DSE

Hmm....I see that. I don't know what they're saying there.....I can say that I shot footage with the cam yesterday, and Xferred it to my MacBook in a few seconds. I'll ask what they mean by "does not support high speed transfer function; does not support Access Control security function. " Thanks for pointing that out.

I have two RI rigs, one a Talon FX and the other an older FS. During the Holiday Boogie, one of the RI folks talked to me about wear and damage on one of my rigs. He says "How about you leave the rigs with me, when we re-open after the holiday, it'll be in the shop. Cool. So on Monday (first day back), I got a phone call from Sandy at RI asking about what I'd like done in addition to legstrap problem from bad landing in the early days. RI put new batts in my Cypres (They failed at the boogie), put on new pilot chute, repacked both main and reserve, put on new legstrap covers, and a few additional tweaks and then shipped the rig out the next day so I'll have it for the Mesquite boogie. They followed up by sending me the tracking#, emailed to tell me it had been shipped, and asked that I contact them when it arrives, and let them know if I was happy w/changes. IMO, *that* is terrific customer service.

Glad to read this. Hope to have mine as fast.

No thanks. Been there, done that, bought the guilt.

Not sure what you mean. Xfer from a memstick is minimum 4X.

You aren't seeing the vignetting because it's in the overscan. Look at the same image on a computer monitor/nle, and you'll see the vignetting. If you can zoom in a tad, so it's not at all there, you'll get a better overall pic, because the vignetting confuses the encoder when it sees a solid black or black gradient.

And even that article you're linked to is "old. " It doesn't take Paramount's defection into account. Paramount's contract apparently expires in May, and after that time, they won't renew. Leaving only one studio supporting HD DVD. I'm very relieved. thankfully it's over.

HERE is a page with some pix from the show and skydive-related commentary.

~I don't think the thread bashes Afrikankid. Sure, there are some "don't do this" posts, but at the same time, it can be argued that flying camera is the most dangerous skydive out there, and if it goes bad, it's usually pretty bad. Suggesting an AFF student put on a camera helmet is irresponsible. Billvon's post stuck at the top of this page sums it up nicely; it's very easy to get caught up in shooting and find yourself low. It's easy to have line twists that are compounded due to the higher nature of the camera on the helmet. It's very difficult to cut away an entangled helmet. Riser slap is more likely with a side mount, which can instigate line twists. Flying a camera causes focus of the skydive to move from one thing to another. All/any of the above are tough enough for an experienced jumper starting out with camera, let alone a newbie. I agree; sometimes the posts are acerbic when they may not need to be. No one wants to hear about a newbie skydiver getting hurt or worse because they moved forward too fast in their progression. Which is why I recommend he start flying with just the helmet, nothing else. that's what I did, and it did help me get used to the helmet's impact on how I fly.

K, it's very late, just got back to my room, and dont' wanna make a long post, so I'll say this... Sony has several new AVCHD camcorders. I've known of these for a while, but due to personnel changes at Sony Consumer, I didn't have access to them until yesterday. There are two new AVC HDD camcorders that are also capable of shooting to Memstick at the same time. In the disc menu, users can TURN OFF the HDD system, and shoot only to card. This parks the drive. In other words, they can be used for skydiving. OIS on one of them clearly disengages properly. Can't tell for sure on the SR12 tho. Canon has a new series. Looks like they're useable too, as they've changed the way their OIS works, but again...I didn't jump em. What I did do was shake the hell out of them in both modes, and then subtly vibrated them on a table top by whacking the table top. Not enough evidence to make a conclusion, other than knowing they've modified the OIS somewhat. Panasonic. DISAPPOINTMENT. I'll post pix, but imagine the surprise when the camera tells you it's "Panning too fast" and inserts huge blocks in the image. I shot pix of this. Panasonic reps were quick to tell me it's a prototype, but that was a surprising message to see on the screen. Nice and light tho. 'Nother surprise was a no-name company that was there from China. I bought one of their crummy lil AVC camcorders, and the image is surprisingly good at 11Mbps. No manual anything, no LANC or other control possible, but at 150.00...can't complain at all. I'll post some footage as soon as I jump it. So far, of all the new stuff, the CX7 is still the best of the lot, IMO. Panasonic has the smallest/lightest, but can't be controlled at all, and I don't care for the encode. Canon's new cams have promise, Sony's new cams are slightly heavier than the CX7, but they do have some really sweet features like face-recognition, to assure for properly exposed face in virtually every situation. Weird to see the block following the face (if you have this option enabled). Panasonic has a similar feature, BTW. JVC had nothing exciting at all. The Samsung, I was really excited about. The smooth/slow isn't as good as Sony's, and the camera is REALLY cheap feeling plastic. They will not honor warranty claims if the camera is used for sports like skydiving or rock climbing. but it *is* very lightweight. I'll post pix tomorrow.

