Zlew

Trunk also makes an indicator for about 50 bucks you might think about. It doesn't have the control module to turn the camera on and off, but has the LED's that will show you if you are in standby/recording/error etc. For temp use, you could easily use a little gaffers tape to install it temporarily. I have one on my backup camera (will be upgrading to a 2nd hype-eye next season. and it works well. Don't have to second guess if you are recording or not but doesn't require any permanent installation.

I bet the cx100's are the same way, but the 150's will take memory sticks or SD cards. Usually can find better prices on SD. I usually use 16GB, and keep some 8 and 4's around for backups. I usually get the faster cards (class 10) but had some luck with a few of the slower ones also.

I jump 150's (bottom feed). I think the 100 and 110 are not bottom fed, but not sure. Don't know about the newer cameras.

Always watch out for scams when selling something online. I almost got hit with a pay pal scam a few years ago. The Cliff's notes version is they sent dummy e-mails that looked like fund transfer verifications from Paypal (looked real, right return addresses etc.). After a closer look, and logging into my paypal, I found that no funds had moved, and the e-mail was bogus/scam.

I am looking at getting another wide angle lens for my back up camera (currently shoot a century .55 for 4 way), and came across this while Sony Stalking http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666066722 Anyone seen you used one of these? .8x, claims to be HD... looks low profile and is 100 bucks... Not sure how I feel about .8X...but might be a good middle ground between no lens and the .55.

Niklas Daniel got some cool outside pics of our team (all 5 of us!) in ELoy a month or so ago.

just built a new FTP, and used hypoxic's kit. Worked great. http://www.gethypoxic.com/browse/ringsights.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=21&category_id=8

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/838768-REG/Canon_M50_HF_M50.html Canon- no hypeye support i would think OIS- usually not good for jumping. Kinda spendy (600+)

Depends on how zoomed you have the 10-22. At 10MM, I would think you would need something close to fisheye (.3ish?), and at 22 you would probably be pretty close to a .5 or so). I haven't tested this out, just a guess.

I used to have a 97 (fly a 107 now). Would have purchased the 89 back then, but at that time it was the "secret" stiletto that wasn't advertised and you had to have a connection to get. I still really enjoy mine. It opens great, is fun to fly, lands great. I've dialed my "swooping" back to carving 90's or so (I'm getting too old to try to be the hotrod). For me it does everything I need. It isn't a modern style swoopers canopy, but there is a reason that it is still so popular 20 years or so after it was designed. Very responsive. I can float up with tandems in brakes... I wouldn't be opposed to getting another one when this one finally dies.

IMO- 4:3 has gone the way of the dodo. It's old style, old technology, lower resolution. Most new monitors are wide screen format and HD (or close to HD). I don't know if you can even buy new 4:3 TV's anymore. I don't own anything that displays 4:3 native resolution anymore. Now t hat HD TV's are the norm, wide format is also the norm. I'm sure there are still plenty of 4:3 tv's and monitors out there... but to me it is like black and white TV's when I was a kid. Sure there were still some older BW tv's...and sure you could still watch a show or movie on them... but I didn't want to rent a movie, or watch a broadcast in black and white if I didn't have to.

For the box, the Cookie boxes are really nice. I've been very happy with mine. easy to open/close, but secure. great fit for the camera, well made etc.

It's not just the extra area, it she shape and rigidity of the area that give you the power. add on top of that the ability to angle/rudder them into the relative wind for turns and the power and maneuverability can be very noticeable. Keep the rigidity in mind when considering your question about flippers/tracking.

Sony has them on their site. find your cam and click the specs tab. example : http://tinyurl.com/3ebrxkk

Parachutist had an article on jump run speeds long ago. As I remember the Casa was the fastest, with the skyvan not far behind. Something like 110kts IAS, and talk of actually having to slow down to terminal after exiting. The vids from the b-25 tail exit are pretty sweet!

+1 The gopro stills I have seen, and the frame grabs from the other digital video cameras are good enough for "web use" (facebook photos and such) but are not good enough for an 8x10 to hang on your wall. I think they will get there before too long, but right now DSLR's and gopro stills are still in different leagues. If you are selling them as "stills"... i'd be disappointed as a customer if that was a 50 or 60 $ up charge, or part of a $100 package. For casual pics of your friends and such... the pics are just fine.

1.- It depends on several things from the aircraft, type of exit, and the pilot. Usually climbout speeds are in the 75 to 100 kts range (give or take). I'm not sure all of the planes actually slow down as much as the stop climbing and pull the power back. I've been in 182's that didn't actually slow the plane down at all. They would pull the power back to reduce the prop blast, but actually descend a little bit to maintain the same airspeed they had during climb. It feels slower (sounds slower too) to the jumper, but from an airspeed over the wings standpoint, the plane is flying the same speed. I've been in larger planes that pull the power back and maintain altitude, and also don't really slow down from their climb airspeed (same speed, less power, no climb, if that makes sense).

