Ringsights?

[BigBUG 0]

What kind of ringsights do you usually use?

I always used a dot or frame-shaped color rectangle on the googles, but now, when I try to film some more fast moving guys like skysurfers and freeflyers, I am not happy with my performance (probably, I am too concentrated on just maintaining speed, position and distance and sometimes I do a badly wrong framing).

What is your opinion - is ringsight better than mark on goggles? BTW, what is a Newton cross?

There isn't a big market for ringsight in Russia so I need to order one from abroad and I do not want to spend 100$ just to get somethning I do not need at all.

My helmet is Rawa Imagen and I would like to have ringsight to be somehow 'folded' out of the way and 'locked' in place when I need it
Thnaks for your opinion!

[ShaggyFord 0]

I have a Newton Cross sight. It's, I believe, they way they grow a crystal, to make it look like crosshairs. It's designed in a way that, when properly aligned with your camera, the crosshairs will always point to where your camera is shooting if your camera helmet moves around at all on your head. A dot on your goggles or the amber "lolly pop" sight can't do that.

My opinion = if you want to shoot good video, spend the extra $$ to get it shipped out to you.

You can also get an articulated ring sight bracket that enables you to swing your sight out of the way when you don't want it, and bring it back in place without loosing aligment.

[Faber 0]

If you right now is using the ring on your googles you´ll need to make sure that your googles are placed the exact same place for each jump if they arent then you wont get the video..

i used the ring on googles myself my solution to get it right each time were to buy a "laser-pen" on of thouse that can make a red dot on the wall,that i mounted on my helmet close to the cam mounted so the red dot were spot on,that way i simply took on my googles turned on the pen,adjusted my googles so i had the red spot in my ring shut down the pen,push record on the cam and enjou the jump..

Note: googles can move as your freefalling therefore theres a small chance that they while faling can move the point and therefore also let you record the wrong stuff.

A ring sight wont move and is spot on each time..

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[jimoke 0]

think of it kinda like this, A sniper without a scope........
a ringsight will help if your flying your slot and it is sighted properly.
although I have seen great video with a dot on the lens as well.
it is the experience of the camera flyer.
Stay Safe
Jimoke

The ground always, remembers where you are!

[mattjw916 2]

Here's my setup: Rawa, Finley ringsite, Schumacher swivel-clamp...

The ringsite pivots up and out of the way and can be locked in the up or down position.

Ringsites are far more accurate than the old dot on the goggles trick.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[mcGowan 0]

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Here's my setup: Rawa, Finley ringsite, Schumacher swivel-clamp...

The ringsite pivots up and out of the way and can be locked in the up or down position.

Ringsites are far more accurate than the old dot on the goggles trick.

hate to say it but that set up looks like a major line catcher. anyone see the same thing?

[ltdiver 3]

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hate to say it but that set up looks like a major line catcher. anyone see the same thing?

Yep. However, I declined to post about it because perhaps he has an enormous face that fills up the space.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[pauld767 0]

I also have a schumacher articulated bracket on my helmet. These sights and brackets are made to sell to all camera persons with a multitude of helmet configurations, and have to be able to fit all those configurations. It is up to the end user to customize the fittings to their own set up perhaps this should be made clearer on the instructions supplied.

When I got it, I fitted it up to the helmet the same as you and imediately got the impression that there was no way the designer intended for the whole assembly to stick out so far. So I lossened up the knuckle clamp, put on the helmet and slid the ringsight and clamp back into position, screwed it up tight, checked out the 'out of the way setting' and when I was happy, took off the helmet. The result was that there was and inch to 2 1/2 of posts protruding forward and upward of the clamp. I marked the edges of the clamp on the posts and took them down to a machine shop and had a guy cut off the excess on the lathe and polish up the cuts. Result, a ringsight that hugs my face as close as is possible and presents minimum snag potential.

When I see setups with similar apendages, I can't help but to offer advise (take it or leave it) and wonder why no one has beaten me to it. It is scary.


It's your neck!!

PD.

[ltdiver 3]

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It's your neck!!

It's your life.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[davelepka 4]

The bottom line is this, if your spot on your goggles in lined up properly, it does the same job as a ringsight. You do have to wear the goggles and helemt in the same way each time.

If your spot is lined up for belly flying, and not lined up when you are freeflying, check that your hemlet and goggles are secure, and not moving around at the higher speeds.

If everything is tight, and not moving, look at the video. Is the framing always off, or just sometimes? If it's just sometimes, there's a chance you may be 'forgetting' about framing while you are concentrating on staying with the skysurfer during the big speed changes. In that case, the problem is with you, not your equipment. You'll need more practice to make the flying happen without thinking so you can pay attention to the framing.

[mattjw916 2]

Actually the ringsite is about 1/4in from my goggles when the helmet is on my head. Due to the way it is pointing and the narrow clearances, a snag is extremely unlikely. In the event of an unlikely entanglement with lines/riser the ringsite assembly will rip off since it is mounted with plastic screws which _will_ fail before my neck does.

