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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Happy hacker breaths flexibility, power, and quality into the Lumix GH1
Allan Tépper | 07/06
Now the Lumix GH1 can record 50mb/s MJPEG or 32mb/s AVCHD!
I first wrote about the Lumix GH1 in March 2009, and at that time, I requested a review unit from Panasonic. Then in June 2009, I wrote a followup article with a written interview with Panasonic’s PR department, to clarify several technical issues. Unfortunately, all of Panasonic’s answers were negative from a pro perspective. Over a year has passed without Panasonic loaning me any review unit (while countless other manufacturers have sent me several products for reviews); and competitive cameras from Canon have come out, like the 7D and T2i, and Sony has shown similar models, at least in the consumer division. However, last week I heard that a happy hacker had modified the GH1’s firmware to permit 1080p internal recording, either 50Mb/s MJPEG or 32Mb/s AVCHD.
The happy hacker is known as Tester13. You can see sample footage shot at 50Mb/s MJPEG at this Vimeo page, where you will also find information to download the master, before web compression. The most complete information about the hack seems to be from EOShd.com’s page here. Their cited improvements over the Canon models (5D MKII, 7D, and T2i) include:
- Zero compression artifacts, zero mud, and much more photo-like gradients, tones, and textures.
- Lower noise.
- Direct-to-edit, even with Final Cut Pro, without any prior transcoding.
- Pixel binning, instead of line skipping used by some of Canon’s cameras.
This is getting more interesting all the time!
Update from a reader
Comment from a reader who sent his comments via PVC‘s management due to technical reasons:
Hi Allan: Just an FYI: There’s recent news concerning the so-called “GH1 firmware hack” or “GH13 hack”.
Vitaliy Kiselev (AKA “Tester13”) is the name of the Russian programmer of the fantastic, and currently free “PTool3” firmware modification utility software for use with Panasonic Lumix Micro Four Thirds DSLR cameras. Vitaliy has a growing cadre of volunteer testers worldwide who help him refine his software.
Vitaliy’s application should be downloaded from its primary online home at DVXuser:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=206788
I can say from firsthand experience that PTool3 really does transform the already very good GH1 (and certain other m4/3 cams) into a whole new camera.
The latest version of PTool was just released, version 3.40d. Its new features, and most of what you need to know about PTool, are described on the 1st page of the colossal thread at the link above.
Although Andrew Reid at eosHD.com was an early user of Vitaliy’s software, far and away the best & most extensive resource for users of PTool3 are the GH1 & GH13 forums at DVXuser.com, especially the “sticky” forums at the top of this page:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=175
Although quantity doesn’t necessarily trump quality—there are literally thousands of GH13-related posts on DVXuser—it’s a fact that a huge amount of hard-earned, high-quality info about the GH1 hack is on DVXuser.
I’m a very happy GH1 & PTool3 user myself. I’ve posted some simple GH13 camera tests and other footage on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/12969418
Those of you who find PTool helpful, please consider making a donation to the PayPal account listed at the 1st link above. $ goes toward software development equipment & supplies. Amazingly, when Vitaliy first began his work on this project, he didn’t even have a GH1 to test on. Donations made it possible for him to acquire a GH1, which has greatly sped-up development.
Disclosure: I’m a satisfied end-user GH1 owner and user of the free PTool software. I’ve not been compensated in any way to use or discuss these products.
Thanks for your article, Allan, and three cheers to talented, inventive programmer/entrepreneurs like Vitaliy!
All the best,
Peter J. DeCrescenzo
Videographer/DP
503-754-6083
http://www.peterdv.com
Portland, Oregon USA
Thank you Peter!
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Contact Allan Tépper for consulting, or find a full listing of his articles and upcoming seminars and webinars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his TecnoTur program, which is now available both in Castilian and in English, free of charge. Search for TecnoTur in iTunes or visit TecnoTur.us for more information.
Disclosure, to comply with the FTC’s rules
No manufacturer is paying Allan Tépper or TecnoTur LLC specifically to write this article. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations, and some of them have sent him equipment for evaluations or reviews. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine.
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Hi Allan,
Can this be true? I was just visiting EOSHD.COM and it looks like there’s an article published 10 days after the one you linked to. It’s dated June 20th and it says the GH1 is now shooting in 44Mbs AVCHD! and 70Mbps MJPEG! A lot can happen in ten days when hackers are involved, I gather…
Naturally AVCHD seems preferred over MJPEG, qualitatively.
http://www.eoshd.com/content/260-High-ISO-GH1-AVCHD-vs-MJPEG
Posted by wsmith on 07/07 at 09:41 AM
This is true. It all started with on dvxuser.com with a forum member named “tester13” I’ve been using the hacked firmware for a month now, and it’s truly breathtaking. For me, the GH1 now outperforms the 5D mark II, and I sold mine three days after I installed the new firmware hack!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/07 at 12:18 PM
Allan, thanks for bringing the GH13 hack-love to the PVC community. I have been happily testing and shooting a hacked GH1 the last couple of weeks and posting the results on my blog.
