The Emperors-new-hack

Letzring

Letzring

Active member
I've had my GH2 for about 2 weeks and I'm TOTALLY exhausted with looking at 200% crops of ISO 3200 shots of someone's cluttered garage or the streetlights out the front window with 12 different high bit rate hack recipes. Some of them seem to have a little less noise in the shadows which might be handy if you were into surveillance work. The three things I notice are: 1. Most of the "Vanguards" of hackism are FCP/Mac users. 2. No demonstrable improvements in DR. 3. No demonstrable improvements in color space. I'm sort of glad no one has hacked the AF100 yet, the GH cameras section is a fustercluck.
 
Great thread title!
I agree as well - I've been really scared of losing a lot of time pixel peeping so I have only put on one hack two weeks ago and haven't gotten around to changing it yet
 
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It's very true. I just got one, and told myself I wasen't going to hack it for a few months, cause the hacks would always be there later, and the stock was still good. Turns out I lasted about 3 weeks.
 
Letzring said:
The three things I notice are: 1. Most of the "Vanguards" of hackism are FCP/Mac users. 2. No demonstrable improvements in DR. 3. No demonstrable improvements in color space. I'm sort of glad no one has hacked the AF100 yet, the GH cameras section is a fustercluck.
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1- I am a PC user ( Sony Vegas Pro for 10+ years ), and the other GH-2 shooters I know in town ( Toronto ) are also PC users.

2- There is a slight Digital Range improvement with the hacks, because more detail is being recorded in the shadows, thus you can under-expose and reverse this in post-processing to achieve a slightly larger digital range. I won't do tests until I own a set of Sandisk 95 MB/sec cards, but even using the lower bit rate hacks I can see the difference.

3- Color space is a hardware issue, so I think we are out of luck until Panasonic decides to improve this with a new GH model.

4- The hacks do a great job at reducing compression, which has two benefits: More detail in complex images ( especially with motion ), and larger but easier to edit AVCHD files. ( much less compression in the hacked video files )

...The GH-2 hacks are like any cutting edge technology, in that they will require some education and testing to achieve optimal results.
 
I don't have one, but I've seriously considered it since before the hack, thinking that it was good enough as is, solved the fundamental problems of the GH1. As a Mac user I like things to work out of the box, and not mess with the innerworkings to eek out a modest improvement. This whole thing smacks of PC building with overclocking processors with liquid cooled heat sinks so the overclocked processor doesn't burn out. Or worse yet the Hackintosh project, for those who want a macpro but don't want to pay for it.

We've already heard about bricked cameras from failed attempts, how long before there is a whole pile of prematurely burnt out units from working way beyond the rated specs. There is no way I could even consider putting the hack on unless I could afford 2, well three actually, because I like to shoot with 2 matching cameras, and I'd need a spare with factory firmware incase of catastrophic failure.

Don't get me wrong I think its cool and all, and if it gains the camera some credibility over canon, all the better. But in all honesty I doubt any average viewer watching a final output would see the difference.

Now if the hack could do something useful like finding a way to monitor sound, make the hdmi recordable, or enable 422 color space, then I'd say woowho. In the meantime anyone not hacking will have to come up with cool names for their picture profiles, so when some agency producer asks for some cool sounding patch from 3 months ago that they just heard is the greatest thing ever, you can say 'Aqua-velva 9000' is the new thing and they don't want to miss out.
 
I havent hacked my gh2 yet but i do think the hack helps the gh2 achieve a less artifact-y footage. it improves the gradability of the footage specially in the dark areas where everything just turns into mush.
the hack also helps keep the gh2 in equal footing with af100.

other than that, its fine for everything else without the hack.
 
> Great thread title!
> I agree as well - I've been really scared of losing a lot of time pixel peeping...

+1, smart.

I know too many people who can't see that their framing, movement or camera angles are total crap because all they see is "s-log" this, "codec" that... This may be the very definition of microvision, can't see the picture for the pixels.
 
Two scientific procedures these past two weeks, shot with my GH2... one involved microscope work under UV light, and the other in a photographic darkroom (with dim red overheads). ISO 10K may be grainy, but I got the necessary images in useable condition. Not possible with stock GH2 firmware or my AF100.

But if you personally have no reason to use it, don't.
 
Take it or leave it, thats the great thing its a choice. The hack gives you choices you never had before why complain? Some people like to hack their phones, computers and cars. Some like working on cars more than actually driving them. Personally I like shooting more than the tinkering but I love the fact that there is a group of people obsessing over the pixels, they are enjoying it, and I enjoy shots that I'm getting.

