DSE

Good to know. I would have thought that a snively canopy would take longer, not less time, because you're moving more slowly, not faster. I know the Cypres arms at 1500, but if you're exiting at 1500, wouldn't that mean it's armed give or take a few feet? I've had a couple dumps below 1500 and found myself concerned that my Cypress would fire, because my second canopy (PD 9cell) would snivel forever, so I was ready to chop in the event of a 2-out scenario.

If you have to go out at 1500 and you have an AAD, you'd likely want to go straight to silver to avoid 2 out. Even if you don't have an AAD, if you have a main that snivels for a while, coupled with sub-terminal speed, you might not have a good canopy over your head until you're only 400-500 feet AGL. Not a good scenario.

There are lots of "wrong" things you can do under canopy at your jump experience. I'd strongly urge you to talk to your instructors, the people who have watched you and know your skill level. What you've experienced is fairly normal and could go to hell quickly, but it's unlikely. Your instructors are best equipped to answer and point out how you should act/respond under these sorts of circumstances.

Can anyone explain to me why a smaller canopy of same model as a larger canopy would pack 'larger' than the bigger canopy? I've been jumping a 230 Silhouette. Just bought a 210 Silhouette, nearly the same colors with only two cells different than my 230. Same colors means same fabric density, yes? The 210 won't fit in the same container that fits my 230. Any ideas why?

is the chemical output from the smoke grenade safe for the nylon canopies? Have you tested to see what happens if residue or ejecta from the cartridge is allowed to make contact with F111 or ZP fabric?

yeah, I can remember saying that "once."

Glad to be of help.

CTRL+SHIFT+Q to insert new video track. Make selection in new video track that is equal in length to the length of title you'd like to create. Inside that selection, right-click and choose "Insert Text Media." Then type your text in the dialog that pops up. In the Text Tool dialog, there is a tab marked "Properties." Choose this tab and be sure the BACKGROUND color is pulled to the bottom, assuring the text has a transparent background/alpha channel. In the "Placement" tab, drag your title to the position you'd like it to occupy on the screen. Be mindful of the red lines indicating "safe title area" so that your titles don't run off-screen. Transition length is determined by how far you overlap media. In Vegas 6/7, you can see the length of time that the overlap occupies merely by looking at the Xfade/overlap, or you can double click the overlap to create a selection, which also indicates the length of the transition. Drag a transition from the transitions folder to the "X" that indicates the overlap/XFade. This opens a transition dialog box, allowing you to adjust all parameters of that transition. If you've closed the transition, hold your cursor over the transition indicator in the Xfade/transition, and click on when the cursor becomes a hand with a pointed finger. This reopens the transition dialog for further adjustment/tweaking. To output as an .avi file from Vegas: 1. Choose File 2. Choose Render As in the file dropdown 3. In the Render As dialog box there is a Save As Type dropdown. Choose "Video for Windows/avi." In the template, NTSC-DV should already be shown. If your movie is a standard 4:3 NTSC vid, then this is the correct format to render. If it's widescreen, choose the widescreen format. 4. Select the "SAVE" button in that dialog, your file will begin rendering. The bundle is version agnostic. It applies to all versions of Vegas. The advanced, separate DVDs deal with Vegas 7 specifics, but the Absolute series as a bundle, encompasses all standard features of Vegas 4, 5, 6, and 7. Hope this helps?

Actually, I have footage that Norman shot with the A1 (pro version of the HC1) and with his HVX at the same time. The A1 footage is better, IMO. The A1 footage was what went to CNN, ESPN, etc from the Jay Stokes event. Additionally, you *can* deliver HD on disc, right now. Nero Showtime, QT are available for many DVD player systems, and of course, BD and HD-DVD are delivering right now, except that there are no HD-DVD burners available. I'm burning BD discs with a variety of applications right now, lovin' what I can do. Additionally, HDV from the camcorder plugged straight to display, is no different than HDV from HDD to display. If you're referring to plugging the component outputs from the camcorder to the display during live preview, that's a very different animal. The signal is uncompressed 4:2:2 from the analog outputs, pre-compression for tape. Unusable except in a studio environment. In a non-Apple environment, HDV is the same filesize as DV, both are 13Mbps/3.6MBps, or 13GB per hour. Apple converts the footage to the AIC, or Apple Intermediary Codec/Quicktime. You can download full rez clips, including skydiving and paragliding clips shot in HDV, from our website, or from Sony's website (we shot the Xtreme sports clips found there) and use them with your NLE to test the performance. To edit/deliver HDV, you need a full resolution monitor that displays either full 720p or 1080p resolutions. For most skydiving purposes, I don't see what the HC3 is missing, unless you're talking about walkup and after-jump interviews for tandem shooting. The HC3 has a badly designed front end for audio. Outside of that, I love it for it's size, but I jump the A1 for most stuff. We recently shot a spec piece for Verizon Wireless using the A1 and HC3 at same time, and very pleased with the output of both. Bear in mind that the HC1 is discontinued, so if you want one, you'll have to hunt.

