Our favourite GH2 hacker Vitaliy Kiselev has just released version 2.55 of NTools, his firmware patcher for Nikon cameras. Vitaliy says there’s references to ‘LiveView Raw’ in the firmware. What does it refer too?
Read moreVitaliy Kiselev decoding Nikon D7100 firmware, discovers “LiveView Raw”
Above: EOSHD’s hacked GH2 with Zacuto EVF Flip and Iscorama!!
Codecs are currently the biggest weakness of DSLR video but that is about to change, and no – not with an external record but inside the camera.
The hacker Vitaliy Kiselev says he has had ‘a break-through’ – raising the AVCHD bitrate of the hacked GH2 to an average of 42Mbit – almost double the original Panasonic specification and higher than the top AVCHD PS setting of 28Mbit. And unlike the GH1’s encoder, the GH2 has B-frames making it more efficient, so for the same bitrate it delivers more image quality than other DSLRs in the 40Mbit ballpark like the Canon 5D Mark II.
Vitaliy says on his forum that the video looks ‘like a photo’ in terms of quality. The next PTools release containing the patch is due out soon.
Read moreVitaliy hacks ‘photographic’ looking 42Mbit 1080/24p AVCHD out of GH2
Vitaliy Kiselev has released the GH2 hacking tool PTools V3.60d
Breaking news – continuously updated…
If you are wondering where our GH2 hack is by now, you are not alone. Now Vitaliy Kiselev has updated us on what the next steps are to be.
Above Vitaliy appears on Spanish RTVE TV on ‘planned obsolesce’ built into consumer electronics. (Second man in, via a video link)
Donate to the hack project here
Russian programmer Vitaliy Kiselev has updated us via his own website on Project Lenin and Project Stalin. He has now achieved the required funding for Project Lenin, this involves un-hackable GH1 to be sent and decoded via a hardware dump of the firmware chips. The encryption unlocking methods will then be applied to Project Stalin in the hope the GH2’s firmware can also be opened up in a similar way.
“As you may know, I have GH2 firmware now. But it is encrypted, and uses compacts UPD format [same as Panasonic’s latest compacts]. It’ll require bunch of resources and expertise to try to dump [firmware from compacts] and learn how encryption is performed. [So it can be reverse engineered]. Please publish this info with bold request for all engineers [with expertise in] NOR flash (and especially LSI with NOR) to contact me. I can guarantee anonymity if they want.” – Vitaliy Kiselev
Read moreVitaliy Kiselev requests expertise to bypass GH2 encryption
On the back of the official AF100 firmware update (available here at Panasonic), it appears unofficial high bit rates and 1080/60p are coming to the AF100 in the form of a Vitaliy Kiselev hack.
When asked of the hack was doable, Vitaliy replied “definitely”.
Read moreVitaliy Kiselev begins work on Panasonic AF100 hack
Since the T2i hack turned out to be an idiot-bomb, we move our attention onto where the real action is.
2011 is going to be an interesting year. First off, CES is about to start and there are rumours Canon may introduce a consumer camera which could resemble a fixed lens hybrid camera, featuring a larger sensor…
Read more2011 preview and why your next video DSLR might be a Pentax K-5
