dragon2

Teuge, NL isn't that far off either. Big DZ, Grand Caravan, open year round (weekends only out of season), and no getting stuck on an island should the weather be bad. www.paracentrumteuge.nl ciel bleu, Saskia

Good quality? It's going through an A/V cable, which is VHS quality. Which is not "good". S-VHS would be better, no degradation is only when using Firewire/i-Link. ciel bleu, Saskia

For a digital still (you didn't say digital or analog?) you want a DSLR with a cable remote option. Suitable brands: Canon and Nikon. Reasonably-priced options: Nikon D70s Nikon D80 Canon Rebel XT/350D Canon Rebel XTi/400D More expensive options: Canon 30D Canon 5D Nikon D200 Most people jump one of the digi rebels but all of these work. ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm there are people packing spectre/sabre 170's in atom 00 too, a few jumps on those 170's though. I had a hell of a time getting a brand new spectre 150 in mine but maybe (well not that maybe) i'm a lousy packer It's still a bad idea IMO to have a main and reserve that are 2 1/2 sizes apart, but lotsa small jumpers (girls) have this combination here. A rig like that will last you forever though, esp with our canopy rules - 700 jumps before you can jump a 120 under the current rules, and >100 jumps for < 170sqft hence the large number of 170's around. I only got a smaller rig (Atom 000) after 880 jumps and I regret it very much even though the rig fits me better, I want my 00 back my canopies are $%^^ hard to pack again Did i mention I don't like packing? On the whole, for your first rig, you want to make sure that - you can decently pack the main into your rig - the reserve is of a proper size - you can go one size smaller main in the same rig at least, that's how i think about it. Of course there's plenty people stuffing bigger reserves into those Atom 00's to better go with their 170 mains, and I had one guy vehemently argue his Transfair was 150+ sqft. Yeah right, a 150 sqft shouldn't be in that rig in the first place and Transfairs are 128 sqft, period. Get stuff that fits, or you may be sorry one day, at least that's how i feel about it ciel bleu, Saskia

The only container I know of that can hold a 170-120 is a Atom 00, and if you're american you're out of luck PdF doesn't sell there. But that container takes a hybrid ZP/F111 170 (common here are Merits, i suppose a Silhouette might work too) and goes down safely to a ZP 120. Problem is, the reserve is a 128/126 sqft. So from your Merit 170 to a PD126 in one go is not going to be much fun most containers can be made to accept one size up and down from what it's made for. But if you buy a too-biggish canopy for your rig you will have problems packing it, esp if you're a newbie, i know i did the first 80 jumps or so on my shiny new biggish spectre. And i STILL don't like packing because of that ciel bleu, Saskia

How'd they manage that? All new DSLR's i've had (eh, 5 so far) came out of the box clean and never heard of that before from other users either. I thought cameras get assembled in a cleanroom of some sort? ciel bleu, Saskia

One advantage of the cropfactor though is that you use the best part of the lens if it was made for FF, namely the middle part. This means you can get away with cheaper glass and still get good quality. My favourite zoom on my old Canon D30/300D was an old f2.8 zoom, with a chip in the glass near the edge. So I could buy it real cheap. I saw some light refraction due to that maybe twice in like 15.000 pictures

The big Canons and the L-seris lenses are great for action sports yes. But the consumer/proconsumer cameras and lenses don't matter. Also, skydiving is not a high-speed sport really, not as much speed difference as the "real" action sports. I personally do not jump with a zoom, and the fixed wide angle lenses are good from both brands. Haven't checked the tests for the zooms you mention and don't know anyone who does jump them so no opinion there. ciel bleu, Saskia

Is there still anyone using a Kodak? We had 3 versions of them, all had problems (the chip moves about in freefall with resulting unsharp pics, white milky pics, color shifts and the occasional absolutely great pic). They went straight back to Kodak, too bad. I remember Norman Kent's having the same problems if on a lesser scale. The Kodak is a studio camera, unfortunately. Well it was heavy and big too but it WAS FF. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why is the XTi better for action shots? And better glass? Nope. The kit lens that comes with both camera's (Canon/Nikon) isn't that good, except if you buy the more expensive Nikon kit lens but that one's heavier. The glass is as good as what you but for the camera to jup with, both Canon and Nikon have excellent lenses. And sigma makes lenses for both if you want that. ciel bleu, Saskia

