UPDATE August 22,2011: I have had great stable results with the 56Mbps patch setting for 1080/24p and also 720/60p. Auto Quantizer Details set to 4-All to Details for 1080/24p and 720/60p. Patch is not stable in 1080/60i, don’t even try it 
Hopefully we will have a fix for this soon.
I think we may have a solid Canon EOS 5D MK2 video rival on our hands with the newly released Panasonic GH2 PTool v3.62d patch by Vitaliy Kiselev and Chris Brandin. For still images the much larger Canon sensor is still clearly superior. Your donations helped make this incredible new version possible, so please keep the donation pool flowing. This update took only a couple of weeks to release…donations do help
Reader Lars in Berlin, kindly informed me of the new patch release, and I quickly had to try it out today. Yes, everything works as promised and PTool v3.62d is completely stable on my NTSC GH2 using the 42Mbps patch for 1080/24p and 720/60p with the 14-140mm lens and Sandisk Extreme Pro 45MB/sec card. I shot for 30 minutes in 1080/24p and 720/60p, zooming in and out on the family cat and other moving targets, at all the GH2 native ISO’s of 160, 320, 640, 1250, and 2500. Shutter speeds were the standard 180 degree shutter or 1/50th and 1/125 as it is commonly referred to in cinema circles.
Lars just post this very delicious 42Mbps short film. Very well done
Here is a particular lovely video shot by mpgxsvcd using the GH2 42Mbps patch. Be sure to download the original 1080/24p file, it looks superb.
My custom gamma setting for maximum video dynamic range are the “smooth” setting with the additional -2, -2, -2, -2 in the drop down menu, GH2 folks know what I mean 
OK, what is so fabulous and new with the latest PTool v3.62d patch? First off, the video quality in the shadow regions is now just stellar. My quick test demonstrated that ISO 1250 looks better than ISO 160 in the default Panasonic factory firmware. The little “blip” we saw in the first second of video in the previous 42Mbps PTool v3.61d patch is now fixed
But the big news, at least for me and other folks that make a living shooting with a GH2….the Auto Quantizer Setting. This is huge because the shadow detail is now greatly improved. I will quote mpgxsvcd because he said it best:
“It is also important to realize that the newest patch adds quantizer settings that will increase the minimum bit rate for less detailed scenes. This is critical because scenes without much movement and with lower ISOs rarely get above 10-12 mb/sec with the original firmware. Now all scenes record at the same bit rate regardless of whether the camera thinks it is necessary or not.”
Vitaliy Kiselev and Chris Brandin made numerous other improvements under the hood as outlined below:
- Improved bitrate patches
- Improved GOP patches
- Improved MJPEG size patches
- Added quantizer patches
- Added few other encoder related patches
- Few fixes, including 24L behavior
Below are the images and instructions for the updated Panasonic GH2 PTool v3.62d patch. Please refer to my original article for more detailed instructions and FAQ.
New Panasonic GH2 PTool v3.62d Auto Quantizer for 1080 and 720 video modes
Movie Related Restrictions: PAL Panasonic GH2 PTool v3.62d............ONLY
Panasonic GH2 - 42 Mbps AVCHD Compression Video Bitrate 24H
Panasonic GH2 - 32 Mbps AVCHD Compression Video Bitrate 24L
Panasonic GH2 - 42 Mbps AVCHD Compression Video Bitrate FSH/SH
Panasonic GH2 - 32 Mbps AVCHD Compression Video Bitrate FH/H
Panasonic GH2 - NEW Auto Quantizer for 1080 modes. This is where we select a bias towards shadow detail or motion detail. I always light my scenes and sets and have slow to medium motion. The 3 setting is perfect for the type of commercial work I shoot. For wedding and sports work I might change this to a 1 or 2 setting.
NEW Auto Quantizer for 720 shooting modes. Again, I use the 3 setting for the type of subject motion I normally shoot. I may shoot 720/60p and then slow it down in post to 30p or 24p….this is known as over cranking.
Panasonic GH2 PTool v3.62d patch save. By default, the PTool will not allow you to overwrite the original Panasonic Factory Firmware. Just give your patch a new number.
That is it folks!
29 Comments
Thank you Thorsten!!! I’l try it now.
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You will LOVE it, the .mts files are HUGE! And quality is just stellar
I just ordered a new SDHC-Card with 45MB/s. My Transcend 10MB/s is not fast enough. When I record a longer period, the record crashes. It’s because when a file gets to 4,29GB the cam creates a new file (FAT32-Card). At this moment the record stops and the cam can’t play back the file anymore. Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
The quality looks amazing.
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Thorsten, You are the man.
Thanks so much for doing this in the first place and keeping it going with new detailed info. I am going to have to go through this process later today and give it a shot I suspect. Your help (along with Vitaliy’s and others-of course), makes so many people (ME!!) grateful.
Brandon
Hey Thorsten & everyone-
Am I crazy or does everything link to the old firmware? I can’t seem to find the new version 3.62. Do I have to re-download ptool (is this the NEW version?),and redownload the original GH2 firmware again? I am confused. It seems like everything links to the older 3.61? Is the hack ptool or is the hack the GH2_V10.bin file? I can’t seem to figure this out. Argghh. I am always so concerned with wiping out the camera. I thought the file would be a new .bin file, not a new ptool file or am I wrong? All the links seem to go back to the July 5th update. I hate to ask this of you, but any clarification would be helpful.
