sony dcr-ip7bt what do you think?

[jose 0]

this camera is so small. i know there are no mounts for this particaular camera but i could make one. a tandem camera guy at my dz says it ought to be a great camera for the funjumper. does anyone have any opinion on this thing? i'm interested in using for funjumps and later doing tandems and other such filming. thanks for your input.

[NathanL100 0]

Here is a link for anyone who is interested

http://www.sonystyle.com/images/flashmovies/micromv/micromv.swf

Base # 942
The race is long and in the end, its only with yourself.

[quade 3]

I think most people are staying away from the microMV format cameras right now for a number of reasons. Probably the most significant is that there is currently not a lot of (any?) software that will let you edit it natively -- so, no FireWire into Premier or anything like that. You could always take the analog output of the camera and edit that, but you'd get a bit of a degraded signal. You also won't be able to FireWire into other cameras that aren't microMV, so no digital copies for most of your friends. Lastly, the signal is compressed a bit more than miniDV, so even at its' best, it isn't quite as good looking.

It may at some point be a viable format, but right now, I wouldn't recommend it.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[jose 0]

well if you can't firewire to other cams i guess it isn't very versatle. thanks for your input.

[freeflir29 0]

One other thing. I was looking at an IP-5 at the DZ this weekend. All the controls AND the battery are on the right side of the camera. That would make it a bit of a pain in the ass. I only have to remove my Panasonic from it's mount to change tapes or Firewire something. I can play back and change batteries with it in the mount.

[Kris 0]

Another thing that should concern you is that it's new technology. Always try to stay away from 1st generation consumer electronics unless you just have the money to blow.

There's still too many incompatabilities (firewire) with the Sony IP-series and it's too early to tell if any other vendors will adopt the format. If not, it's just the next Betamax without the quality.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[skygod7777 0]

I own an ip5 and have it mounted on my nvertigo x . i would have never bought it had I known that it wasn't compatible w/ n-e-thing . Unfortunately I diddn't know , and bought it . When I tried to take it back the next day , they tried to charge me a 15 % restocking fee , so now i'm stuck with it . It still does the job . you can s-video to other camera's to edit the footage on older software , but that is just an extra step that's pretty time consuming if your a busy skydiver (and it requires the use of another camera) . There are a few other things that are not "skydiver freindly" . If you mount the camera on the left side of you helmet , the start/stop button is against the helmet on the side (but there is still room to get a finger in there to turn it on) also the zoom is right next to the start stop , and veery sensitive . so sometimes when you turn the camera on you can accidentally hit the zoom .

I hope that they come out with a "skydiver freindly" version soon , and that's what everybody switches to in the future. That way , I can firewire to everyone elses camera , instead of having all my good footage trapped inside that tiny little camera!

hook low flare late
vern (freeflyswc posing as skygod7777)

[riggerrob 558]

I did a couple of jumps with an IP5 on Saturday.
"Veggie Reggie" Hurlbut (Freak Images) showed how you could swap video with a simple cable adapter.
I did not pay close attention, but if you folks want, I will get the details from Reggie.

[Pelle 0]

Hi,
I have an IP5 that I recived as a gift from a buisness partner. I have not owned any videocameras before so I do not have any experience of digital editing before this.

Personaly I like it, it is realy small.
I use this trick to import it to Premiere until they support the MMV format.

1. Install Movishaker.
2. Use movishaker to import from camera.
3. open clip with Quicktime Pro
4. Save as a hinted *.mov file. This only makes a tiny *.mov file that points to the orginal *.mmv file
5. Import the movfile in Premiere or other editing software.

You can also use a small converter called mmv2mpg.exe to convert them to MPG files, but have problems with that metod I get very poor sound. This metod works fine for a friend so it might depend on configuration of the PC.

I have never tried to export it back to the camera, only burn it as SVCD or DVD.

Now to my question:
Does anyone know how this works in freefall?
Opening shock and simular.
I like the wight of it and thinking of building a mount for it to use with funjumps.

[Derhakenwendung 0]

Hi,
I have an IP5. Bought it secondhand from another Skydiver.

1) One cannot bitch about the service from SONY, as there is no service to bitch about.

2) Movie Shaker for MMV is all you really need. I have made some really cool videos with it. You can even capture in Movie Shaker and then save to file as Mpg, AVI etc.

3) I have a Pentium 4 - 2 GHz laptop with Fire Wire port (Not a SONY) and it works like a bomb.

4) If the footage seems "UNSMOOTH" ensure you have all other programs running in the background closed. This solved the problem for me.

As for everyone that have had problems with the IP5, remember one thing: The IP5 is ahead of its time. I see more and more laptops on the DZ. I can give you an edited DVD with the music you want and text where you want, Menu and stills within 1/2hour after landing. In South Africa we have this time between 2 loads so it works for me. The writing of the DVD takes 15min and the editing 15min.

If you want to, I can send you footage to show you what this camera is capable of.

The size is directly proportional to the care that needs to be taken with this unit. It isn't as robust as pervious models, so prevent any knocks and bumps.

G'bey for short but not for long.

And all I wanna do is fly.....