Hacked GF1 - manual control of exposure in Video mode

P

Pipis213

Member
Hello All!

It is possible to control exposure by hands in video mode in hacked GF1?

I'm looking for a compact camera with good photos quality and able video recording. I'm considering GF1 + Panasonic PanCake and NEX-5 + Sony PanCake. And can't decide which one is better. Hacking ability is a very great plus of GF1 together with its pancake against sony.
 
I own GF1 and could tell you that this camera is reborn after hack. Hack enabled Full manual control plus 70+mbits/s bitrate in Mjpeg mode.
So you are able to control exposure manually. Camera is compact and small especially with pancake lens.
And Now with Anamorphic patch by Lpowell many new features. I dont have NEX-5 to test so couldn't tell you more about that.
 
Thank you for your reply. It is very helpful. I also think more about GF1 but only if I can find a hackable version......
 
freeheels said:
Check OneCal in Spokane. I bought a hackable Gf1 yesterday from them (serial# FV0D******) firmware is 1.1. They have a batch they are sitting on. Ask for the serial# and check the thread that has valid serial#s on this forum http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...l-range&highlight=firmware+hack+model+numbers. I just posted this at the end of the thread. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Hi!
Thank you for the link. But I won't be able to buy it in Spokane, because I'm in Russia :) It a little bit far for my place. I'll check local stories for presence of hackable items or try to obtain an used one.
 
I obtained today a brand new FV0DC in a local store toghether with 20mm pancke. It shows 1.1 firmware. I'll try to hack it :)
 
First results of the testing. It works in general. Manual mode works well. HS video mode works well. 1080 mode doesn't work because of only Class 6 SD card.
But with AVCHD in FHD mode I've discovered some artefacts. They look like a splitting of the screen. It is obvious at the screen during capture and in the recorder clip. During my experiments I found a dependency in the screen splitting and exposure settings. In a room with artificial light I see this splitting starting from 1/80 and until around 1/400.
Today I tested it outside and it seems that the splitting is possible and at auto mode with FHD.

What can cause such artefact?

The sample video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3sM-nxBog
 
I usually run 1080p MJPEG, 720p25 and 1080p AVCHD with all sorts of shutter speeds on my hacked PAL GF1 but I've never had this problem. I'd make sure you're running on the very latest Ptool release and try reloading the hacked firmware.

I'm running on lpowell's 50Mbps AVCHD 3-GOP patch (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?222791-50Mbps-AVCHD-Fast-Action-3-Frame-GOP-Patch) on a Class 6 card, I've only had write errors happen twice on fast panning with 720p AVCHD but 1080p AVCHD and MJPEG needs a faster card.
 
Last edited:
rambex said:
I usually run 1080p MJPEG, 720p25 and 1080p AVCHD with all sorts of shutter speeds on my hacked PAL GF1 but I've never had this problem. I'd make sure you're running on the very latest Ptool release and try reloading the hacked firmware.

I'm running on lpowell's 50Mbps AVCHD 3-GOP patch (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?222791-50Mbps-AVCHD-Fast-Action-3-Frame-GOP-Patch) on a Class 6 card, I've only had write errors happen twice on fast panning with 720p AVCHD but 1080p AVCHD and MJPEG needs a faster card.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the link.
Yes, I used the freshest PTool which was downloaded only yesterday. And I've written the firmware twice since then. The effect is the same. But I didn't change GOP values.
Could you please share your settings you used for your modification?

Currently 720p is OK for my goals but anyway fast class 10 costs not a fortune :)
 
rambex, are you SURE you tried 1080p PAL AVCHD with shutter different from 1/50th ? From my testing, and (of many others) the only 1080p AVCHD setting that works on the GF1 is 25P 1080p at 1/50th. All others give the split screen. 1080p MJPEG is upscaled from 720p so it does not offer any advantages.
 
I had same problem with split screen in FHD. And never used it again on GF1 until Anamorphic patch by Lpowell.
Now I can tell that MJPEG is not just upscaled.. It contains more information's then AVCHD 720p. I upscale AVCHD 720p to 1080p and compare it to MJPEG 1080p converted from Anamorphic 810. Also did test in vice versa (Anamorphic downscale to 720p to match AVCHD) and got same results:

720p upscaled to 1080p


Anamorphic patch 810 to 1080p




http://imageshack.us
 
irfan said:
I had same problem with split screen in FHD. And never used it again on GF1 until Anamorphic patch by Lpowell.
Now I can tell that MJPEG is not just upscaled.. It contains more information's then AVCHD 720p. I upscale AVCHD 720p to 1080p and compare it to MJPEG 1080p converted from Anamorphic 810.
Click to expand...

I think that AVCHD is just higher compressor than MJPEG. So the last one brings more details and it is not in up or down scales.

Could someone give me a guidance how to reach the maximum quality on GF1 and get rid of the screen split?
 
irfan, are you able to use 1080p25 using MJPEG ? I thought MJPEG was only 1080p30. 25P did not record in MJPEG. Also, lpowell's patch is just a set of values to fix the quality and pixels in the MJPEG recording. It cannot add or remove detail on its own. If 1080p MJPEG is upscaled it should show the extra resolution (which does seem to exist in your comparison) regardless of the settings used.
 
I've managed to remove the split screen using the settings above and also switching 1080i->720p pull-down. Now I can manually control the video and shoot in MJpeg :)
 
Pipis and irfan, are you shooting 25p or 30p ? would you 2 mind saving your settings file from ptool and posting it here
 
I will try your firmware of course. But I just needed a simple answer. Are you able to shoot 1080p25 in MJPEG ?
 
zcream said:
Are you able to shoot 1080p25 in MJPEG ?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can shoot in MJPEG at 25p and yes, you will get choppy motion out of it. Unfortunately, the MJPEG encoder appears to be hard-wired with a 30p frame rate, regardless of NTSC or PAL mode. When you patch the MJPEG encoder with a lower frame rate, it simply drops frames as needed from the 30p video stream, producing an uneven frame rate. Here's a link to a video test I did that demonstrated what's actually happening:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...era-playback&p=2037747&viewfull=1#post2037747
 
irfan said:
[Using] Anamorphic patch by Lpowell, I can tell that MJPEG is not just upscaled.. It contains more information's then AVCHD 720p. I upscale AVCHD 720p to 1080p and compare it to MJPEG 1080p converted from Anamorphic 810.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting images from your anamorphic scaling comparison, irfan, it clearly shows how much more detail is packed into the anamorphic 1920x810 frame. I'd appreciate it if you could also post it for others to see in the Anamorphic 1920x810 MJPEG Mode thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?225252-Anamorphic-Cinemascope-in-Native-1920x810-MJPEG-Mode
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top