GH1 stops recording and I lose footage at DVinfo.net

Josh Hayes · March 29th, 2011, 12:51 PM

Thought I posted this last night, but it's not showing up now.

Random new problem my my GH1. All of a sudden it seems to be recording in roughly 20 mins chunks and then it just stops recording without an error and we loose all the footage. It should be said I have one of the moderate hacked firmwares on it from about a year ago. But it's always worked fine. On a documentary filming trip right now, and as recent as 3 days ago it was working fine and recording in up to 90 min chunks. Then two days ago, on 1 of the 2 only VIP interviews of like 30 interviews it failed 3 times in an hour. I had a much less visually appealing but infintely more reliable Sony V1U as a backup at least so its not a complete loss, but I'm baffled as to why it's doing it. I even changed cards during the interview after the first failure. It happened on both cards which never fail. I reformatted one of them before I filmed as well, so that's not it.

Last night I ran it recording again and it failed around 19:00, 23:00, and 21:00 mins (and some seconds). Weird thing is, even though I can preview in camera, or log and capture in Final Cut, the card still reflects the fact that some kind of data has been recorded to it and that it has less room left afterwards. However no visual clip has been recorded. Almost like it's dumped to a recycling bin or something. Anybody had this issue. I've been filming on this camera for some time now and can't think of what it is. I didn't see any other variables between before and now and I'm guessing it's not a FAT32 limit if one never existed before...

Any ideas?

Josh Hayes · March 29th, 2011, 12:54 PM

I also wonder if the footage is still salvageable if it's somehow "still there" on the card.

Jeff Harper · March 29th, 2011, 01:12 PM

Reformat your cards, if you haven't already. See what happens.

Second thing, are you using an aftermarket battery?

Third thing, reset your camera to it's factory settings. If a new card doesn't work, then this probalby will fix your problem, unless you have moisture damage. Uninstall the hack if necessary and go back to the beginning and see what happens.

Josh Hayes · March 29th, 2011, 03:31 PM

Hi Jeff. That was one of the first thing I thought as well. But we're using a legit battery (s) and also we used two different Sd cards (which we've never had a problem with before including the day before whenI recorded a 90 min interview.). Resetting is a good idea, but do I need to have the original firmware loaded on one of my SD cards? I saw a Reset function in the menus. Does this option count as a real factory reset? I had to rush out today for shooting and haven't been able to test the camera again to see results of reset yet.

Jeff Harper · March 29th, 2011, 03:40 PM

Yes, that reset should be it, but I don't know, I haven't done it yet myself. Unless you have some actual damage to the camera or if it hasn't gone bad, the reset is definitely your best hope, IMO.

Don't know about the firmware, etc. so can't help you there, sorry. Report back and tell us what happens with the reset.

Jim Forrest · March 30th, 2011, 07:12 AM

Is your GH1 hacked? Have you tried shooting at different resolutions?

Josh Hayes · March 30th, 2011, 07:23 PM

@Jeff: A simple reset did fix it. For some reason I was under the impression I needed the firmware loaded on an sd card somewhere to actually reset it. Glad I was wrong. Maybe a slightly less appealing image, but a lot more appealing than nothing than a black screen that said "this file can't play". Thanks Jeff.

@Jim: I did have hacked firmware.

Jeff Harper · March 30th, 2011, 08:38 PM

Josh, that is great news. I'm glad you have your camera in working order again! Happy shooting!

Josh Hayes · March 30th, 2011, 09:42 PM

Me too Jeff. I'm filming all week so it was a much needed "production fix".

Now I have to find someone who can look at hidden files. On both cards where the video failed, it's obvious that when it failed, though I can see it in FINDER or on my camera, that the information was still written. So the card will say that 10 GB's of a 16GB card are used, but when I look at the indivdual folders (DCIM, MISC, PRIVATE) they're only like 800 MB visible. I copied the cards and the dark matter copies over as well. Maybe it's in some kind of recycling bin time file and can be salvaged still. Wishing i had more command line knowledge now, so I could really take a look at all the files on the card (including the hidden files), and see what condition they're in.

