GH2 Unhacked

roxics

roxics

Veteran
I bought my GH2 eight months ago, used. It was already hacked with Flowmotion 2.02. I decided to unhack it yesterday for the first time. I went from getting twenty one minutes on a 16GB card to an hour and a half. Shot about six clips yestreday at the beach with friends. Honestly I can't tell the difference between the hacked and unhacked footage. Maybe I'm just not a good enough pixel peeper. Even looking into the background with the trees I didn't see any real breakup of the image. If anything, the motion seems a tad more jumpy but not bad. If that's the case than I guess I now know why flowmotion has its name.

I'm going to run a couple small tests later, but so far I may just leave it unhacked. For most of what I shoot, which are talking head client videos or home videos, this seems like a perfectly great image. I almost feel like I got a new camera or card. There is a certain amount fo freedom with being able to shoot more footage in less space.
 
I keep a small SD card wallet in my GH2 bag with locked ~2GB cards, one each containing FlowMotion, Apocalypse Now, and stock firmware, and change firmware as needed per project. The difference only becomes apparent in high-movement situations - water, leaves, etc. which is why the high-bitrate tests are rife with those subjects - and when trying to correct or grade footage later... if I don't need to grade, then stock makes perfect sense.
 
Use the Sanity 5 Hack, you get about the same record time as un hacked with better quality. Flow motion was never a good hack, I always used Sanity 5
 
Good thing about the hacks is that there are plenty of flavors for varying palettes and they're easy to switch
 
Flow motion was never a good hack, I always used Sanity 5
Click to expand...
huh? have you tried flowmotion 2.02? Because I find it as being one of the best, especially the reliability. I haven't tried sanity because after using flowmotion I don't see any reason to change it.
 
maranfilms said:
huh? have you tried flowmotion 2.02? Because I find it as being one of the best, especially the reliability. I haven't tried sanity because after using flowmotion I don't see any reason to change it.
Click to expand...

I agree... I think Flow Motion is a great, reliable hack. Also, if you find the Flow Motion 2 thread over on Personal-View, the write up the author does on the hack includes some great screen grabs of water capture on a hacked and unhacked GH2. It gives a great example of the quality the hack brings to the table, especially with shots with unpredictable motion.
 
If you use Sanity 5 hack you will NEVER use flow motion again. Better yet, use a GH3 and forget hacked GH2's all together......
 
Both my GH2's have been unhacked for a year or so... I love the look and quality of the cameras as they are, and never miss the hacked days. I did hack for ISO, clip length and the NTSC/PAL switch though, but not for bitrate.
 
I use Flowmotion 2.02 and I'm happy with it. If most people can't tell the difference between a hacked or unhacked camera, I doubt Sanity 5 is going to rock anyone's world. I don't mind the larger file sizes, because I have plenty of SD cards and I transcode into ProRes anyways, so I might as well record at a higher bit rate.
 
J.F.R. said:
If you use Sanity 5 hack you will NEVER use flow motion again. Better yet, use a GH3 and forget hacked GH2's all together......
Click to expand...
yeah, I have to be honest, I'm not to fond of the gh3 image, I love the form factor, the build, controls, battery, ect.... but the image, no thanks, had one, sold it a week or two later. It looks much to digital video for my taste, and I tried to like it. Maybe I should have held onto it for longer. But if you like it, then that's cool, I respect your opinion, it's all good:) Tell me more about sanity5, you have my interest there.
 
mcbob said:
I keep a small SD card wallet in my GH2 bag with locked ~2GB cards, one each containing FlowMotion, Apocalypse Now, and stock firmware, and change firmware as needed per project. The difference only becomes apparent in high-movement situations - water, leaves, etc. which is why the high-bitrate tests are rife with those subjects - and when trying to correct or grade footage later... if I don't need to grade, then stock makes perfect sense.
Click to expand...


That's a really great idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Thank you. :)

I will give Sanity 5 a try.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top