DSE

I respectfully disagree. Try working outside of skydiving as a photographer. I really don't want to derail this thread, so perhaps should split it off. The shot is ALWAYS an important "phase" of photography. All that time spent in pre-production is so that we can avoid spending more time in where?? Production. (shooting the photo). All that time spent in shooting the photo is so we can save time where? In post. Whether it's skydiving or a Vogue cover shot, Mom taking picture for the family Christmas book, or shooting object/industrial; snapping the shutter is a significant, if not the most significant aspect of any photography endeavors. You can't fix angles, can't fix most compositional aspects, can't fix gross lighting problems in post. No matter how good you are. The short answer; The more importance given to Pre-production saves production and post production time. The more quality induced during Production results in less production and post production time. The end game is to avoid as much post as possible, because of the three, it's by far the most expensive. Even if you're shooting markers and cheats on a greenscreen, production (taking the picture) is still exceptionally important from both lighting and compositional aspects.

This evening, two fellow wingsuiters and myself were hit up by a scammer on Facebook, purporting to be the same person to all three of us at different times. All of us rec'd the same story about a mutual friend who was in London, robbed at gunpoint, needing money to get home, and asking for $750.00. I asked the scammer a question that only my friend would know the answer to,they disappeared offline. When I tried to post to the friend's wall to alert others, that was deleted and I was "unfriended." Watch out for scammers using Facebook mutual friends to find you. Apparently this is a fairly common Nigerian scam. This public service message brought to you by Ovaltine.

I'm sure that's not *quite* what you meant, right? Getting the photo is the most important "phase." Otherwise, it's just "fixing it in post" and that's never a good idea. Post is generally for enhancing what is already great, not for fixing what isn't so great, or so it is in our house, anyway.

No, you didn't say "not free= bad service." Rather, you infer "they didn't apologize the way I wanted them to apologize and they put me out, so customer service is bad." I'll bet if folks look hard enough, they'd find where you haven't always treated someone the way they wanted to be treated. I'll bet if you picked up the phone and called the owner of ParaGear and complained, he'd probably kiss your ass just to make you happy. And then he'd personally pack your next order with candy and other ass-kissing just to be sure he's met YOUR definition of customer service. ParaGear seems to try very hard to make their customers happy. I'm sure, that in their thousands of customers, a newbie employee, or maybe just a "doh!" moment, that a mistake or two gets made. The fact that there isn't a lot of bitching about ParaGear like there is about Icarus and other manufactors (and other dealers) demonstrates that ParaGear is pretty damn good. Several posts from both distributors and end users confirm this experience as well. You've had a less than perfect experience. Even though I have no relationship to ParaGear, I'll try help you out.... "Man, that SUCKS that they are f'ing asking you to return a roll of product at their expense. I can't F'ing believe they're not paying your gas, time, and effort to do the right thing. What a crappy company that only says "we're sorry" and then ask you to return something you didn't pay for. Man...if it was me, I'd have kept all that extra, even if you don't need it. Give it to your friends or SUMTHIN. They don't deserve your bizness. What a bunch of asshats! Don't ever buy from them, PLEASE!" Feel better? I for one, wish more companies were like ParaGear. Curt is a great guy, and his people bust hump to help folks out, in my experience.

EXCELLENT comparison, Mark!! Nicely done. And yeah...when you were describing flipping off the plane on the phone, I just wasn't picturing it right. It's even funnier in video.

And that probably works very well. We had a guy leave our DZ with 1600 jumps. Showed up on DZ.com and at another DZ with 4K jumps less than a year later. And...who cares?

So you're saying your DZ allows coaches on harness hold jumps with AFF students?

Uhh...No?

Premiere Elements 4 isn't set up for mp4, so even though it may be reading the codec, it's gonna struggle. It's not at all optimized. I believe Elements 8 has a trial? Your machine seems like it should manage the files just fine, but if the app isn't optimized, it's not going to perform well.

Nor is your experience a measure of their "adequacy" or a lack thereof. It's a one-off experience. Apparently it isn't the experience that everyone else has had. *Maybe* everyone involved (including you) wasn't at their best that day. One experience cannot possibly define the overall quality the reseller offers, can it?

Cyberlink=how the hell did they even get on the list? Worse than Movie Maker for workflow. Corel=If you don't mind a lot of crashes, it has a decent interface and eventually can output video. Premiere Elements=very stable, a bit of a learning curve, but reasonably fast. Magix Movie??? Pinnacle=Latest version is very stable, but not a workflow I care for much. Search these forums for real-world experiences with Pinnacle. They didn't list Edius? SpeedEdit, or Movie Factory? They're all pretty good with AVCHD. IMO, Vegas tops em' all, but I'm somewhat biased.

