goobersnuftda

Hey, I bought one of those last season and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. That conepisus one is in the spare parts bag now. The best way I can explain the Pro Switch (other than no adapter needed for my 20D) is that it works and feels like one of those old tin clackers you had as a kid. Firm but when you push it with your tongue, you most definatiely hear and feel the click. That conepisus one you never really know. The other bonus is that the Pro Switch has your camera focusing 100% of the time. That is equal to having the button pushed down 1/2 way. The down side of course is battery life but I turn it on at jump run and turn it off once I have my toggles stowed after landing. It makes taking that shot lightning fast because your camera is already focused. I love it mainly because of the feel when your push the switch with your tongue.

Ohh,the geek in me has awaken :) Clicky Exact instructions on what looks like 100's and 100's of specific modems. Detailed and even with pictures. Now this is just for sharing your skydiving movies right? OK, then I feel better in helping you. Also, there are instructions on "Port Triggering" as well.

Thank you, I will contact them and attempt to get approval. Thank you for your help.

Here is a picture of a Cessna exit but why stop there. No need to tell the story when the picture tells it all so very well :)

Sorry, I will be more precise. If I have a Strong tandem rig and the main canopy is jumped out, it is time to replace it. There are many other types of tandem mains to choose from. The HOP has been getting many positive reviews. TM can flare all by himself if student freezes up, Can come in at half brakes all the way down (student semi freezes up and won't listen. I've done the video on that one). Talk to Strong. -=>IMMEDIATE death and dismemberment. Preminant DNA damage if you don't continue to purchase a SET for the rest of your natural born life !!!! Kinda harsh, OK, so I talk to a rigger. There are better tandem mains out there, many are using it but if anything ever happens, the onset and wrath of STRONG will perminantly damage you DNA through legal litigation. Still kinda harsh but getting a better response. Talk to a skydiving gear manufactor. Many successes all around the world. Austrailia has it's own special tandem LICENCE so TM mfg's can not strong arm you to buying only their canopy. Still a warning about sueing your entire family line if not using a precious SET. I'm being over dramatic of course but what I want is a straight answer. Dropping concrete blocks onto traffic is wrong no matter how you ask the question. So asking the question to wether you can use a HOP, Icarus 365 or Aerodyne A2 should not be that difficult. If they are illegal to use and put students out on then why are all these companies allowed to manufacturer and sell their products in North America?

Can someone going to the symposium find out for SURE what is going on (meaning the regulations) of tandem main parachutes? Yea, yea,yea I read the FAA blurb on it and the exemptions but here in Canada, what is the true power STONG has to make you purchase a SET instead of the seaming increasing in popularity HOP? Get back to me and your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Someone who didn't look before they leaped and the jump pilot thought everything was just A-OK =========================== Skydiver Dies After Hitting Propeller Michele Thibaudeax, 37, an expert skydiver from Carterswell, Georgia, died in a skydiving accident on May 27 at Skydive San Marcos in Texas. She was participating in a 30-way formation skydive, exiting from a King Air which was to be flying trail behind an Otter. At exit time the King Air ended up in front and above the Otter. Shortly after exiting the King Air, Michele struck the propeller of the Otter. One camera flyer who observed the impact managed to fly to her and pull her reserve handle, succeeding on the second attempt. But the reserve had been badly damaged during the collision and did not deploy correctly. Michele landed off the DZ in a yard, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, having been seriously injured from the chest up by the prop-strike. The incident, supposedly the first of its kind in skydiving history, is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

This is one of the perfect songs that just hit me the very first time I heard it. I knew exeactly where it should go and how to use it. Lustra-Scotty Doesn't Know from the movie Eurotrip. To listen to it just CLICKY .The sound quaility is kinda crappy and the flash animation is distracting but you at least get to listen to it for free. Once you listen to it, picture the end of your year end video where the screen is black and the names are scrolling up the screen. This song is playing at 80% volume and every once in a while you put in a small video window of a quirb, blooper or a 15 sec short that didn't make it into the main video while dropping the volume to 50% when the video is playing. It worked awesome for me and I would have never have found it unless someone at the DZ was watching the movie at the time.

I have the best solution to this problem. Everyone has stated the obvious reasons up to this point. PROVE to the DZ owner that you are worth it. Do your jumps, get or licences, buy a camera and camera suit and get good at it. Then.....guess what ???? The tandem and YOU get to bump people because the student is paying for video !!!!! You get to the head of the line, you get to be paid for jumping and your social status rises on the DZ totem pole. The DZ operator will recognize your true income and treat you accordingly. Be smart enough to do what is needed to be on that ride :)

I had one of those, loved the full face and the camera. Had to sell it and get a different helmet because I wanted to do stills as well. The Sidewinder-2 was made for specific cameras and therefore the reason why they stopped making them. Too many damn cameras to try to keep up to. On the inside of the helmet right on the top of where your head is, there is a round piece of foam padding. Take that out and underneith you will see written there in black marker what type of camera that helmet was designed for. Many different helmets for many different cameras. Make sure you match the correct helmet with the camera you have.

Yes there are fixed lenses and some pretty good ones. You are right about the weight of them but I went a different route. I go my Canon 20D with a 17-85 IS USM lense. It is bigger and a bit heavier but the image stabilzation is great. I also find that I use the camera for all over the DZ, ground shots, in the club house and all over the place without having to change lenses or removing it from my helmet. The whole shomozzle is on the top of my helmet, dead center. As long as you have proper head placement on opening, it is not biggie at all.

