vdschoor

Dave I agree the 40D might be more bang for the buck.. but when it comes to cameras, I honestly believe that you should buy the best camera you can afford / justify. 10megapixels vs. 15 megapixels is a big difference in image quality. If I bought a new camera right now I'd buy the 50D over the 40D (actually... I'd get the 5D MK II ) The comment regarding a "jumping camera" I would seriously get a Rebel series for shooting tandems for the simple reason of weight..

I agree.. there's not a lot of photographers who have the opportunity to drop their equipment from thousands of feet up and have them impact the planet... All sarcasm aside, as BMFin said already, skydiving isn't all that abusive to your equipment if you take care of it. I see many people leaving their cameras laying around without lens caps, bumping it into stuff, all sorts of things. Of course I've done the bumping into things with the helmet, but in the airplane, I protect the helmet like my life depends on it.. Anytime I am not using the helmet, all lenses have lenscaps on them. a scratch or smear on the lens means EVERY shot you take will have a smear / scratch on it. I jump the 20D and the 40D, I switched to the 20D after having the original Digital Rebel, the only reason I did was for the frame rate at the time, since the rebels weren't keeping up yet. If I had to buy a skydiving camera today, I'd get the latest in the Rebel series. The sensor is pretty much as good as whats in the "semi-pro" bodies, and if you put the right glass on it it produces very similar amazing results.. I do a lot of shooting on the ground as well, and for that I would NOT buy a Rebel.. I don't like the smaller bodies to hold on to. Iwan

I agree, the videographer did a decent job of recording the experience. It's a balance, I don't like the videos where the videographer is in the face of the student for 60 seconds, and I don't like the ones where the videographer is all over the place, it's a balance. You are hired to tell the story of their first jump, and part of that experience is their facial expression (close up) and part of that is showing what's going on (backing away and doing a "scenery shot") As long as movements are smooth and not too fast in the video, it looks good. I let the tandem do the spinning for me instead of me carving / side sliding around the tandem, for the very simple reason that a lot of movement turns it into a shaky video and a lot of people actually don't even like a video with a lot of movement. They just want to see THEM jumping out of an airplane. I found that when showing videos to "whuffos" the videos they like the best are the "boring" ones, your mad flying skills don't impress them, cause they have no clue as to what it takes to be able to fly like that. But if you show a whuffo a video that is well framed, not shaking, and lit well.. they DO see the skill in that. Just my 2cts.... and regarding going all the way up to the drogue on opening.. I like that shot, but it's just too dangerous... as Lew said as well, our friends have been caught by surprise by an opening canopy.... be safe out there!

Yeah same here, with the huge wings on my camera suit.. I love the range I am getting with it, and I can film any tandem with it, a 160lbs tandem pair or a 400lbs tandem pair..

You got yourself a 5DMkII ? Congrats man.. I'm still saving up for that toy..

Did you get the Peleng or the Sigma?

Its that day of the year again huh ?

I agree completely. I still jump both video and stills ($2500 just in still gear sitting up there!!). I'm just saying it's only a matter of time before there is an acceptable solution. I think it will be sooner rather than later - just my somewhat educated guess... Actually, I think it's still quite a ways out if you want an "SLR capable" video camera. I'm sure the photos that come out of the CX100 are comparable to shooting on auto on the little digital Elph cameras (not to beat those down by the way.. ) but it will be a long time before they build something that has the same resolution as the current lines of DSLRs, along with all the different exposure modes, attachment possibilities etc... Honestly.. get the right tools for the job, that means: - the best video / film camera you can afford / justify - the best still camera you can afford / justify Those together will produce the best results.

Email sent sir..

I'm with Heffro on this one.. and in fact a lot of times as a videographer you are just there to "gather evidence" of the jumps, THAT is your service on these. The payment of 1 dollar extra per jump is not for a product, its for a service. The problem is that too many people have started to think of it as "doing someone a favor" to pay for their slot and you get the free video out of it. You are not.. you are paying someone who is specialized in shooting video to gather evidence of the skydives, to record the performance of individuals on a jump, etc. Like Matt said, you're paying for a L.O., what do you get from him that you take home? -knowledge about your performance on the skydive Most video for bigways doesn't make it out of the briefing room though, people can purchase a DVD or something after the bigways of all the footage. The footage is provided to the load organizer, but is usually not passed on to the participants, unless they pay for the footage on a DVD.

I copied the OP to make my response more "clear" Here's the dealio.. yes I am one of those "holier than thou" photographers that is more than happy to hand over my footage from bigways, but will charge for photos... My free slot? Sure, that entitles you to the VIDEO. Think of it this way: you hire a photographer for your wedding, you will pay him X amount of dollars just to be there and take photos. If you want prints for your album, he'll have different packages on top of the standard rate he charges just for him being there.. It's very common practice in "the real world" It's really funny how digital has made photography "free" all of a sudden, back in the film days, there was 1 roll of film, if you wanted a copy of a shot, you had to order that from the photographer.. It would cost him money to make you an extra print.. so you PAID him for it.. For some reason because cameras are now digital, photos are "FREE" it seems to some people.. Just because they are easier to copy these days, does not make them free.

