Cajones

The spit helps, but I also do a good base cleaning with toothpaste. The Rain-X products help, too. The main thing is to make sure your inside lenses are sealed. Clean your outside lens/filter on the way up and you're about as safe as you can be. I sometimes clean after opening in really muggy conditions, and again on the ground. I have even had to clean in FF. Going through precip, a quick wipe with my cleaning cloth wrapped around my index finger during several competition jumps several years ago. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Very sweet! Nice alternative for the poor computer geeks out there. Now they need to add the code for HD support. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Premiere is probably the most popular package out there. i-movie, and even the Windows Movie Maker can do alright for most users. Basically depends on what you want to have in a finished product. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

It depends on what you're going to film. If you are going to shoot tandem videos, the .6 is nice, because you don't have to stay super tight on the exit, and you can really fill the frame with the passengers face. The "golden 15" seconds where you fly the lens right up to their face is really nice with a .6. BTW, the .3 is really close to the .6 if you zoom all the way in. It's not my preferred MO, but it works in a pinch. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

.6 to .7, generally. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

"I heard a story..." I heard a story about a huge white whale. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I don't have any pictures of just the waterproof housing setup with the camera inside. Check to see how much clearance your camera has inside the waterproof box. That is, the space in front and behind the camera, mounted inside the box. This will tell me if you have enough room to mount the wide-angle. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

The 900 and 950 I think are the PC style cameras in question. They are both 3-CCD cameras, and produce excellent pictures. The real difference between the 3-CCD cameras in the past has been the color depth. 3 chip cameras separate the three colors coming into the lense and process them. The yield is higher resolution with better color. The problem with both of these cameras is the iris of the camera "floats." With a floating iris, the lens tends to flutter in skydiving, causing a very fubar'd image. The VX cameras are exceptional cameras, but not often seen on helmets because of their price. They are rather heavy, and the gains in quality underweigh the gains in risk and physical demands of bulk and mass, in nearly all cases. This has become even more evident with the better chips found in the newer cameras. I very often lay footage shot on older cameras on a timeline with footage recorded on a newer or 3-CCD camera. Even viewing this footage on a 640x480 preview window shows differences in quality. The differences are usually in color depth and luminance. The improvements in CCD quality in the single-chip cameras (such as the TRV-30/50 and PC-115/120) have narrowed the gap in quality difference of the 3-chip cameras greatly. This difference, realistically, is not noticeable between cameras like the 101 and the 120 - when viewed independantly. I like the size of the 101 - alot! I jump with the 120 because of the image. In some of my "mad-scientist" projects I use my PC-1 (pond swooping foot camera, water landing at the bridge, etc.). In other projects, the 101 is a camera of choice (downhill blades camera ball). When shooting ground footage, the 3-chip cameras are everywhere (VX2000 in the basket at Bridge day, 2 3-chip Canons at the Convention). And then there are the wireless cameras, the lipstick cameras, the panoramic cameras, and the 360 cameras, etc... The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I've used a Sony waterproof box on some jumps. There are some things to consider. I used the enclosure for a water landing during bridge day - it performed very well. I also used the box for pond swooping (also with the Bonehead Shu-Vue). It also worked very well. The difficulties were in operating the camera. You can see the microphone and LANC connectors in your photos. Both of these work well. The real difficulty comes when you want to mount a wide angle lens. Sony designs these enclosures to put the lens against the "porthole" in the front of the box (as does every other manufacturer of these boxes). The only lens I could fit the camera inside of the box with was the .3 Diamond. Superb lens, and very compact. To fit this required a modification of the mounting system for the camera. Wasn't as easy as I'd have liked. Additionally, the LANC controller from Sony automatically placed the camera into auto-focus. There does not seem to be a way to override this function. The .3 lens will not work with auto-focus, so the LANC controller built into the box could not be used. The camera had to be left on - and recording - and then sealed up. These toys are also not cheap. If you can find one where you live, they are certainly more expensive than a d-box designed for skydiving. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I flew one of the prototypes at the WFFC. I don't think it's any "safer" than a proper helmet camera. It has its own bag of tricks to think about. Bonehead implemented a cutaway system - simple but effective. The routing of the cutaway handle needs to be carefully considered. It "sticks out" from your foot, creating multiple snag points. These, of course, would only become an issue with an unusual deployment - most especially head-down. It does create a good bit of drag. With a PC1, it was very noticeable flying head up/down. I fitted one of the swoop competitors with it, and the freefall footage is all of him laughing because he couldn't sit-fly with it - beautiful footage of him swooping the pond with it, though. The best advise I'd give to you is simple rehearsal. Put it on, fit it very tightly (you may have to stuff some padding into the shoe), and think about all of the things that could happen - and what you'd do. Grab the S&TA, and maybe a few flyers and talk about the possibilities (good and bad). Pay special attention to the use/placement of the cutaway handle. The wind can move the cable enough to initiate a cutaway. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

