marcin

For zoom lenses: don't use the gaffers tape, Just put a wide rubber stow so it partially covers the rotating and the fix part of the lens. Keeps it in place and does not leave contamination.

For 20 D and others with non-standard plug - where you need to solder together the Canon remote cable and conceptus cable: perhaps another solution is to leave the minimum lenght of conceptus cable and cut it just below the switch as the original Canon cable would perhaps be more durable?

Basically their tongue switch gave up after couple of weekends (not reacting to any degree of oral stimulation). The reason remains unknown to me. Meanwhile I changed cameras and bought their bite switch. Used it like on 40 jumps and its short circuited in the middle of the atmonauti boogie last week. No replacement was available and I was really upset. After some experiments we fixed it. The cable has 2 thin insulated wires and a coax wire around them. The ultra thin insulation on the white wire rubbed out on one tiny spot and it was short circuiting (frantically shooting pictures every time I switched my 20D on. We took the cable apart and covered the injured white cable with some kind of gaffers tape and then taped the whole thing together. Not elegant but worked. Some people at the boogie mentioned they had similar problems with Conceptus switches. I wonder if this is a common problem and why a device made for skydiving is so delicate. Can you recommend an alternative to Conceptus switches? thanks, m.

Atmonauti (Marco and Gi) - Brienne Le Chateau. They are great people, fun to jump with. Not your regular FF instructor types.

So where does Paratec state officially that the limit is 15 years?

Ludvig, It's strange. According to Hungarian regulations eg. Paratec's reserve - Speed 2000 (Hungarian license No. 275/1/2001) can be used for 15+5 years, which means after 15 years there is a mandatory inspection and the canopy's useful life is extended by further 5 years. This is based (as with other rigs) on manufacturer's specifications. Are you saying that following 2001 there was a change in manufacturer's specs?

Thanks guys. Paratec's rigs may be limited to 15 years, but "at least" their reserves I think have a limit of 20 :). Not that I would like to use them for that long (cheap marketing IMO). I prob change rigs every 3-4 years, but for the second hand market it is surely relevant. Not sure what is causing the frying - hardware or poor quality thread.

I have owned a Next for a several hundreds jumps now over like two-three seasons. The reason I chose it was that it appeared to be best suited for freeflying. Main flap is indeed bombproof. Also the riser cover design is such that they just cant come open unless you want them to. Also it is a wider but flatter than say Mirage (rig I also considered), therefore again more aerodynamic for vertical flying IMO. The yoke design allows you to have your chest strap realtively loose and not worry about falling out of harness. I was so fed up with Javelin ,that I was looking for something that stays closed at any speed and position. Have not regreted it since. One negative comment: the legstraps or rather the webbing on them frays from friction (on more than one rig that I saw). Does not appear to have practical consequences, only esthetical.

[For film....second hand canon T70 or T90 with fixed wide angle lenses. Cheap as chips and easy to mount. Sarge ] I believe he meant to shoot films (not pics) of his nude girlfriend. So digitized and processed (say Premier or USMP) film footage subsequently exported to DVD or mini DV tape would retain all the high qualities (OK, dvd compression aside) of a film, like color saturation, definition? But then, because of the smaller frame size they would not display well on a large screen?

Yeah, it could be expensive to cut away. How would one edit the film negative. Scan it, edit digitally ? And then how would it be played to benefit from the high resolution etc?

I recall reading somewhere (but couldnt find where) that it is possible to mount a LED lamp (similarly to e.g. Cameye's indicator) that shows when the camera is ready to take the next shot. Especially with Canon Rebel(300 D) in burst mode it is an issue, since it takes a while to write the pictures to the card. Does someone have any experience with it?

It is basically constructed. There were some test runs and as far as I know couple of outstanding issues (e.g. with the local power plant). Although we hoped to fly in it this year, due to the winter it's probably gonna be next year. I just wonder how safe is it going to be for freeflying with its open, no-walls design. I'd be afraid of accidentally getting out of the column of air and land headdown into the cushions.

Thanks! I way trying to d/load pics using the firewire cable, that's why it did not work. I've found the USB cable and now everything works . m.

I am trying to download pictures taken to memory stick of my PC 330 to computer. I used the same program that I use to download video (Ulead SMPro), however I only get images of 720x576 (size of a video frame), even though the picture was taken in the full resolution. What program are you using to download pics? Do I need a separate card reader and some other software? Thanks, m.

