dragon2

I'm curious as to how a pull-out system is going to minimise the risk of a horsehoe malfunction. ??? The problem of the main pin becoming dislodged and so cause an open container but a pilotchute still in the pocket cannot occur with a pullout, however of course other types of horseshoe malfunctions like getting the bridle around a limb/neck/helmet and the like are still possible. ciel bleu, Saskia

Another vote for Empuria. clicky Why the "of course"? Why not do the first jump course (1 day generally) and jump yourself? ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm the 10D is pretty old, I'd blame the camera ciel bleu, Saskia

It actually flares excellent, however the design is very prone to collapsing in turbulence so that's why I will not jump one anymore after a season of jumping a Springo 120. ciel bleu, Saskia

That depends on the camera and card. With my D80 and D200, RAW+jpeg is no problem at all, even for exit shot bursts or the occasional photogenic 90 shots per tandem (ok the snow was pretty...) there is really no difference in speed. In fact even my old D70 and D70s had no trouble with that, although in their case the jpegs were normal not fine quality. If you do notice a difference in speed, either you take an awful lot of pictures or you need a better camera ciel bleu, Saskia

Then it'll only last you a few jumps. ciel bleu, Saskia

This should also be a sticky: Downsizing Checklist By Bill von Novak ciel bleu, Saskia

As long as you buy a memory stick cam yeah, but not a harddrive cam as those are no good for skydiving, and your editing system needs to be up to it - check threads here for which software supports AVCHD files. Thanks - I was aware of that. Don't most hard drive cams also accept memory cards? The harddrive comment was because of your title thread... I have no idea if all can record to memory sticks too, the HD will need to be able to be locked too for freefall or it'll still get damaged. I'd just buy a CX6/7/8/9/105 as those all work (unless you backfly/sitfly then CX6/7/8/9 are problematic). ciel bleu, Saskia

As long as you buy a memory stick cam yeah, but not a harddrive cam as those are no good for skydiving, and your editing system needs to be up to it - check threads here for which software supports AVCHD files. ciel bleu, Saskia

??? I love how mine opens. Aside from one slammer (can happen with any canopy) I get slow, smooth, on heading openings. Did a few wingsuit jumps with one even. Same with the 2 other vengeances I have quite a few jumps on, open fantastically, however 1 of those is now quite out of trim so yeah, rougher openings, but that's hardly the canopy's fault. Again with the ???? A pilot or sabre 2 don't come close to how a vengeance dives and turns. A vengeance is a HP canopy where the pilot and sabre 2 are intermediate, I've jumped (and jump) a lot of different canopies including pilot/sabre2/vengeance, I cannot image someone would think those canopies fly even remotely the same ciel bleu, Saskia

I like that one ciel bleu, Saskia

I have PdF softlinks and Aerodyne (I think) softlinks, neither came with any kind of bumper. Not sure about Precision. Oh well I don't want/need 'em anyway ciel bleu, Saskia

Not everyone orders a PD canopy, and I've seen a few newbies who had no idea the slider would come down over their steering lines by itself. just a heads-up

All risers work fine with softlinks, however the result varies. Mini risers with softlinks and no bumpers means the slider will come down over the links and further down so you need to colapse the slider first then bring it down to your neck then undo your brakes. If that's something you do not want to have to do, you can buy the wider risers so the slider sits on top of those, or you have to install bumpers or those little hats so the slider can't come down over those. ciel bleu, Saskia

We still do a fair amount of jumps with springloaded pilotchutes, it's only very seldom that they have the pilotchute over the nose thing and when they do, heck it's a big canopy it's usually absolutely fine. If it happens so often at your DZ there may be something off in the setup somewhere? ciel bleu, Saskia

Hey Mutley, you still there? ciel bleu, Saskia

So, if you're having problems you need to change settings, although the stock lens isn't that good in low light and a faster lens may help you the problem (or part of it) is likely in the metering setting you're using. Various cameras have various strong points and not-so-strong points, f.i. Nikons have always had good matrix metering, but the D80 sometimes overexposes clicky but is very good with overcast skies using matrix metering clicky. My D200 is better with exit shots like the first pic but I now know to intentionally underexpose the D80 a bit in conditions like that. In my experience with Canon 500N/50E/D30/300D (after that I switched to Nikon ) you do not want to use matrix metering but rather spot metering for skydiving as the matrix metering is prone to overexposed skies and under exposed tandem pairs. Post a few problem pics with EXIF intact then we can tell you more. Edited the first clicky. ciel bleu, Saskia

