dragon2

WHY are you so persistant? If your country sees too many deaths because of people jumping too small and/or too aggressive canopies, you may very well end up with canopy rules like lots of other countries around the world already have. Then its byebye personal evaluation/skills and hello hard rules like no canopy smaller than 150 before 400 jumps regardless of WL, no stiletto before 400 jumps and no crossfire before 700 jumps. These rules have been thought up by people who have seen quite enough blood and death because the average jumper thinks he's very much ABOVE average. Do the math. A stiletto is no canopy for a newbie, let alone a crossfire, and yes 100 jumps is newbie. So is 400 jumps in my book. BTW it's not landing as such that is the problem, it's the unexpected situations like getting cut off, landing out, and the openings of a hp canopy are also a potential cause for trouble. My country saw a very large increase of cutaways following diving linetwists a few yrs ago, because people were jumping canopies they were not ready for. With our canopy rules, those cutaways have gone back to normal/very low levels. So have landing incidents BTW. Of course these rules aren't perfect and various people are "forced" to jump a canopy size/type when they could handle something faster. But this is what you end up with when people aren't sensible about canopy choice. ciel bleu, Saskia

Not sure which is why no one I know is jumping one, it's an expensive experiment There's a reason almost all cameramen are jumping Canon or Nikon, ie, they work. Personally I wouldn't risk it, seen problems with other cameras where the sensor could move, I predict you'll have problems with it. So let us know how you get on if you do decide to jump it ciel bleu, Saskia

One of our cameraflyers tried this camera, it broke within a few months. ciel bleu, Saskia

Just found out that Stilettos may very well be illegal to sell/own in The Netherlands soon: http://www.nu.nl/news/1358189/11/Hirsch_Ballin_wil_verbod_op_stiletto%27s.html ciel bleu, Saskia

It wasn't humid on sunday, just cold, however on saturday it was humid enough at 2-3k to fog up my lens, which cleared by the time I landed. ciel bleu, Saskia

Here's the bit of weird footage from today (17 MB), I didn't record any of the inside-the-hangar/bar footage where it showed even worse because of all the light sources (windows, xmas lights, overhead lights). http://www.12000ft.com/video/161207.avi ciel bleu, Saskia

Why did you post in 2 forums..? ciel bleu, Saskia

No, haven't tried that. But it is not digital blocking like you get with dirty heads, it's more like what you get when you use a star filter on a stills camera. Like this: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030830/w4.jpg but only horizontal. ciel bleu, Saskia

Usually video is a big help because you can SEE what you're doing. You're best bet is to get someone to video a few of your landings, then have someone qualified debrief you on what might need changing. ciel bleu, Saskia

Black doesn't photograph well, if that is important to you. It's easy to loose detail so it doesn't look very nice. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yesterday as I was about to film the greeting of my 2nd tandem video of the day, I noticed lots of horizontal stripes in my screen everywhere there is a lightsource, on my trusty TRV25. What's up with the stripes?! Ran to change cameras, did the jump with an old backup camera. After the jump I reset the camera, tried a few settings (sports mode, auto aperture etc), no good. Thumped camera a few times, no good either. Tried some more settings. Thumped camera HARD. Hey it works fine again! Then today I was going to film a solo jumper, camera works fine initially. After 2 ground shots, stripes are back making for somewhat ghostly figures walking to the boarding area with the setting sun as backdrop. We're at the plane now so no time to exchange camera, so I whack it a few times and it's back to normal. Jump footage was normal. Camera is still behaving normally now. Anyone ever have a problem like this? What did it cost to fix it..? ciel bleu, Saskia

Use the "current wingload" calculator since you already bought a canopy. ciel bleu, Saskia

Did you read the page? It tells you how... ciel bleu, Saskia

http://www.dropzone.com/safety/tools/calculator_wing_load.shtml ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd suggest a sabre2 135 for you... ciel bleu, Saskia

You do know you can only use AF-S lenses if you want autofocus, right? Other than that, it's a nice little camera. However the price difference with the D80 isn't that big, so if you want a jumpable camera, a camera that can take all AF lenses with no problems, a slightly bigger camera (I'm not a big fan of too small cameras but tastes differ) I'd get a d80. If you don't want/need all that but want a camera that is real easy to use after using a point-and-shoot and is aimed at total beginner SLR users, or you need the smaller size and lower pricetag, get the D40(x). ciel bleu, Saskia

Cold is bad for your batteries so keep a spare one in your pocket where it's warm. Also be careful when going from heat (room) to cold (outside) and back as this causes condensation. ciel bleu, Saskia

Again, there's a time-saving device called a "search button" Also a FAQ (did you read it?), which among others states ciel bleu, Saskia

e; turn off steadyshot ciel bleu, Saskia

Try a search about 7cell vs 9cell canopies ciel bleu, Saskia

I've been jumping my D70S with an adapter like that for a while, since it makes it easy to switch out a broken biteswitch - i went through a few of those However I really really prefer a 90o remote instead of straight like it comes out of the box, so we rearranged the plug a bit ciel bleu, Saskia

Spectres make very good first canopies but try one first (or a triathlon) to see if you like 7cell canopies, you may like 9cells like the safire better, or not. ciel bleu, Saskia

What are you jumping now and more importantly what do your instructors tell you to buy? ciel bleu, Saskia

I've seen it, I also shot some video for it so it's real good, duh! ciel bleu, Saskia

http://www.theworldteam.com/news/0205.htm ciel bleu, Saskia