Tore my ACL about 1.5 year ago. Actually posted on this site to find out what my chances are. 4 months after surgery I did my first MTB marathon, 6 months after I was skiing. Biking helps in rehab, although no need to take it to extreme (I fell in love with MTB, which first started as rehab exercise, and ended up doing 10 MTB marathons this year). If you jump without surgery ,you risk completely damaging your knee (cartiladge etc.) which is then pretty much irrecoverable. But, many doctors are reluctant to operate, as an average person does not have the strenght of will do do the very tough rehab. And without it, your knee will be stable, but your hurt leg will be weaker and less functional. I had the motivation to return to full capacity, so rehabed every day for 6-8 months. And continue to do gym and other sports on a regular basis. My advice would be to definitely get it done and then rehab your ass off. It is probably safe to jump again 7-12 months after surgery, depending on circumstances (it's worth the wait)

Are you saying that using a red filter on a Sony PC in b&w mode will produce the same "sky darkening" effect like on real film? This is not what I was told or experienced, but I'd be very interested in finding out how to achieve such effect.

Just spoke to a pilot yesterday. He insisted that jumpers shut the door of the An-2 on take off. A bunch a accuracy gods always told him to bugger off. Until on one take off the plane hit the turbulence, bunked and one of the jumpers fell out (no belts obviously). At an alti of approx 300 feet. Following that there was never an argument about shutting the door. And the funny thing was that folowing the jumper falling out the others commanded the pilot to stop(!) the plane.. Yeah, that fellow actually survived.

Hi Clarkey, Settings you describe is how I used my Diamond. Red eye should be no different I guess. I just wonder if with a higher quality camcorder (PC330) any deterioration in quality will be visible. It wasn't really with the PC5. Red and Black eyes are on their way to me now. I want to use the Black Eye on the camera attached to my foot, so in a headdown position I hopefully get some exciting shots, with the other person also in the field of view. I am sure the quality with the Black Eye will be less than perfect, but that is not important for "specialty shots".

Speaking of lenses...I bought Sony's high definition tele x2 (I use it for ground footage - depth of field etc.). It was 3 times more expensive than regular tele lens, but the quality is really nice. I am also about to order the Red (and Black ) Eye (Waycool's Diamond equivalent). Wondering how much that will affect picture quality on PC330? On my PC5, Diamond .3 was quite OK.

Thanks! So perhaps I'm not gonna have much benefit from using PS mode, since output will be mostly viewed on (normal) TV or through projector. And people are so excited about it when you read reviewes on the net. Hope at least the widescreen mode is worth it. Also played with it, but difficult to tell if footage looks more "filmlike".

Just bought a PC330. Learning to use it (previously used PC5). Seems great btw! Not sure what real advantage it's progressive scan mode has (I've read the theory behind). When I played the PS mode-recorded video on a TV or monitor, the moving objects looked like if theire were "jumping" (not moving in an even fashion), and the quality did not seem any better than non-PS mode. Also, when I process the video in NLE program, what is the difference (no need to deinterlace for example?). Anyway, If you have any experience with 25 fps PS mode, dont keep it for yourself :). Marcin

What is the size of the DVP file, how complex (transitions, filters) is the project, what is the lenght of the clip? What format are you trying to create the video file in? YOur computer parameters? I've had problems with MSP v6. and 7. I've found out that if the project gets too complex, it will crash on me. Solution was to split the projet into separate dvp. files and render smaller chunks. Also you may try to reinstall the Ulead ,this will clear the temp. files ans such, which after a while apparently causes problems. Also download the patches from Ulead website, may help. marcin

Made about 30 jumps on X-Wing 105 @1.8-1.9. When packed very simply (no slider pulled, front cells rolled, tail only 1-2 rolls) opened well, ocassionally hard when freefall speed was higher than usual. Flies very large, feels very stable, but also very sluggish in turns. One can turn it a bit faster with the rear risers. Landing very-very difficult to dial in. When braked floats quite well back from long spots. Packs very small.

Made about 20 jumps on 105 loaded about @1.9 and a few on a 120. Had to cut away on jump 16 due to unrecoverable line twists on 105. Both opened really hard, no matter how packed. Sinks heavily, little bottom end when landing. Quite fast approach with front riser and relatively long swoops are possible. However the way the leading edge buckled when I pulled the front riser really scared me. Properly designed parachute should not do that. Definitely not for beginners, due to tricky landing and speed. Line twists may not be recoverable, since it may spin immediately and heavily.

Thanks! I've been mistaken for a long time as to when to use deinterlace. Regularly used it for TV-screening designed projects, but only realized something was wrong when burned it on DVD. The picture falls apart into separate horizontal lines, when there is a fast action or slow mo'. There is no problem when playing on computer. I'll try to burn an interlaced project onto DVD and see how it looks played on TV. M.