DSE

In my case, I allow him to chase, with the understanding that he's never to come within 100 feet of me or the tandem, and that he be within my line of sight at all times. However, the TI's don't seem to mind him being in their face when there isn't a camera slot flying. After seeing so many of these "oops" vids, I'm rethinking my approach.

I agree....a packer isn't a staff member. At our DZ, neither are videographers. Unless you're an AFF instructor, TI, etc, you aren't staff. That said, am I the only one that has an issue with this kid (regardless of his skills) either chasing or taking camera slot with tandems?

Depending on OIS vs EIS, I use it. EIS, always. OIS, usually. On a tripod, you'll find it hunts and tries to stabilize when there is nothing to stabilize. Canon has made some advances that reduce the issue, but how often are you jumping with a tripod? You shouldn't have any vignetting with most lenses? if your lens shows vignetting, it's likely very low resolution anyway, so you shouldn't notice any loss of resolution due to stabilization because it's no longer there.

yup. It has to be reset every 12 hours. No way to make it 'stick.'

If I were you, I'd not be taking pictures. Set the camera for multi-exposures over time. If I were me...my assistant would be sure I was doing my job. Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. Looking forward to meeting some of y'all down the road.

And what if they *are* a staff member? Say, a full-time packer that has 70 jumps, who wants to practice camera slot before he starts wearing a helmet....do you let this guy go or not?

I love the really descriptive ads too. ....great rig for beginners..... No canopy/reserve size, brand, picture... There was recently a wingsuit ad. No size, no model number, no manufacturer, no colors, no photo, but it was good for a 5'10' guy at no listed weight. That said, why bother with trivialities like size, condition, color, location, price, etc? If folks really wanna know, they'll chase you down, right?

Hopefully you're not accepting the lack of data as an indicator that a turn isn't costing you air. While I'm sure you're not turning this aggressively, bear in mind that a deep 180 can eat up 400' depending on a number of factors. My Altitrack coupled with Jumptrack _very_ clearly shows both snappy toggle turns and deep carving turns. I'm sure a Neptune shows much the same. Just be careful out there. At 26 jumps....you still don't know what you don't know.

There is a *huge* difference between making exceptionally minor corrections (such as modifying a landing because a dog stepped in your path), adjusting for a gust, and making a 90 degree turn down low. Additionally, a hard 90 at 100' can be significantly too low if you aren't very clear on what you're doing and how you're doing it. In fact, an aggressively hard 90 at 100' could almost be a guarantee to break a lot of bones. One of the _first_ things you should have learned in your AFF is how much altitude may be lost in a turn. Low turns also generate speed. Some folks/most students aren't equipped to handle a lot of speed at landing time. The bigger point is, because it works for _you_ doesn't mean it will work for everyone.

XP ships with Movie Maker too. And new versions of XP Pro ship with Movie Maker 2. for free...it's a decent little app.

Low turns are more responsible for more incidents than anything else, ranging from newbies to very experienced jumpers, small to very large canopies. I'd submit you've been lucky turning low thus far, but luck does eventually run out. Hopefully you won't have already developed a habit when it does. If you are experienced and/or have been trained in flat turns and braked turns, canopies and pilots can turn a 180 at 300' (altitude mentioned by OP), and everyone should be able to turn a 90 at that altitude. But it's not something you're going to learn on DZ.com, students should consult an instructor that knows the canopy, winds of the day, and ability of the student at the time of the question being asked.

Pinnacle is now owned by Avid. Their Liquid product is great although a system hog, their Studio line is pretty poor and trouble-ridden, IMO. I'd avoid it in favor of Ulead, Sony, or Adobe for low-cost software alternatives.

Given that I *currently* own three Silhouettes, I guess you could say I've "chosen one." I've got approx 500 jumps on the Silhouettes, but have also kept an open mind for various canopies. I went straight from a PD230 9 cell to a Silhouette 190 on the recommendation of Sparky, and have been quite pleased. I'll jump the Spectre for one more day, but my feeling is that the canopy isn't nearly as responsive as the Silhouette. Second jump, I took a wrap to see if the brake lines were simply too long. I think I could probably go three wraps to get a better attack on the turns. With one wrap, the brake was nearly to a stall length (down near my waist) before the canopy would give me an aggressive turn. Yes, front risers are easier on the Spectre, but I'd expect them to be. I'll give it one more go.

