skysurfcam

I've got both, but I've never married 'em up in the air. My 350/Rebelxt is usually my "portrait" camera, so the 20mm only goes on the 20d, my landscape camera. However, it will work, with the following caveats... As a general lens, its pretty expensive, and just not wide enough. It's great in low light being a F1.8, but the 1.6 multiplier makes it a 32mm equivalent. Most tandem/rel camera use around a 24-28mm equivelent, which is around the same a PC101 with a 0.45. (note - massive generalisation!) Folks with lots of experience then to go even wider and closer. Personally I only use it either in really low light, or if I think I want to sit back a little... One upside of the Sigma 20mm is that you can whack a filter on the front, which you cant do with the sigma 15 or 14mm. On the downside its LARGE! Some options for lenses: Canon 10-22mm: Pro: Great range, not too much barrel distortion, filterable. Con: Fricken huge, F4.5 minimum. Peleng 8mm: Pro: Massive FOV, unique shots, low profile, cheap. Cons: Vignetting, gotta fly within docking distance, manual or Av mode, F3.5, no hood, cheap. Sigma 14mm: Pro: Rectilinear, 22.4mm equiv, F2.8, Auto or manual, much lighterb than canon 14mm Cons: Exy, unfilterable, medium sized, big hood Sigma 15mm: Pro: 24mm equiv, F2.8, not stoopid expensive, Auto or manual, same size as sigma 14mm. Cons: Fisheye, unfilterable, big hood. Zenitar 16mm: Pro: Cheap. 25.6 mm equiv. F2.8. Low Profile/Lightish, Did I mention cheap? Cons: Fisheye, AV/Manual, unfilterable, no hood,Cheap. Tamron ATX-pro 17mm. Pro: 27.2mm equiv, auto everything, not nearly expensive, filterable, Low barrel distortion Cons: F3.5, not light, can be hard to find. Big hood. Canon EFS 18-55mm. Pros:CHEAP, Cheap, cheap. 28.8mm equiv at the low end, auto everything, filterable.. Cons F-high, easily broken, zoom lens. Sigma 20m. Pros: Rectilinear(ish), FAST at F1.8, auto or manual everything, filterable. Cons: Heavy, Fat, narrow (32mm equiv). For shooting landscape on everyday dives my lensochoice with canon DSLR's has become the 17mm tokina atx pro. Its wide enough, filterable, robust, affordable, and hooded. Most people I've seen jumping DSLR's in Oz are just using the kit lens, but I think that will change over time. Just my opinion. C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?username=Ron; Jumps: 3500 Disciplines: FS 3000 jumps CRW 125 Jumps Photographer: Yes Instructor: Static Line: Yes AFF: Yes Tandem: Yes Pro Rating: Yes Must've ace'd those exams... C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Then I'd PM Ron and ask him how he's managed to become a static-line, AFF, and Tandem instructor in only 375 jumps.., C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

(After changing his passsword), my first move would be to lock/sticky this quote from Deuce at the top of every forum I moderated: Craig. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Search Ebay for 80N3 . Instructions to add it to a conceptus switch http://www.adrenalens.com/d60remote.htm Cheers C Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Can someone please explain why this post was moved from Incidents who's brief is to Safety and Training, who's brief is Incident - Yes - Lesson to be learned - Yes - Training issue - Not so much? Are we overpolicing ourselves, wouldnt this be better off left where it was where a robust and healthy discussion of the dangers of the inside of tailgate aircraft might be highlighted, and possible save someone else a similar, or even worse fate? What's up with that? I'm confused. C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Things to do while working all night... Enjoy! Craig Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

I've owned, or had a good loan of the following as camera canopies- Stiletto, Crossfire, VX, FX, Velocity, Diablo, Sabre. Silhoette, Saphire, Bluetrack, Lightning(ouch!). The undoubted winner for soft consistent openings is the Crossfire. It rotates you to upright, then gently blossoms into shape above you... Seriously, the hooded nose works well to stop the snatch you get from the Stiletto at the second stage of opening. Additionally it's fairly stable in line twists, without the "OhSh*tImOnMyBackAnd SPINNING" feel a Stiletto can sometimes give. 1000 jumps on my ST120's gave me 4 oppoutinities to test my plan B skills, in 1000 on Crossfires I've never had an opening I thought I'd be getting off, let alone one of those on my back flailing cutaways I hate with a helmet festooned with cameras. The downside of the Crossfire is it can sometimes feel like it takes too long to open. Expect 1000' now and then. Not great fot a HopnPop from 1800... Also you need to watch out for lazy trackers with fast opening canopies below you, not a nice feeling to see a no track bozo on level with a fast developng VX as you go through the last 200' of a 1000' comfy opening. YMMV Craig Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