Two kinds of people
a) Glass half empty
b) Glass half full
 
TheDingo said:
1- I am a PC user ( Sony Vegas Pro for 10+ years ), and the other GH-2 shooters I know in town ( Toronto ) are also PC users.
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Huh, I didn't realise Sony acquired Vegas before 2001.

I'm not saying that GH-2 shooters are strictly Mac, but if you look closely at the hack post workflows, the "grail" is usually to arrive at some flavor of Prores 422 through using 2 or 3 other standalone utilities/encoder/decoders. I admit that I have long considered transcode steps as the work-of-the-devil, I guess that makes me lazy.
 
THE HACKS Rock! The fact that you can get solid stable 70+ avchd (intra or not) in a camera that looks like a toy is awesome. You keep it in conditions where you light and set up with Iso's in control and the images are clean. But it's still limited to the contrasty look it has built in. But it's well worth the quality you can get out of a Gh2.
 
QUOTE: 2. No demonstrable improvements in DR. 3. No demonstrable improvements in color space.

Interesting that you were looking for those benefits from tweaks to the AVCHD compression scheme. I hacked my GH2 for improved motion rendition and less mud in the shadows.
 
dustylense said:
THE HACKS Rock! The fact that you can get solid stable 70+ avchd (intra or not) in a camera that looks like a toy is awesome. You keep it in conditions where you light and set up with Iso's in control and the images are clean. But it's still limited to the contrasty look it has built in. But it's well worth the quality you can get out of a Gh2.
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Can you post a link to that particular hack please Dusty
 
Letzring said:
Huh, I didn't realise Sony acquired Vegas before 2001.

I'm not saying that GH-2 shooters are strictly Mac, but if you look closely at the hack post workflows, the "grail" is usually to arrive at some flavor of Prores 422...
Click to expand...
If you're genuinely interested in learning more about topics you're evidently unfamiliar with, you might consider asking people who have some experience. Your provocative speculations about whether GH2 hack users are "strictly Mac" are quire amusing, as the PTool hack is available only as a Windows program. But given the title of this thread, unintentional irony may not have been on your agenda.
 
I'm hacking with a mac, use wine bottler and make sure all your files are in the one folder, good mac instructions here
http://www.beeldlab.nl/installing-gh2-hack-with-a-mac/

... anyway, back on topic. And I think there's another thread futzing along somewhere else where ppl saying the same thing.

And that is the hack is a distraction. Its a side path to the road called gear lust. We all fall for it, I do, and a lot too.
Don;t get me wrong tho - the hack is fantastic, just like a new lens is fantastic or getting your first HMI.
Gotta keep the tech festish under control and not let it dominate and squash your creative.
 
Bah, seriously! People complaining about something thats completely OPTIONAL!
At the end of the day, its a tool... I cant imagine that the availability of these hacks are holding anyone back, except... apparently you.
So i find all these threads a place for someone to vent, about little to do about nothing.
Sure its good to keep creativity in mind, and not let gear lust/pixel peeping/or hardware hold you back... But seriously! A free hack?
Even more ridiculous is somehow throwing OS into this whole equation, as if somehow 1 platform makes people want to hack their camera...
I have been reading and following the improvements on this and other forums. I am using a few of these patches with great results, I use the more modest level of patches... but I know that I can push my camera higher if I needed to.

I thank all those that have done such hard work! Provided it all for FREE, and are continuing to research and improve on an already fantastic camera.
 
Letzring said:
Huh, I didn't realise Sony acquired Vegas before 2001.
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Different parent company, but same software. Vegas was originally created by Sonic Foundry, and has been developed by the same software team all along.

Letzring said:
I'm not saying that GH-2 shooters are strictly Mac, but if you look closely at the hack post workflows, the "grail" is usually to arrive at some flavor of Prores 422
Click to expand...

Final Cut is very popular software, so you are going to find lots of Mac video editors for every type of camera out there, nothing special about GH-2 hackers.
 
dop16mm said:
We've already heard about bricked cameras from failed attempts, how long before there is a whole pile of prematurely burnt out units from working way beyond the rated specs.
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I have only heard of ONE bricked camera, which was bricked because the person updated the GH-2 firmware with a cheap faulty 3rd party battery. Every camera will brick if you cut the power during a firmware update.

...Other than this one case, I have not heard of ANY problems caused by the firmware hack.
 
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