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Hand Cam Questions

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done about 400 hc's. no big problems. I feel like I have to be more on the ball with my time in the plane and under canopy, to be able to do all the checks, briefing, pointin out the sights, having a chat, hookin up, letting the student fly the canopy -while trying to get all the footage and doing my job.

exits can be tricky at first, or should I say the footage wasnt too good on my early hc's because I wasnt paying attention to the hc (which was a good idea). Now I find it easy to use a certain type of exit when i'm wearing a HC

Having my left arm over the students left shoulder gives them an opportunity to hook my arm, more of an annoyance than a problem as you can twist out of it while getting another camera angle.

I havent done it (yet), but forgetting your glove would be a pain in the arse - and an expensive jump if you dropped the camera.

>What level of expierence level do you think a TI should have before use.

Not for me to say. I started HC's early (around 100 tandems) I did lots of jumps just with the glove and no camera. Then even more with the camera but not filming. Good advice I got and stick to is 'do your job first and the HC comes second' learning to ignore the camera while getting the footage is a good skill to have.

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That could also bring complications,

These days there are many small, cheap, reasonable cameras available, that are perfect for hand cam.

Hand cam as it is is perfectly fine/safe.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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It's all about weighing up the risks though.

I've never jumped hand cam so educate me. Even if it is fine/"safe", what are the potential issues? Having the extra weight on the hand, extra bulk on the hand when performing drills, the potential for whacking the student in the face with the camera? All these are alleviated. What are the complications? Placing the recording unit and the risk that it may cause injury on landing? Entanglement with the lens makes it more difficult to release if there is no breakaway between the lens and the recording deck? Putting a breakaway in the cable means it could come undone during a jump and not capture any footage.
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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We build hancam ( different one, lighter and with no neopren ) and we recommand at least 500 tdms and 200 tdms in the last year before starting it .

We jump C182's and 100% handycam jumps, passengers from 40 to 115 kg with HOP canopies in sigma rigs .

We also DO NOT recommend to jump handcam with a non central drogue system ( as ATOM VECTOR 2 .. etc ) we recommend SIGMA or ADVANCE or other center drogue attachement systems

We recommend jumping it only on the LEFT hand to unsure no drogue entanglement

We also recommend to have 5 solo jumps with the system before starting tandem jumps and we MANDATE reviewing ALL your procedures ( including water landing ) with the handcam ON.

Handcam has to be treated with respect and care ..

hope this wil help

Team FL140 skydiving.

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Geez, the BPA (Ban Parachuting Altogether) got you all paranoid or what?

My only tandem cutaway was with a handcam, No interference whatsoever. what potential entaglement are you talking of?

If the handcam get entagled in anything then you would have to question the competence of the person involved, Where does the handcam go that can be entangled? you wouldn't want to do serious CRW with one but tandems?

The weight is nothing compared to the force needed to steer a parachute.

I can't see what the problem is with hand cam.

The real problem is the greedy (small cessna DZ exemted) DZ's that do away with outside camera altogether, that is a problem, our DZ and region is where Hand cam was first pioneered, no problems to date and still selling plenty of outside camera.

Hand cam is a cheaper option not a replacement for outside camera.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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Geez, the BPA (Ban Parachuting Altogether) got you all paranoid or what?



No, skydiving got me paranoid! When the BPA banned hand cams, there wasn't a lot of explanation as to why. Some time has passed since then and I'd like to be fully appraised of both sides of the argument if it should come up again.

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My only tandem cutaway was with a handcam, No interference whatsoever. what potential entaglement are you talking of?



Even an altimeter is a potential entanglement hazard! You mentioned complications of the camera I drew attention to but did not qualify your concerns. With my supposition that anything is an entanglement risk, I'm assuming a handcam glove could potentially be released if it did before snagged? With a remote lens, unless the cable has a break point in it somewhere it could be a greater risk because it can't be freed even though it would be a lower entanglement risk. Thinking it through that is the complication I could forsee but since you didn't expand on your statement it's difficult to know if that is what you meant.

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If the handcam get entagled in anything then you would have to question the competence of the person involved, Where does the handcam go that can be entangled? you wouldn't want to do serious CRW with one but tandems?



Incidents like SteveOrino's tandem horseshoe malfunction but unfortunately that is in the recycle bin due to possible legal action.

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The weight is nothing compared to the force needed to steer a parachute.



If it sits proud, can it catch the wind? Ever come close to hitting a student in the face with it?

