DSE

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Everything posted by DSE

  1. DSE

    Spectre?

    DSE replied to DSE's topic in Gear and Rigging

    Jumped a Spectre for the first time today; I'd been told that it has tremendous openings, always on heading, etc. and is a great "general" purpose canopy that can seriously fly if pushed. My opinion (after only two jumps) is that while it is indeed wonderful at opening, on heading both jumps, even though I packed it differently for each jump....it's a sluggish canopy that doesn't offer much in the way of response to hard turn input (both harness and toggle), and doesn't flare as nicely as I'd been told. Coupla caveats; It's a demo, so it's spankin' new and maybe isn't trimmed out like it might be were it a purchased canopy. Also, winds were very high today, so both jumps were within 15-20 mph winds. The penetration of the 170 Spectre was slightly less than my Silhouette. Am I expecting too much, or is the Spectre really just an "all around/general purpose canopy" that might be great for accuracy, but not much performance for anything else?
  2. DSE
    Nice summation.
  3. DSE
    the problem is absolutely your proc. Even tho HDV carries an identical bitrate to DV, it is significantly more compressed (20:1 vs 5:1) and requires a lot of CPU to decode it. System configuration on older machines is hyper critical, but an old Sempron is gonna push the limits for HDV anyway. It's somewhat difficult to have a discussion that contains quads and Semprons in the same paragraph with regard to speed. Additionally, Premiere Pro 2.0 and later are significantly better optimized for HDV, whereas PP1.5 is not.
  4. DSE
    OK, with some workflow definitions, either way you raise a valid concern, as you can't output DV from any AVCHD camcorder. Digital workflow for Vegas (and most NLE's) ~Transfer media from card to computer HDD (regardless of HD or SD) ~Place media on timeline ~Edit ~Render to MPEG 2 The render to MPEG2 is going to take longer than DV to MPEG, simply because of the transcode. The image will of course, be more accurate and won't suffer colorspace conversion like it does when going DV to MPEG. In short, unless you have a very fast computer, the time you save in transfer from tape vs card, is negated when the time for transcode/render occurs.' That said, at the time of this writing, no app in the world can render transcoded frames faster than Vegas 8. Also bear in mind that if you're doing a longer project, you can use the VASST GearShift plugin for Sony Vegas to create DV proxies with color sample corrections applied.
  5. DSE
    Haven't shot in SD mode, can't see a single benefit to doing so. As far as your point about conversion, you'll likely be transferring to SD via analog cables, yes? If so, the composite out is always SD anyway. Composite can't carry an HD signal. To answer the question that has come via PM at least 6 times....there is no firewire/ilink/1394 port on this camera or accompanying dock. You'll use it either via card transfer (most efficient) or composite transfer (least efficient). IMO, using this camera for analog transfer makes it a silly purchase for skydiving, because the benefit is the card, which translates to speed and no tape. If you're doing real-time transfers, I'd recommend you go cheap and buy a DV camcorder. The CX7 has fades in it, and that's about it.
  6. DSE
    HDV vs DV with the right app makes zero difference to the editing system. DV=25Mbps HDV=25Mbps Decoding HDV is app-dependent and if the app isn't efficiently written, then it can't decode quickly. Edius, Sony Vegas, Avid Liquid are all incredibly efficient, and editing HDV is just like editing DV. I wouldn't worry too much about most of the issues mentioned above either, it's great advice, but I'd sneak in a comment that Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas both take advantage of quads, multi-quads, etc. Remember that XP can't address more than 2GB at a time (RAM). Fast CPU, reasonable RAM, fasst/large HDD will set you up nicely.
  7. DSE
    uneven air pressure with steep shifts coupled witth an unstable environment is cited as one of the causes. As far as EIS/DIS vs OIS...there are several methods of how the EIS can work ranging from pixel tracking to vector mapping. OIS doesn't affect resolution to the extent that EIS does, and therefore it looks "worse" because there is more information there. Cheaper OIS systems only measure pitch and yaw, no third dimension/roll is part of the system, and I *believe* this is part of the cause as well. EIS isn't as prone to roll issues, because it's measuring redundant pixels vs pixels that have moved in previous frames. I don't have empirical data to support my belief, and until the day arrives that I can spend the $$ to jump with a measuring chart and a few cams...I likely won't know for certain. but I'd sure like to try it.
  8. DSE
    http://www.yosemite.org/newsroom/clips1999/october/102399a.htm Google Jan Davis and El Capitan for lots more. HW I didn't realize she was Tom Sanders wife. I knew some of the story, but not all. Thanks for the info.
  9. DSE
    thanks. There is a celebration for a person here with a few fixed-object jumps (he would shudder to be considered a B.A.S.E. jumper), but he did do a few jumps from El Cap and apparently was assigned a #. I wanted to surprise him at his event by having his # on a cake or something similar. Super interesting thread... Wasn't there a woman a few years back that proclaimed how safe it was to jump from El Cap and jumped in front of the media, etc...and didn't pull?
  10. DSE