I'm not a heavy jumper, and for me the wings are not just about fallrate. IMO, good tandem footage really shows off the student, and to get good shots of their face, typically the camera needs to be below the student looking slightly up. If you shoot them on level, you just see the tops of their heads, not their faces. Anyway, one way to get that angle is to "hang" on your wings. You can set up close and a foot or two low and in a head high attitude. You can use the wings to allow you to not backslide, and maintain fallrate at that unusual angle of flight. In some cases, sure, it is great to have them to slow you down when shooting a small tandem student and tandem instructor, but that's not the primary reason I fly with them. For outside video, the other piece of flying with wings can also have to do with the body position you can fly in by allowing you to use the wings as your primary fall rate control instead of your arch (allowing you to keep a stable platform for the video, and fly in body positions that would otherwise make it difficult to match fall rate and shoot good footage). So it's not just about being able to go slower with wings... it's about giving you other ways to control your fall rate than you might be used to, and gives you range in different body positions/ flight attitudes.

After I had a few conversations with my canopy guru at the time, and was ready to accept his terms. His angle was that if you wanted to start "surfing" you had to be comfortable with the fact that it's not an issue of if you are going to get hurt landing, but when. I think I had about 150 jumps when I started pulling double front risers just a hair to build up speed. Slowly progressed to pulling down more and more after learning how long it took the canopy to recover. Then I moved into small turns (double fronts, to like 45 degree turns) probably around 250 jumps. I don't think I was really setting the canopy into a steep dive and doing more significant turns until 300-400 jumps. Even then most of my approaches were 90 degree turns (tame by today's standards). I'm not sure what the current best practice is for learning to build speed for landing, but at the time my progression was somewhat conservative. I don't see people starting with double fronts much anymore, but that was where I started and at the time I think it helped.

http://forum.altimaster.com/content.php?145-N3A-Product

I still use my logbook, but almost out of habit. When I started jumping full time, I stopped filling out the wordy logbook entries. I don't jump full time anymore, but the way I fill out my logbook is the same as it was. On one page I log the date, DZ, basic info, and list all the jumps (just by number) and usually not much more. Sometimes a note like "vid for 4 way team" , but not much more than that. So there is no objective, if it was successful, who was on the jump etc. in my log book. I don't think a log book or a protrac can really prove you were on a jump, or are current(both can be easily faked). When I was newer in the sport, I wrote a book for each and every jump; but I haven't done that in a really long time. If that is important to you, the by all means use the logbook over an audible/tracker. I do use ParaLog, but not really for logging as much as looking at the freeffall/canopy data and charts. I think you can not only add all the info you listed above (jump type etc.) but you can even add photos and other notes. That could also be an alternative to a paper logbook that gives you more than just the actual tracker/audible.

How many photos? Dropbox says it works for PC/Mac. I haven't tried it, but in theory it should work and is free. *edit- I use it all the time for PC stuff, I just haven't tried it from PC/Mac...but it says it should work fine. http://www.dropbox.com/

"skytrash" can be any skydiver who is out of control, or who doesn't fly well. In this case, I was referring to the "student". I am not a TI; and I speak from my own experiences as someone who has exited with many hundreds of tandems being paid to shoot video/stills. I realize some might take the term skytrash as being derogatory for a tandem passenger., and there is validity in that position. It may not be PC, but I've seen "students" without realizing it cause huge problems in freefall that put them and the TI (and video) at risk. I've witnessed many a skilled TI fight tooth and nail to keep the "student" in front of them form putting them in dangerous situations. So it may not be PC, but my comment was meant to demonstrate that TI's have a lot to deal with on the skydive by having someone who doesn't know how to skydive strapped to the front of them.

I think in the next few years we will be able to do it with just one camera. Things seem to be improving all the time, but they are not there just yet. The frame grabs we can get from most of the current cameras right now, IMO, rate in the mid level point and shoot quality. They are pretty good for web use, but not good enough for enlargements. I think in the next few years the quality will improve enough that the majority of camera fliers will only shoot video, and grab the stills from frame grabs. However there will almost always be a time/place for a true DSLR. Even if the video cameras can match the quality, there will always be times where the photographer will want or need the level of control control that a good DSLR and selection of lenses will provide. I only put my DSLR on when I really need to. I don't shoot for the school right now (tandems/aff's etc.) so unless there is a real specific need for stills....I just use my cx150 and grab the frames as needed. The pics get used often on facebook for profile pics and that type of stuff, and I have half the weight, half the snag hazard, half the $$, and other things to consider on top of my head. I also like to shoot inside video, and not having the DSLR up there makes that pretty easy to do also. I can post a link to example grabs if you would like to see. I hope the day where we can get good 6-10MP stills from frame grabs on the smaller format cameras isn't too far away.

Currently I keep all of the raw footage, and edited footage on a large HD (750GB) on my local machine. I also have a home server that backs up all of that data daily to a raid 10 array with plenty of room (4TB total right now). As the local disk gets full, I will move all the raw and edited footage to a folder on the server. I think the plan right now is to move everything older than either 6 months or 1 year permanently to the server. The main piece I am missing right now is offsite backup. I hope to get another external HD and at least backup my pics and videos to it, and keep it at a friends house.