon FD 50 1.4 w/fader ND and Sandisk extreme 30MB/s card which was just formatted in camera prior to shooting. Will try again tomorrow with a couple of other manual lenses and will definitely experiment with the H mode. Thanks again.
 
Hey Filthy,
When I tested outside, it was just like your setting except I used the 14-140 and no ND filter. "SH" failed once in several tries and "H" never did.
One other thing, since I don't have legacy glass, I set "SH" to 50 instead of 53. Also, Sage tweaked it a bit tonight so try his latest - it's cool!

Tim
 
Filthy said:
This is reassuring news. Thanks for quick replies both Sage and Tim. The test shots were earlier today. Was outdoors and sunny. Late afternoon - WB set to that setting. ISO 160. Shutter 125. 720 and SH (forgot to test in H). Used a Canon FD 50 1.4 w/fader ND and Sandisk extreme 30MB/s card which was just formatted in camera prior to shooting. Will try again tomorrow with a couple of other manual lenses and will definitely experiment with the H mode. Thanks again.
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Using an FD lens and the appropriate card, SH should not be able to crash - I've thrown the most ridiculous testing situations at the latest and it records until span. Be sure to download the patch and reinstall it (& double check that the gh2 not set to 1080i FSH/FH).

*Also - was this the first time you hacked this particular gh2?
 
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Sage, I'm running NINE right now (Sandisk 30MB/s) and will shoot fast sports scenes (cycling, running, basketball ect). Everything will be at night or darkend interior with mostly backlight. Normally I don't shoot m4/3 lenses but for this one I'll use the 20mm 1.7 a lot. Almost everything 720p60. Should I update to FOUR and use 720pH? Also, some shots will definately be 24p, should I change to 1080p24 for those? I remember seeing a comparison of q9b 720 and 1080 and 720 was equal if not better?

Thanks a lot for your work!
 
"Using an FD lens and the appropriate card, SH should not be able to crash" - This was my understanding from all of your hard work. However, it seemed to crash on me after 10 seconds or so on each try. Camera was definitely set to 720 and not 1080i. This wasn't the first time or the first hack used on this camera. Been using various patches for testing and some of the older Driftwood patches on paying gigs since last summer. Spanning has never been a priority for my needs except on one shoot. Hence why I haven't thrown down money for the 95mb/s card as of yet. But it's looking more and more like a solid investment as I do have 2 projects coming up that might need it. Feels like it's only appropriate to make another donation on the p-v site before using anymore of those latest settings though. Anyway, thanks again for all the work people like yourself and others that have spent countless hours working on perfecting these settings for optimum reliability. I plan on re-testing again today during lunch. Will need to triple check I entered all you details in correctly first.
 
Filthy said:
"Using an FD lens and the appropriate card, SH should not be able to crash" - This was my understanding from all of your hard work. However, it seemed to crash on me after 10 seconds or so on each try. Camera was definitely set to 720 and not 1080i. This wasn't the first time or the first hack used on this camera. Been using various patches for testing and some of the older Driftwood patches on paying gigs since last summer. Spanning has never been a priority for my needs except on one shoot. Hence why I haven't thrown down money for the 95mb/s card as of yet. But it's looking more and more like a solid investment as I do have 2 projects coming up that might need it. Feels like it's only appropriate to make another donation on the p-v site before using anymore of those latest settings though. Anyway, thanks again for all the work people like yourself and others that have spent countless hours working on perfecting these settings for optimum reliability. I plan on re-testing again today during lunch. Will need to triple check I entered all you details in correctly first.
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When you reinstall, enter a version increment of 2 at the top of the ptool software (instead of 1)

*this should do it; otherwise the difference can be isolated to a slower card (either needs deep format, was underperforming from the factory, or is a rebranded generic), a slower gh2 (which would be a surprise), or perhaps a '3rd factor' setting in the camera that affects cpu performance by taking up cycles. Hopefully it is just the classic v increment issue
 
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stip said:
Sage, I'm running NINE right now (Sandisk 30MB/s) and will shoot fast sports scenes (cycling, running, basketball ect). Everything will be at night or darkend interior with mostly backlight. Normally I don't shoot m4/3 lenses but for this one I'll use the 20mm 1.7 a lot. Almost everything 720p60. Should I update to FOUR and use 720pH? Also, some shots will definately be 24p, should I change to 1080p24 for those? I remember seeing a comparison of q9b 720 and 1080 and 720 was equal if not better?

Thanks a lot for your work!
Click to expand...

Yes the step up to Four is highly recommended; it means better motion fidelity, and superior bitrate optimization for low/average detail scenes. Given Tim's experience, it will be 100% stable no matter what you throw at it.
Also with 720p (no matter stock or patched), expose to the right (more brightly). Shadow quantization is not yet up to the level of 1080p. Also, shoot the 24fps in 1080p 24, the quality is stunning.
 
