The111

The thing about this sport... it's about flying. Not talking. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You are, actually. Silly question. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jeff, do not confuse speed with distance. I won't claim to know definitive answers for either one, but James was making claims about speed and you responded to his claims by talking about distance. Two different animals, independent. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jeff, Chuck Blue, Scott Bland, and I Come on Justin...where did you go to school?? Actually, the question was "who do I need to get in touch with?" The answer "me" was an abbreviated version of "you need to get in touch with me." It's an object. Using "I" there would be incorrect. Where did YOU go to school? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I think you guys are saying the same thing, you just have different definitions of what "significant" is. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It's irrelevant anyway, but you have it backwards here Jarno. High speed air has a lower static pressure. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

From the picture the two holes appear to be very close, which means the bit of nylon between the holes (where most of the stress from the attachment will go) is not very strong, structurally. If that bit does burst through somehow then your two holes will combine into a "slot" that could be large enough for the fastener to slip out of (bye bye helmet). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

My point was that bigger suits don't necessarily get poorer glide ratios, not that they get better glide ratios (if that makes any sense). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I used to "think" the same thing... but the thing is that aerodynamics is almost never intuitive... a lot of what's known in the aerodynamic field was figured out experimentally (although of course we have CFD now). I honestly don't think there are a lot of hard facts known about WS aerodynamics, and in the absence of that knowledge we have to go off of what's been proven. In the distance contests that I'm aware of (thinking of two main ones here) the SM1 and V-2 (both in the hands of skilled pilots) have posted very similar glide ratios (and nobody has bested either of these suits with smaller ones). One what do you base your opinion that bigger suits glide worse than small ones? I really don't claim to have any answers here, I'm just observing what I've seen. I think there are still a lot of unknowns in this realm. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You're assuming one of those engineers knows where to find people with 4 arms? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

When I built my CCM (which like the Vapor was designed by Wes) I did it that same way. I wouldn't even know where to get that plastic molding, nor did I need to find out. When I cut large plates of carbon fiber for my CCM, I used both hacksaw and dremel wheel. You can use regular sandpaper or a dremel drum to fine tune your cuts. Word of advice: if you do any heavy grinding or cutting (using the dremel wheel or drum or any other power tool) do it OUTSIDE. I mean that. I did a bunch of carbon fiber cutting in my garage and tried to contain my work area to one "corner" of the garage. Within a day, every single horizontal surface in my garage was covered in black dust that is both irritating to skin and lungs (but probably not seriously harmful, so they say). And I mean EVERY horizontal surface. Cans of food, stacks of boxes, EVERYTHING. You cannot sweep this dust away. You cannot blow it away. It will go right back to where you tried to move it from, it is so fine. The only way to get rid of it is with a wet rag and a mop. It took me days to clean my garage and get rid of the black dust. Do it outside. When you're done cutting clean your part with soapy water and a toothbrush. Interesting thing... after cutting a carbon fiber plate, sand the edge as smooth as you possibly can. Go up to 1200 grit if you want. After that get it as clean as possible. Then dry it. Then lick your finger and rub it down the cut edge. You will end up with black on your finger. Just another example of how pervasive and TINY that black dust is. The only way to truly get it off your cut parts is to seal them with something. I just left it though. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

What's that? Is this a new type of FTP cutaway? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Believe it or not I went to that exact site and read the 10-22mm review just before making my post. Obviously I didn't look closely enough, I just went back and read it again and found the part where they talk about resolution. They basically say at the center, at the right aperture and zoom level, it may barely exceed the XT's 8MP. Otherwise not. So maybe I'll just stick with my XT. There's no way I'm buying a new lens any time soon. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Where can one find independent ratings of sharpness of various lenses? I'm guessing every lens has a maximum amount "pixels" (or discrete sharp lines of light) it can be rated for. I'm curious how well my Canon 10-22 fares. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

No updates in 2 months? Takin' a break? Now you know why it took me 1.5 years to complete my helmet! I kept stopping for 3 months at a time. Life interference. But now that you've started a public thread we're all watching so you can't chicken out now! Get back to work! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Having a picture rendered at low quality with artifacts everywhere, and chroma gradient banding across the open sky, sort of negates the whole need for a watermark. Nobody can do anything too useful or damaging with a picture rendered like that. Keep your renders small (600px) but high quality, they'll look nice but still can't be used for anything significant because of the low pixel count, and you won't need a watermark. Also, since your watermark avoids the actual jumpers and is layered "behind" them... it would be INCREDIBLY easy to remove it, if somebody had a reason to. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

One for me? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I have a few 20x30 prints hanging on my walls at home. Every little bit helps. 2MP is hardly anything, and it was not enough to motivate me to upgrade from XT to XTi. But going from XT to XSi, in addition to all the other benefits I'll gain, the 4MP will be noticeable to me. Also, most professional photo publishing opportunities require 12MP sensor minimum. Even if it's not reasonable, the requirement is there. Yes, in any other context it would be silly to talk about the APS-C XSi in relation to "professional" photography. But as far as skydiving is concerned, my neck is still priority number one. If I can fly a light "consumer" camera that meets one of the key technical requirements held by stock photo agencies, etc, then that makes me happy. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It's true that the jump from 10MP to 12MP isn't nearly as significant as some people think. Especially for normal photography when you can take your time and frame your subject with the viewfinder. But for skydiving photography where framing is almost never perfect, and cropping is almost always necessary, every little extra bit of resolution helps. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, I skipped the XTi. Single generation upgrades are hard to justify... but from XT to XSi is two generations, so I might be able to swing it. Plus I think XT->XTi had more significant changes than XTi->XSi (and no memory card change which is a disadvantage to some consumers), so if I had the XTi, I probably definitely wouldn't swap. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Let's see... bigger, heavier, and lower pixel count. Yup, that's way better! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh. that is weird. My guess is it helps them save weight and size, and since SD cards can hold high capacities now it's more viable. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Damn you, I've been doing searches for "450D" for the past few months, I wanted to be the first one to this info, and you beat me to it! Cool news, maybe worth the upgrade to my 350D now. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hacksaw! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

When I helped Bowen build his helmet (he posted about it recently) we were able to use his 40D on an RRS bracket in portrait. It's hard to explain but you were able to slide the camera "up" on the L-bracket a bit to create a space for the cable to come out. Maybe Bowen will post a picture explaining this. Not sure what the differences are between 40D and 400D RRS brackets. www.WingsuitPhotos.com