Phil, you can ship your camera helmet to my house if you want.. he he he.. Congrats man! Very impressive achievement to get your AFF rating.. I'll stick to the cameras...

Call Skydive Perris and request them to get you in touch with either Sean McCormack or Tanya O'Brien if you want to learn how to skysurf. Iwan

That's exactly the way I have mine setup as well..

Are they really overpaid? If someone wants YOUR face in their movie, and there is 20 other people lined up that want YOUR face in their movie as well.. which one will you pick? Probably a decision that is based on money vs. your values.. you don't want to put yourself on the screen as someone / something that goes against your values maybe, but I'm SURE compensation would be a big one in the decision.. I'll be really honest, it would be for me.. It's simple economics: supply and demand ...... I agree it's people patting each other on the back... but he.. turn off that tv if you don't want to see it..

Bigway, I hope I am not misreading any of your feelings / thoughts, but it looks like you are making a lot of "assumptions" .. as in YOU would never do any of these things to a friend.. the funny thing is, she obviously doesn't think about it that way, but she needs to be told that this is not acceptable behavior. good luck, and good call on "calming down" first..

I've played around with it, but haven't gotten real good results with it, mainly because the way I had it setup. I tried to use the "remote flashes" on the night 4 stack thats in the February Parachutist. A requirement would be radio triggers (I tried with wireless slaves using the Canon remote trigger) It would have worked if the flashes were mounted in a way where they would always be visible for the master, but we couldn't make that work. The budget for the photo didn't really justify going out and spending about a 1000 on a wireless trigger system.

I think it gets harder and harder to time the flare right with smaller canopies, but I've landed my velocity 103 in half brakes, I prepared for a PLF and I was pretty aggressive in finishing the flare from the half brake point...

Honestly dude.. unless you need email ALL the time for work, you don't need a crackberry. I have one because my boss told me I had to have one. The only thing it does is make me check up on work way more than I should.. It all depends on what you need.... NEEDING to be on email 24x7, whereever you are.. nobody is that important, if it's that important, they can call.

Nothing.... and you really don't need one.. it would only make you post more nonsense on this website..

Using up old film is fun.. I haven't jumped my 35mm in a while but I shot some a while ago. This was with my Canon EOS Elan 7 with the Sigma 15mm Freeflying with ChopChop in 2004

The reason for that is that your EOS XT is one of those "high end full frame" cameras The EOS XT is a 35mm film camera right? your digital rebel XTi is a APS size sensor camera.. So when you look through the viewfinder, it shows you what the sensor sees: on your Digital Rebel XTi : your sensor sees an APS size picture (cropped your 15mm to a 24mm field of view) on your EOS XT your 15mm has the full 180 degree field of view that the 15mm is supposed to have.. Basically: your EOS XT has the same field of view as the 5D. You never knew the XT was such a badass camera huh? Iwan

Lazlo, I love that small camera! How many shots do you get in freefall with one of those? about 20? (which would be just fine for me.. ) Iwan

Dutch and jumping in Northern California..

I want to expand on this one a bit more.. I 100% agree with Bill here, in fact I am going to push it a bit FURTHER.. your friend WILL do something you don't expect. 2 ways (a "simple" skydive to get some shots for your friend's website or something) is one of the trickiest skydives you do as a camera guy because: - People do things they think look cool - People will fly closer than needed As an example, you need to be 10 ft back for the shot YOU want.. he decides he wants to geek the camera... you better know how to take care of this. SPECIALLY when you are moving back in for the close up shot after you took the "panoramic" shot. - newer freefliers flail, and there is no tunnel instructor to grab them.. they will cork up / fly sideways etc. Your tunnel time does NOT help in that scenario, cause you've been flying in a small space. - People FLY DIFFERENT when they know there's a camera around. SPECIALLY newer jumpers.. they start geeking, doing wild things, unexpected things.. etc. All the above can be reduced by having a clear dive plan before getting on the plane, when someone asks me for photos / videos of their jump, I sit them down and I talk through what would look good, what to do, what not to do and I am able to tell people "that wont look good" if they suggest "cool moves" In short.. get your flying experience up, so you understand the dynamics of being in the sky with other people a LOT better before slapping on a camera or even multiple cameras (video + stills) To the original poster: We're here to help you out, you ask us a question, we'll give you an honest answer (at least I will) but attitudes / arrogance turns me off and I will stop trying to teach you anything.. cause if you are THAT good, I don't need to tell you anything right? Honestly, take a step back enjoy flying with your friends and geek their cameras and ask them for the footage after you land, I can guarantee you will watch the footage with a MUCH bigger smile when you are in it than when you're the videographer (or flailing misile with a videocamera on your helmet) Have fun out there and be safe.... make another 100 jumps without a camera please.. From my logbook: jump 451: 1st jump with a video camera