vdschoor

ok good point..

I know.. I dont understand why they kept that feature out of Final Cut Express for that long..

That's exactly why!!

This alone will be worth the $99 upgrade: "Incremental clip naming during capture when a recording break is discovered" http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html

I dont stalk in public..

The ideal wingloading for ANY canopy is: "Where you find that the canopy is the most fun to you.. " And this is a quote from Vladi Pesa. I asked him the same question.. and he explained to me that his favorite canopy was a Katana 97, loaded at 2.6 or so For a Velo, it was the 103 loaded at 2.44 these are completely off wingsloadings for what the competition guys are flying, or what is talked about as "normal" but these are the wingloadings he likes flying cause that's when it's fun for him. For me, it was the Sabre2 150 at 1.6 and the Sabre2 135 at almost 1.8. A lot of people would say that's overloading, and it is according to PD's website.. but I don't care, those were the wingloadings I loved those parachutes at! Now that I lost a lot of weight I am still flying a Sabre2 135 in my backup rig, now only loaded at 1.55 but it is still a swoop monster if you give it the right inputs. Iwan

I backslide a bit as I film the opening, but not a real track. I'm with Dave on this one, once your parachute opens, you're flying out of the column of air the tandem would fall in when it has a malfunction.. Iwan

Depending on what you want to shoot.. I have the Canon 70-200 F4 L which i am REALLY happy with. If you are looking for an even longer lens, i can't really give you any advice, other than you can't go wrong with Canon L glass.. Iwan

I would put the Nitron / Nitro in the same class as the Sabre2 The Vision, is a highly eliptical, more ground hungry than the Stiletto.. I can't comment on the Vengeance and the Crossfire, as I've never jumped either one of them. I havent jumped the Crossfire cause there wasnt any available in my area in the size I wanted, and I havent jumped the Vengeance cause I didnt want an airlocked canopy anyways (probably a bad reason not to jump it.. but still) Anyways.. going back to your question, I'd probably drop the Vision from that list.. Regarding the other two, the Nitro / Nitron, both are very nice canopies. The Nitro is a very sweet opening canopy, recovery arc about the same as the Sabre2 and overall flying characteristics are about the same too I would say, trim e.a. Demo all of them, I stuck with Sabre2's and I've been extremely happy with the performance I got out of that canopy.. I jumped the Stiletto and never had the "crazy spinning" problems that are being talked about. I blame it on the fact that it was the most jumped canopy ever when it came out.. and so many people jumped it, which automatically makes for a lot of stories about the malfunctions... It's similar to cars, there are so many crashes with onda Civics in the US, cause there are just shitloads of them around.. Demo the Nitro, Sabre2, and Nitron.. I think that's the class of canopy you are looking for..

Here's a photo of where I am during opening.. I am a bit high as well, but not high as in "you see them shooting by you" on deployment.. I found this to be a really nice shot, and it's also a pretty safe spot, cause at line stretch, they are already way above you.. During the skydive, I am all over the place after I got the standard shots required.. but never barrel rolls or anything fancy like that.. My general routine is: - exit shot, stay as close as possible and get the airplane flying off in the background.. - close up face shot - slide back, pop up and make a wide carve around the tandem so you get a cool view of the area and of what is really going on.. the passenger in freefall.. - back in front of the tandem and play with the passenger until 5.5 / 6 - wave good bye at them while the tandem instructor pulls and pop up a bit - transition to a sit and film the whole opening.. - roll over and deploy