McGowan saying my helmet setup is a snag hazard or potentially dangerous is extremely ironic if you have ever seen his.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[mattjw916 2]

Uh... the guy who helped put my helmet together is _sponsored_ by Schumacher and helps _design_ helmet mounts for him. You presume too much as to the intended applications of the articulating bracket and swivel clamp. My setup is not the first of its kind by any means and is in common usage. In fact Ben Forde has almost the exact same setup as well as many others around here.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[velvetjo 0]

I debated this a while before I installed an articulating mount on my Optik too. Ended up setting it back pretty far because the long post gave a better lever arm for any snagged lines to pop the entire assembly loose. The plastic screws are an intentional failure mode for the articulating bracket, so why cripple them with a short lever arm? I did trim the sight post so that there's no external snag point exposed on the assembly.

The other advantage that placement gave on an Optik was protection of the Cameye button between the bracket and the top mounting surface. Got lots of feedback about protecting this button from other video flyers who got burned by door bumps, etc. No bumps on the Cameye so far because of this placement.

As you point out, it's really the clearance between your goggles and the sight that is the "snag point" entry. Once the sight assembly is snagged, I want it to go far away - pronto.

Lance

[Deuce 1]

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Actually the ringsite is about 1/4in from my goggles when the helmet is on my head. Due to the way it is pointing and the narrow clearances, a snag is extremely unlikely. In the event of an unlikely entanglement with lines/riser the ringsite assembly will rip off since it is mounted with plastic screws which _will_ fail before my neck does.

McGowan saying my helmet setup is a snag hazard or potentially dangerous is extremely ironic if you have ever seen his.

Plagiarizing one of the greatest debate lines in American politics: "I know Mike McGowan, and you, sir, are no Mike McGowan". I've met Terry, too.

The problem is where you put the actual mount, where you drilled the three holes. The mount should be right up against the edge of your helmet, and that will give you the angles so that you can trim those posts. I can see how with the mount up that high you'd have to leave the posts that long.

Do you have the equipment to cut and polish the posts? Did you mount it like that so that you wouldn't have excess to trim? The problem isn't the 1/4 inch from your goggles, it's the six inches in front of your forehead that people are commenting on.

But hey, I'm just Deuce, and you're capping on the MacDaddy's helmet.

-and I'm sponsored by Wings. That still leaves me completely unqualified to give rigging advice.

Good luck. If you jump at Skydive AZ, ask Terry Schumaker what he thinks of how you have that setup. Terry was flying camera before he designed all that cool stuff.

And finally, (too much coffee today) when you post stuff be ready to hear critique. When a jumper with 14,000 skydives in the discipline in question gives advice, maybe consider it a little bit before blowing him off for a much lower time mentor.

-Just a thought.

[mcGowan 0]

McGowan saying my helmet setup is a snag hazard or potentially dangerous is extremely ironic if you have ever seen his.

matt
i truly met no offense and didn't think you would take it personally. my intent was to raise the awareness level in the spirit of saving lives. that way some where down the line people will be talking about what great images you are taking not took.

you are right i do have a lot of equipment on my helmet and in truth it concerns me because i know it presents a danger. but that doesn't mean i can't look out for my fellow photographers does it?

peace bro

mike

[mattjw916 2]

nevermind...

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[BigBUG 0]

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Is the framing always off, or just sometimes? If it's just sometimes, there's a chance you may be 'forgetting' about framing while you are concentrating on staying with the skysurfer during the big speed changes. In that case, the problem is with you, not your equipment. You'll need more practice to make the flying happen without thinking so you can pay attention to the framing.

Yeah, that's exactly what happens. My thought was that ringsight will help me to concentrate on framing - it is easy to 'forget' about the dot on goggles, but it seems hard to ignore big ringsight in front of your eye.

Another problem is the helmet - in my old custom made helmet I just need to look on something to film it right; in new Rawa if I do the same, I get only people's legs (or heads if they are in HD) on tape.

[davelepka 4]

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Another problem is the helmet - in my old custom made helmet I just need to look on something to film it right; in new Rawa if I do the same, I get only people's legs (or heads if they are in HD) on tape.

Well, thats your first problem. You have to everything straight and lined up in the first place.

Does the Rawa have the camera angled up as much as your old helmet? Alot of the freefly type camera helmet tend to have the camera fairly flat, which is workable for freefly, but terrible for belly flying. Look into getting a little more up angle on how the camera is mounted.

After that, you'll need to re-sight the dot on your goggles. If you get a new pair of goggles, and use tape or a sticker to get the sighting right. Once it's lined up, mark the corners of the tape, remove it, and draw a circle or square with a black permanent marker. Make the lines thick enough that they're easier to see.

Once thats done, it's still a matter of getting the flying worked out so that you can think about framing. Spending money on a ring sight, which is also a big snag hazzard won't help you in that area.

Camera flying is tricky in that you have to do a couple things at once, and you have to be good at all of them, or the video looks crappy. Fimling skysurfing takes that one step furhter due to the big speed changes during the jump.