Has anyone Filmedout GH1 Footage?

Okay, why is everyone crazy/happy in relation to the hack then? I don't shoot forests or trees specifically, I have actors performing in front of trees! my point is the hack has been known to be unstable, I've seen side by side test shots but no real footage from an actual flick yet....I'm looking forward to that if only to see a postive difference post-hack.
 
have you actually used a stock GH1 around trees/grass/high detailed objects? By your answer I suppose not or else you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.

It doesn't matter where your talent is, in front of the trees, behind the trees, IN the trees, you are going to get horrible MUD. High amounts of detail in small areas of the frame would cause the codec to max out and effectively make large areas of detail a single color, similar to a posterizing effect. It's well documented and there are videos all over the internet on this subject. There are even comparisons between before/after too. Fast panning or movement would do this too so you might have talent in front of trees but the trees themselves would be blurs of color rendering your shot unusable.

There is great potential to screw up your footage with the hack but there is also great potential to make it great and bulletproof. I suppose those who have come to the forum after this all started are at a disadvantage because there is so much information that has already been covered, namely everything you are asking, but it's buried in hundreds of threads.
 
I have NO problem w/ Mud and my footage looks great in 1080P Unhacked, I studied this forum for months before my first post....my point that your seeming to not understand is I don't want to see more camera tests but footage from an actal film like the one I'm currently editing......w/ no hack-I want to see the benefits from the hack utilized in a real project.
 
BrianBrook said:
So here's MY question apocalypse: with what you've shot before the hack, how much more detail post hack! I would like to see if this is noticeable when your film is edited as well. I'm editing now and all the little mistakes etc. become so much more obvious in post than on location.
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Gotcha. Okay.

In regards to detail, it is significant when it comes to things like hair and dark textures, especially dark hair - I find the hack gives me more lattitude when it comes to color correction. Pre-hack, we had to get it 99% right in-camera because of things like mud/artifacting in say, dark areas of hair - if we got it right in camera, even if there was a little mud, it wasn't really too noticeable.

With the hack, we get lots more detail and information in these dark areas and so we have more power in post to manipulate the image.

So yeah, I don't see anything that points to a resolution increase, but I think there is a slightly higher level of perceivable detail and just a more robust image overall.

For what it's worth I was originally on the fence about the hack - I wouldn't use it unless you have the opportunity to reshoot if it fails for some reason, I also opted not to do the native 24p hack since that does seem to cause problems now and then and since I have unhacked footage that needs pulldown we decided that we're just going to use Cineform on the whole works to keep things consistent.
 
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Thanks apocalyse for answering the question and addressing my concerns, I look forward to seeing your film when finished and wish you good wishes while reaching that goal! I an using Cineform as well and IMO I agree with not abandoning it for consistency, my main dilemna with the hack is that certain scenes I had were improved w/ non-actors on the street and I could not guarantee a second take.....and this proved itself more than once especially when one scene ran eight minutes long! If there were any problems it could not be replicated again. Still as I said before only time will tell if my strategy was too conservative......I think a scene pre-hack edited next to a scene post-hack with no one noticing more detail/latitude will be the final arbitrator, still I consider your move a success for YOUR film and again good luck on completion!
 
BrianBrook said:
Thanks apocalyse for answering the question and addressing my concerns, I look forward to seeing your film when finished and wish you good wishes while reaching that goal! I an using Cineform as well and IMO I agree with not abandoning it for consistency, my main dilemna with the hack is that certain scenes I had were improved w/ non-actors on the street and I could not guarantee a second take.....and this proved itself more than once especially when one scene ran eight minutes long! If there were any problems it could not be replicated again. Still as I said before only time will tell if my strategy was too conservative......I think a scene pre-hack edited next to a scene post-hack with no one noticing more detail/latitude will be the final arbitrator, still I consider your move a success for YOUR film and again good luck on completion!
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We're getting close to completion - we just have a long script (160+ pgs) - we've shot about 100 pgs, it's a fast moving dialogue-driven film and it will cut to 90 min.

Unless I had serious image issues I would not reshoot anything - the hack is great, don't get me wrong, but unless there are shots that you just couldn't do with an unhacked GH1 (i.e. maybe a fast pan?) I don't see any reason to do a reshoot - in the end good GH1 footage is going to seamlessly cut with GH13 footage - I have really no question about that.

8 minutes...hey that's not too bad, one of our scenes is 12min :) but it also turned out amazingly well :)
 
BrianBrook said:
Okay, why is everyone crazy/happy in relation to the hack then? I don't shoot forests or trees specifically, I have actors performing in front of trees! my point is the hack has been known to be unstable, I've seen side by side test shots but no real footage from an actual flick yet....I'm looking forward to that if only to see a postive difference post-hack.
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PM me for some hacked GH13 footage and pre-hack GH1 footage from the film I'm in production on. I can't post much of it here due to festival rules.
 
Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010

Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010

Indyreel said:
Has anyone Filmedout GH1 Footage? and how's it look on the big screen?
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Hi Indyreel.

If havent already heard take a look at the Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010.