Steven, Vegas 6 (now 7) is a pretty powerful app; there are books, training DVDs, and lots of free tutorials on the app. http://www.vasst.com has about 1600 resources for Vegas, some paid and most free. If you want to purchase something there, use the code "dropzone" to save $$ I'm also happy to answer any specifics you might have on Vegas here on the forum.

Read the reviews very carefully. Many will advertise low prices, but won't actually ship you the camera until you agree to buy overpriced extras. ($100 charger, etc..). I'm a big fan of B & H personally. B&H, Shoreview, Adorama, they're all good dealers. Greymarket/non-Sony dealers will sell refurbs with no warranty, or sell the camera, but want extra for box, charger, cables, battery, etc. About the lowest "real" cost that I've seen is around 1200.00 from an authorized dealer

Congrats for passing; be sure to put these same notes in your logbook. Someday, you'll be sharing them with another newbie.

Funny this came up... Was in Picton last week, and a group of freeflyers started screaming "GO!" during jump run. I was supposed to have been doing a 2way, but my partner got a little freaked by the yelling (never had heard that before) and she left before me. We caught up in mid air, and then were promptly bitched at on landing for being too close to a 4 way team. On the other side of that, jumped out in Nagambie, trusting the spot (after all, the previous jump had been fine

Hawaii, anyone?

Nero works great too. Forgot that one. It's got a superior encoder to *almost* anything that's out there, IMO. Blows QT, Squeeze, Handbrake, etc away by quite a bit. But it costs.

You just need an encoder to MP4 Sony Vegas can import the DVD, and output to iPod. You'll need the Platinum or Pro version. PQiPod works great too, and if you're a Mac user, you can use HandBrake to rip the DVD and encode to mp4 http://handbrake.m0k.org/

while the HC3 is of course, a top mount, saw a very unique rig in Sydney/Picton where a guy had one side mounted with cut-out foam on the right side, and a modified Dbox on the left side of cam. tricky, but it worked for him. I'd hoped to buy one of Cookie's boxes while I've been touring Australia, but Cookie wasn't around. I'm sure it won't be long til someone has a commercial side box for these cams, even though they're a bit clutzy to mount from side.

The concern about switching tapes is (these days) significantly more limited, if a concern at all. At one time, BASF lubricated their tape with powder to prevent it from sticking. This is known as "wet tape." BASF made perhaps 30% of all tape out there, regardless of whose housing and brand name it was under. Wet tape doesn't exist any longer; but there are of course, older tapes still kickin around. The upshot is that if you start shooting wet tape, you must stick with it. If you started shooting dry tape, you never want to switch. It hasn't been an issue for about 4 years, but as mentioned, there are probably stacks of old wet tape lying on someone's shelf that they shot, and you'll not want to put that in your cam. The easiest way to avoid crossing tape is to avoid shifting brands.

News falls under Fair Use. Very different scenario. All respect to LawRocket, he's not an IP attorney, which is one of the most lucrative and challenging Gordian knots in the legal profession today. Check with the 500.00$ per hour attorneys like Paul Tauger, Ned Hearn, Bill Evans. They'll each tell the same story. I'm not an attorney, but live in the world of clearances every day. Common sense doesn't apply when it comes to copyright law. Call Wanda Best at America's Funniest Home Video and see how easy it is to sell a non-news/world event video without permission of those in the vid. There are those that think it's legal to use "Free Fallin'" track on a tandem or for-sale skydiving video, too. Just cuz they "think" it doesn't make it right, legal, or accurate. There is a guy on our DZ currently jumping a 170 who *thinks* he can size down to a 120 with a couple hundred jumps. Maybe he can.

The new crop of cams are effectively out on the market, excepting Panasonic's new AVCHD cam, and I don't know that one is worth waiting for. The HC3 from Sony is still the best in the class for skydiving, IMO, Canon's just doesn't work. A preproduction model worked great, but production models just aren't cutting it; there are problems with the OIS even when disabled. Panasonic may have something, but the problem with AVC is that it's not supported at this time as an editing format. Sony announced last month that they'll offer a free update for Vegas users to edit AVC, but it will be painfully, excruciatingly slow due to the format. HDV is still the bomb for the "here and now" vs the "coming late '07/early 08'. AVC HD is half the bitrate and 4 times the processing horsepower of MPEG2, but offers stunning results for many uses at 15Mbps. Problem is, the more compressed the image becomes, the more likely the macroblocking, which makes deblocking images difficult. In other words, high speed/vibration creates challenges for the codec/encoder. Having jumped 3 AVC camcorders at this point, I'm not recommending them to anyone. yet.