I've been using the "FOUR" patch from 02/12/12 with the 64/95 card while using old M42 lenses and this is THEE patch i've been waiting for. Amazing 24H and good looking stable 60p. I dont care too much about spanning as i dont often record for that long but 1080 24H and 720 60p both playback fine in camera. 720 60p is pretty reliable and stable as i've tried just about every iso, low and high, with maxed out shutter speeds for slow mo. Best 720 i've seen, and you already know the 24H is amazing.
 
Sage said:
Yes the step up to Four is highly recommended; it means better motion fidelity, and superior bitrate optimization for low/average detail scenes. Given Tim's experience, it will be 100% stable no matter what you throw at it.
Also with 720p (no matter stock or patched), expose to the right (more brightly). Shadow quantization is not yet up to the level of 1080p. Also, shoot the 24fps in 1080p 24, the quality is stunning.
Click to expand...

Perfect, thank you very much!!
 
RoyalCode said:
I've been using the "FOUR" patch from 02/12/12 with the 64/95 card while using old M42 lenses and this is THEE patch i've been waiting for. Amazing 24H and good looking stable 60p. I dont care too much about spanning as i dont often record for that long but 1080 24H and 720 60p both playback fine in camera. 720 60p is pretty reliable and stable as i've tried just about every iso, low and high, with maxed out shutter speeds for slow mo. Best 720 i've seen, and you already know the 24H is amazing.
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Thank you
 
Ok - so still having issues here. I must be doing something wrong if I'm the only one getting this thing to crash on me. 1080 24p looks and works beautifully as expected. But 720 crashes on me every time within 2 - 10 seconds (in both SH and H modes!). Surprisingly, 1080i works fine. But not really something I ever see myself using. Re-checked and re-loaded Sage's latest update from the first page. Just to clarify, I'm attempting to use the Quantum V9b setting and not the Quantum 100 version. But both of these should work on a Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s right? Just no spanning on said card - which is no issue for me. Used all manual glass (Rokinon 85mm 1.4, Canon FD 50mm 1.4 and Tokina 80-200mm 2.8). Formatted card in camera. Tried recording in 1080 24p first for about 10 secs before switching over to 720. Used both with and without ETC mode. Tried varying the shutter speed, aperture, and rec. quality modes. All failed. I'm sure it's some simple little thing I'm overlooking right? Either I misunderstood about the compatibility of the card or maybe it's a fake? Can someone please set me straight?
 
Filthy said:
Ok - so still having issues here. I must be doing something wrong if I'm the only one getting this thing to crash on me. 1080 24p looks and works beautifully as expected. But 720 crashes on me every time within 2 - 10 seconds (in both SH and H modes!). Surprisingly, 1080i works fine. But not really something I ever see myself using. Re-checked and re-loaded Sage's latest update from the first page. Just to clarify, I'm attempting to use the Quantum V9b setting and not the Quantum 100 version. But both of these should work on a Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s right? Just no spanning on said card - which is no issue for me. Used all manual glass (Rokinon 85mm 1.4, Canon FD 50mm 1.4 and Tokina 80-200mm 2.8). Formatted card in camera. Tried recording in 1080 24p first for about 10 secs before switching over to 720. Used both with and without ETC mode. Tried varying the shutter speed, aperture, and rec. quality modes. All failed. I'm sure it's some simple little thing I'm overlooking right? Either I misunderstood about the compatibility of the card or maybe it's a fake? Can someone please set me straight?
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Curious. Incidentally, did you try setting the version increment to 2 in ptool?
 
Hum .... the only variation I see is all the testing I did was with the Quantum 100, not the v9B, and I can't get 1080/60i to work at all ---- kind of the opposite of your results except 24P works for both of us.

i don't know, maybe try Quantum 100 and see if it works for you?

Tim
 
Sorry - forgot to include that I did actually set the version increment to 2 as per your advice Sage. Pretty much same results either way. Tomorrow, I'll try with the Quantum 100 settings and see what happens. Looking more and more like I just need to buy that latest card and hopefully not be limited to certain patch settings. Thanks to both you and Tim for attempting to help out. Appreciate the time and effort.
 
Filthy said:
Sorry - forgot to include that I did actually set the version increment to 2 as per your advice Sage. Pretty much same results either way. Tomorrow, I'll try with the Quantum 100 settings and see what happens. Looking more and more like I just need to buy that latest card and hopefully not be limited to certain patch settings. Thanks to both you and Tim for attempting to help out. Appreciate the time and effort.
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Ok, now install this:
http://sagepictures.com/RESET.zip
And then install Four - this may do it.
 
evanflys said:
Here is a short video shot in "SH" with Sage's 720P60 hack
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That closeup of the Hippo's eye is amazing, very expressive with great textures. All else is excellent as well, just that I loved that particular shot.
 
Sage said:
Ok, now install this:
http://sagepictures.com/RESET.zip
And then install Four - this may do it.
Click to expand...


@Sage - Reflashing back to stock seemed to do the trick. Everything seems to working normally now. Stuff looks amazing with your settings on preliminary tests. Only got a write error once in 720SH. Every time was good and the "H" setting seems to rock solid.

Thanks again to you and Tim both for the all the assistance. Much appreciated.
 
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