"Zacuto Films presents, “The Great Camera Shootout 2010: a three part web series where gunslinging HD DSLRs face-off against legendary 35mm Film.” "

DSLRs were compared to 35mm film by many filmindustry professionals and they were stunned by the quality of GH1 as well as all other tested DSLRs.

http://vimeo.com/11080239
 
You absolutely do get more resolution and detail with the hack. A lot more. It's a completely different camera. All these cameras shoot 1920 x 1080p recording formats but none of them actually GET that resolution but with the hack the GH1 doesn't mud group massive pixels together it keeps them separate and detailed and also, however the hell it does what it does to get the image from the sensor to the hacked avchd codec - a hacked GH1 blows away a 7D on a big screen without a doubt without a doubt.

I saw the tests that Bloom did for lucas... and it's all soft... beautiful looking but soft soft soft lacking fine detail. The gh1 never got it's fair due in all those tests and zacuto shoot outs because it was considered a toy with all it's issues.

With the hack - it is a COMPLETELY different camera.

This has all been covered before in other threads.... but visuals sum it up best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1BMugSQl1I&fmt=37

Watch full screen on a 1080p native screen.

Now if you can notice how much softer /blurry the 7D looks on a small screen... which you absolutely can here... imagine on a huge screen!

The 7D / 5D also has really bad issues with wide fine detail... which really shows up on the big screen...

Bloom was very slick with his lens selection and didn't shoot any fine detail in deep focus... the wides are soft.. the animals lack detail....
 
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Blackout said:
With the hack - it is a COMPLETELY different camera.
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I totally agree with you. And yes they did treat GH1 with an attitude but still they were amazed and agreed it looked good despite some shortcomings. Had they been using GH13 the results would no doubt been more in favor of GH13.
I also wonder what lenses were used. I guess GH1 was shot with the stock lens?
 
Well, the potential is that the hack will freeze on you and cause you to lose the clip you've been recording.

Or, if you're experimenting with things that haven't been well tested and proven, you could potentially mess up your camera. Vitaliy ranks the patches based on their relative riskiness.
 
The hack has been 99% reliable for me so I don't know what people are talking about. Seems there was far greater screwing of my footage pre hack. Pre hack I could not shoot wide water beach scenes.. or parks.. or forests...things would get weird and blocky / smushy.

Now, if you just go in blind and don't read the directions and download the right versions of things like ptools and do your homework and follow TESTED known settings and instructions and you just go in and randomly start throwing around numbers.. yeah.. you're gonna f up your camera.... but there has been enough testing at all levels to know what works VERY well and reliably on what class / speed of card and if you follow that - the camera works flawlessly and reliably and the footage is many times better than the original 17mbit footage... at least on any shots more complex than a simple close up. I mean it really is an astounding difference! Not to mention thank GOD getting rid of that annoying 60i wrapper crapper!

If the occasional freeze DOES happen... it's VERY rare and it just losses that shot, not anything else... it's just like a flubbed take... so for film making I don't see the big deal... for a wedding you probably would want to use a extremely stable stable lower setting... but really I see GH1s more as controlled film making tools than event tools.... you CAN do events... but you're really better off with a regular video camera for that sort of thing.... I really screwed up 90% of my first footage when I tried to shoot an event going in blind with the kit lens... but luckily... the client only required a few minutes of footage in total and I was able to come out of it alive... But I'm silly like that sometimes I just charge in and swim with the sharks and learn that way.

I have been doing some live events like plays and one man shows with two hacked cameras and the results have been very good and the clients have been more than happy...

Here are two hacked GH1s shooting a one man show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN8CxDU_Ho8

Had a couple little shakes and jerks and focus hunting at the start, because they didn't give me a cue that they were starting and I was a little thrown for the first minute... but mostly it worked very well. I set one camera as the wide and wandered with the second camera. This is a 8 minute edit out of a 30 min live show. The client didn't want to pay for pro audio so this is the cameras mic which normally I wouldn't do, but it was fine for this.
 
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yes the hack is about 95% reliable to me probably more. I have only had it frozen over past few months maybe 3-5 times. but it's still a risk not worth taking if you're doing something like shooting the first kiss ceremony at a wedding. the reason is because if the hack freezes I believe you lose all the footage of that one clip. so let's say you have been shooting the same clip for 5 minutes long and the hack craps out at the 5:05 mark, you lose all those first 5 minutes as well if i'm not mistaken, so obviously quite risky if you're shooting smoething very important like a wedding that can't have re-takes. in that case it's best to load the old firmware back up I suppose
 
Barry_Green said:
Well, the potential is that the hack will freeze on you and cause you to lose the clip you've been recording.

Or, if you're experimenting with things that haven't been well tested and proven, you could potentially mess up your camera. Vitaliy ranks the patches based on their relative riskiness.
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Will this hack do anything to effect the ability to shoot in 1080/24P? and is there a significant improvement in this mode?
 
Indyreel said:
Will this hack do anything to effect the ability to shoot in 1080/24P? and is there a significant improvement in this mode?
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Indy... did you not read anything I wrote?

First of all the hack IS THE ONLY way to shoot native 1080/24p. With the standard firmware you are shooting 24p in 60i and need to spend money on a digital intermediate workflow for pulldown removal which ads an extra pain in the abung step. Secondly, the increased bitrate MASSIVELY effects picture quality.... doubles or triples the quality of the image in 1080p easily I would say.
 
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