dragon2

Why? ciel bleu, Saskia

ciel bleu, Saskia

Looks interesting. Do you have just the one set of sensors at 1.5m (like the drawings on the website show) or is it possible to have 2 connected sets like we have - first one to break the beam triggers the pc? To judge people coming in below 1.5m? Wireless is cool. Any way to hook up stuff like a large screen for instant scoring for spectators to see? A horn so spectators/competitiors/judges can hear a valid gate score? Can it print out/save a list of all names with scores or is it just a list of scores that needs to be lined up with the names by someone? ciel bleu, Saskia

There is a lot of variation in triathlon packing sizes: old fabric (gelvenor) or the new? Even within the same fabric we had 2 tri 135's that packed one size bigger than other tri 135's. Then the model: regular tri or hybrid? Hybrid packs up bigger. ciel bleu, Saskia

DVd recorder? You mean a stand-alone dvd recorder? Or a built-in-your-pc dvd writer? ciel bleu, Saskia

Weird, we have some triathlons at our dz with a full logo on them, also on an extra layer on the bottom skin. I'd have pegged those as "sluggish-er" than original tri's. They do look cool though They aren't very nice to pack though, they feel heavy. ciel bleu, Saskia

Did you do a search on both? My personal advice for most would be to buy birdman pantz if you GOT to have a tracking suit of some kind, because you can use it later for other things too. The tracer IMO would be ok for someone wanting to do BASE but is an expensive suit/toy for someone wanting to get into skydiving wingusiting later, I'd save my money and just go JUMP for those 200-300 jumps and then go fly a real wingsuit. ciel bleu, Saskia

You want a container that's freefly-proof if you want to try freeflying in the future, you want a container that can hold a 170 too for later downsizing, you want a container that can hold a reserve size that's ok for you now (wingload up to 1:1), you want a container that fits you nice, and you probably want a container that has a metal reserve handle, has BOC, has an rsl and has a kill-line collapsible pilotchute. Maybe I forgot something ciel bleu, Saskia

You shouldn't be jumping with zooms anyway But yeah, I put gaffers tape (never duct tape) on just about everything that needs to stay put: usually just the zoom knob and zoom ring on my videocam (I need to zoom for landings sometimes so I need to be able to remove it quickly and a rubber band is crappy for that). However my stills camera doesn't need any tape ciel bleu, Saskia

I think it's more that sony's lenses are wider? My old sony .6 was wider than my current hama .45. Too bad there isn't a standard for videolenses. I thought there was at least for photo lenses, but I have a sigma 150mm macro lens that I just found out has the same fov as my tamron 28-200 cheapo zoomlens when zoomed in to 200mm ciel bleu, Saskia

Actually, my (Nikon) 16mm fisheye is a lot smaller if slightly heavier, my 20mm also is smaller and about the same weight I'd guess. Nikon's 10.5mm fisheye is even smaller and lighter. You don't HAVE to buy a 14mm straight or a 10-20mm zoom But I agree it makes a decent starter lens. The best equipment doesn't necessarily make you the best photographer. If/when you start running into limitations, then is the time to buy something else. But, have you tried borrowing a prime lens and comparing similar pics? Might be surprised ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't just mean picture-taking wise, also build-quality wise it's not great. Personally I think it's the worst lens Canon ever built, it definately was the worst lens I ever used from Canon. You get what you pay for. BTW shooting at f/8 is something most lenses will do decently, it's when you want to shoot at it's upper and lower end you'll see the difference bigtime. Ie, sunset loads. Also zoom-wise the upper and lower ends show a lot of color aberations and distortion. Luckily with skydiving these distortions usually don't show too much, but still, no comparison to say a 20mm prime. ciel bleu, Saskia

It might be (just) wide enough, however it is the very worst lens in quality. Pricewise and weight-wise you can't go wrong with it, and you might use it to check if 18mm or 20mm works for your needs, but really, quality wise, it pretty much sucks compared to any of the other lenses mentioned. It might get you started though untill you have the cash and know which lens you need. ciel bleu, Saskia

Topmount for FS inside video is not good; you'll hit it on exit a few times for sure if you're point or inside center. Bad idea IMO. If you're tail or outside centre, it might work. Sidemount is much better for inside video but your camera is too big you'll hit it too. I jump a suitable combo for whatever I'm doing: a "real" camera helmet with topmounted video (TRV25) and stills for outside video and a freefly-type helmet with a very small sidemount (PC106) for inside. Pick the right tool for the job, in your case a sidemounted 2nd hand small pc-type camera would be perfect. ciel bleu, Saskia