Jeff Harper · March 30th, 2011, 10:51 PM

Check here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-...-weddings.html
someone mentions a program they used to recover files in one of the posts. Hope this helps.
Edit: I was mistaken, I don't see the post I'm thinking of here. Somewhere in the Wedding Techniques I read, in the last hour, where someone mentioned using a program to recover lost files. Hopefully you can find the post. Try a search of the forum using various phrases relating to cards. Good luck.

Josh Hayes · April 1st, 2011, 12:23 AM

Spoke too soon. Problem has returned after filming a few hours of footage. No matter what card or battery, or wall supply. The bizarre thing is now in addition to that, when it records it doubles the time. So when I pop in a 16GB card and it says I have my usual 2 hours and 3 mins, each minute I record subtracts two from the card. So If I record for 9 mins, it tells me I have 18 mins subtracted from my remaining time.....

Totally bizarre. It's forced me to record 1 and 2 hours videos in ten minute chunks (and I'll be resynching to second cam everytime in post).

Jeff Harper · April 1st, 2011, 04:41 AM

Bummer. I would remove the hack, if possible, then if that doesn't fix check into warranty service. If you have to a $400 new GH1 is available as a last resort.

Josh Hayes · April 2nd, 2011, 05:29 PM

Allright. Got the problem solved. Here's the info.

-the reset button inside the cameras menu does not reset the firmware. So if your hack your GH1 (much like jailbreaking your iphone) and it has instability, it'll need to have a firmware reset. You can download one of the many different patches files. The trick is to always have the original as backup. Good news is, is retardedly simple. You copy the firmware upgrade file ( a .bin) onto your card (make sure the card has just been formatted before hand though) and hit the play button when you turn the camera on. It will ask if you want to update, and you say yeah. Booyah!

Jeff Harper · April 3rd, 2011, 08:44 AM

That is great, Josh. I need to update the firmware for my gh1, as my olympus lens "should" work with the camera, but doesn't, it only works with the GH2. Thanks!

March 29th, 2011, 12:51 PM	#1
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Thought I posted this last night, but it's not showing up now. Random new problem my my GH1. All of a sudden it seems to be recording in roughly 20 mins chunks and then it just stops recording without an error and we loose all the footage. It should be said I have one of the moderate hacked firmwares on it from about a year ago. But it's always worked fine. On a documentary filming trip right now, and as recent as 3 days ago it was working fine and recording in up to 90 min chunks. Then two days ago, on 1 of the 2 only VIP interviews of like 30 interviews it failed 3 times in an hour. I had a much less visually appealing but infintely more reliable Sony V1U as a backup at least so its not a complete loss, but I'm baffled as to why it's doing it. I even changed cards during the interview after the first failure. It happened on both cards which never fail. I reformatted one of them before I filmed as well, so that's not it. Last night I ran it recording again and it failed around 19:00, 23:00, and 21:00 mins (and some seconds). Weird thing is, even though I can preview in camera, or log and capture in Final Cut, the card still reflects the fact that some kind of data has been recorded to it and that it has less room left afterwards. However no visual clip has been recorded. Almost like it's dumped to a recycling bin or something. Anybody had this issue. I've been filming on this camera for some time now and can't think of what it is. I didn't see any other variables between before and now and I'm guessing it's not a FAT32 limit if one never existed before... Any ideas?

March 29th, 2011, 12:54 PM	#2
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage I also wonder if the footage is still salvageable if it's somehow "still there" on the card.

March 29th, 2011, 01:12 PM	#3
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Reformat your cards, if you haven't already. See what happens. Second thing, are you using an aftermarket battery? Third thing, reset your camera to it's factory settings. If a new card doesn't work, then this probalby will fix your problem, unless you have moisture damage. Uninstall the hack if necessary and go back to the beginning and see what happens. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

March 29th, 2011, 03:31 PM	#4
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Hi Jeff. That was one of the first thing I thought as well. But we're using a legit battery (s) and also we used two different Sd cards (which we've never had a problem with before including the day before whenI recorded a 90 min interview.). Resetting is a good idea, but do I need to have the original firmware loaded on one of my SD cards? I saw a Reset function in the menus. Does this option count as a real factory reset? I had to rush out today for shooting and haven't been able to test the camera again to see results of reset yet.

