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I have owned both a WinX 150 LPV and an Epicene 150. The WinX is better in every conceivable way. There's almost no difference in performance between the LPV and standard ZP versions.

If you can keep your head still and/or have IS, 1/800 is quite doable. However, I prefer to be on the safe side with 1/1000 and bump ISO up on darker sunset jumps. Of course, it depends on the type of jump as well... The less "dynamic", the slower you can go with shutter speed.

My M2 does not turn off after every jump. I suspect something is wrong with your unit. As with most AAD's, they shut off automatically after a period of inactivity (24 hours, I believe?).

Let's think about that for a second... If you fall low on a 40-way, do you expect the other 39 jumpers to slide out of the way? What if 10 people go low? Does it become a game of dodgeball above? It's the responsibility of the jumper going low to act accordingly and avoid compromising the safety of those above. Always.

I am all for RSL and tend to use that argument myself, but the statistics are quite incomplete. We have a decent idea of the probability of RSL causing malfunctions with the reserve, but we do not have definitive statistics on 1) non-RSL malfunctions that would have been avoided with an RSL, and 2) RSL malfunctions that would have been avoided without an RSL. All we can do is speculate. In this instance, a RSL would most likely have given the jumper more altitude, but it is not certain whether he would have ended up facing a whole set of different malfunctions.

I've got a Tonfly 2.5x. If you don't want to go the mirrorless route (if you do, Sony's NEX-series, a6000 and a6300 are excellent), I'd suggest a Nikon D5300 with 18-55mm lens. This setup served me well before I moved on to a D7200 and D750 with more expensive lenses.

I started wingsuiting with a Storm. Terrible for long spots and had awkward openings occasionally. The canopy had a tendency to do steep diving turns even when it opened square and on heading. Line twists, which happens every 10 jumps or so, can get quite unpleasant if the canopy exhibits such behavior. Despite packing in various ways, I couldn't get rid of a randomly occuring snap at the end of the snivel. This was a major neck problem for camera flying. Then I bought an Epicene. Improved openings (and less altitude loss too), better glide, but the flare was noticeably worse. I think anyone denying the weak flare really needs to try other 7-cell canopies of the same size. The responsiveness of the canopy goes downhill after ~400 jumps. Note that this canopy is definitely not suitable if your landing area is abrasive or snaggy. The fabric rips easily if you get careless. On the other hand, packing is a breeze! Now I own 2 WinX's and have never been happier. I had one line twist since I bought my first WinX in March (that's ONE 360 degree line twist in over 200 jumps) and 90% of openings are on perfect heading. I've become so confident that I will not hesitate to pitch in a diving turn or while coming out of a barrel roll even with full camera gear. Excellent glide, soft openings, decent swoops and packs a tad smaller than other ZP 7-cell canopies. My WinX's are loaded at 1.37 and 1.54. Full disclosure: I am a dealer for Atair and Squirrel

I agree, but IMO a good wingsuit canopy should be forgiving enough to allow some room for error in body position. I got caught by surprise a little too often with the Storm. All those problems went away after I switched my canopy...

My Storm 170 opened on heading 40% of the time and in twists 10-20% of the time. I never got close to having to chop, but I definitely won't say that it is a great canopy for wingsuiting. Glide ratio can be a real pain in the ass.

I agree it isn't fun to fly. But the openings are perfect. Every single one is smooth as butter and never more than 20 degrees off heading. They remind me that I made the right decision switching from a Storm.

My brand new Volt 170 loaded at 1.1 used to routinely get me in a bunch of line twists. Openings were off-heading by at least 180 degrees on average. Sold it after 80 jumps and never encountered the same issues ever since. It does fly great after the line twists are cleared though...

That's great to hear! How does the glide compare to other wingsuiting canopies?

Stanford alumni here. I would also like to say FUSC.

Due to a shoulder dislocation, I recently switched my BOC pouch from the right to left. With this new setup, I changed the order in which the flaps are closed. Instead of going bottom-top-right-left, it is now bottom-top-left-right. However, the holes that the closing loop goes through are offset to the right, so my new packing style causes the container to get twisted to one side. For now, this is an aesthetic annoyance, but I am concerned that doing this in the long run may permanently distort the container. Is there an increased risk of malfunction if I revert to closing bottom-top-right-left but with the pin going in from the left? I'm using a Vortex2. The compartment for the main is basically the same as Wings.