Thanks,
Brandon
Thorsten (and all),
Just a little nerve-racking for me. I figured it out, using the original GH2_V10 file and new pTool software, thanks to your perfect posting as usual. This updating is not for the faint of heart! Happy to be done and back to shooting. Thanks as always.
Brandon
Brandon and Lars,
I should have been more clear with the PTool link as you suggested. Vitaliy did update the PTool file in the folder, he just keeps the link the same and always replaces it with the most current version of PTool. It is not until we open the .exe file, that we notice the new version name in the top.
Same base firmware GH2__10.bin. Link to all the downloads is at the top of this page, same as on my previous article.
Yes, I agree, it is a bit nerve wrecking. Just click the 6 checkmarks and fill out the values……..LEAVE the rest alone!
PAL GH2 cameras must use the 30 Minute Time Removal and the PAL<>NTSC check box, otherwise the camera will only record till it reaches 4 GIGs! This may explain the problem you were experiencing Lars. Yes, I agree, fast pro cards are required for this.
You really are the best Thorsten. Cheers, brother.
Hi Thorsten,
Thanks for all this information, but I’m having trouble understanding this increment business. Basically every time I try out new settings I load the original firmware, make sure increment is checked and set it to 10. Then I save out to GH2_V11, GH2_V12, GH2_V13 etc
What I don’t understand is how it relates to reverting back to the original firmware? If you want to revert back you just drag the leaked panasonic GH2_V10.bin onto your SD card and flash the camera right? So if increment wasn’t checked when you first loaded the base firmware, made changes and saved out to GH2_V11, why couldn’t you just flash the camera with the leaked panasonic firmware to get back to factory settings?
Sorry, I’m a noob!
All the best
Sam
Simply uncheck all boxes and save as a new increment…..and flash camera. Now you are back to factory stock.
Unfortunately I can’t offer tech support for this patch as I did not write it. The proper forum for this info is http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussions
Hi Thorsten,
Not a problem, I understand. Cheers for taking the time and thanks for the tutorial
Sam
THANK YOU. Just found your blog. Awesome Info and inspiration. Cheers!
Thanks for all your help with the GH2 Firmware MOD.
After i did the hack i checked the version in the GH2 settings and it says:
Body Firmware: Ver.1.0
Lens Firmware: Ver.1.1
Is the Body firmware supposed to say a different number after the hack?
1.1 would be correct, that is what it will display after the patch.
Hi Thorsten, here is my first shortfilm using your Hack-Tutorial:
http://www.vimeo.com/28011099
Hope you don’t mind, I embedded it in the post
Thank you very much for embedding.
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Hi Thorsten,
a big thanks for the tutorial, these settings with the GOP down to 6 look great but i’m still a bit worried about movement…Do you think that for outdoor urban scenes the good setting of the auto quantizer would be more to details? what about all to movement? I guess going further down with GOP (was thinking of trying it at 3) means increasing bitrate? i’m trying to find a stable setting for a short movie in cinema mode…thanks!
The most important thing to do is to SHOOT and TEST the camera in the environment that you shoot in. “1000 expert forum opinions” are worth absolutely nothing compared to a real life test
Been shooting commercially for 20 years…..but I still test lighting setups and new ideas 
I do not shoot much fast movement so I would use the auto quantizer setting of “more to details”. I also shoot with good lighting
GOP I left at factory default because it worked just fine and was stable.
ok thanks, and you’re right, guess i’m getting a bit lost in some forums…on to testing, cheers!
Forums are great but one still has to do the homework to see if it actually works
Hope I didn’t sound grumpy earlier…..had a long day of shooting.
October 1/11 with the official Panasonic firmware update coming out any day now, do you think that it will mess things up, for p tools, will it have to be rewritten, for the new firmware I really want to use it but I am afraid that if I use it after updating my camera then put p tools on it may brick the gh2, any thoughts, the pertinent me says wait.
Thanks for the firmware update news Mark!
I would wait and see what Vitaliy comes up with on his site. We certainly don’t want to brick our cameras
just in case you missed it, Panasonic just,updated the firmware for the 2 stock lenses, last week, the firmware for the camera, is supposed to be sometime this month, according to Panasonic, I think it is mainly so the camera will work with the new motorized zooms,lets hope they have a few other pleasant surprises
This is weird, I save the firmware image as:
GH2_V11.bin
and I get the error message:
Wrong file name, camera won’t be able to read such file.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks, Bill
Okay, I found on another post that you have to put TWO underscores after the GH2 not just one. Maybe update your post accordingly. Thanks! Bill
Yes, TWO underscores. I just click on the old name when “saving as”….and then change the 10 to 11. The images do show TWO underscores, just difficult to see on the screen.
As Mark pointed out a couple of “Comments” ago, new lens firmware is available and the GH2 will receive a firmware update as well in October.
Thanks!
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