Finally…the biggest missing feature of the GH2 is out. 25p firmware update (or 30p for US owners)

GH1 GH2

 

I love my GH2. Had it for over a year and it shoots lovely footage. It’s a big step up from the GH1 when it comes to image performance and low light, but it was always only 24p…That’s fine for the web and US users but for the rest of us, especially if we want to mix it up with other cameras, having just 24p was a problem…

Panasonic have now released firmware 1.1 which gives GH2 users 25p embedded in a 50i stream at 24mb/s AVCHD like the GH1. US owners get 30p embedded in a 60i stream.

The native 24p “cinema mode” remains.

You can download it here.

Apparently you can still hack the camera after installing it. I must do that soon, especially the AVCintra 176mb/s Driftwood hack. Check out how to hack your GH2 here…

17 comments

  1. Don’t think the hack has been ported to the new firmware yet. You can still use the hack but you have to reload the old firmware so you will lose the 25p.

  3. Hi Philip. Just wanted to ask what exactly is the advantage of getting a hack like the Driftwood hack?
    The GH2 image is pretty good out of the box from what I see.
    At 176mb/sec you’ll reach the 2GB file limit pretty quickly right?

    Thanks!

      1. @Michael delos Reyes

        Fat32 file limit remains and always will. That is why files have to span in the first place, every time they hit the 4gig limit. The problem was the non spanning bug which is fixed with the intra patches i posted. Don’t confuse the two, the next file picks up where the last one left off, every 4 gigs this will happen. You can shoot indefinitely yes but the files are still being split up into 4 gig sections.

  4. Philip, as I understand it, if you upgrade to the new firmware the hack will not work until Vitaliy ports the hack over to the newer version. Glad to see Panasonic is still catering to GH2 users. And yes, the hack is awesome!

  7. Hi,

    I just bought a GH2 based on this recent clip from John Twigt, which really convinced me to use this camera in shoots at night: http://vimeo.com/32204670

    10.000 ISO is just out of this world! This thing sees that your own eyes can’t…

    However, I noticed that the LCD viewer on the back of camera has a tendency to adjust to lighting conditions if you point it at a dark versus a well-lit spot. I believe I have everything set to manual control, but obviously something is causing an automatic adjustment process to kick in. Would you happen to know which function this could be? I use the GH2 with a 0.95 Voigtlander 50mm, so there is no electronic connection between the camera and the lens. Could this be the source of the problem? Please let me know.

    Thanks,

    Richard

    1. go to menu and in the left side find the little gree spanner icon( 3rd from bottom on my gh2) find the LCD mode no 2 i believe here you can set auto or 1 2 3 brightness i wouldnt trust the lcd as a guide use the light meter + and minus for good results even though the lcd looks correct hope ive helped
      fwank

  8. My advice is that since ptool has not been updated to patch the new firmware stick to the hack for 25p for now if you want to use the higher bit rates. You can however update to the new firmware to check it out and REVERT back to a hacked 1.0 if you to check out the new firmware. It will probably be Soon however it will v1.1 will be compatible to patch and hack but only v.10 is hack able right now.

    P.S. http://www.OSGFilms.com is great *** =) hehe

  9. *edit* My advice is that since ptool has not yet been updated to patch the new firmware stick to the hacked v1.0 for 25p for now if you want to use the higher bit rates. You can however update to the new firmware to check it out and REVERT back to a hacked 1.0 if you really wan to check out the new firmware. It will probably be Soon however that v1.1 will be compatible to patch and hack but only v.10 is hack able right now.

    P.S. http://www.OSGFilms.com is great *** =) hehe

  13. Hi, I’ve been trying to read up as much as I can about the GH2 before I make the leap and buy it. I’ve had a G1 (just stills) for 5 years now and love it. I’ve also bought a few lenses over the years so the GH2 is even more appealing. The one thing that’s been holding me back is news that it doesn’t meet HD Broadcasting standards. With the new hacks, is this still the case?

  14. I have a question about 25p in 720p mode. In the hack can you set 720 to 25p?
    Many times I have shoots that don’t require extreme HD quality, my clients simply want PAL DV quality. What would you suggest I do? Shoot in 1080 25p or shoot in 720 50p? Because as far as I can tell there’s no way to set the gh2 to 720 25p and when I shoot in 50p and record sound with a recorder, it doesn’t link up perfectly later.

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