PharmerPhil

No

I have been using the same blow switch for years and years, and over a thousand jumps. I hear everyone who uses a bite or tongue switch complain about how often they fail and must be replaced, and it just amazes me that people put up with these. I have seen very few failures of a blow switch. Just my too sense...

Yes you can splice them, and it is very easy. (I don't know why you call it a "digital" plug. It is still just a simple open/closed contact arrangement just like the sub-mini plugs on a XT/i/s/.) Just make sure you pick the right wires after you cut open the cable. A simple test prior to soldering should allow you to determine which ones need to be connected. However, I wouldn't do it yourself if you can't solder. Helmets and wiring take a beating in freefall and coming on and off. I would invest in good beer (brown bottles) and us it to pay some techie skydiver who is a good solderer to do it for you.

It is kind of a one-off. It was a prototype of the original SkySystems' Vapor (2001?) and dates from the previous owner's of SkySystems out in Colorado.

I really like that idea. My old helmet had just such a strap, and I am now trying to figure out a way to incorporate one into my new set-up. Is your strap attached to the helmet shell itself, or just to the top-plate?

Here it is. In the upper right is the permanently mounted 10-32 in front of the 1/4-20 mounting screw. You can see to the left a few alternate locations for the video camera.

I found that the outer diameter of a 10-32 screw fits in the locating hole very well. I don't use a QR for video, but I threaded a 10-32 screw up through the bottom of my helmet's top-plate where the locating pin would go (I think 7/16-inch in front of the 1/4-20 screw, but I am not sure). That screw stays put, and the 1/4-20 screw secures the video camera. It is pretty simple if you have a mounting surface that can be tapped. If I get a chance I'll post a photo.

I agree with going box-less when top-mounted for all the reasons you mentioned and more. I routinely access many functions of the camera that would be inaccessible if my camera was in the box (LCD screen, view-finder, auto/manual focus, spot focus, auto-exposure shift). You have to be careful to not bash your head into things, but isn't that a good idea anyway? I have been jumping my current top-mount helmet, sans box, for the last eight years with no camera damage. (I do have a helmet with w/side-mounted camera in a box, but I hardly ever jump it.) I am currently putting together a new helmet with side-by-side cameras; no box. I haven't even been using a quick-release for my video camera. There's nothing I routinely need to remove the video camera for. I charge the battery on the helmet, and I can change the tape or lens without removing the camera. Even with my A1U (bottom-loading tape) I didn't use a QR. It wasn't a real big deal to just undo one screw after each hour of taping. Using no QR makes the set-up much lower, and reduces a snag hazard.

If you go to Paragear's Camera Accesories page, and scroll almost to the bottom, there is a SKYLITE VIDEO RECORDING INDICATOR. It is a battery-powered, self contained record indicator that should work with any camera that has a tally (i.e. record indicator) light. Used to see them a lot.

Fixed

Nice shots! But you are only showing me one shot per jump. You don't need to shoot 100 shots per jump to get a few (or several) good shots. I think most photographers would shoot better shots if they worked on taking good shots rather than just taking as many as they can. And my guess is your sales pitch would be just as effective, if not more, if you stressed the fact that the customer will get some really good shots rather than just saying they'll get a given quantity of shots. You are not selling a commodity here, you are selling your services as a professional photographer.

Sounds a little trigger happy to me. Forgive me but,...at four years jumping you have 730 jumps. Assuming you did a quarter of them last year, and all of them were camera jumps, that equals 153 shots per jump (and your profile only refers to 400 camera jumps). Let's say I'm wrong and you did half your total jumps total last year alone,and they were all camera jumps. That is still over 76 shots per jump. I don't mean to give you hell specifically, but do you even think about what you are taking a shot of? Or do you just hold the trigger down for the entire jump? There is something to be said for digital in that it allows you to take more photos—and hopefully learn from them as well. But to simply take as many shots as you possibly can and hope some come out okay is kinda silly and doesn't really make you a photographer. Just a machine operator.

There have been a lot of discussions regarding shake in recent OIS cameras, with opinions about its acceptability from both sides. I would like it if people could chime in on what lens they are using, and whether they deem optical image stabilization acceptable or not with that lens/camera combo. It occurred to me that the objections (or lack thereof) to camera shake using OIS could be related to how wide an angle lens the flyer is using. i.e., with some of these extreme wide-angle lenses, the shake might not be as objectionable as it is using a slightly longer lens. Personally, I use either a 0.45x or 0.5x lens, and I like using EIS on several cameras, and disliked previous iterations of OIS (DCR-900). But I haven't used any newer OIS cams in freefall. P.S. This comes up in many different posts, but thought it deserved it's own post.

God I hate that. The video should be about the customer. I can't stand it (and don't understand it) when the videot turns the camera on his or her self. You wanna be on video? Go jump on your own and hire a videographer. The only time I ever appear on a tandem video is when the student specifically requests it (very, very rare).

I think you are confusing DVD camcorders with hard drive camcorders. DVDs don't really have "heads," they have laser pick-ups. These aren't all that close to the disc, but they have to maintain a specific distance (1/4 the wavelength of the laser light it is using) to read the disc. They won't work in freefall, but I doubt they would be hurt in the process. Hard drives, on the other hand, have magnetic heads that when reading or recording are very, very close to the magnetic disc. Yes, they would probably hit the disc and cause permanent damage if not parked. Neither will work in freefall, but only the hard drive models should be damaged in the process. Ditto for the other DVD related thread.

One is plenty for the mount. That's all that is holding the camera to the QR plate anyway. Just use a big washer or metal plate underneath so your fiberglas doesn't fail. When I used this QR, I used two 10-24 bolts (or 8-32, I don't remember). P.S. Your bubbles aren't level.

Flip for Mac

Popular Photography is a good one to start with. For composition ideas and examples of good photography (but no "how to") look critically at the major news and sports mags like Time, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic. Their photographers usually don't suck...

That is a really good question regardless of whether or not it is the actual problem. I don't know Pinnacle from a barnacle (so maybe I should just shut up but,...), but why compress your video any more than is necessary to fit in on a DVD? I would think it would be easier on your computer, and better for your viewers, to use the least amount of compression required.

According to Apple's site, there is no mention of any firewire on the new MacBook (there is a FW800 port on the Pro though): http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

Sorry, I don't really know Vegas at all. I was just going for the obvious.

I hope you are using Firewire to upload...

I'm curious about this. Although I haven't really used AVCHD files much (or FCE at all), I just finished my first major project (2 hour concert with 3 cameras) on FCS edited exclusively using AIC and it was seamless. My understanding was that both AIC and ProRes transcoded files so that they didn't use temporal compression, and that was one of their main benefits. If you take AVCHD files and transcode them to AIC, shouldn't this do away with any GOP issues?

I didn't know the new MacBooks didn't have firewire. But I think this would make me question them as a good choice for a video editing system. Even if I had a card-based camera, I would still want a firewire port for external hard drives to capture video to. Just my too sense. I would love to hear of any solution you come up with, or anyone else's experience using one of these for NLE.

Wow. That's a great question. I'm surprised no one has asked that before on this forum...