vdschoor

Well.. it is.. they are representing the sport in many public events through demos, they are representing the company (PD) in public. I think it is only fair they have a very strict selection program as to who they let in. I think they'd pick an average canopy pilot who is extremely professional and has great people skills over a badass pilot who has no people skills any time.. You can teach someone to get better at flying their parachute, but it's a lot harder getting someone to act professional if thats not "who they are" I think its a great excercise they are doing. Iwan

I can think of one major con: the all feared nut-under malfunction.. I'm sorry but I think that is just nuts to jump like that..

I've heard things about regulation in northern europe (finland/ sweden) I like how they take care of business there based on what I've heard. My favorite one is: if you land consciously from a cypress fire, you're a retired skydiver, cause you're supposed to be dead. It might be slightly different, but thats the one I heard.

About 800 or so before I did my first jump on a wingsuit. This was after quite the instruction and my first flight was on a Birdman Classic. At 200 jumps I wasn't even thinking about a camera, that was for the people with lots of jumps, and wingsuits were not around, but the opinion on that would have probably been the same. People... take your time, enjoy every jump and just learn along the way. At 200 jumps I was still belly flying doing 10-20 ways and having an absolute blast flying a Triathlon 190 loaded at 1:1 How come these days you have to have multiple cameras on your head by the time you have 250 jumps? Enjoy learning to fly and jump with your friends...

USPA membership is totally different than being a PIA member. The $290.00 fee is for PIA members. The $320.00 fee applies to Non-PIA members. Hope that helps, MEL It does.. So if you only want to see the booths, you pay the 7 bucks or so a day, if you want to attend any of the seminars you pay the 320? Iwan

What do the different registration options mean for the PIA? I am thinking of going (it's practically in my backyard) but would like to attend some of the seminars, so I just register for the 290 or 320 ? If you're a USPA member, are you automatically a PIA member? Someone explain this please? See you there!

+1 For the most all around usability, get a "normal" flash, not a ring. Like people said already, 580 EX II would be the ticket right now.

Talk to a tax accountant, see if the loss you would get would be a "benefit" for tax reasons.. if not, I'd let it sit there.. but I'd say talk to a professional.

I agree.. this was a true display of a professional skydiver making all of this "extreme" stuff understandable for non-skydivers out there..

You know.. you won't look stupid.. you just fit right in with the rest of the bunny hill sitting on your ass frustrated as hell the first day.. After that though.. :D It's SO much fun.. Tahoe is getting nice snow right now so I'll be up there again SOON.. hopefully next week..

One of the most badass camera fliers (Jussi Laine) flies that way.. he holds the camera. I never met the man, but I've heard of him and seen his work, and he's been doing it for years.. If you can make it work for you, by all means go for it.. just really figure out your emergency procedures and be safe!

That would be "Can I swaffel you" And you know they love it..

The Dutch word of the year...

Lets all go on strike and demand higher pay then? Watch your buddy step in and do it for a free skydive. It's a choice, you either do it at the "market rate" or you dont do it at all.. To me, the "lot of money" refers to the 100 - 125 bucks the customer forks out to get the photos. Not to my pay. If I did this for a paycheck I'd want at least double what I am getting now (30-40 bucks) per jump.

I agree with you Dave, it will work most of the time on auto. I am not dissing anyone that uses it, I just think people should use in "on their way to learning more about the camera" Personally, I would recommend using Tv over sports mode, you have a bit more control over the aperture that way, but I guess that could be part of your progression to "using the camera better" So in general to people that want to start shooting stills in skydiving: 1. use your camera on the ground, read up a bit about exposure, and read the manual 2. start using the camera in freefall in sports mode / auto everything 3. start using the camera in Tv mode, more manual control, maybe even use manual focus with the "hyperfocal distance" Basically I would say to everyone, learn to use your camera, learn why it does things a certain way, learn to deal with tricky lighting situations. It will end up REALLY pleasing your customer if you're jumping on days with shitty lighting and you still give them $$ tandem shots. People pay a lot of money for these photos, they deserve a quality product.

The thing that bugs me about "auto-everything except focus" is that the camera does not always take the right decision. And this goes for video as much as photos. Take an overcast day, clouds at 15K, I'll take on a challenge with anyone that takes photos / video on auto everything.. every single shot will be dark on the subject if you go with auto.. If you're taking your camera along for myspace photos of your friends, by all means auto works great. If you're getting paid, I think it's only fair to know how to make sure you're getting nice photos.. So I think the line should be drawn at : are you getting paid for the work you do... then you should know your equipment and be on your way to that PhD.. you don't need one, but you should be studying for sure. It's only fair to your customer. Oh.. and on auto focus. If you read up on "hyper focal distance" you don't need auto focus on a 15mm wide angle lens.... I would say up to 28mm on a digital, shoot manual focus.. you are guaranteed to get a sharp shot, instead of auto focus where you either miss shots or they are out of focus..

I had a question about this part of your answer.. is firewire ALWAYS SD? Say all the footage I firewired into my computer from my camcorder. I assumed that is HD right? or is firewire only SD when you use it to display on a screen? Sorry for the dumb questions, I am just trying to understand the video part of it all a lot better.. I've been shooting video, but mainly been focussed on the photography side of things.

The low budget along with the "serious tool" combined makes it a very interesting investment for me. I need to go as good as I can on a smaller budget.. and it looks like this will work very well for me.

Sweet... I'm adding it to my xmas list right now! The price and DSE's blessing of this tool have convinced me.

Maybe putting a Matrox MXO2 box in between? Or is that just a marketing thing that they say you can use your normal LCD screen as a monitor? Matrox MXO 2

DSE.. actually your opinion does matter.. a little bit, if I can afford your opinion My budget really is only about 1000 bucks. The footage I am working on is off my HC-1 right now, and later on this winter there will be a bunch of EX1 (yup.. I am placing an order soon) footage, so it's HD stuff. I was thinking of using an LCD HDTV.. but it sounds like I shouldn't go there?

yeah you do.. a life full of action video either shooting it or editting it The setup you're describing is kind of what I am leaning towards. For now one big ass monitor and a LCD TV, and then maybe when I grow up and am rich some more big ass monitors and a more powerful computer (thinking about the Mac Pro...) Thanks for your feedback!!

I thought of that too, but what I am after is making sure that the output looks exactly like what it's going to be on my TV, so I am leaning towards a TV through my camcorder. As far as using the camcorder that way, I am not worried, this is my old one that I don't want to spend a fortune on to get the LCD display fixed :( It's been retired from jumping because of that cause I can't do any custom settings on it anymore. (shutterspeed / white balance e.a.) Sony charges too much to fix camcorders, I just got another one off of eBay.

I had a question for all the video editors out there.. for a while I've been thinking of going to an external monitor / firewire monitor for my editting. It's a lot easier to preview what you're doing that way instead of using the little preview pane in the editting suite. Should I bother with a real video monitor (couple of G's) or should I just get a monitor that I can plug HDMI into and use my HC-1 as the "firewire device"? Any suggestions? What do you use for your setup?

Happy early Bday wishes hot stuff!!!