Zlew

I'm not even sure that my camera has the function(PC5)...but My old PC 100 did have a switch for 3 different ways to shoot. Normal ( you push hte button, it rec's, push again it stops), 10 sec : push the button, it rec's 10 sec's and then stops. and also had one where you had to hold down the button for it to plaly at all and as soon as you let go of the button it stopped. On the PC 100 it was a horizontal switch by all of the night shot and other side mounted switches. You might see if that has anything to do with it. Z

I sight mine in with a TV and using the AV cable. THe wire can snake out of the openning of the D-box and into the VCR at the DZ. We have some marks on the walls to Zero in with, and I just use the TV's (Set up low on it like I do a tandem, and zero it that way). Its no fun to have to find someone to get you zero'ed....and nobody else can really get it the way you want it. I like the Cut away you showed. I have a bat Rack though, and have to un clamp the back (just pop the hing, not un thread) and undo one on the chin cups to get it off. I can do it really fast ( and parctice) but a quck release would be nice too. I might see if I can come up with something for the back hing. Very cool man. Blue skies Z

Must have been about as good of a feeling as Tech had winning at Kyle field this year. We never win at Kyle field! I'm going back to lubbock next weekend to see the Tech UT game with my college roomie. Should be a good time even if we get stomped. Z

The Laser....there has to be something more to it. Wanted to be a SEAL, or some other Spec opps guy... SWAT even maybe? that cracks me up man. It seems to be functional for you, but it looks like you had the toy (laser) and figured out a place to put it. I duct taped a laser pointer to my BB gun when I was a kid.... you and me.... I thinks' we'z a lot alike! Z

the 2000 has the 1/3 (three of them) inch CCD and the 950 has 3 1/4inch CCD's. 2000 also has the 58mm filter size (lense) where the 959 is a 37. Z

Congrats man, and now worries on the spewing. This summer the group I worked with had a tradition of drinking a pitcher in less than 3 mins when it was your first time to work a camp at that location. The guys who did it....some were big dudes (I'd say range from 180lbs- to one over 300). At every camp I went to only about 1 in 5 didn't barff. Stomach just isn't big enough. We always had a 50 gal. trash can right there..... thank god for that. I think the record was set this year at 32 seconds (and not a drop spilled or "given back"). Z

Actually they have a few. I think you are thinking of the VX 2000. the whole sony line can be seen (current production ) here http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=zlaU_Zqvjt6Uzqdjmvie9tWjmlD6bCk1VTI=?Dept=dcc&CatalogCategoryID=uoIKC0%2eNfc0AAADxK%2e5RHlfJ They used to make a 3 chip vertical camera... Imagine a $2000 3 chip camera that looks like a PC 100 (or 110, 120 etc). hope i didn't screw that link up.... Z

And sony LOVES your for it!!! Ever notice that the cameras only last about 8 months before the new mod's come out? SO... you wait a little while for the camera to come out, maek sure it's good for jumping...wait on bonehead to make a DBox.... get it..and in 4 months you are old school. Didn't sony used to offer a 3 chip PC style camera? what ever happend to it? Z

2 Cents.... I've seen many Mini DV cameras....I've seen footage on the same screen from PC1 PC7, PC5, PC 100, PC101, PC110, TRV (from the new biger CCD, to the old "lower quality" CCD's).... And honestly, I havn't been able to see a quality difference. BEFORE you guys go nuts, I'm not talking about looking at it on a projection TV, or a HD... or anything like that. But side by side on a standard TV.... 500 lines, 530 lines 30mm, 37mm.... smaller CCD, Bigger.....I can't tell. And you sure as hell can't tell the difference when you dub it down to 400 lines on VHS. I'm not saying that there isn't a difference...I'm just saying i've never seen it. However, you can tell a BIG differnece in Hi-8 and Mini DV. If you are you are doing what %90 of us do for skydiving video.....Get the camera that you want based on price, size, avalibility. If you get a sony Mini DV I dont think you will be disapointed. If you are going to shoot broadcast video...that's another story. Look for yourself, I think you would be hard pressed to really see a diffeernce on a 24 inch tv from a 6 year old PC7 and a new PC 120. Z

You also have to remember that our soft spot is something that our enemies will use against us. Remember in Iraq in 91 when they would put civilians on bridges so we wouldn't bomb them? Or put SAM's in places of warship, Radar on top of school houses, and heavy equipment inside residental areas? You think they are not doing so right now? In WW2 if they needed a target like that taken out they sent a fleet of bombers over and coverd the area around the target (trying to hit the target of course) and many times bombed square miles of land/city before they took the target out. That was ok...that was war. Now when we find ourselves on the news when we send one lazer guieded bomb to take out the SAM on top of a school house in the middle of the night... Z

At this point I dont' really care if he was an angel converting the evil folks to better ways, or if he was a traitor who was helping those fuck nuts try to hurt other people. I don't like how sensitive we have become to collateral damage. It sucks that anyone other than the people who we want/need to have taken out has to get hurt or killed, but that is simply part of the game. There are not always the rescources or options to take care of the situation otherwise. It wasn't that long ago that it was totally ok for either side to bomb civilian cities (Berlin, London, hell we fire bombed Tokyo). We killed, and others lost (including our allies) MILLIONS of people in the 40's who had nothing to do with any war. But today if we bomb something and 2 people across the street get hurt/killed people scream and yell. Even if we had military folks on the gorund that could have risked their lives by trying to pull this car over.....I like that we blew the damn thing up. In Afganistan many of the fighters over there were in a state of panic because they truly belived that we could target people specifically with our bombs. They get out of a car, it blow up. Their friends drive down the road, go to their hut.... what ever, next thing they know they are 100,000 pieces. I hope each one of the Al-Queda and Taliban who are out there FEAR that no matter where they are, they are never safe....not even alone in their car in the middle of BFE. I'm sorry that anyone has to die. I wish the world was so different that none of this is necessary... but it is. You payz' yous money, youz takes youz chances. Z

in some conditions you can turn the sky almsot a black/ deep purple with a CP. You can still see ererything (so not hosed I guess) but to me it makes for a crappy picture.

