SniperCJ

Tantric - great CD Default - bout wore that one out Spiderman Soundtrack - track 4, great jump song!

Ive been using the Sony 0.6 for tandems and AFF and its been doing great. I take the lens off for 4 way and that works for the way I shoot, but Ive also experimented with zooming the 0.6 a little. JC

Since we're talking wings here... I have the Bev Suit with the B (medium) wing. Ive found that I havnt been able to fall anywhere near slow enough in a sit to hang with a tandem or any other belly flyer. Could this be a technique issue or related more to wing size? I hate to rely on equipment to resolve an issue that can / should be solved with flying skills. Thanks JC

Ya, what they said! I didnt start flying camera till I had almost 400 jumps and I had already had 2 cutaways by then. I think it helps to have had one before you start camera. Helps to have had a 'minor' emergency before you get a 'major' emergency with a camera. At any rate, be careful that you dont assemble this camera gear, then it sits there tempting you and finally youll break down and start jumping it and get yourself bit. A lot of guys use the Canon Rebel line of 35 mm. Theyre relatively lightweight and pretty easy to use. The accept the Conceptus switches with no re-wiring. I also use the tongue switch and have liked it except that I cant feel a 'click" from the switch when I depress it. Makes me wonder sometimes if Ive pushed it or not. However once you get used to that its not really a problem. Ive never come down from a jump where I 'knew' I was pushing the switch and found it not to have triggered the camera. (I HAVE unfortunately forgotten to take stills at all...) JC

Takes me about 3 minutes to get to work. 37 minutes door to door to the DZ (if I'm hauling...)

Speaking of which, should you be in Perry right now? It is the Mecca for rifle and pistol competition (Our departments director just got back and looks like he may have made it into the 'Presidents 100' for pistol). Naaaa, Camp Perry is for that lay-on-a-shooting-mat-in-your-shooting-jacket crowd. Mine are tactical matches. Run-and-gun if you will. Time limits, multiple target / multiple distance engagements, speed drills, low light, moving targets, etc. Leave the ole shooting jacket at home, strap on a tactical vest, knee and elbow pads, and a boonie hat and get busy! Not, of course, to knock the Perry crowd (much). Some of those guys are hell on wheels! We had one older guy at a recent match. We were doing standing at 300yds at an 8" steel plate in about a 15mph wind. He hit 4 out of 5 slick as sh$t. You could tell he was an old high-power shooter. JC

And Roger Nelson's former criminal past has exactly WHAT to do with this skydiver's death???

Like for putting in checked baggage on a plane..... Pelicans are wayyy to expensive..... I dunno...most gun store cases are kinda soft for airplane usage. I travel to a few sniper competitions a year and always use a Pelican. Ive never had a rifle scope knocked around when I got to where I was going. But I do agree,,,they ARE expensive. As far as what I use for camera stuff. I went to the Container Store and got one of those big plastic trunks. Fits my helmet and a buncha other stuff too. Kinda unwieldy to tote sometimes but I get all my gear back and forth. JC

Lets not forget the ever popular: Q. Whats it feel like when you get jerked back up when you pull the ripcord. A. Ummm, I think that would be against the laws of gravity...

These days mostly a Pro-Tek based camera helmet with a PC-9 and a Canon Rebel for 35 mm pics... But also a black Bonehead Mindwarp with black mirrored goggles.

I think you guys missed the actual question. If someone actually pushed me out of the plane before I was ready to go, I think I'd be ready to whip somebody's a$$ when they hit the ground. Everybody jokes around and pretends to push people out on hop and pops, but I'd be pissed too if I was pushed. To say the least, its dangerous. JC

I do neither. As the deployment stands me up, I focus on te horizon so the opening shock is directed more straight down my spine instead of foreward or back. Ive haken a couple of bad openings with my head on my chest. I didnt like the neck strain it produced. JC

Couple of things Ive picked up in my so-far short 4-way video career: -If you think youre close enough, get 5 ft closer -If you have a less experienced team, when they turn pieces, theyll sink. Be ready to sink with them. -Dont go through the team on a competition jump. They hate that. -If they start to separate, grab air so you can get higher and keep them in frame. - Have fun. Its still skydiving! JC

Wow, it was even "gloriously tolerable", "endurable beyond my wildest dreams", and ,gasp, "noticeably pleasurable". Geez, I think Ive been doing it wrong all this time. JC

