GH2: amazing cinematic quality with APOCALYPSE NOW setting

THX1965THX1965 Registered Users Posts: 108 Major grins
edited September 9, 2012 in Video
The GH2 "hacked-settings-community" is on fire. Just when you thought the quality of this little technical marvel can't be pushed any higher, these guys came out with various hacked settings under the "APOCALYPSE NOW" banner.

They chose that name, because in a recent digital camera shoot-out done by Zacuto with the help of professional cinematographers, Francis Ford Coppola preferred the look of the GH2 over much more expensive, top of the line digital cinema cameras...

Here are the Apocalypse Now settings:
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/4391/apocalypse-now-quest-for-simulated-444-smooth-cinema-quality-driftwood-cbrandin-bkmcwd

Those of us who own a GH2 can consider ourselves very lucky.

--- Markus ---

If anyone needs helpe with putting any hacked settings on their GH2, I'd be happy to help. It can be a bit tricky for newcomers.

Comments

  • EphTwoEightEphTwoEight Registered Users Posts: 552 Major grins
    edited September 4, 2012
    I'd love to try a hack again, last time I did, it was all goofy, and the camera kept locking up, or giving card errors, and very unreliable. And I did just a slight boost around 40mbs.
  • THX1965THX1965 Registered Users Posts: 108 Major grins
    edited September 5, 2012
    EphTwoEight wrote: »
    I'd love to try a hack again, last time I did, it was all goofy, and the camera kept locking up, or giving card errors, and very unreliable. And I did just a slight boost around 40mbs.

    What SD card were you using? It is highly recommended that you use at least a SanDisk Extreme HD Video SD card (Class 10, 30MB/s) - or - for the most high end settings - a SanDisk Extreme Pro SD card (Class 10, 95MB/s).

    I am using both cards and I have never had any problems - especially not with the Extreme Pro cards, which are the standard cards in my camera. They are expensive, I know, but we're already getting a very high-end camera for cheap...

    Have you had any problems with any of those two SanDisk cards?
  • EphTwoEightEphTwoEight Registered Users Posts: 552 Major grins
    edited September 9, 2012
    Yes, we got the SanDisk Extreme Pro 32 45MB/s
  • THX1965THX1965 Registered Users Posts: 108 Major grins
    edited September 9, 2012
    EphTwoEight wrote: »
    Yes, we got the SanDisk Extreme Pro 32 45MB/s

    For some reason many users report problems with the 45MB/s SanDisk. This particular card seems to be problematic with hacked GH2's. it's unclear why.

    For less demanding settings you're much better off with the cheaper 30MB/s version or for high-end ones with the expensive but solid 95MB/s flavor.
  • thegridrunnerthegridrunner Registered Users Posts: 235 Major grins
    edited September 9, 2012
    I saw the Zacuto empirical test and was not particularly impressed by the camera for film work. It has a limited dynamic range, the highlight blowout very fast and the color are a little too garish. What the Zacuto creative DP test showed was that at this point, lighting a set properly is extremely important and that if you know how to compress the dynamic range with your lighting on the set, you can make any camera look good (which is what they did for the GH2). The sharpness of the camera is it's main selling point but it's latitude leaves one wanting (there is no patch for that, even shooting flat profiles doesn't help much). I think filmmakers will be better served with the Nikon D800 or even better, the Blackmagic movie camera. Now those are cameras to be excited about. This is a amazing time to be filmmaking.
    Nikon D800, D7000, 14-24,24-70, 70-200 Nikkor and stuff
    http://www.youtube.com/user/NYCFilmmakersGroup
    http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Filmmakers-and-Actors-Meetup-Group/
  • THX1965THX1965 Registered Users Posts: 108 Major grins
    edited September 9, 2012
    thegridrunner wrote: »
    ... if you know how to compress the dynamic range with your lighting on the set, you can make any camera look good (which is what they did for the GH2). The sharpness of the camera is it's main selling point but it's latitude leaves one wanting (there is no patch for that, even shooting flat profiles doesn't help much). I think filmmakers will be better served with the Nikon D800 or even better, the Blackmagic movie camera. Now those are cameras to be excited about. This is a amazing time to be filmmaking.

    I don't disagree with you. You are however comparing $3000+ (and much bulkier - especially the Blackmagic Cinema one) cameras to the small $800 GH2. Latitude is not ideal on the GH2, but I haven't found this to be a big limitation. There is no one perfect camera for every job and every budget. Sharpness and small size was very important to me. Others will have different priorities. It's indeed a great time for filmmakers.
  • angevin1angevin1 Registered Users Posts: 3,403 Major grins
    edited September 9, 2012
    THX1965 wrote: »
    There is no one perfect camera for every job and every budget.
    This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    tom wise
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