dragon2

I had that happen a few times, mostly with one particular T/M. The goggles start sliding up with the rim covering their eyes which makes for bad video/stills because he uses those black tubestow covered goggles. Haven't had goggles come totally off but the sliding around is definitely a distraction for the passenger ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah I give them away, when someone asks for a nice shot they've seen on my laptop. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah I missed this one http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,489/page,view/catid,39/PageNo,1/key,90/hit,1/ (This may not look THAT bad but has been heavily photoshopped...) I was jumping a D80+16mm for this jump, usually I jump a D70S+16mm. ciel bleu, Saskia

I hardly ever use autofocus for groundshots, most times canopies (or planes or whatever) are far enough away that setting to manual and infinity works best. For the rest I mostly shoot macro so no autofocus either, but for jumping it is my setting of choice ciel bleu, Saskia

I love autofocus for skydiving, provided you have a decent lens (I use a nikkor 16mm f/2.8 and a nikkor 20mm f/2.8) I find it much easier this way to get sharp pictures from very close up (while docking wingsuits) to further away (FS4). So far it hasn't failed me much, just once or twice when moving my head too fast during crappy exits, all other shots are always sharp. Tandem, wingsuit, FS4 etc. Not advisable with a slower focussing lens though, like a 18-55mm kitlens - haven't tried the sigma 10-20mm yet. ciel bleu, Saskia

Google's Picasa ciel bleu, Saskia

Multipurpose lense ("vakantielens") = bad lens. Better get used to carrying at least 2 lenses, more zoom = less quality. That means, slow autofocus, slow lens (f3.5-f5.6 is typical), loads of distortion in lower and upper end of lens and when shooting close to the fastest speed. so, I would strongly advise against any 28-200 or worse 18-300 mm type lenses. Better get at least 2 lenses to cover much zoom range. I personally like my sigma 28-105 f2.8-f4 quite a lot for ground shots of canopies landing, and it's a cheapo lens too (2nd hand for

I'd get the lens, it's cheap and lightweight and when you jump it you can find out if the 18mm setting suits you or if it's not wide enough, then you can save up for a 15 or 14mm lens and use the 18-55 on the grounds... BTW the good lenses for jumping generally do not zoom, fixed lenses are generally better and faster. One lens you might consider though is the sigma 10-20mm. it's not fast though (f/4) and it's heavier and bigger than the 18-55. A higher quality 14 or 15mm f/2.8 lens would cost you more... ciel bleu, Saskia

The "E" just means "PAL" ciel bleu, Saskia

Tried a search for the HC7 yet ? ciel bleu, Saskia

We have a few younger jumpers with FXC's on our DZ. Not many but they exist. Haven't had one for a wingsuit student yet, but, good point ciel bleu, Saskia

One some capture software/hardware, quicktime is actually the format in which is captured.. Just don't convert anything to anything and capture in the best possible resolution then ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh guess you never jumped a Lightning? Never had to wait a few secs before pulling? My shoulder still hurts frequently due to a few of those openings a few years ago... Very glad those were without camera... You also have to bear the weight of the camera helmet much longer than during a freefall jump, although I like the openings better in general due to the head-up orientation I guess. ciel bleu, Saskia

There are 2 types of dvd's you can make, and the playable kind is not good You want to burn a data dvd not a viewable dvd (viewable in a standalone dvd player that is). Burn the data as raw footage (that's .dv for mac dv, .avi for pc dv, .m2t for hdv - depending on the capture software used), do NOT convert it to quicktime/wmv/etc and the footage is just as good as the tapes are. Importing from a viewable dvd is much harder and the footage is very compressed so not good for editing later, that's probably what they meant. ciel bleu, Saskia

Did ya do a search already?!? If so you would have found that generally other brand cameras quit after just a few jumps (yes of course there are exceptions, duh), and have some other problems like tape flutter, settings that cannot be saved, autofocus that cannot be turned off, image stabiliser that cannot be turned off and makes the footage shake all over the place, and of course no lanc although sony is starting to get rid of that too. I personally know a guy who WORKED for canon so he ignored the warnings because he got a major discount, he sold the camera real quick because it was unusable for skydiving. A girl i know that flies tandem video bought a panasonic hdv camera and it broke after a few months and now she's looking for a sony trv again. BTW the pc series are not so much better than the hc series they are just more sought after because most skydivers seem to want to sidemount. Read the replies -again-, then go buy a canon if you don't believe all the camera flyers here (why the HECK would we lie to you?????), go jump it a few times and see how you like it ciel bleu, Saskia

I have a bunch of external harddrives, most of them the big ones but I've got 2 portable ones too. I find the portable ones come in very handy when travelling and when you only have one plug available, for your laptop. i'd buy both As for firewire vs usb2, i used to buy discs with both but those are more expensive and I had some problems with the chaining (usually only 1 fw port available on a laptop) so now i just buy usb2. FW800 is cool but hard to use on a pc and you don't need it for capturing. Usb2 is good enough, later this year we'll get usb3 which should be great too but for now i stick to usb2. ciel bleu, Saskia

Here's one shot at our DZ, it's about filters for diesel cars to prevent air pollution: http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/component/option,com_weblinks/task,view/catid,47/id,47/ ciel bleu, Saskia

My own rig has an AAD. I do occasional jumps without AAD, when I borrow a rig that hasn't got one. Mostly those are CRW jumps but did some FS4 video jumps without AAD too, not my first choice but if it's a choice of not jumping otherwise, sometimes I do. ciel bleu, Saskia

*** Nikon D40(x) is not jumpable, get a D70s/D80/D200. *** ciel bleu, Saskia

True, but when I jumped my vengeance it gave me way more range to go fly with others as I like to do. And I looove the way it flies. I don't swoop but I still like jumping hp canopies... ciel bleu, Saskia

I now jump a safire 119 at 1.4 for wingsuit jumps. Did some ws jumps with vengeance, springo, sabre, triathlon, pilot and loads (most) with spectres. Spectres/tri's are best IMO, with safire/pilot/sabre2/sabre/electra etc canopies 2nd. If you jump anything else you better know what you're doing ciel bleu, Saskia

Hey Gary

PP2: video effects > transform > horizontal flip ciel bleu, Saskia

Flash drives are way too easy to accidentaly delete and/or format. How many people came to the DZ asking for a new VHS tape of their tandem jump because they/spouse taped As the World Turns over it? ciel bleu, Saskia

Why do you need a USB cable??? Can't use it for video capturing unless you like webcam-quality movies.... But yeah, any USB 2 cable will work as long as it has the right plugs on either end. But you probably want firewire. ciel bleu, Saskia