March 29th, 2011, 03:40 PM	#5
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Yes, that reset should be it, but I don't know, I haven't done it yet myself. Unless you have some actual damage to the camera or if it hasn't gone bad, the reset is definitely your best hope, IMO. Don't know about the firmware, etc. so can't help you there, sorry. Report back and tell us what happens with the reset. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

March 30th, 2011, 07:12 AM	#6
Jim Forrest Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Washington DC Posts: 368	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Is your GH1 hacked? Have you tried shooting at different resolutions?

March 30th, 2011, 07:23 PM	#7
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage @Jeff: A simple reset did fix it. For some reason I was under the impression I needed the firmware loaded on an sd card somewhere to actually reset it. Glad I was wrong. Maybe a slightly less appealing image, but a lot more appealing than nothing than a black screen that said "this file can't play". Thanks Jeff. @Jim: I did have hacked firmware.

March 30th, 2011, 08:38 PM	#8
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Josh, that is great news. I'm glad you have your camera in working order again! Happy shooting! __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

March 30th, 2011, 09:42 PM	#9
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Me too Jeff. I'm filming all week so it was a much needed "production fix". Now I have to find someone who can look at hidden files. On both cards where the video failed, it's obvious that when it failed, though I can see it in FINDER or on my camera, that the information was still written. So the card will say that 10 GB's of a 16GB card are used, but when I look at the indivdual folders (DCIM, MISC, PRIVATE) they're only like 800 MB visible. I copied the cards and the dark matter copies over as well. Maybe it's in some kind of recycling bin time file and can be salvaged still. Wishing i had more command line knowledge now, so I could really take a look at all the files on the card (including the hidden files), and see what condition they're in.

March 30th, 2011, 10:51 PM	#10
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Check here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-...-weddings.html someone mentions a program they used to recover files in one of the posts. Hope this helps. Edit: I was mistaken, I don't see the post I'm thinking of here. Somewhere in the Wedding Techniques I read, in the last hour, where someone mentioned using a program to recover lost files. Hopefully you can find the post. Try a search of the forum using various phrases relating to cards. Good luck. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

April 1st, 2011, 12:23 AM	#11
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Spoke too soon. Problem has returned after filming a few hours of footage. No matter what card or battery, or wall supply. The bizarre thing is now in addition to that, when it records it doubles the time. So when I pop in a 16GB card and it says I have my usual 2 hours and 3 mins, each minute I record subtracts two from the card. So If I record for 9 mins, it tells me I have 18 mins subtracted from my remaining time..... Totally bizarre. It's forced me to record 1 and 2 hours videos in ten minute chunks (and I'll be resynching to second cam everytime in post).

April 1st, 2011, 04:41 AM	#12
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Bummer. I would remove the hack, if possible, then if that doesn't fix check into warranty service. If you have to a $400 new GH1 is available as a last resort. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

April 2nd, 2011, 05:29 PM	#13
Josh Hayes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: San Francisco, Ca Posts: 264	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage Allright. Got the problem solved. Here's the info. -the reset button inside the cameras menu does not reset the firmware. So if your hack your GH1 (much like jailbreaking your iphone) and it has instability, it'll need to have a firmware reset. You can download one of the many different patches files. The trick is to always have the original as backup. Good news is, is retardedly simple. You copy the firmware upgrade file ( a .bin) onto your card (make sure the card has just been formatted before hand though) and hit the play button when you turn the camera on. It will ask if you want to update, and you say yeah. Booyah!

April 3rd, 2011, 08:44 AM	#14
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GH1 stops recording and I lose footage That is great, Josh. I need to update the firmware for my gh1, as my olympus lens "should" work with the camera, but doesn't, it only works with the GH2. Thanks! __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."