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I can't see what the problem is with hand cam.



Do you check all your handles in freefall when you are doing handcam? Do you release the drogue with the hand that has the cam on it?

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The real problem is the greedy (small cessna DZ exemted) DZ's that do away with outside camera altogether, that is a problem, our DZ and region is where Hand cam was first pioneered, no problems to date and still selling plenty of outside camera.

Hand cam is a cheaper option not a replacement for outside camera.



Agreed.
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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We also DO NOT recommend to jump handcam with a non central drogue system ( as ATOM VECTOR 2 .. etc ) we recommend SIGMA or ADVANCE or other center drogue attachement systems



Over a couple of beers yesterday my mate and I discussed this point and decided that a 'non central drogue system' is in effect better for handcam due to the unsymetrical stance required to shoot video.

That being said I'd rather jump a Sigma for other reasons.
2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

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We also DO NOT recommend to jump handcam with a non central drogue system ( as ATOM VECTOR 2 .. etc ) we recommend SIGMA or ADVANCE or other center drogue attachement systems




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Over a couple of beers yesterday my mate and I discussed this point and decided that a 'non central drogue system' is in effect better for handcam due to the unsymetrical stance required to shoot video.



How does the drouge attachment position affect the use of the Handcam? I've used handcam on both Strong and Vector and I've never really noticed any advantage or disadvantage to either.

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I've used handcam on both Strong and Vector and I've never really noticed any advantage or disadvantage to either.



I've done about 250 H/C on Strong and around 1000 on Eclipse/Vector/Sigma. I do not like Strong rigs to jump but they do give a better picture when doing H/C with more background view than on the other systems. Though with a Cookie Composites .2 lens you get plenty in still with good views. Hell, that lens even gets in my alti which sits next to my glove!
I like my canopy...


...it lets me down.

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because flying a hand cam requires more attention on your flying attitude to get good shots.

If you fly an atom for exemple you won't be able to get good lateral shots without getting some slightly head down attitude ..

you probably don't want to had more complexity to hand cam tandem jumps.


We also saw many Tandemasters starting hand cam with Atom style container .. and if the top dogs of skydiving are able to manage it smoothly ( ex world champions ), the average tandemmaster is really more secure with a rig giving him flatter flying attitude.

We tried both the systems and right now it seems to us that you get an easier jump with a Sigma or Advance .. or other central attachement drogue system and SO you are less likely to do a bad handcam on an uneasy passenger.

Plus Sigma offers us the way to get a full shot ( opening with right hand ) .. but this has nothing to do with drogue attachement.

Our choices are meant to sell our systems with confidence, we've seems tandemmasters with atom system and it was reall uneasy for them to get good shots .. ( except for the top dogs as i wrote before )

So until somebody can convince us ( with actual jumps ) that non central attachement are as easy to start and as safe to start with we'll keep on with this policy.

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Geez, the BPA (Ban Parachuting Altogether) got you all paranoid or what?

My only tandem cutaway was with a handcam, No interference whatsoever. what potential entaglement are you talking of?

If the handcam get entagled in anything then you would have to question the competence of the person involved, Where does the handcam go that can be entangled? you wouldn't want to do serious CRW with one but tandems?

The weight is nothing compared to the force needed to steer a parachute.

I can't see what the problem is with hand cam.

The real problem is the greedy (small cessna DZ exemted) DZ's that do away with outside camera altogether, that is a problem, our DZ and region is where Hand cam was first pioneered, no problems to date and still selling plenty of outside camera.

Hand cam is a cheaper option not a replacement for outside camera.



We use it as a full replacement and exist with a front roll in front of the cam . ( one hand cam plus one belly cam, all HD and computer mounted .. this is our business choice, futur will tell if we are wrong on our market or not )
We jump C182's .. and here this is not beeing greedy .. this is the way of survival .. the costs are not the same on our market.

It could possibly entangle if used on the right hand with the drogue if ever the tandemmaster does not a good drogue throw out ... it is our concern to adress even those less than perfect jumps that we all saw on day or another ..

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I have around 200 hc jumps and started doing them when I had 100 tandems. At first i tried to keep camera in their face on the exit but now I just do what I do without hc on my hand. Try to grab as much air as I can and in my opinion it gets some cool shots and the exits are much cleaner. Had one cut away with hc no problem. My friends had multiple cutaways with them without a problem. Its just more work that's it not much difference in freefall or under canopy and to get a good landing shot is quite easy without much effort.

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