bmcd308

>>two fatalities recently caused by cutaway cable not clearing the housing on one side

How much excess cable do you guys have beyond the white loop? My cutaway cables both disappear into the housing well before I reach even half extension on my right arm. My riser channels are only about 6 inches long, and the cables do not even make it to the ends of the channels. Four or five inches of handle pull will clear the yellow cable from the white loop even on the left side. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

It was a stunt. I do not think that it is a big deal. The real question is whether you would make a skydive with a Nintendo that you would not make without one. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

>>what is the difference? 1.8 makes the image sharper?!

I was going to get a 20D today, but the deal has expired. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Know anyone who hunts coyotes? They have big IR illuminators. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Why 200? The effective shutter speed for the subject is determined by the duration of the flash, which in this case is very very short. 200 might be faster than his camera's max sync speed - typically Canon only gives 1/90 on the Rebel series. If the shutter speed is faster than the max sync speed, there will be an area of the frame at the bottom where the shutter was not open when the flash fired (i.e. a dark band). A longer shutter speed will give more of those light trails. The suggestion of going to Manual focus is a good one. The camera will not fire the flash as a focus assist, so you'll have more charge to fire the flash. You can't do manual flash on any of Canon's built-in flashes, so you'll be using E-TTL. My advice? f5.6; 1/90; manual focus - focus at about or just short of the distance you think you'll be shooting - evaluative metering. E-TTL will take care of the flash exposure. Try to put your subjects in gray jumpsuits (or at least something the camera thinks is grey). EDITED to fix spelling and a technical problem. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

My reserve deployed but would not fly straight due (I guess) to a manufacturing error. I used almost full toggle deflection on one side to keep it straight and landed no flare. Fortunately, my reserve wl is low, so it was not a big deal. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

That is a link to a post by me. I only know about Canon cameras. While what I said may apply to Nikon bodies as well, I do not know firsthand. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

I strongly suspect a scam. The XT is holding its price of $850 + at all the reputable dealers. I will guess that if you contact the advertiser, they will tell you that $400 is for hte body only, which you cannot get without also buying the other items normally included in the box, which add $450 + to the price. Then your card will be charged and you will never receive the merchandise. When you complain that you never received it, they will charge your card again, adding another $100 for handling this time, and send you a camera that does not work. When you return that, they will charge you a 15% restocking fee, then go out of business. There are lots of photo equipment scams out there. Be very careful. It is worth paying 80% of retail to get it from B&H or Adorama. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Judy - Did you ever actually send off for your dead turkeys? I have never actually memorialized mine other than to get Chris to sign them in my logbook for licenses. Maybe I'll send the USPA still more $ to be an "official" RW jumper. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Just a reassuring note - at WFFC, someone dropped a wad of jump tickets and cash, and it was turned in to manifest. I am sure for every story like this you can find another that goes the other way, but I have found that most skydivers (and a far higher % than the general public) are really good people who care about each other. That being said, when buying gear, be careful to get gear that is suitable for your purposes as defined by you, your instructors, and your rigger, not by the seller. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

West Tennessee Skydiving $20 to between 14K and 14.5K depending on Mike's mood, with the following caveats: $2 discount before noon (Mike likes us up early) $10 discount on any jumps manifested before 8 AM - usually only one available per day (Mike really likes us up really early) When Mike is not there the Cessna is $18 to 12.5K. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

WFFC STAFF Snowwhite (Beth ) RevJim Load Organizers Flyangel2 LouDiamond VENDORS Lou Diamond-BirdMan Going to be there Airmail Alanab anothergoodin antifnsocial Bgill bmcd308 bobsled92 CieloDiosa fallinwoman frenchy Kai2k1 Kris- FlockinA MrJones mwbad1 mx757 rev jim rhino skymedic skysprite snowwhite tweak Vallerina wingnut brothermuff65 Freeflyin Nicki 2Fat2Fly bobsled92 RoadRash windcatcher weegegirl Hoping to be there N2SKDVN kansasskydiver Peej Piisfish wrongway ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Look up billvon's "surviving the WFFC" post from way back. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

I have. EDITED to add: Oops. Mine was below 25. 20K out of the Mullins KA at WFFC. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Yeah, the angle of view of the lens is so wide that a portion of the foreground is actually in shadow where the flash is blocked by the top of the lens. It appears as a curved dark area in the foreground at the bottom of the picture. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

It would on film. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

Does the lens itself throw a shadow on any portion of the image with a cropped camera? On film, it would. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

One of the things we have lost as photogs with the advent of high quality zoom lens is a distance scale for the focus ring - you would need a different scale for every focal length. Soooo, we have to go even lower tech. If you use a HF calculator to determine that at f/8 your HF distance is 2m, you AF on something 2m away and then switch the lens to MF and don't touch the focus ring anymore. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

When I look at all the folks at the dz who have gotten filthy rich teaching AFF, it makes me think they should all work for free. Oh, the injustice of it all - the AFF Instructors, vidiots, and TMs with their expensive Italian cars, silk suits, vacation homes, and motor yachts. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

We have a couple of real, honest-to-goodness accuracy jumpers at my dz. Landing behind them is sometimes like wrestling a water mattress. But they are doing their thing, and it's everyone else's job to get out of the way. They try to be courteous and land last and good stuff like that, but sometimes, only one person gets to land exactly where I want to, and it's not always me. One of the responsibilities that comes with going fast is an obligation to avoid those who have not made the same choice. Brent ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

>>stop down metering>Just set a relatively narrow aperture for good DOF>HF distance>throw it on Av>choose an ISO that gives reasonable shutter speeds>and blaze away

No. There will be much less friction at the adapter. Edited to Add: Even looking back at it again after reading the other posts, it still appears to me that there will be less friction. I realize I could be wrong, but I'll hold what I've got for the moment. Edited again to add: I guess you are right. Applying tension to the strap would pinch the webbing at the running end just the same. ---------------------------------- www.jumpelvis.com

>>the Zenitar is a fully manual lens