CMOS vss CCD, why does that matter for skydiving? The remote: I started with a Canon D30, you had to make your own remote for that. So what? Same for D60, 10D, 20D. The 300D was the first with an "easy"' remote, but the rest of the camera was frankly crap. I have never known any other camera to have so many problems skydiving. Well maybe the Kodak pro series cameras but those were never mainstream. I about threw my D300 out of the window, as did Bruno fi on the World Team 2004 jumps. A bunch of error99, and you HAD to have a stereo switch or it was REAL slow. 10D, still, a lot of error99, DX-type lenses don't fit on this camera. D20, sometimes an error99. Canon is not made for skydiving any more than Nikon, and the crappy D300 made me switch to Nikon, lenses and all. What's so hard about making your own remote? The more expensive Canons you still have to do it, you make it sound like all Canons have the "standard" plug. What Nikon has had problems? The non-wired ones, maybe, it's not that easy jumping with an IR remote (D70) or the extra grip (D100), but you could have these cameras modded if you wanted to and now you don't need to go through this hassle anymore. There is NOTHING wrong with the 3 camera's I mentioned, D70s D80 D200, they make excellent skydiving cameras. D200 is as good as D5 just way cheaper, if you can live without FF. The newest cheaper rebels are toy camera compared to serious cameras (like 30D, D80 etc), but hey they're lightweight, cheap and easy to mount, which makes them ok for skydiving and they seem like the latest craze. But they are NOT the only possible choice. And frankly I don't like them on the ground they feel like toy cameras, but that's personal. If someone gave me one for free I'd jump it, but I'd still rather have a 30D/D80/D70s or of course a 5D/D200. BTW Nikon doesn't make a "toy" camera that's jumpable (so far), the D40/D50 aren't good choices for skydiving. If you really want FF, there is only one jumpable option so far, the 5D, but for how many skydivers starting out with stills is that the deciding factor between brands? For that price? If you want to buy a camera for skydiving, there is nothing wrong with the latest Canons, but nothing wrong with the latest Nikons, either. ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? A lot of what you said there is plain b*****. Guess those of the top camera jumpers that are jumping nikon are wrong huh. Don't go bashing a brand you obviously know nothing about. It doesn't make you look too smart. ciel bleu, Saskia

Don't buy a D40! For Nikon, D70s, D80 and D200 have a wired remote. ciel bleu, Saskia

Well the "off and secured" is mostly for the larger camerahelmets, I'm sure mine wouldn't do me any good if I hit something head-on, in fact it might damage me more if I did have it on my head. Those large camerahelmets are not for protection, even less than the regular non-pro-tec helmets are. I've also done enough horse-back riding to know an unsecured helmet is absolutely no good whatsoever ciel bleu, Saskia

You write it like an unsecured helmet on top of your head is better than an unsecured helmet in your lap. It's not. IMO it should be: Helmet off and secured = ok Helmet ON and secured = best Anything else = not acceptible ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? A loose helmet will do you absolutely no good it will just fly off. If you put it on, secure it!!! ciel bleu, Saskia

Batteries still good? Camera been jumped? ciel bleu, Saskia

That's an FXC12000, and it is not electric. It's a type of AAD, these days mostly found on student rigs. ciel bleu, Saskia

how do you want to mount it? The HC32 is too wide for a sidemount needs to be topmounted, the PC1 can be either. Don't have all the specs handy, not sure if they both have LANC (not essential but very useful). ciel bleu, Saskia

What, you're a skydiver and you DON'T want video? Nah.... ciel bleu, Saskia

This is one of the reasons why most camerapeople will not wear their helmets for take-off, it's not only to save their own neck although it does factor into it for me. Not talking about a simple side-mount here, I'd wear that for take-off, but a lot of the rear-entry camerahelmets have this type of still-camera mount. Unfortunately it's also a type of helmet that's hard to secure, our seatbelts fi are too short and for the helmet to go through my cheststrap is also not workable - the helmet's closed or it is not, no space for a strap to go through. I could unthread my cheststrap and loop it around the chin guard, but have never seen anyone fiddling with cheststraps in flight before, that would have its own drawbacks. Also all of our tandem camera people are filming the take-off with camera helmet in hand, so not secured either. I usually have my arms wrapped around the chin guard, but that would very probably not be enough to hold it should we crash. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm confused about this statement. Is it about having or not having a stills camera mounted on a helmet plate? The top plate of my camera helmet sticks out a good bit, 10 cm or more. It is attached to the helmet at all times (build-in). I can hang my stills camera from it, upside-down. If I do, the end of the plate/helmet isn't 3mm but is the whole stills camera/lens that would hypothetically hit you in the back/neck. If I don't, I have a sturdy 10cm long 3mm thick metal plate sticking out that would hit you. Get it? ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm guessing it's a cultural thing too. Over here, tips are not expected, and most you'll get is a beer. Coaches and windtunnel are expensive enough here too I guess it's easier to tip when you're paying half what we are ciel bleu, Saskia

For some reason we seem to have a lot of pink pilotchutes on our DZ ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't like the white-lightblue-darkblue type canopies at all, never mind the all-white/all-lightblue canopies, and i've been told my purple-black-grey canopy is also very hard to see. Guess there's something to be said for neon pink ciel bleu, Saskia