bryce

Yes, Bob's Mal footage is crazy... I think he has a really great system for training his students to deal with mals... he has a TV suspended over the hanging harness and they get a really nice realtime picture of the mal over thier head.

D lenses refer to a specific type of nikon Lenses. A D Lens will convey focus distance information to the camera body which in turn relays that information to a flash telling it just how much light to pump out based on how close it is focused. if your lens spins, I find just placing a Large Packing rubber band around it holds it in place nicely. I do this on my focus ring as well. Not as gooey as tape, and always readily available at a DZ. -Bryce

Scan your logbook and put it up... I could get it translated for you. -Bryce

I was specifically answering the question about web based color calibration.

top mount: lower chance of riser strike, easier access to all sides of camera, (lanc port inboard, easier to change tapes) Side Mount: Camera is closer to your heads center of gravity less leverage on a hard opening, and is closer to your eyeball (closer to what you're looking at) so you're not as susceptible to parallax.

I met a guy at the PIA who had one of these things. Same comments from others, depth perception, getting a little too focused on the frame, and not seeing "outside the screen" at things you may be missing. this guy swore by it. I guess it's just personal preference. www.verticalxtreme.com/headsup.htm hope this helps -Bryce spelling selectively correkted.

Web color settings... sigh. at least you're not asking about prepress color spaces. Calibrating with a spyder is the first step... it's going to get you looking at things properly. but like you've said "it's still going to look different for each user" The answer... Profiling. if you set up photoshop's color management properly every file you edit and save will have a color profile embedded in it. which is good, because most browsers nowadays have some sort of color management module that will convert the file to that system's native working space. it's still not going to change the fact that 99% of all people out there have never calibrated their monitor before. (and no, adjusting the brightness and contrast to see a little grey square inside another grey square is not really calibratiion... it's very loose approximation.) Using a Spyder will affect different areas of the monitors colorspace and shift problem areas, make skin tones warmer/cooler. I've attached a file to visually explain this a bit further. the palatte represents all visible color, of course a monitor can't display everything our eyes can see, but if we say your monitor can display all the colors in "B" and you make a pretty file (It looks pretty on your screen because you're using all the available color) then you send that file to someone who owns a computer with Monitor A... al of a sudden that person is going to see something that's pretty muddy and crappy in the green tones... the reds and oranges are all about the same but a lot of the color information is just not there so it's crappy. What a profile does is it sits behind the image and when it gets loaded into an application that has a CMM (Color management module) it'll take a look at B and make it Fit into A... so that the end user has the same end product being thrown into their eyeball by the screen. if you want a pretty no bones way to get it right in photoshop, (first off, search photoshop's help file for "color management" it's a pretty useful refrence in the later versions) use the "Web graphics defaults" under the color settings. Some sites to check: www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/c9fe.htm : A bunch of terminology and definitions www.color.orgthese guys are the ones who created color management, (bless their hearts) the site is easy to get lost and confused in, but the try the FAQ first... it's good to print out and leave next to the john. Does that Help at all? or just lead to more confusion? -Bryce

best way to make a sabre open softer... Sell it.

The New 330 is even worse for a tighter lens. 5.1mm at widest vs 3.7 on the 105. the PC 5 has a 3.1mm lens. So throw a 0.6 onto the pc330 right now and it's just like having No lens on a PC 5. Sheesh. Aren't these manufacturers considering the needs of us skydivers?!

I weigh 250 out the door and have had more reserve rides than I'd care to in the past few months on my 150 smart. The openings have always been great, flight is good, feels very stable. The canopy gets good glide and handles well in brakes. (Flat turns and the like) Catching the freebag between my feet was very easy on the last one. I still have yet to really figure out how to land it perfectly without a little kneesliding at my wingloading. I've gotten a bit of surf out of it and it behaves differently than a ZP canopy in the swoop. It's a great canopy I just hope I don't have to see it again for a little while... I've been keeping my rigger a little too busy.

I Really dig my firefly suit. I use Medium Baggy Pants, and a Medium Wing Jacket. I'm a big boy. They've put a lot of thought into their camera jacket The way the wing attaches is nice, and It's one of the few jackets I've ever seen anyone wearing that has a built in Lens wipe. It's sewn in, soft, and long enough to wipe the lens while it's on your head. It's a really well made jacket.