It's actually AC3, but your converter may be reading as AAC. Most converters conform to an uncompressed format. Until a few moments ago, hadn't shot the CX in SD and transferred to Apple. Using handbrake, it converts properly to MP4 and opens in FCP as expected. I don't have StreamClip on this machine, but will install it should you need more help.

The sticky is MORE than enough to hold the camera on. If your profile is accurate, please tell us you're not jumping with it?

And with 6500' mountains very close to the DZ, as well as the Great Salt Lake and its supporting ponds, it's equally as likely that an "after sunset" exit and water landing are going to occur. How about adding night water landings as a D requirement?

You're not happy with MP4@10Mbps? StreamClip can convert your SD-originated MPEG files to a 720 x 480 MP4 file, which is easily edited in FCS, MP4 is realtime. What version of Quicktime? Quicktime should be playing back with sound, from an MPEG2/PCM audio source file.

There are a couple differences, but they both relate to speed and quality vs ease of use. Card-based=super fast Xfer times Quality of downconvert=superb/true to source Converter system transfer=real time/1:1 transfer time Converter system down convert=generally not true to quality, and resolution loss is *generally* enhanced, resulting in a softer image, oversaturation. Yet a hardware convert is *easier.* Faster, better, cheaper pick two?

I sorta doubt Avid will ever handle AVCHD, but it might happen. The reason for the long renders is that not only does each frame require recompression, but it also has to calculate motion between 60fields to 50 fields per second. that's a lot of motion compensation and requires a lot of cycle time.

Absolutely. (small caveat, Avid doesn't do format conversion without expensive plugins). Premiere, Vegas, Edius, Ulead Movie Factory can all do conversions.

Nope, but it does mean that it's silly to think that one won't ever be jumping in very dim/near dark conditions. You do realize the complete lack of logic in your position, right? Yeah, I know you earned your D license before me. At 200 vs 500 jumps. You were a grandparent before me, and you were the oldest wingsuiter in Elsinore (as you repeatedly boasted to so many). I have a rare PF shirt.. What difference does it make? Kind of an illogical argument, I'd say. I can still take you in a distance jump. If nothing else, night jumps, like a PRO rating, say something about someone's desire to be as capable as they can be, and demonstrates a desire to go as far as possible in the sport.

Tell them to buy Voltaic or one of the other intelligent converters. It's not THAT much slower, but it is an added step. Or tell them that if they want a fast workflow, they should go buy a PC netbook. AVCHD/MPEG workflows are here to stay, and until/unless Apple pulls their head out of their asses on this subject, it'll always be a PITA to mix MPEG and Mac.

Yes and no, IMO. Seems to me the system worked. The waiver failed, the candidates were not given their rating, Story over. FWIW, several people have said that these two candidates subsequently earned their air time, and they are very good instructors now. The system worked. One guy played a large role in a fatality. He was given a rating by an I/E, even though several members of the board felt he should not be given a rating to instruct. In my mind, if you are negligent with a student at any point and it results in a fatality or serious incident, that person probably shouldn't hold a rating. Every I/E has stories, I guess.

Nope, but it does mean that it's silly to think that one won't ever be jumping in very dim/near dark conditions. A "D" license is a choice. If you want a D license, step up and earn it. If you don't, be satisfied with what you've chosen to achieve. If you don't want a PRO rating or tandem rating, a D isn't necessary. Some folks go "above and beyond" while others are happy with the minimums. Fortunately, most skydiving endeavors accomodate both ends of the spectrum.

Use Vegas to convert them to a Mac-friendly format. .mxf, .mp4, anything in a .mov container.

Hence my point in asking the question to Balu. It's a measurement/ill-fitting suit issue that the Blade II may actually suffer more, vs less, because of the design. Measurements are critical (even though I was measured by both a BMI and a Master Rigger, my Blade never did fit right).

re; night jumps... Sunset load, has a go around. Sky is well lit, but below the mountain line, it's very dim. Clouds come in over mountain ridge, it's damn near dark. Those that don't jump near big mountain ranges probably can't comprehend this, but it is a somewhat common occurance at my home DZ. FWIW for the accuracy...when you fly a wingsuit, you WILL have an off landing at some point. If you don't, you're not doing it right. I've put down in small clearances in the middle of very tall trees at Eden North (2 miles from DZ), and put down in backyards at several foreign DZs. My first cutaway experience required a very tight landing with powerlines, boulder wall, house, and very tall trees surrounding landing area. IMO, night jumps are very valuable, as is accuracy ability.