In that case... The lower the number (.45 being lower than .6 obviously) the wider the lens angle. At about .42 youre approaching fisheye and get some curvature. Ive been playing with a .6 for tandem video and it works good. It gives me a little wider angle but not too wide. I can get in nice and close and not cut off either the student or the TM's head. A lot of guys use .5, .45, or the .42 and do great work. Look at the videos of some of the guys at your DZ and ask what lens they use. Might help you decide. Seriously tho, get at least another 100 jumps or more. The camera can complicate stuff in a hurry. JC

I would suggest a REALLY wide angle lens so you can get a good view of you kissing your own butt goodbye. At 66 jumps I cant imagine you have any business strapping on a camera...but thats just me. JC

BadDog, Thanks also for the link. That IS a good site. I might have to re-think my position on U/G filters. Although like the article said, if it aint broke dont fix it. Ive had success using them and my maintenance practices suffer from the skydiving-too-much syndrome. JC

Finally! A topic I KNOW about! Ive kept fish for the last 15 years or so (African Cichlids). I currently have a 100 gal and a 48 gal tanks. I even have a spawning pair in the 48...way cool. The lb/gal/inch sounds about right. Its gonna look like a lot of gravel but you need at least a good 1 1/2 - 2 inch covertage for the undergravel filter. I have over 3 inches in mine cuz the cichlids dig a LOT. You can always add or remove of you get too little or too much. I go a little overboard on my filtration: undergravel with 2 powerheads plus a canister filter (Magnum or similar). The bio-wheel is ok, but since it hangs on the back of the tank its an eyesore unlike the canister which is under your stand. If youre not set on fish I do recommend the cichlids. They can get pretty expensive, but they have more character than tropicals. The dig, fight, posture, spawn and generally do cool (for fish) stuff. Plus theyre as diverse and colorful as saltwater at a fraction of the pain-in-the-ass. Youre gonna be about 6 weeks from getting the fish you want cuz the tank has to 'cycle' (set up its natural / bacterial filtration cycle). Any other questions, hollar at me. I'm good at THIS. Heee! JC

I'd be rock climbing more. Ive essentially stopped climbing since I started jumping. Unfortunately both require bthe same kind of weather and if its sunny I'm jumping. I guess I COULD climb on those cloudy low ceiling days.... Last climb I did was a 5 pitch, 600 ft, 5.7 - 5.9, outside RMNP on Lumpy Ridge. Whata hoot!!

Naaaa, dont have to have the exact FOV. I was looking for the answer and at some point it became a quest to get the answer whether I needed it or not!

OK, if (and that's a BIG if..) I understand all this correctly and my calculations are correct, heres what I found (and it sounds correct...) At about 5 feet my PC-9, which has a 35mm equivalent lens of 42mm, gives me a field of view of about 4.1 ft at about 54 degrees. The 0.7 lens should widen my field of view to about 6.1 ft and about 73 degrees. It will be 35mm equivalent to about a 29mm lens. The 0.6 lens should widen my field of view to about 7.1 ft and about 81 degrees. It will be 35mm equivalent to about a 25mm lens. Hope this is correct and hope it helps someone other than me. This was driving me crazy trying to figure out. JC

OK, heres a question Ive been researching for a while. Seems like such a simple question but the answer eludes me. Wide angle video lenses are categorized, as we know, by decimal numbers (0.6, 0.45, etc). How can I relate this decimal number to how much more field of view I will get if I put such and such lens on the camera? If I get, at 10', a 4 foot field of view, will I get 40% more field of view with a 0.6? 60% more? I know that I can multiply the focal length of the camera by the decimal number and get my 'new' focal length with the wide angle, but what does that tell me?? Any clues? JC

Diablo at about 1.3. Love the openings, but it will spin ya on occasion.

I actually lucked into a great meeker exit shot. I'll try to get it scanned and sent to you. JC

You guys dont know her but 8 months ago Sheryl had a hard landing (no hook turn or anything involved, just a bad landing) and broke her pelvis. Saturday she returned to the skies on a recurrency jump, which turned into an impromptu 4-way when an AFF student chose not to jump and the JM joined us (I was doing video for her and also joined the 4-way). She did great in the air, got a kiss pass (from a girl!) and had a great stand up landing! The video turned out great too. Welcome back Sheryl!