My conclusion—I am really impressed with the image and what can be done with a semi-open platform camera. But the hacked camera is not quite ready for day to day work until Vitaliy (hacker13) enables video out for effective monitoring.
More thoughts: http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Eric
Posted by ericescobar on 07/08 at 10:17 AM
It’s because of the variability of the software on these cameras that many of us haven’t yet plunked down thousands on a body, and then thousands on lenses and then thousands on support an accessories (effectively more than a decent prosumer camcorder), because there are “tinkerers” (I’ll call them) like Tramm Hudson (Magic Lantern) and Tester13 who are expanding the capabilities of these cameras beyond what the manufacturers intended. Demonstrating that the quality stratifications are engineered and arbitrarily set. Which means that the “leader” in the vDSLR segment changes depending software updates after the fact, instead of specifications available before you plunk down your money. And that’s just scary.
Oh, and I gave up waiting for my GH1 to review for http://IEBA.wordpress.com “TechThoughts”.
Posted by IEBA on 07/08 at 09:49 PM
AVCHD is limited to 24 Mbit/s, so anything higher is technically not AVCHD. It is AVC in MPEG-2 TS container.
Oh, and small “m” is “milli”, not “mega”. Come on, these prefixes are taught at school.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/12 at 09:36 PM
Burn-e,
Thanks for writing and for commenting 
The issue of the uppercase “M” is noted, appreciated, and fixed in the text of the article. However, I respectfully disagree with your assessment about the term AVCHD. I realize that “standard” AVCHD is (currently) limited to 24 Mbit/s. However, it is clear that we are talking about a (currently) non-standard AVCHD, just as in the past, there have been modified, non-standard U-Matic that recorded composite video with direct color (as opposed to Y/C688 heterodyned color in NTSC systems) on a high-speed U-Matic tape… but we still called it a U-Matic deck, and a U-Matic tape. We just clarified that it was a modified U-Matic deck, recording at higher than standard speed on a U-Matic tape.
Allan Tépper
Posted by Allan Tépper on 07/14 at 08:07 AM
Well of course the next question is, what of Canon ? A T2i would not be such an expensive testing ground for a similar upgrade. I dont have the skills myself to do that but, it would be nice if someone were able to squeeze at least 32Mbs out of it. Problem being they would have to defeat the 12 min. clip limit or the wall would be hit pretty fast there.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/03 at 09:05 AM
@cmoore: “it would be nice if someone were able to squeeze at least 32Mbs out of [the T2i]”—The T2i already records at about 45-50 Mb/s. It uses the same compression algorithm as the GH1, but in a different container. It also seems to use fewer features of the MPEG-4 codec than the GH1, which necessitated usage of higher bitrate.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/03 at 01:22 PM
Any hacked GH1 users in Dallas area? I need to do some head to head camera comparisons in the next week or so.
Posted by IEBA on 08/03 at 02:01 PM
Be warned: cameras manufactured after early June 2010 have been shipped with version 1.34. These cameras are currently unable to be upgraded with Mr. Kiselev’s utility:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=218001
It appears that B&H has run through their stock of pre-1.34 GH1s; the one I ordered on 1 August reports itself as having firmware 1.34, and it refuses to load any hacked firmware regardless of the version number I give it. Dang!
Posted by Adam Wilt on 08/08 at 09:17 PM
Oh dear, well my years of working for Apple Inc. and dealing with the years of “un-supported” customers mods etc…...... I have to to say Im not surprised Panasonic did this, it was just a matter of time. Im sure their service and support organization was eager to shut this down. Easier to just make it go away then deal with the unknown effects of flashing non-factory firmware. The way it works is the legal department tells them, in order to be able to cover customers under the “factory warranty” they had to shut it down.
Of course they could just turn on that feature in version 1.4 and thereby give it the official blessing.
Good luck with that.
Sigh
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/08 at 10:25 PM
Actually, some reports indicate that the 1.34 firmware was in process before the hack was released. If Mr. Kiselev manages to get ahold of the 1.34 binary, the firmware may be opened up again…
...or may not be. You are correct that unsupported hacks may well give the Panny engineers a case of the screaming fantods (or if not the engineers, the brand managers—what would a $1300 GH1 with decent recording quality do to the market for the upcoming AF100 with a paltry 24 Mbit/sec codec? Especially when the GH1 has a superior form factor?)
Fortunately my uses for the GH1 don’t depend solely (or primarily) on its video capability—that 7-14mm lens is SO nice!
Posted by Adam Wilt on 08/09 at 12:21 AM
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