not sure aboubt the optic, but on the BatRac's it's easy to drill a hole in the top (doesn't have to be big enough for the switch to pass through if you know how to splice it back...ez..). I have mine go in the top, and out by the jaw line (have a keeper there when not shooting stills). Easy to do, and almost nothing exposed. Does the liner come out of the optic? I assume so, but have not seen one yet. Z

Looks like you may have gotten ahead of yourself here man. I hope you have more experiance than your profile says, if not I hope you are very heads up. I'm not going to to into the why you need to wait until you have a lot of knowledge about camera before you jump it (and maybe you do), but just know this shit isn't just another skydive (no jump is just another jump at 46 jumps....). 1st of all..... Elan 7? I have a 7E. Mine has a bat. pack on it, but it's a BIG camera, not at all ideal for freefall (unless your last name is Finley, Kent, etc...and no I don't jump mine). Esp. for a new set up. If you want to jump something new and like canon, get a rebel 2000. It costs about half, weighs about 1/3rd and is a great camera for skydiving. Most of us shoot wide angle in the 28mm range. You don't need to get a super fast one ($800), a 2.4 will be fine. In all honsety you have way more questions than anybody here will really be able to help you with. You need to find someone who you trust who has some camera experiance to sit down and talk with. there is a LOT to this stuff, and a lot to lose if you screw it up. Good luck in your quest Z

Ditto Memory is going to be the biggest problem. Even if you had some sort of encoder that compressed it for you down to streaming size.... that has to ad bulk and $ to get it there. It would be fun to have a credit card you could glue flush to a protec face plate and shoot POV on every jump (as a fun jumper). If you could pull it off so that it compressed itslef to something like 780K/sec or even 2 M/sec it would be cool. I've rendered some video in Premiere at 2 meg that looks great blown all the way up on the screen of a 19 inch mon.. SO: for that you would need a lense (wide angle I assume). CCD and encoder, memory and a way to get it into a computer or other camera. I bet in the next year or two something like this exists. Z

They look alike? hehe. Yea, they are all black. Ok...maybe you the most non racist man in the world and they really do look alike to you...but when you said that I couldn't help but hear my great grand father (racist to the bone) tell me how "all Nigras looked the same" to him. Same with asians actually...but he was more vocal about blacks. Not saying that you are racist, but u have to admit the only real humor or connection is their race... and that can easily be taken as being racist. Z

OK...so there is nothing about the two cases that are the same. other than we are pretty sure they all killed people. one's a crime of passion, the other a serial killing spree. Doen't loook like the guys are going to get off for murder, and even if they do they will have to get off in more than half a dozen court rooms (probably closer to 12 when its said and done). The snipers are not celebs like OJ..... no real connection other than they are all of arfican decent (no, they are NOT affrican american, not all of them anyway). So other than being raceist, why is that picture funny? I'm not easy to offend, but to me posting that pic has no value in humor, or anything else. Z

Depends on what you want to do exactly. For skydiving, a polorizer is difficult to get the best effect from. A circullar polorizer you can adjust, and in any given frame you can change the effect. It is not something that would be well used in freefall... or at least you couldn't get the full benefit from it (and might hose a few shots). DOn't get me wrong, you might get some great shots using a polorizer in FF...but FF photos are dynamic, differnt light, angles and other conditions. It can become a shot in the dark (so to speak) if you can't see what you are donig to the exposure with the filter on there.. Plus, many polorizers lose a stop or two, which can be risky depending on the film speed and conditions u are using. UV is great. Does it really change what the photo's look like.... not really. But it's a 12 $ piece of glass protecting my expensive glass.. scratch the filter, chunk it and put another on. i have a UV filter on all my lenses (skydiing and non) wehn i'm not using another filter. Z

EZ... Compact... low weight tripod mount. and MUCH better quality than anything these bozos are shooting. Pirce is right too... Z http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bh1.sph/FrameWork.class?FNC=ProductActivator__Aproductlist_html___217132___SODNW9WSPAC4___REG___CatID=0___SID=F17245D6B00Here

The Myers Briggs....AH> SHOOT ME NOW!! Studied that thing for weeks in grad school.

I think you will really like the fixed lense. Shorter, less weight and better depth of field than the zoom lense. A 2.8, 28mm cannon new is going to cost in the $150 USD range. Just doing a quick look at B&H, I didnt see Sigma or Tamron (or the like) offering anything cheaper. There were some cheaper opitons on manual focus lenses , but i'm not familiar with the brands(tonika and vivitar) to reccomend or not reccomend them. You might look for a used lense on E-bay. good luck Z

Bad taste? Naw.... It would be in bad taste if there wasn't a REASON for someone to think that it's in bad taste. Z Know the quickest way to knock up a nun? Dress her up as an alter-boy.

Grandberry would be the most close DZ to you, I'm not sure who is rigging out there. I reccomend Glenn at skydive Texas very highly. Can't go wrong with John Storrie either. Z