G'Day, Since it's over 20 years since my last attendance at a maths class, I wonder if someone could help me out with a formula to calculate the force exerted on the base of a skysurf board in pounds per square inch (or kilos per square centimeter) at given speeds. Specifically, I'm looking to see what a change speed from 110 - 120 -130 mph will do in term of increased pressure exerted on the board. As always, thanks in advance, Craig P.S. Don't forget to show your workings... Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Paraphrasing http://www.waycool.com.au/html/supported-cameras.htm Sony DCR-PC1000 "Excellent choice for Hand-Cam" HC-Pro "Yes" HC-Classic "Yes" Have Template "Yes" C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Actually, Strongs have no trapdoor, Vectors and their deriviatives (eclipse atom etc) have a very pronounced once, Sigma's have a reduced trapdoor, but they all can bite you. The trapdoor effect is related to the opening sequence of the tandem gear. On a vector(etc) when the drogue release is pulled, first thing that happens is the the drogue collapses, and the tandem pair speeds up. Drag over the collapsed drogue then extracts the main bag and deploys the canopy. By collapsing the drogue first, the snach force on the bag and main is reduced, but the trade off is that any malfunction can see an extended trapdoor effect, and a tandem terminal mal. Not something you want to be involved in, or below! Strongs have no trapdoor, as they do not collapse the drogue until after the main is out of the bag (much like a concentional PC kill line). The tradeoff is a much higher snatch force on the bag & main, which can lead to a higher risk of incident, abeit at a lower speed. The ALS bag was mandated a few years ago by Strong, and has resolved most of the issues caused by the increased snatch force. Sigmas have a variation on the collapsing drogue system. To quote their sales pitch "When either ripcord is pulled, the closing loop slips through a series of "D" rings, allowing the container to open and release the drogue disc. The drogue then partially collapses to the size of a normal pilot chute, and deploys the main canopy." As a result they do still have a trapdoor effect, and any malfunction or hesitation at this point can quickly result in a tandem terminal situation. Being in the path of a tandem pair at any time involves a number of risks. You can never be certain of what will happen, Students may pull ripcords at any height, drouges can fail during droguefall, lines can lock on bags, drogue attachment can fail under the load of opening. My personal closest miss was filming a vector type. TM waved off, I went backwards, up, and onto my knees to get the vert and rollback shot as they went by. The drouge collapsed, and the bag came out to the first stow, then locked there for 3 seconds or so. In that time they accelerated and dropped to around 200' below me. While I was rapidly sliding down and backwards (and swearing a lot) the lines released and the canopy deployed fast and hard with a vicious right hand spiral. Canopy and tandem pair went by a second later, about 5 feet away and going about 100mph slower than me. It opened my eyes Had I been under them in that sceranio, I would probably have been along for the ride... Going under, beside, in front of, or anywhere near a deploying tandem pair involves a varying degree of risk, but it always involves risk, both to you, and the tandem pair, regardless of the equipment being used. Anyone videoing a tandem is mitigating that risk if they have a TM show them through exactly how the tandem gears works, especially on deployment. We all accept that jumpings risky, make sure you know the extra risks a set of tandem gear adds. Even if the TM is happy for you to be there on opening, make sure you both know what's going to happen when a "what if" comes up. Stay safe, have fun, Craig (Must be my day for being serious...) Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

I BASE because for the hours before, and the hours after, I’m thinking about family, work, finances, mortality, consequences, and fear. For those long moments between exit and landing, I simply Am.

Not any more

You really accumulate some gear over time. Some you leave at the DZ, some you cart around. Personally I've always worried about the custom stuff. Vid's and Dslrs are expensive enough, but add in the stuff you build, pick up, collect, and save for for years, and not only do you have enough camera and jump gear laying round to pay for a mid sized family car, but you would also take a year of "shed time" to rebuiid the custom stuff, and probably almost as long for gear mfg's to replace the things you've custom ordered. Jeeze it'd hurt if some casual thief broke in and gathered up the good stuff, just to sell some at the pub, and discover there's no actual market for the rest. Keeping one rig, and vid/still helmet in the boot of the car, and another spread throughout the various household cupboards seemed clumsy for the last decade or so! A good mate just solved the "Where do I keep this stuff from the casual B&E prick?" problem. Doing nothing in his garage, he gave me this for free. It's fire resistant, casual thief proof, and heavy as hell. Took 5 of us a couple of hours to move it in. I'll feel a lot better now when I'm working weekdays

