MombasaFlash
Heli's & Tele's bloke
Sorry to pour more rain on the situation but if they are (luckily) shooting 720p then you are unlucky if you want to use the HDMI video out to a converter for monitoring because your GH2 will automatically revert to a 1080i50 setting as soon as you connect the mini-HDMI cable - regardless of whether the other end of the cable is connected to anything. Every single camera out there has something really bloody stupid about it and this the GH2's - along with the analogue a/v video output that doesn't function during recording.
You have no choice but to use a separate small camera for monitoring, if you wish to shoot in 720, or accept the 1080i50 setting.
The whole argument about through the lens monitoring versus separate FPV camera has been played out in great length, either here or elsewhere. I have ended up doing what I always hated which is a separate camera sitting right next to the GH2, pointing in the same direction. It has to be lined up before the flight to ensure that it gives the same framing as the GH2's screen. Many people talk about pointing the monitoring camera AT the main camera's screen. FORGET THAT. It is a fiddly and difficult setup to install and you end up with an appalling picture on the ground.
The major disadvantage with a separate monitor camera is that you have no idea what is happening with the main camera. It may have turned off, with a flat battery, or gone to sleep, because you forgot to disable that function, or it may have locked up with some SD card data rate problem .... whatever, you will have no idea until the flight is over.
As for the gentWIRE, it is only required for photos. If you are shooting video then you simply push the little red tit to start recording before taking off. You will at least have positive confirmation that you are indeed recording.
As you now have only TWO days before your shoot I would suggest that you do NOT get involved with GH2 hacks. The stock image is still better than any other camera of the same price bracket (and of course more expensive cameras too).
An example why: My primary concern with any GH2 hack was reliability above all else. If using the camera involved small five second recordings after each take, to prevent the card from being subsequently unreadable, or the flights had to be restricted in length to avoid 'spanning' issues, or any number of special peculiarities or odd behaviour, I was not interested. There are enough distractions on a shoot with all the other things to check without having a temperamental camera.
So I installed Sanity5. It is easy-peasy and works every time without any 'special' behaviour.
Or so I thought. If you are using the ultra-expensive, super-duper 64GB/95mb/s SD card (which is recommended for all these high-data rate hacks) the camera will lock up when set to record at 1080 with a ridiculous error message claiming the SD card is too slow - if you are using a Panasonic lens ! I mean, Jesus! How twisted and weird can it get?
One more twist to the whole tale. If you record at 1080p24 you will get outstanding image resolution (but a slow frame rate) and the HDMI output can be used for monitoring, without the camera changing the record setting.
So anyway, if you merrily kit yourself out with one of Tabb's panic-FedEx'd HDMI cables, an HDMI converter and a hacked GH2 with a big fat expensive SD, you will turn up for the shoot, set the camera to 720p connect it all up and 10 seconds into the flight .... the camera will freeze because it will have reverted to 1080 and you are using what you thought is the fastest SD card in the world and you will be looking stupid - in front of your client.
The hacked GH2 WILL however record 1080 onto a slower, Class 10 SD. Go figure.
Personally, I use the Sanity5 hack, a separate monitoring camera and record at 720p50, in case I want to slow anything down later, onto a 64GB/95mb/s Sandisk EP. This setup was used locally for the Parc Astérix and the Château du Vivier shoots and the Norfolk Southern shoot in Atlanta.
On the subject of 1080 versus 720, I defy anyone to see, for example, the CX760 image at 1080 as better than the GH2 at 720. Even up-rezzed from 720 to 1080 the GH2 image is better.