I always shoot at ISO 100 unless the available light doesn't allow it (sunset e.a.) Other than that I generally shoot at 1/320th for shutterspeed, and I let teh camera pick the aperture. On normal days this will get my aperture somewhere between 7.1 and 11 which is perfect.. I've gone even slower, a couple of weeks ago I needed fill flash on a jump and I set my camera to 1/250th.. really nice and sharp pictures. In fact, if you fly careful, you can go even slower than that.. one of my favorite shots is a sunset jump (more like night jump) where I shot at 1/60th F8, ISO 400 with flash.. and that picture is SHARP.. The "motion blur" that you are talking about is still a mystery to me.. I get that sometimes, and I absolutely cannot explain where it comes from. Cause one picture will have it, and the next will be razor sharp.. At 1./500th you shouldn't get ANY motion blur I think.. we're shooting a still object that just happens to move at 120mph, but you are too.. If anyone can solve that mystery for me that would be awesome.. To answer Fast's question, I use the Sigma 15mm about 99.9% of the time, and just recently bought the Canon 20mm F2.8 which I am really happy about too.. I am not spending money on the EF-S system, since I eventually want to go full frame (5D / 1D) and those lenses will not fit on there..

With the right technique you can make it dive....just ask my titanium ankle....I had no idea what I was doing and I thought the same thing you did...until I dove it into the ground... Very wise words, unfortunately from a hard lesson in this case. The pilot will dive, and will swoop just fine. I just don't think it's a canopy that you go to to advance your swooping. The reason I say this is the recovery arc of the parachute, the pilot has a shorter recovery arc (and I mean seriously shorter) than the Sabre2. Right now there are a couple of people in Byron that are ready to move on, they've been on Pilots so far, and we're transitioning them to Sabre2s I unfortunately cannot comment on the Xfire and the Safire, as I've never flown them and not read enough on them to sort of know what I am talking about, but I think that if your goal is to swoop, and to swoop better, faster, and all that. Stick to the Sabre2. I think Pilot -> Sabre2 -> Katana -> Velocity (if that is your end goal) is a very good path to go. The reason I left the Stiletto out of this one is the recovery arc as well, the Stiletto has a fairly short recovery arc compared to the Sabre2 (from my personal experience with the canopy.. if I'm wrong, please correct me) Iwan

Now go and put bikini and naked pics on there, like all the other hot chicks on myspace..

If I remember well, you're using a Mac.. iPhoto does this for you already ;) If not sort by last modified date in Explorer and voila.. Just make sure the cameras don't have the same number for the file names..

Your nice words are very much appreciated sir I am finalizing the DVD and it will be ready to start going out to people next week.. (The Holiday Boogie 05-06 video that is.. ) I agree it took a while to come out, but sometimes life gets in the way of projects like this.

You mention he is not into hard swooping or hook turns.. then why is he going to such a small canopy? I am not familiar with the Ninja, but I assume from the name that this is a HP canopy.. 100 jumps in two years on 1 canopy is not a lot.. definately not enough to learn a canopy inside out.. my last canopy I made 600 jumps in 1 year on.. The one before that 800 jumps in 18 months.. My current canopy I'll be on for at least 1000+ probably.. I might not ever downsize after this.. (Velo 103) I heard one of my friends talk to someone like your friend..wanting to move to fast, and not listening.. His response in the end was "I don't become friends with dead people" It is extremely harsh to say somethign like that.. but your friend is on a fast track to getting hurt.. he might not, don't get me wrong, and I hope for real that he doesnt.. he's just moving too fast right now.

Come on.. a full pond.. and no swoop pics yet? there must have been at least 1 Cessna load to give it a test run!! I'll be sure to check in next time I'm on that side of the big pond! Iwan

Hmm.. looks like I have to go checkout Zwartberg next time I visit my parents..

He's interested, ask him out..

I hope they keep you there.

there is probably dust on the little piece of glass that looks down on the mirror, or on the mirror itself. I'd recommend getting rid of it, since this will start floating around inside the camera and eventually end up on the sensor (and on your pics in that case) Iwan

Nope.. San Diego = Sunshine!

He doesn't but his responses are so funny that people throw shit at him.. cause it gets a rise out of him Shimell is good people...

I have mine setup like in the pic attached, and I have not run into this problem yet.. Granted mine is a 550EX with the 20D and the sigma 15mm, but that shouldn't make a difference I think Iwan

Sorry girls.. I'm not going to be in Ohio this year You should come out to Byron though for the Byron Boogie.. this year is supposed to go off!! As soon as I have solid info I'll update the website for the boogie