DSE

If your copy in *any way* interferes, compromises, impacts, or influences a criminal investigation, you can, and may be charged. The Fifth amendment may not be used in this instance. A videographer that has video of a tandem fatality is not able to take the Fifth to protect himself. It's pretty simple. You have video of a potential crime scene (which is how these sorts of fatalites are classified) and you are required to hand over any evidence you have that may assist in the investigation. You're not at risk of being charged. Yes, you can hold on to the tape and say "Fuck you until I speak with an attorney." But why? Why would you hamper an investigation of a tandem fatality? Why would you bring down the hell your DZ is going to go thru in this event, and make it worse by being a dick to investigating officers? Why prolong the agony of the families involved? It's real easy to be cavalier about what you would and wouldn't do when you've never had to do it. Go ahead, be an asshole. Make it harder on everyone at the DZ because you want a copy of the fatality so you can be the creep that puts it on YouTube to play to the macabre crowd. *(I mean "you" in the sense of third person, not aimed at anyone in particular). I'll be glad that *you* don't work at my DZ, where vidiots sign a reiease that says the DZ owns your work product anyway. So in the event that this happens at *my* DZ, I'll take your tape/card from you and hand it over anyway.

I have one on a sidemount for my CC1 tonfly helmet. Works very nicely. It's a very slim camera.

buying cheap drives from Costco and similar for archiving is foolish. Buy enterprise-grade drives, this won't be an issue, but having an HDD and optical...you'll likely never run into issues.

In most instances, you can't. It's part of a "crime scene investigation" in terms of how the event is handled, at least in Utah. The original goes to the investigators. It may be different in other places, but the original in most legal "anythings" has to be delivered to the investigating body to not only assure that they have the first and best possible source, but to assure that nothing is tampered with. My company is a certified media forensics organization, and we often make copies for LEA's, with affadavits that state they are copies with identical timestamp/timecode information that does not vary from the original. Again...it might be different in other places, but it would surprise me a bit. I think you may be confused about the law as it applies to individuals vs. the law as it applies to your profession. If the police want my video, I can make them issue a subpoena to get it. I don't just have to hand it over because they say so. So if a skydiving videographer makes a copy of a video before handing over the original, there's nothing to be done. "Chain-of-custody" procedures don't apply to anything until the police get their hands on it (whatever "it" happens to be). No, I'm not confused at all. To support my belief, I just got off the phone with a person I know well in the Attorney General's office. *anything* that is believed to be evidence in a crime scene investigation (which death absent a physician is generally deemed to be) can be seized without a subpoena. I've never had to make copies of a skydiving death, but have been involved in several suicide/suspected suicide tapes, and in all cases, the tapes were seized from the families, as have been suicide notes. It may be that the LEO in charge of the investigation will be cool and allow for a copy, but in the event of a death that requires investigation (again, in Utah), the tape is evidence that assists in the investigation. LE are also required to give the tape back if you request it, following the closure of the case (in Utah). I can't imagine our laws are much different than anywhere else. If you make a copy and the copy in anyway hampers an investigation, ie; raises doubts about what happened, is tampered with, finds its way to YouTube...all are chargable offenses, I'm sure. Yes, chain of custody relates to what happens after the tape is acquired and logged by LEA; the point was that evidence of the incident/crime/accident must be preserved and annotated from acquisition to disposition. In other words, don't screw with it. Making a copy raises doubts regarding the veracity of the content. Intelligent and experienced people know that a firewire dub is bit for bit the same as the original, but expecting a LEO to be aware of this is absurd. Either way, why the hell would anyone WANT to mess with this?

Sony HC52. I've got one for "oops" moments. They're cheap as hell, easy to find.

Here in Utah...it would be illegal unless you disclosed it. In all cases *we're* involved in, we have to sign a chain of custody sheet that demonstrates not only where the original has been, but also identifies by number, all copies. If you were on-scene, and made a firewire copy prior to handing over the original...not sure what would happen, but I do believe if you showed the video to anyone before the accident report came out, you might be at risk for obstruction of justice. That's a 'shoot from the hip' assessment, however.

In most instances, you can't. It's part of a "crime scene investigation" in terms of how the event is handled, at least in Utah. The original goes to the investigators. It may be different in other places, but the original in most legal "anythings" has to be delivered to the investigating body to not only assure that they have the first and best possible source, but to assure that nothing is tampered with. My company is a certified media forensics organization, and we often make copies for LEA's, with affadavits that state they are copies with identical timestamp/timecode information that does not vary from the original. Again...it might be different in other places, but it would surprise me a bit.

