JGarcia

Trying it out without the camera's is a very good idea. My first jump with my camera jacket (C-wing from Tony Suits...only one I've ever owned) was rather interesting. Had a Tandem that wanted video and everyone else was busy...so read the instructions, pretended like I knew what I was doing and went up to do the video. Of course, everything that could've gone wrong, did. One of the Swoop cords released from the jacket, so I spent the rest of the skydive comepensating for having one "wing" presurized and the other not...had a nice orbit going. Fun stuff! Somehow I managed to pull it off and got decent video (yeah, that was my first jump with a camera too...good thing they didn't want stills!). Replaced the lost swoop cord with a pull up cord and have been jumping it like that for 300+ camera jumps. Moral of the story is: be prepared because if it can, it will happen!! I'd give those swoop cords a couple of good tugs to make sure they won't come off in freefall...that sucked. I don't know if anyone else has done this with their C-wing jacket, but since I do back to backs often, I sewed small rings onto my jumpsuits, so no matter what rig I'm jumping, I'll have the wings clipping on the same place on every jump. ...just a thought. Good luck on your maiden flight. Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

...unless your filming the naked Hooter's Girls getting their "free" tandems. Then you'd want to be right in their laps! But seriously...I guess I'm enjoying flying the o.43 recently because it challenges my flying skills a lot more than the 0.5. Just adds to MY fun when I'm up there. Also, when I grab the Tandem student's hands in freefall to spin them, the 0.43 keeps both the student and the TM in frame, whereas the 0.5 cuts part of them off the screen. However, if I see that the student is 220+ lbs and they're going with an already heavy TM, I'll change back over to the 0.5 because I know they'll be haulin' ass (potential separation) until they get the drogue out. I agree with you, Sniper CJ, that for Tandems and the such, one should choose a wide angle lens for video that most closely matches the wide angle lens for the still camera. In your case, the 0.6 approximates your 28mm, whereas the 0.5 matches up well with my 24mm for the still. So overall, when choosing a wide angle for the video, one should evaulate one's preference in how close or far you're wanting to be, and also the wide angle for the still camera..and go from there.

I've had very good results with Kenko's 0.5 wide angle lens for Tandem, AFF, and RW (matches up pretty good with my 24mm lens on my still camera. For freeflying I'll use a Kenko 0.43. If you're tight and very comfortable interacting with Tandems, you can use the 0.43. I've started using it a lot more with Tandems because I like the fish-eye effect on the horizon and puffy Florida clouds....but you've got to be close to your subject(s)! I've never zoomed in...always full wide on my camera, so I cannot comment on how much farther you can get away with being with these two lenses. Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Beware...I bought one of the UV filters for my PC-100. It created an annoying halo effect whenever it got closer than 90 degrees from the sun. It was quite prominent and really detracted from the quality of the video. I didn't try other filters so I cannot say that all UV filters will do this with the PC-100. I do remember reading in wreck.skydiving a couple of years ago that filters on digitial video don't really do much to enhance the quality of the image (like they do in SLR cameras). They do, however, offer some level of protection for the lens. I get around this issue by having a lens cap on at all times when the camera is not on my helmet...and by not running into people in freefall with my camera. I've been using a Kenko 0.5 wide angle for almost 2 years and more recently a Kenko 0.43 super wide angle. Knock on wood...but haven't had any scratches yet. Good luck...and if you find one that doesn't give you the Halo action, let me know. Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I learned a lesson last Holloween that definately opened my eyes: Hogflop Boogie, Skydive Palatka...Saturday evening, all videos were transferred to one of the DZs cameramen's video camera for "judging purposes." The next day, this cameraman used the footage given to him by all the videographers to make "boogie" videos which he sold for profit. Did he ask permission to use the footage for this purpose? Of course not. Did he share the profits with all the other camerapeople? Nah. Not even credit for the work was given out. Total number of dives on the video: 12 (one for each team). Total filmed by him: two. Needless to say, I'll never make that mistake again. So thanks, Robbie Culver, couldn't have said it better myself. Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

You may find it kind of bulky, but it works perfectly for me. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a large crate with a snap-on lid (probably the largest size without getting into the ones with the wheels). Bought some egg-crate foam, cut it up, and with a glue gun I lined the inside with the foam. In this crate I fit my Bonehead Bat Rack camera helmet (Nikon N70, shark fin, PC-100 D-box on top), gath freefly helmet, and Oxygn RW helmet, my camera bag (stores PC-100, film, filters, batteries, mini-DV tapes, video and still camera wide angle lenses, etc), freefly suit, camera jacket, RW suit, bird-man suit, gaffer's tape, sample videos, S.I.M., goggles, and logbook. The only thing that I don't fit in there is my rig (carry that on my back to keep the weight inside the box to a minimum), and the kitchen sink.

Just did my first wingsuit jumps this weekend out of a C-182 (yes, I bought beer). The Bird people at Skydive DeLand weren't really sure how to do it (were talking about poised exit). This was great in theory, but my DZ's C-182 has a step that is set right around the trailing edge of the door, which posed a problem when trying to get "poised" using the plane's strut. So I just sat in the student position (facing aft), placed my legs on the step (collapsed wing), crossed my arms to collapse the arm wings and rolled off the step. 0.5 sec later I was arched to keep my chest on the relative wind, 0.5sec after that, spread the wings, dearched, rolled shoulders, etc... (ok, times are guesstimates). Anyway, I'm sure it cuts a few precious seconds off the dive because you're not tracking up the hill, but I didn't have to waste any effort or time trying to inch my way to a poised exit. Hope this helps! Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!