Nothing in free fall but a better view of the valve attachment and tanks from a ground shot.

This might be way out there but if you ordered a .5 lense from them (the most popular one) just before Christmas, there might be a back log and their reason for taking a few days to get back to you. Don't let them talk you into a .3 I have had a few people run down that road and unless you are doing lots of free flying actuating hanging on to someones ankle and wrist at the same time, the .5 is the way to go for general skydving and usefull shots.

Good video looks kewl. The one thing I have a personal quirk about is that I can not stand the black vignettes on a poor quality wide angle lense. You can have the greatest camera and video editing software but those damn vignettes just completely take away from the video. I know it is a neet effect but it is like one of those belly mount camera mounts. Sure it looks good and neat and all but it is an effect that if you saw it on every single video, it gets old the 3rd time you see it. other than that, your video is good. Good use of music and a few things I might take some ideas from myself

Wide angle is the only way to go when shooting skydiving stills. As far as the bird thing goes, you have to switch to 12 gague and if that is too much kick, 20 gague gives you close to the same power

Dude, I got you beat...... SASKATCHEWAN GRAIN FARMER !!! HA !!!

I have a 20D, 17-85mm IS USM lense and that is what I use for my skydiving pictures. As for the fast to focus, I am in the middle of writing a review and jumping different switches for this camera. One of them ABSOLUTLY fixes the autofocus speed to an insanly fast speed at the cost of the battery, life is always about compromises. I will get off my ass in a bit and do the review so you will see what I am talking about :)

Thats good but for anyone else out there that wants to learn how to use a Canon EOS SLR (that's most of us because Canon has proven its self over the years as the best in our sport) I urge you to go here for free: CLICKY It has a tone of information to read but it is orginized in smaller hyper links. I sucked the entire site down and popped a rheam of paper in my printer and made a binder of it. This is a general FAQ and learning tool but since Canon comes out with a new design or camera every 4 months or so the newest models are not listed but digial camera information stays the same. I bought my 20D in March of this year and since then, Canon has come out with thier 30D, 400D (Rebel XTi) and the 40D is due out at their next photo event. Sorry Nikon, your only new show this year is the D80 :(

Thanks for the link, I couldn't find it through the search but I guess I wasn't using the right words :)

I downloaded that video and watched it. There were a few people who picked up on the glaring error. Sure crap happens and the lines got tangled in the ring site but once on the ground, you can see where it bent the crap out of the sight arm. I don't know how they do it over there in Europe but here, when they sent me my mounting bracket, they also supplied the nylon screws. Just like on my farm, that is called a shear pin. Too much pressure and that is where it is designed to break. From what I see in the video it looks like the screws used were the metal ones instead. I can even see the type of screw head that was used. *Note, do not do what that person did. Not a great mod in my opinion.

Does anyone have a set up with a FF2, camera and the extra flash? I've got a 20D and a FF2 but there is not a lot of real estate to park these motorhomes on. Please post any pictures if you have any. Thanks.

Only one catch but here is the program that would work for your needs. It works fab-tab-usously well !!! DIGITAL OBJECT RESCUE PROFESSIONAL I could help you out with that in all respects but I see that Murray has already pointed out that you turned down the wrong path early in life :) *Sure Apple is a vehicle that is as safe as a school bus and gets 1,500 MPG but there are only 2 gas stations in the entire country and 1 garage to buy the (expensive) parts from. The windoze car gets the normal 30 MPG, crashes spontanisously when you turn left on a Tuesday 3 weeks after a full moon but at least there are 86,456 gas stations for it. Oh, and the free market means everyone can fix it, everyone makes cheap parts for it and software choises are endless. **Rant mode off ***

This one is easy to answer. Rule #1 in life is always follow the $$$. That always gets rid of people thoughts, feelings, opions and emotions on any topic. Got people waiting right now and back ordered for their lense. Retailer and wholesaler all out of stock of their 0.5, lots of 0.3 they will try to sell you instead. That was the biggest complaint of 2005 Christmas season and you watch, 2006 will be much the same if it is even going on right now even before the holiday rush has started.

At the start of this year, I made the plunge into digital photography. I did the research to choose which camera line to start with but in the end one of my most comon sence life tools stepped in again. There are people in the world that are smarter than me. I know some of you may think "no way !!" but its true :) I saw some of those trashy TV shows my wife like to watch and when ever a paparazzi gets punched for trying to take a $30,000 picture of Brad Pit picking his nose around a corner, it is always a Canon camera. The sea of digital cameras at any sporting event or the red carpet at the last Oscar awards is always an onslaught of Canon. Money has a way of getting rid of all that other silly crap (thoughts, feelings, emotions etc). When you get a single -once in a life time- split second chance to take that $1m celebrity picture or that motorcycle doing the flippity doo jump and you miss it but the other 152 photographers around you got the shot, you tenor at Sports Illistrated might be short lived. To be completely fair, yes I do see a Nikon around the necks of other professional photorgraphers. I'm pretty sure though that they needed a 2nd back up camera and since B&H Photo were all out of stock of the Canon's, they took what ever was left in stock......

True, then the other optoin would be to move to Canada then. Drink some real beer that will set you on your ass and get used to the fact that every freakin time you pick up something to read (ex. microwave dinner) it will be the french side and you have to play ROLLY-FLIPPY with the box to find the english. Ah, all the world is a compromise.