DSE

Dave, I'm not disagreeing with you, just pointing out some facets of my smaller experiences. I was taught early on to identify heading and track away for a few seconds, and still be in the saddle fairly high. With our King, jump run is spread out because TI's are not allowed to crowd the door for CG purposes. I've captured several mals, and you're right...they're slow. Very slow, actually. Since I was taught early on to track out, I would admit I hadn't given these other scenarios much thought, and I certainly am pondering it now.

Another variable in the discussion is also going to be aircraft. Although I only have around 800 camera jumps with tandems (most of them from a King 90) I've yet in any instance be even remotely close to another tandem and/or a videographer even with four tandems and four vidiots on a load. Possible? Of course. Probable? Likely not.

Old Valkyrie.

You missed a comma. Thats right. That's, wrong. Ho please. Your just looking for attention. Hay Beyatch who U B callen ho?" L8R H8R

Go tapeless, no more waiting.

You missed a comma. Thats right. That's, wrong.

You missed a comma.

Why you B hatin' on h8r's? It ends the argument. And it sounds funny. But not as funny as hearing Lou Dobbs give a "shout out to my friends in Mississippi" on CNN. Dunno that it's stupid, just vernacular. Welcome to being old.

The CX100 is about the best mid-low range camera you'll find for skydiving, and it's exceptionally lightweight.

Bloodrock, I never liked. Mountain-different story. Leslie West is brilliant. And...they're back performing again, new album due in December.

Probably best if everyone forgot that. Randy Rhoads probably rolled over in his grave over that one. Rise Against Alter Bridge (Creed, harder and better without Stapp) Tool AC/DC Theory of a Deadman/Bad Girlfriend P.O.D. Breaking Benjamin Old Nickelback (Pre Mutt Lange)

You missed the second half of that post; I'm on your side. I do believe some restrictions are appropriate, otherwise there is zero incentive to sponsor, and less value for those who do. Leave the packing tents alone, put them into a singular area ie; "marshalling yard," and it leaves the main areas visible for sponsor value while not negatively impacting the team. I don't see restricting windblades or banners as being problematic, but the tent issue raises some questions in my mind. A fine balance has to be struck, because the nationals can't be as robust without sponsorship, but if there is no value in sponsorship, then some aspect of the event has to lose out. Budgets are budgets. Yes, USPA members fund themselves, but the jump ticket, reg, and sponsor dollars go to cover more than typical DZ staffing. Communications, promotion, video displays, sound systems, security, lighting, non-volunteer staff...all cost extra too. Someone has to foot that bill, ie; sponsors. I'm glad I'm not the one balancing the budget.

Darn...I got home, and nobody got it. Some very creative answers tho! It's a bullboat I built back in 1988. It now resides in the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, Utah. And I was just ITCHING to buy someone a jump ticket. *thanks for playing fair, Monkey.

Not even close. how about a jump ticket if you can figure it out before I get back from therapy?

Good point, and what is hot and happening right now will be yesterday's news by the time the OP is ready to jump with one.

what am I?

~ no one has compared it to any camera quality. The question above was clearly about technology, and bottom line is that if you don't have some rudimentary understanding of the technology, you're going to be challenged when it comes time to edit/output. ~ No, it will NOT be "the same image quality" as most camcorders currently in use. ESPECIALLY on a 50" monitor. It's absurd to remotely suggest it is. ~ published specs don't mean anything. Only a sucker believes what marketing tells them. Until I've had hands-on with the camera, you could tell me it makes Viper pale and will make my coffee. Panasonic announced a new HD camcorder that was hyped for two years. When it shipped, users found it had an imager smaller than a PAL SD camcorder. For example, do you know the actual peak VBR of the Hero HD? What size is the CMOS? What encoder technology are they using since it's not AVCHD? It's potentially 12Mbps, but as their own page says, "the bitrate may change." 12Mbps in AVCHD is barely passable, let alone MP4. Yes, the camera *appears* to be really promising. At one time, I looked very promising to my exwife. ~ From what you've been READING, vs what you've actually seen, touched, edited, output and know anything about are very disparate. I've read one helluva lot about skysurfing and CRW, but I'm not ready to go out and attempt either one. ~It's great you are aware of the recommended jump number to fly a camera, and odd you're so cavalier about safety with a camera. If you've read the sticky, then you've read from at least 20,000 jumps experience telling you that it's not the camera thats the problem.

I don't think you're wrong at all. I'd hope folks don't think vertical separation is enough. The videographer becomes a target in the malfunction or long snivel. That said, I've seen several vidiots that merely go to their back or sit, watching the tandem deployment, roll to their belly, and deploy. Norman Kent and Ed Dickenson both heavily stressed getting away when I was first starting out, and eventually a backtrack became second nature. Good post!

I don't know I'd say it's the "opposite" but having it al up top is certainly preferable, especially over time.

Last question first. No. They will likely not be similar in the end. It all boils down to the efficiency of the encoder, the bitrate, the imager size/quality, and the lens in combination with each other. Your cell phone is likely h.264, and likely has a 3-6Mbps rate. Stick a better lens, better encoder, and better imager in that same size space as a dedicated camera, you'll likely have a significantly better image. Unfortunately, h.264/mpg4 that isn't AVCHD doesn't carry a minimum standard and the first 50,000 licenses are free to the manufacturer, so the quality can absolutely suck or absolutely shine.

IMO, there is little difference between a jumpsuit and a tent in terms of displaying who sponsors whom. The packing tent, gear, and clothing are part of the team's normal, natural, and consistent package. In re-thinking this, even though many marketing efforts are not permitted at the events we work with on a regular basis, car haulers are painted with sponsor logos, and motoX teams are allowed their normal tents. It's not at all uncommon to see Yamaha covering an entire trailer while the event is sponsored by Honda. It seems that the politics of this particular situation may play not only a distraction for the net-heads, but for the competitors as well. I can agree with no flags, windblades, marketing material, but the packing tents, gear, clothing are part of the necessary package teams require in order to compete.

Unzipping arms isn't the way to accomplish this.

Packer packed my rig, single wraps, excepting the locks, which were double wrapped. Exactly backwards. Baglock. I can't blame the tube stows; it likely would have happened with bands, too. However, I did switch over to bands, simply because I use packers a lot.

Very nice job, Simon. Was great to hang with you a little in Moab. Thanks for the hospitality and the smiles. Where did you find that turkey sausage?

Be that as it may, who is responsible for capture/transfer doesn't alter nor affect the amount of effort put in nor the success of the ingest process during Nationals last year. I've never been part of Nationals before, but heard from many people that the ingest of video went more smoothly in 08' than ever before. That goes without mentioning the videos assembled for the winning teams, video edited and uploaded to national broadcasters, and other special requests by USPA. All without expectation of remuneration or compensation. A "thank you" goes a long way. A tremendous amount of volunteer effort occurs at competitions, and to a great degree it seems that volunteerism is a discouraged thing. For some, this may be a reason to not support Nationals, even tho the practice of restricting advertising is very, very common at any sort of competitive event. It wasn't so long ago that an event occurred that Apple sponsored where only Apple computers were allowed in the main area where cameras were set up, and a lot of people complained because they were PC users (pre-bootcamp days) The outcome of that event was that the next year, Apple was not asked back as a sponsor.