It's a very kewl machine. It has the potential to save your arse in a bad position. It also has the potential for bad juju. The best advise I'd offer - talk to the people at CR. They're going to have questions about what you like to jump (what objects) and other relevant issues. It seems those that jump the Sorcerer love it, and those that don't hate it. A canopy transfer is pretty amazing on one, but if I've got a good canopy over my head - I'd rather keep it there. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

There are some differences in optics and image quality. There are also differences in body size. Differences in features may not be an issue for you, but image quality and camera size may be. If this is just for shooting "fun" video - not for paid video - the smaller, lighter 101 may be a better choice. If you want the higher quality image and you're willing to sacrifice a bit of size and weight the 120 might be your animal. If you can find it, the PC115 is nearly identical to the 120, without the Bluetooth interface. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

They are very similar in features for the average user. Image stabilization (with a motion tracker) and precise color control are the big things that Avid does. The Avid program has some plug-ins not available for Premiere. Premiere, likewise has a few plug-ins that don't work with Avid. The Avid product is used on SGI systems and other high-end powerhouses that Premiere doesn't work on. The Avid product is more $$$. Premiere is "buggy" on many systems. And there's a few more things I can't pop off the top... Are you considering buying a $1500 program ($2500 if you want the Powerpack) to experiment with? The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Ditto. I've seen some strange things happen. Canopy openings are a strange chaos. Carrying your canopy over your shoulder, with the toggles dangling, lines running this way and that... Stranger things have happened. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I'm with Z. Too many questions and too many variables to answer them in one thread. Find a good camera flyer. If you're not sure who's who - get with your local S&TA and ask them who'd be best to introduce you to camera flying. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Out of those two - the 101. The IP series records in MPEG (the IP7's image is noticeably lower quality), doesn't have a firewire port (eventually you will want to share footage with other skydivers), and is difficult to operate with standard mounts. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I can assure you - cats have already been taken skydiving... Don't ask. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Long list, so I'll just add ones I didn't see: Caribou C-5 Challenger (ultralight, not the space shuttle) The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Wanna' rassle? The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Nothing "wrong" with the 18. It doesn't have the image quality of the TRV-30/50 or the PC-115/120, but definitely cheaper. I'd say look at the standard that is expected where you are working and decide if it's worth the extra $$$ to go to the 30. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

I'd actually mount the D60 beside the 900 (which I'm suprised to see you using with the flutter issue), with both lenses out in front for good balance. This will basically fill the entire base plate of your Flat-Top. Three wide would be quite a squeeze and when you aren't jumping all three (which it sounds like you'd not do it often) it would be more balanced. You could build up a mount just a bit behind the D60, so the PC-7 is looking over the top, sort of between the 900 and the D60. A mount there could also be reversed, for the occassional view from above when you BASE jump your helmet (well, that's what I'd do with it!). The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Great to hear the helmet you will have in two weeks is so comfortable. And such insight comparing your old pro-tec with the helmet you are going to set up as soon as it gets there. Those Arrow guys must be pretty insightful. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Not sure which hurts more... My neck, or my wallet... Ouch! The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

Yes, the 30 and the 50 are pretty much the same. The 50 has Bluetooth, which most of us don't have any need for, and the improved Sony flash for stills - again something you probably won't need. In a TRV/top-mount, I'd definitely go for the 30. Excellent camera choice. The PC115 is also an excellent choice. Same quality and features of the TRV30 in a smaller package. Only about 1/2 inch taller, so you can still top mount just fine, but small enough to side-mount, also. The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

This is a strange sounding one. Is this in the left pane or the right pane? Is this video that has already been fully rendered or are there parts of the timeline that are not rendered, yet? What is the audio source? Is the sync showing up in the final output? Are you just closing Premiere and reopening it, or are you rebooting? The laws of physics are strictly enforced.