Well...Canon has had three body types in the past year, JVC has had two in the past year, with a third announced but not shipping. Panasonic is somewhat stable in what they're doing. Outside of Panasonic, Canon, JVC, and Sony, I don't pay much attention. Sony have stayed the body course with the HC series outside the HC1...Canon perhaps strayed the furthed from model to model, going from vertical to horizontal body type. But since Sony is by far the most-used brand in skydiving....

Riser slap is an "issue" with all sidemount cameras. Whether or not it may affect you is another story. A sidemount will have a different impact on your neck than a topmount will, but again...that's a personal choice one way or another. The bigger concern (IMO) is that if you purchase a helmet built around a specific camera, what happens when that specific camera breaks and it's already been discontinued by the manufacturer? A quick read on this forum shows that this is a fairly significant issue, and given that no manufacturer is consistent any longer with camera sizes/styles, it is a valid consideration.

You know it's all dubbed, right? This pastor/preacher/whatever has sued to have these taken off the web. It's just a couple of guys that see how Tilton preaches and they take advantage of his speaking cadence and the faces he makes.

I understand what you're saying, but again...Windoze isn't as different from Apple as they'd have you think. At one time, Windows was far and away less intuitive than anything Apple did. Now...they're about the same. Any other point of view is likely due to marketing skew. At one time, I struggled with moving from one to the other, every day it was one machine for some tasks and another machine for other tasks. Today, it's still the same way, but they both share the same network, same HDD's, same servers, and the UI's aren't all that different. PC's are just as "make something out of the box" as anything Apple does, and in some ways, moreso. iLife is a great app, but Windows offers most of the same functionality. Then add in many third-party apps that are dirt-cheap, and you've got more power. So then the argument became that Apple was impervious to virus'. This too, is a myth. Because of Microsoft having nearly the entire computer world in their back pocket, every virus writer was shooting at the biggest target. But the marketing by the Apple fanboys (Apple was too smart to make much hay in this area) has turned the heads of virus writers to Apple's systems as well, and now they're a target too. Apple 'puters are better looking, no doubt. However, if Sony or Alienware could come up with a laptop that looks and operates like my MacBook, I'd probably forget my Macbook and go that direction instead. Back to topic, today in 2007, it's inaccurate to believe that anything creative is easier (or harder) on an Apple vs PC. At the low end, they're about the same. At the high end, they both have advantages/disadvantages over one another. But PC still owns the price arena though (on the low end).

A couple more jumps...this just isn't the canopy for me. It's smooth and soft on the open, on heading, but not terribly responsive, not in the way I'm familiar with. It lands nicely, easy to hit a mark with, and maybe trimmed correctly, has a great flare. I'll stick with the Silhouette. If I was doing a lot of demos, then it probably would be my choice, however.

Yeah, well....as someone whose company is format-agnostic, FCP, Soundtrack, DVDSP, Motion, Shake, and all the other accompanying software has a lot of updates too. The days of Mac being for creatives and PC's being for accountants are long over. Both have their plusses and minuses. I'm grateful every day for Bootcamp and Parallels on my MacBook Pro.

There is also the

Well-dubbed video. This is the fifth in the series, by far the best yet, IMO. No wonder Tilton has threatened to sue YouTube and Google, these are pretty good.

Most every app in the PC world will run on Vista 32. Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Canopus Edius. Avid Xpress is not Vista-certified yet. Very few run well or at all on Vista 64, or if they do run, they can't take advantage of 64 bit. Sony Vegas Movie Studio or Adobe Premiere Elements are good starter apps, IMO.

Amen. Twice I've seen very close calls w/tandems, and both times it left me resolved to never allow lurkers unless I know the person lurking very, very well. That said...I'm also amazed at how some DZ's will allow low-number jumpers that are popular people to jump with tandems. Specifically, we have a kid who is a really great kid, practicing camera slot or chasing tandems at 75 jumps. He doesn't wear a camera, but it leaves me shaking my head in wonder.

"Freefying" hadn't started yet when it was shot. Free Fye Fo Fum.....thanks for the link, nice to see some good coverage!