If you're gonna do THIS, it's probably best you're not caught on tape, by the news no less.

Man, you've obviously never seen the size of my nose... C. Something tells me I'm better off for the lack of experience.

If cheep is your budget, then I'd recommend the DXG. About 189,00. It's cheep, not terribly tough, but at 11Mbps, it's not as bad as I expected. Canon has a new one, Panasonic has a new model that cannot be used for skydiving. I'll post a pic why later tonight. What a POS! Sony has several new camcorders, expect more from me on these later.

No, You wouldn't. As soon as I get to a fast connection, I'll post pix of all three HD DVD booths of any size. All three are ghost towns, whereas the BD booth were exceptionlly busy. Of course, they had an AWESOME presenter today too, showing skydiving and MotoX footage.

Thank you VERY much. Now if my package arrives in time...

Actually, that was me who said that. It will fit an L bracket, I just tried it. It's wide, as stated, but removing the webbing/grip pad made it fit with near-normalcy.

HERE IS ALL you need to win that bet. It's not officially over cuz the fat lady hasn't sung...but it's over. Rejoicing in my end. We'd bet heavily both in terms of gear and trading on BD. I've been holding my breath for the past 3 months. God, I want a good glass of Oban.

am I just blind? Can't find much information on the website about transpo, just lodging. Trying to make it down myself.

Their demo here at the show is pretty impressive. Honestly, having used UHF at the LVCC in the past...if they can make it work here, they can make it work virtually anywhere. This place is a nightmare for any signal. Steel, concrete, high voltage, tradeshow booths made from every material conceiveable...But it's still just a demo. I hope to see it in real-world use very soon.

Put advice from the internet down a ways. Instructors, DZO, fellow jumpers, books by Tom Buch, wrappers from McDonalds, internet. Congrats on your jump, welcome to the community.

Rub a Post-it note on the lens threads. Or use a very tiny (booger-sized) drop of rubber cement. That'll cure the lens coming loose when you remove the cap. Zriess.com sells a snap on housing for the front of the Century and Raynox lenses too, if you wanna go that direction.

Just *try* running video editing or photo editing software under Parallels or Fusion. I dare you. I'm a MacBook Pro guy...believe me, I wish it could. This Mac vs PC shit gets really old. As someone who owns nearly a hundred computers (most of em' laptps for training camps), both platforms have problems, both platforms have benefits, both platforms are sexy, both platforms are a PITA at certain levels. Photoshop CS3 runs *much* better on the PC side of a Mac, and even faster on my new VIAO. Premiere runs like shit on a Mac. Keynote is so much better on a Mac, and so is After Effects. Lightroom runs better on the PC side of my Macbook. Some like blondes, some like brunettes, some like redheads, and I happen to love Motion, DVDStudioPro, and AfterEffects. Oh, and AvidXpress runs better on a Mac. On the PC side...I can't begin to enumerate the things you can do that a Mac can't. They're just tools, folks. But on the laptop side, no one has ever built a laptop as sexy as a Mac. Funny thing is, Sony built Apple laptops for a long time. Thank god my Powerbook isn't the piece of shit my iPod is (all 3 of them).

Sorta. ~not all camcorders will pass PAL. Sony has a number that will. ~Not all apps require the workflow you described. For example, Sony Vegas and Canopus Edius simply capture what is passed via 1394, which is just an Xfer protocol. Some NLE's demand matching protocol data, others don't. Premiere and FCP happen to be two that do (could it be due to both apps being written by the same team?) that said, all the rest you posted is very good info. Most folks won't know to turn off device control, and in the case of Premiere, it freaks when it is set to a framerate different than what the header from the camera tells it is coming in. Even with a PAL project, the camera sends an NTSC header, just as you described. No big thing to get around it.

I understand, but the first paragraph in the report says she was filming 2-way. The third paragraph says it was a tandem. Perhaps the person submitting the report felt that tandems are a 2-way?