Saturday, June 25, 2011

GH1 - How to Hack Guide (GH13, GH17)



GH1 - How to Hack - Part 1 - PTool Settings



GH1 - How to Hack - Part 2 - Firmware Install & Camera Settings

Vitaliy Kiselev, has done the impossible. He has made all Panasonic Lumix GH1 cameras, "Hackable". This enables end users to dramatically increase the data rate and performance of these pint size cameras.

What was once a handicapped camera, due to it's laughable compression schemes, is now a professional grade camera, shooting images that rival cameras costing up to 10 times more.

I currently have 2 of these "Hacked" GH1's, now referred to as GH13 and GH17 by Vitaliy. I have never felt the need to jump ship and go with the more popular, and more expensive, Canon 5D Mark II. I am quite happy with the amazing quality and ease of use that these little monsters provide.

For those of you who want to hack your GH1, but are a little worried about "bricking" your unit, I have put together these step by step videos to help take the stress out of the process.

I have also come up with my own custom settings that I think offer the best quality and reliability for the independent filmmaker.

Pixelphile NTSC Indy Filmmaker Settings
  • Based on settings from LPowell & Vitaliy
  • Native 24p AVCHD 1920x1080 for Film Look
  • AVCHD 1280x720 60fps for Slow Motion
  • YCC 4:2:2 MJPEG 1280x720 for Green Screen
  • Third Party Battery Support
  • Class 10 SD (SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s Recommended)
  • Manual Focus Lenses Recommended
  • You can download my "F" settings and GH1 firmware patch below:
* Keep in mind that you are messing with the firmware of your camera, and that there is a possibility of ruining your camera if you make a mistake. Please do not attempt this hack if you are not comfortable with this situation. Hack at your own risk. Pixelphile is not liable for any damage that may be caused by failed hacking.



AVCHD FHD 1920x1080 23.976fps 55mm @ f2.0 1/50 Sec. 100 ISO



AVCHD SH 1280x720 23.976fps 55mm @ f2.0 1/125 Sec. 100 ISO



MJPEG HD 1280x720 YCC 4:2:2 30fps 55mm @ f2.0 1/60 Sec. 100 ISO
* In camera playback is disabled with these settings.



MJPEG HD 1280x720 YCC 4:2:2 30fps 85mm @ f4.0 1/60 Sec. 400 ISO
* In camera playback is disabled with these settings.

Recommended Film Mode Settings for Increased Dynamic Range:

Smooth
-2 Contrast
-2 Sharpness
0 Saturation
0 Noise Reduction

Nostalgic
-2 Contrast
-2 Sharpness
0 Saturation
0 Noise Reduction

Recommended Shutter Speeds for AVCHD & Motion JPEG:

AVCHD - FHD 1920x1080 - 23.976fps - 1/50 sec. (Film Look)
AVCHD - SH 1280x720 - 59.94fps - 1/125 sec. (Slow Motion)
MJPEG - HD 1280x720 - 30fps - 1/60 sec. (Green Screen)

Here are the other links that are mentioned in the how to video:









Best of Luck, and Happy Hacking!

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Friday, June 24, 2011

Final Cut Pro X - Epic Fail!



Apple has decided to forget about us professional editors, teachers, students and filmmakers, and rather focus on soccer moms and stay at home dads. Final Cut Pro X in no longer for industry professionals, and should have been called iMovie Pro.

The guys over at Adobe and Avid must be doing cartwheels down their halls, since they know that Apple has just killed the best editing program known to man. Nice job, Steve Jobs...thanks for negating 10 years of Final Cut Pro experience.

Here is what has been completely removed or drastically changed.
  • Chapter Markers
  • Limited Export Settings
  • No Export for Hi-Res JPGs
  • No Support for EDL
  • No XML Import
  • No OMF export
  • No Native Support for Red Raw files
  • No Multicam
  • Inability to Open Projects Saved From Previous FCP Versions
  • No Capture from Tape or Output to Tape
  • Limited Options for Arranging Your Workspace
  • No Native Support for Third Party Plugins
  • Limited External Monitoring
Conan does a great job showing it's weaknesses, and gives a good laugh. Unfortunately, editors around the world see no humor in what Apple has done, as they have completely abandoned all of us who have fought to make Final Cut Pro the de facto standard.

Is it to late to go back to editing on Steenbeck?
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