I generally have 20 minutes to give my customers their DVD + stills so no time for photoshopping anything (and you shouldn't need to). I tend to use auto-iso for in the plane, with a limit of ISO 400, because I don't want to use the built-in flash and haven't got my new helmet with SB600 yet. Mostly the auto-iso works out fine, I sometimes would've set my camera differently for a specific shot had I had the oppertunity but the pics are all good enough anyway. I'd advise you to quit using sports mode like explained before and set your camera to shutter-priority, aside from inside the plane you shouldn't have much trouble with lighting, if you do you either need to go read a good photography book or go buy another camera and/or lens (you didn't say what you're shooting with). Frankly if you're having so much trouble, what are you doing shooting pics for paying customers? You should have all that figured out before Shooting tandems, you should consistenly get good pictures in just about any conditions. ciel bleu, Saskia

It's a very nice camera for skydiving however you'll have to wire the remote yourself as it's slightly different from the D70s/D80 remote and I haven't heard about anyone selling switches made for a D90 yet (Laszlo..?). ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? If you change f/stop you have to change shutterspeed to keep the same exposure (presuming the same ISO) so your way would end up overexposed / underexposed. Blurring the background is generally achieved by using a long lens in combination with a high f/stop (200mm lens @ f/2.8) when the camera is held still. However if you start panning, to follow a swooplanding, and want a blurred background, you'll generally use a bit longer shutter speed and keep the swooper in frame so he's sharp(ish) but you'll get motion blur in the background. 2 different techniques. ciel bleu, Saskia

When the last load of our vintage weekend landed at sunset I was taking ground shots with a D2X and a flash and a 80-200 f/2.8 lens and I was having a lot of difficulty with the lack of light. A photographer we invited to take pics of the weekend was standing next to me, he asked why I didn't just bump up my ISO to 3200. Now of course HE had a D700. And got loads of perfectly exposed pictures. ciel bleu, Saskia

ISO settings affect your f-stop too. If you shoot shutter-priority you generally want to end up with an f-stop that is not in the first and last few stops of your lens due to quality and then you get into how much DOF you want. So, you might pick a speed first, then work out what ISO gives you a good f-stop for the current lighting conditions. Generally ISO 100 or 200 works better for me than 400 except for grey weather, sunset shots and inside the plane and the like. If you shoot for stock, lower ISO is often better as some noise can creep in when viewed at 100%, although this depends on which camera, newer models are often better than a few years old models. Nitpicking here but I only use higher than ISO 200 when I need it, not as a standard setting. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm very pro-RSL however I almost exclusively jump a full camera helmet so cannot use one myself. I have 7 cutaways, the ones with RSL the RSL either helped me or not hindered me (ie, I didn't even get a single linetwist on my reserve after chopping a spinner on my back), one chop without RSL I very much would have liked to have RSL as I didn't jump camera that one jump, I opened lower than usual and I ended up on my back after my cutaway, with the RSL the reserve would've been out before I flipped onto my back so would've been under my reserve sooner. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd advise to quit using sports mode, start learning how to use shutter-priority With sport mode the camera makes all kinds of decisions that may work ok or not, if you learn how iso/f-stop/shutterspeed relate to one another you'll be able to figure out on your own which settings to use for any occasion, and what to change if something doesn't work out. BTW it's very hard to use a polarisation filter when skydiving: it only works for the particular angle you set it to so wouldn't advise jumping with one unless you have a very specific shot in mind and never mind the rest of the jump. Also it takes away a few stops of light, not always good with our local weather, and of course it cannot be used with the 15mm. Polarization can work out very nice when you have everything lined up but that usually mean ground shots at a specific angle to the sun or to the non-metallic reflective surface you wish to make non-reflective. Ie, very good for taking pictures of pyramids with pretty blue sky and for taking pics of koi fish in a pond ciel bleu, Saskia

AFAIK there isn't any one standard: PD have had a few recognizable stock patterns over the years and the team canopies/sponsored canopies are different still and have had a few color/pattern changes as well. ciel bleu, Saskia