    You also lose a full third (or more, depending on the method) of your resolution. As far as the OIS, you can switch it off. Did some sit in Deland this weekend, and didn't have any issues with it. No head down, mine sucks, so can't offer good commentary there. I also think *some* of the stability issues are helmet related, and had long discussions on this subject over the weekend with a friend. He flies an OIS camera in sit, stand, headdown, backfly on a daily basis and has no issues, but his helmet is huge, and camera doesn't get hit with the burble that some helmets might not protect from as well.
  11. DSE
    I don't think skydivers are any different than any other social group. There are those in a group that will shun you for no longer participating in the group, and those that will wonder what has caused the change in your lack of participation, and still those that don't care whether you're participating or not, they care for you and want to include you in their lives. If that's not your experience, then maybe you're not extending yourself out to them, either. As far as theft, etc...it's happened to me as well. Small DZ, but have had several DVDs, a ProDytter, dozens of blank DVDs and CDs, and other things go missing. I've had to put a new lock on my locker to prevent it, but it's not made me paranoid or angry at people at the DZ; some people compulsively steal when given the opportunity. So, it's up to me to prevent the opportunity. Can't disagree with the concept of doing something nice, even if it's just a "how are ya" call to someone who hasn't been very active recently.
  12. DSE
    Aside from the normal comments about jump numbers.... if it's really, really cheap there is no reason you'd not be OK with it. It's a very small sensor camera that no one builds a box for, that is discontinued by JVC. But if it's cheap, and you want to shoot video...it would work. Bear in mind, no LANC for a HypEye/indicator connection, no remote stop/start. No box.
  13. DSE
    I'm an example of that....I met Norman, and had jumped twice with him, before I knew his last name. He jumped with my daughter for her 25th jump, sans camera. Norman is also a terrific instructor. I just spent several days training with Norman, and his method of teaching is inspiring and efficient. It's obvious he's done a lot of it.
  14. DSE
    I have an NP50...it fits fine. Don't have the larger 70, and without measuring, I'd be surprised if it would fit, but it might. It would be a very tight fit.
  15. DSE
    Bear in mind that the HC3/5/7 and to a limited degree, the CX7 have more width than the previous DV counterparts. I can't imagine buying a helmet for one of these cameras knowing that Sony is just about done with this body design. With the cam being wider, the box is still more wide, which in my mind, translates to riser slap potential, but....if you're good with that...then maybe this is a good alternative. If it opens up far enough so you can open the LCD panel without the door/cover being in the way of the controls, it'll be interesting to see.
  16. DSE
    Well, if you don't need a camera tomorrow, then I'd wait. AVCHD will eventually settle out. No application currently supports all flavors of AVCHD, Panasonic has their own flavor, while Sony and Canon have their own versions (that are compatible with each other).
  17. DSE
    my take on the CX7 Bottom line, if you can deal with no LANC, it's a decent camera. *IF* you have a fast computer and software that supports AVCHD
  18. DSE
    Very nice. Norman has been an inspiration to many, and probably responsible via his images, for many people being aware of skydiving.
  19. DSE
    It's already dead. No manufacturer is building a DV only camera. Of course, I know you mean the end of DV tape, and that too....is nearly dead. Sony have just announced one more HDV on top of two other new cams they've announced, and Canon is expected to offer one more. Other than that.... AVCHD is coming on hard, but HDV will be with us for a while longer.
  20. DSE
    You don't need to (and shouldn't) deinterlace if you're burning to DVD for settop playback. The difference however, is UFF vs LFF. Premiere CS3 definitely has much better time-remapping, but that doesn't translate better to conversion.
  21. DSE
    Don't use Premiere Pro CS3. Seriously. Sony Vegas and Canopus Edius do great conversions. So does Rhozet, but it's horribly expensive for a single task. Even the 50.00 version of Vegas does a great job at conversion. Perfectly smooth conversions are not really possible with software, but hardware can achieve this. You're upsampling from 50 fields per second to 60 fields per second, so there will be some motion interpolation. However, resampling are what Vegas is all about. Download their demo, you'll love it. Otherwise, buy a Faroujda box.
  22. DSE
    Does anyone out there have an actual record of the numbers assigned to El Cap jumpers? If so, please PM me?
  23. DSE
    There are some consumerware apps such as Magix and AIST that allow for USB capture, and Osprey makes an older-style capture card that allows for USB capture as well.
  24. DSE
    I think you meant to say "Caravan?"
  25. DSE
    Ler us know if that works... firewire worked just fine...so idk wtf was up with the usb problem....guess i'll just be firewire'n it from now on As was posted *numerous* times in another thread where someone didn't want to buy a Firewire cable... Firewire/1394/iLink has its own system resources, where USB does not. USB on many systems cannot sustain the 3MBps/25Mbps datastream required for solid capture due to shared resources. Most NLE systems will not support USB for this very reason. USB has some great benefits, but capturing video isn't one of them.