First and foremost, an HD-acquired image will have significantly better results when downconverted to SD for DVD delivery than an SD-originated image whengoing to DVD. The colorspace of AVC and HDV are the same as delivered DVD, so there is no conversion/transcoding. BluRay (known as BD) is now available for desktop authoring, but it will be at least 2 years before the "average Joe" will have a BD player in his/her home. There are already 630 movies released on BD with more slated to release near Xmas of 2006. Walmart starts their big BD push in the spring of 07. Yes, you need an HD playback unit and HD display to seriously take advantage of the format, but given that the world is heading there now, you need to make a choice as to whether you want to be on the leading edge, on the top of the curve, or behind the curve. The biggest point (for now) is that HD acquired media today has a long shelf-life. SD-acquired media today has zero shelf life. That may or may not be important to you. My recommended workflow: Shoot HD Edit HD Deliver SD. If you get that great "once in a lifetime shot" you can string it off to any number of houses. If you're shooting for tandems, you could always hit folks up in the winter months with an HD display, or charge a little more for HD in the short term. We're at a time where you could go either way. Buying an SD camera today (in my mind) is simply nuts. If you have an SD camera today, use it til you have no choice but to move to HD.

Color range works well too. If it's for a website, .gif will allow for the transparency, so will .png, but .png isn't friendly with some browsers. Does this work?

I guess we'll just keep debating the subject. Try shooting on a street corner in NYC. I have/do. You *must* post a sign at all public access areas informing passers-by that their likeness may be photographed and/or filmed if they enter said area. The notice constitutes a blanket release. If you don't have this posted in highly visible areas, you will be cited, in addition to citings for not having permits, etc. Now try having McDonalds, MTV, Regency Theatre, or Marriott in the background without a release. That's the fast track to a lawsuit. Model releases are *not* related as much to right to privacy as to copyright protection; the very purpose of a model release is to notify the model that their likeness may be used in "XXX" manner, thus establishing the release holder's right to copy/profit/etc for the model's image in exchange for "XXX" compensation. Looking at 3 model releases (2 generated from Sony attorneys, 1 generated as a template from who knows where), not one of them suggests anything about privacy/right to privacy. A release is just that. "If you compensate me, you get to use my image." Compensation could range from written credit to high $$ to a crazy weekend in bed in Maui. I'd submit that common sense suggests exactly that. If releases were at all about privacy, you think that all the young starlets who signed releases years ago, would be able to prevent nude pix of themselves from surfacing? Or find a way to profit from the release of said images? Of course not. They released, and were compensated for nude images of themselves when they were 18-20something, and now they're famous at 25something, and don't want the pix released. But they can't stop the images, because they released. They signed away their rights to their likeness for compensation. Common sense indicates that's how it should work. If you are photographing for commercial work: 1. You must notify the subject you're photographing them. (Many dropzones have this in their waiver already) 2. You must either compensate, or stipulate away compensation for use of said image. 3. You must express/determine who holds rights to said images. Dropzone may have it in their waiver that photographs may be taken/used in any manner, but then the question arises of who owns the image. If the DZ is collecting money on behalf of themselves and paying the vidiot from the DZ, then it's quite arguable that the vidiot is an employee of the DZ, and therefore the photographs/video is generated as a Work For Hire, so the DZ owns the images. If the customer chooses the vidiot, pays the vidiot, then the customer technically could claim Work For Hire, but in the absence of a written WFH agreement, the copyright would be held by the photographer, excepting certain circumstances. It's actually pretty cut and dried as far as US law goes. As a side conversation, I spoke to an Australian IP attorney about this in a session yesterday; Australian law is identical. Without a written release in some form, the image is very open to legal action on the part of the subject. Without a Work for Hire agreement, the photographer owns the rights to images. But, the US and Australia aren't France; the source of the original question.

I've got about 150 jumps on a Silhouette 230, love it. Sweet, soft openings, very responsive, lands great, although it took me a few landings to completely figure it out so I wasn't running hard to stay standing. Now I've got a 210 as the next canopy in my progression; My exit weight is approx 215 or just a hair less,depending on which set up I'm wearing. I transitioned to it very easily. BTW, I went from a PD 230 9 cell to the Silhouette 230, but the flight characteristics are radically different. I wish I knew why the Silhouette isn't more popular, because after jumping several of the larger canopy models, it was my fave.