No trapdoor at all on the Strong

Do yourself a favor and spend an hour or two testing the concept of mounting all the hardware inside the FTN's warehouse like insides. If you go verticaly up from where the site sits outside the helmet, and run the site shaft down from the inside of the helmet, the FT's inside "skull cap" will keep it free of pressure from your head. It has the added benefit of putting the site right over yor eye, and keeping it well out of the tandem master/passenger kick zone. YMMV. Craig Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Ebay, Gaffer Tape, & Beer What could be easier? Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Actually I was more reinforcing the quality of the lens, on the basis that comp judges dont give good scores if the vid is vignetted or suffers from barrel distortion. My aplolgies, I often forget to spell everything out clearly and slowly when dealing with folks from the north... On a PC101, 5, 9 etc, the titanium suffers no vignetting, minimal distortion, and allows infinity focusing. It's wider than a my hoya 0.5, which in turn is wider than old my sony 0.6. Its dimentions are virtually the same as the sony 0.6. It's threaded for a filter, and that extra mm of barrel length also allows a 55mm filter to be placed around it, which helps if you're building a filtered enclosure. YMMV. The downside of the various single element lenses is their inability to handle infinity focusing, and a softness at the outer edges of the frame. I've also not yet ben able to come up with a decent way to enclose them behind a filter, which is also difficult with the sony 0.6. Again, YMMV. The original poster asked for a lens below $100. The Sony 0.6 will work, so will the titanium. My experience with the titanium is that it's a better fit for skydiving than the Sony, with the caveat that it needs step ring. C Craig Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

I'll happily dispute that. My PC101 has seen duty with nothin but a Titanium .45. 1000+ jumps, a couple of national gold medals, a world meet top 10, a hell'lva lotta boogie vids, training camps, and even the odd tandem. It's two piece construction allow for easy application of catcrap to all surfaces, and it fits exactly inside a 55mm Hoya filter. Whats not to like? C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

I remember someone posted a while back about a company that produces camera specific quick releases. I'm not talking strobo's or goldmembers, it was a small web based company... anyone able to help with the address? Cheers, C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

1 beer, plus 2 hours. Legally, would they still be "under the influence" Anyone got a definitive reference. 'Course it's an easy question here in Aus. 8 hours b/n booze and the door is stipulated in the op regs. C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

http://www.craigtrimble.com/d60remote.htm ebay, gaffer tape and beer. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

Actually my profile only lists one of my rigs. The Crossfire is certainly my canopy 'o chice, but I've also carried it under everything from a VX-88 to a Manta 260, with a whole gamut in between (ever enjoyed a Lightning opening? BANG!) If you have a well setup, good quality helmet you can jump almost anything, regarless as the weight on your head. . Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

I have both. I bought the 300D (retail) first, and the d60 later for about U$700. If you have the wide ass canon lenses digitals need, buy the D60. It shoots faster, skydiving doesnt require autofocus, and its built like a tank. Make sure you mount it well, 'cos it is heavier. I struggle to fine a 10d feature that really matters for jumpin over the d60.. Personally, I'll be shifting my 300d to a new owner and picking up a 350 to be my 2nd camera. Don't be too scared of the weight thing - on a good helmet it won't be an issue. I'm a pencil neck geek, but regularly jump the 300 & the 60 as well as a sony 101 all at once. Chers, C. Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS

SLR See photo, press button, "Click" get photo. Elph See photo, press button "Whir whir whir focus whir Click" get photo about a second after you wanted it. A second can be a lifetime in skydiving, let alone skydiving photography. SLR You can build up a range of lenses of differing widths for the plethora of skydiving photos you'll be able to take. Elph Fixed 29mm equivalent at f4.8 Shoting freefly, slip on the 20mm, for tandem, the 28, or maybe the 24. Feeling artistic? how about a 14mm portrait shot including the drouge? SLR 35mm film Elph 25% smaller film, yet it's more expensive? Plan now for what you want later. Investing in an SLR will look like a clever move when you look back later. Look at the folks shooting tandems at a few DZ's, see which ones do the best work, ask them what they use. Cheers Craig Brother Wayward's rule of the day... "Never ever ever go skydiving without going parachuting immediately afterwards." 100% PURE ADRENALENS