Buy a hd lens, I like the raynox hd3131 for .3 I think the .5 is called hd5050. Although .5 is pretty narrow, I suspect the .3 would be better - you can zoom it in. ciel bleu, Saskia

Tried a search? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2525462;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread ciel bleu, Saskia

Sabre 135 with some lines going the wrong way, try a search for "Kevin" if you want to see the video ciel bleu, Saskia

The Netherlands: all DZ's require an AAD for up to C, some are prohibited UNTILL C (Argus), some DZ's (or, at least one) require AAD for all. Not sure how they'd handle a swoop comp then though... More and more European countries/DZ's are requiring AAD's for all now. ciel bleu, Saskia

Ask Henny (Parashoot), he thought it up and put it together. ciel bleu, Saskia

On our DZ in the video rotation you edit the video yourself using an analog system (end result burned to dvd). This is done right after the jump, only sometimes a back-to-back so you'd have to do two videos before the next tandem. I only shoot the occasional tandem so I edit mine on my laptop using premiere pro cs2 (BTW I recommend everyone stay the hell away from the cs3 beta, trust me). If I do get into the video rotation I'd need to buy my own dvd recorder, 2 cd players, mixing board and tv ($$$$$$$$) and I'd need room for all that, which is not availably at the dz at the moment. So for a few tandems each day I'll stick to my laptop, which means that sometimes a customer may have to wait an extra load for me to finish as I'm not as fast as the others. however it is mandatory at our dz to give the customer their dvd + stills quickly, while they wait. If I can't keep up with that i'll have to buy the linear editing stuff.... And learn how to use it... I burn the stills to cd on my laptop too.I shoot digital which is not mandatory at our dz (yet?), takes up a bit of time to burn those too. My 2 FS4 teams I dub (no edit) to another camera or onto a laptop. Other (fun) jumps I edit on my laptop usually and give them a dvd. Sometimes people want the raw footage and have their own camera, easy for me. A lot of stuff ends up on my laptop as I often make end-of-day videos, i use premiere pro cs2 for that too. ciel bleu, Saskia

Eh, no way it is?! If the setup for the sensor system is right (ie, no shaky 15ft long poles to mount it on) it is 200% better than video. We have a set of sensors that have 2 sensors on each end (for judging people who get their entire body lower than 1.5m, like JC managed), the sensors have a light + sound, both can be switched on/off when needed (usually no horns for training purposes on our DZ, to spare the neighbours) and they trip a computer program so you get instant scoring for speed and also for "water gates" if we use the low sensors over land instead of dragging water. We have high-speed sensors so even a downwinder by a world champ gets triggered. No WAY video beats that In fact, for a lot of events we don't even use "backup" video for entry gates anymore because it was never needed anymore anyway. For the big events (Bussloo) we still have backup video so we can show the jumper the system was right LOL It's not that hard to make but the sensors themselves are hard to get and somewhat expensive. Hint: our system is for rent ciel bleu, Saskia

Tried a search yet..? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2853481;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread ciel bleu, Saskia

Try right mouse click - "save target as" from here: http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/component/option,com_weblinks/catid,48/Itemid,471/ ciel bleu, Saskia

My advice, purely for macro (for anything else you will probably need another lens or two): Camera: D80 for sure, or if you have the cash a D200, do not buy a D40/x (really). D70s is also ok if you can still find one new, I'd avoid the D50 and D70 myself. Buy a couple Extreme III or IV cards (CF for D200, SD for D80) and 1 or 2 extra batteries. Lens: Nikon 105 VR macro or the cheaper and longer sigma 150mm macro, both are great lenses. Then also buy a SB600 or SB800 flash And you probably will want to buy or make your own macro flash bracket if you want to do macro in the field. I use mine a lot, it's created from some RAM mount pieces (for GPS mounting) which worked out way cheaper than buying a ready-made one. See attachements for some pics with D80/Sigma150/SB600 and of my setup. ciel bleu, Saskia

I filmed a 3way jump with one jumper doing his fifth (i think) jump after quite a long layoff (15yrs?), he has a couple hundred jumps. I got drafted with little time for briefing so not 100% clear on the details. But he was free to jump with others. The other 2 jumpers were reasonably current, with one having more jumps than me, this was her 30-yrs-in-sport-celebration jump. Jump went absolutely great, even after a slightly botched exit, except for the fact that some of the pics were against the sun. OK so we do the same jump again and face into the sun this time ok? Boy did that jump go straight to hell. Worse than 50-jump skydivers i've jumped with. No clue about what was going on after the funneled exit. And no clue how to start to fix it. No desire on my part to redo THAT jump He should definately stick to 2ways with competent skydivers for a while! ciel bleu, Saskia