A quicktime .mov is merely a container. It can contain uncompressed to highly compressed data. AVCHD is a format that *currently* cannot go higher than 18Mbps, although the spec allows for lesser compression ratios. When making comparisons of codecs and compression technologies, it's critical to know two factors; Codec bitrate AVCHD is twice as efficient as MPEG2, but until you get into high bitrates, it doesn't look as good as lowbitrate MPEG2. AVCHD is seriously more efficient than DVCProHD, even at low bitrates, but it lacks the chroma sample depth that DVCProHD offers. In other words, there are many variables when discussing codecs.

It would be worth waiting til "late november" for the MKII, no doubt.

Went to vote at 10:15 pm and got a message that voting was closed. Scotty's photo in the lead by 25% of the total.

"It ain't mine, and if it is, I was drunk when I put it in there."

looks like Scotty won. Congrats to Scotty Burns! Congrats to Skydiving people everywhere, we get to be seen in a creative and newsworthy light on the front page of USA Today Lifestyle! Not an incident, not a drunk skydiver drives into airplane, not a skydiver caught smuggling dope, but a historical event that includes skydivers in a very personal way. Wow. Thanks again, Scotty, for allowing me to be part of the moment.

Well....first thing after I got my brain about me, was looking for where I was. I had a really good idea of the sightline, and knew it was in a relatively small area. We got into that area, and then ended up climbing the airport fence, and walked a grid. Then Chris W at our DZ climbed the fence and started the other side of the same grid area. he took a dozen steps and (I'm on the phone with Scotty Burns at the moment), says ..."What's that?" And points at the camera, less than 20' away from where I was standing. Was an awesome find and I owe Chris a little more than beer, because without the parts, I couldn't prove damage, and would have struggled getting replacements.

Notice I got both. there is a story there, it's just to be shared at a different time

Thx for that, Phree! BestBuy and Ritz told me yesterday that it wasn't, and wouldn't be for another coupla months.

t'was a tandem video jump. Lens is not covered under the warranty/ESP, because I already had that prior to buying the other bodies. Wish it had been, the lens is more expensive than the XSi and lens. I also wish Canon would sell the XSi as a body-only. Don't need *another* 18/55

my god that hurt. Laughing so hard I spewed coffee on my monitor this morning when she said "Just ask her about dinosaurs." "Boner-shrinker" hit me particularly funny too. They did a great job. Irony is, it was all true. It's amazing to me that the American people could be ignorant enough to elect someone that believes man once hunted dinosaurs. On that single concept alone, she's unelectable, IMO.

Ummm...don't Ian and I both have a spanking coming?

I'm a Sony consultant, and you'd have a hard time giving me one of these for much use. The former Minolta line is cheapo, IMO. In-body stabilizer is OK for some things, and does allow for super cheap lenses (Sigma 500 for only 800.00??) Decent on the ground, but I'd think/bet the in-camera stabilizer would give you grief. Sony/Minolta just aren't a camera company. They needed a DSLR line to round out their offerings, but I think this particular avenue is a mistake for them.

"Him!" You rock, Jimmy...Very nice story, thx for sharing it.

According to my daughter, they reserve the right to replace with factory seconds/Bstock, cancel the warranty at any time and refund pro-rated value, and there was one other stipulation that she mentioned, and I can't recall right now. Was interesting, having my daughter tell me to buy from a competitor, I think I was more focused on that aspect.

I *did* too. But it recently changed, which is why I mentioned it up-thread. My daughter manages the camera dept at a Best Buy in ATL...she warned me this morning to read the fine print carefully, but that older purchases were "grandfathered" and protected from the new changes.

This is what I call "service!" Lost gear on Saturday, it's now Monday (Ritz is closed on Sunday in Utah). -Rebel XSi (they were out of XTi) -Canon 40D Total cost: 1 lens-retail of 850.00, Ritz thinks Canon will repair for approx 300.00 Drive to SLC/gas cost Loss of maybe four jumps on Sunday (s'OK, I was sore as hell anyway) Buy the ESP, IMO.

nope. Under a big, fat, custom Silhouette 190. I mention "custom" because it has a huge "hand" sewn on it, and it's 5 layers thick in some of the areas. It has never, ever spanked me. Til now

Wow, I never realized you were African-American. Setup looks very nice.