VertexSkySports

Where is the best place to Advertise our skydive suits in the US?

We offer a really wide selection of suits at competitive prices. For example at the moment we are offering our flex suit which is our premium freefly suit for just $320 delivered to the US by offering free shipping on our facebook page and website www.vertexskysports.com

We have taken out some banner ads on dropzone but what other mediums are best for reaching a wide US audience?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Blue skies
James - team vertex

I'm not an instructor, but one of the most important things to learn during AFF is a solid basic body position, to be nice and stable. I don't think a slightly different exit should leave him out of control, but then we all had to learn! Some take to it a little slower which is fine.

Usually the answer is, goto a tunnel. Ususally 20 minutes is enough but apparently not. I'd say more tunnel, with more emphasis on being able to get stable reliably and quickly after becoming unstable which wouldn't be hard to practice. That way whatever the exit he should feel happy quickly getting into a nice stable body position.

Lastly is the on site tunnel upto scratch? I know our DZ has some crazy tunnel made out of old trick engines and such, and really isn't upto the job - so I assume this is a "proper" tunnel and not a fair ground ride type thing?

Anyway good luck to you and your friend!

Hi Mick, the stickers are a vinyl wrap - bit tricky but it's not a bad job, could do better next time. Camera is something called the runcam. It's basically the internals similar to a gopro session (1080p 60fps), allowing you to seperate the board from the lens. I fit the board in the audible pocket. I also fitted a rocker style power switch side of helmet: on = record, off = not record, so no need for LED statuses etc.

There are a few ways it could be made more plug and play for skydiving, and I'd like 4k eventually. I am actually in talks with them to develop some features for skydivers, with things like the on off switch on a lead, a status LED on a lead, and a mount and kit suitable for something like the G3. Either I'll do my best to get them to put in some of my ideas to standard model, or if Vertex end up doing full face helmets (which we are very likely too), it is something I'd like to offer as an add on item, built in camera with SD and USB slots built into the helmet.

Simple full face with a6300, samyang 12mm and a hidden video camera (see if you can spot it). Toggle switches on both sides for both cameras.

It's not at all unsual, AFF is very structured, learning with others of the same ability level with (hopefully) a nice instructor to greet you every day. After this you are left to start making your own progress!

Going to a DZ alone is intimidating for anyone, different set up, different people, different landing areas! Be brave and turn up, you will make fun jump buddies. As you progress you will soon jump with other people and then it really feels sociable as you plan jumps and laugh about it afterwards. If you don't feel your DZ is like this then find one that is! Also once fully qualified, don't think your only option is the closest DZ, I travel 3 hours rather than 30 minutes because I like the setup and my friends are there.

You've got this far, you were brave enough to jump so just carry that on to being socially brave a few times. Before you know it you will have 200 jumps like that other guy in the thread and think you know it all :-)

I'm sure for many, jumping is certainly part of the enjoyment, and skill progression / reaching goals - the rest is new friends with the same interest. Our group is booking our second foreign jump holiday (14 of us) and of course one of my good buddies I went into business with :-)

I should have added, early days but I'd hope for this to cost less than a session.

Hi All. For sometime I've thought about Gopro's et al being a rather bulky solution for skydiving. Requiring cutaways (in the UK), snag free mounts, chin mounts etc.

I've looked into developing a mini action camera, the body of which would be very small (much smaller than session). On my Phantom it's small enough to fit inside the chin vent. The quality would be pretty much that of a GoPro session, using pretty much the same lens and sensor. 1080p 60fps. It would come with an LED record status indicator on a wire to mount in view.

I was intending to go ahead for myself, but if I think there is interest I could develop this into a product. It would be quite costly to set up manufacturing so I wanted to gauge any interest. I think it's a great idea as most of my friends who skydive are not interested in 4k etc, they just want a HD log of the jump, and I think it could be really nice for many people to do away with the lump on top of the helmet.

One complication is on my phantom helmet it could be fitted as is, with a bracket inside the mouth vent. On the G3 it would need a think. The main part of the body is only about 2cmx2cm, and it can be made to any shape, however I can't imagine many people wanting to drill there G3. It could be made into a G3 shaped surface mount but not many obvious places to put it if not behind the G3 mouth guard.

Anyway let me know if you guys like the idea, or if you think it's not worth the bother.

Nice work! I'll keep practicing on my 18mm for now :-)

Thanks for all replies guys. As a side note I met a guy the other day jumping with a 60mm lens! Sounds challenging to me!

It's a fair point, but the sensors are not the same (a6000/a6300). May not be enough in it to justify the cost of the a6300 but it's a totally different sensor not even exactly the same MP exactly. The minimum shutter speed is definitely handy, and people who shoot with autofocus (I don't I use manual) it's also quite alot better for this.

The disadvantage to this is weight. However I also own an a5100, which is extremely close to the a6000 in sensor (if not the same), and so much lighter and smaller...again i dont use autofocus so no problem, and I obviously don't need the EVF. However I found the images a bit noisy above 400, not terrible but I didn't love the sensor so I thought I'd stick on my A6300 as it's sitting on the shelf :-)

I guess you're talking about the USB to shutter release? Well I can agree it's bloody weak, stupid things been driving me crazy. My shutter release failed on this and seems its not unusal on the 6000 series. Been back to sony and they didn't fix it, had to buy an official sony remote shutter to prove it's not one of my many USB shutters that fad failed - so sure if you can improve it, it's worth doing!

Yeah found that article after I posted - they liked 1/1000 - 1/1600 so pretty damn fast.

I'll do some more experimeting, I didn't like the Sony a5100 results advoe 400 ISO, but decided I'll use the a6300 which might be a bit happier!

Thanks guys

Always enjoyed photography and just getting into skydive photography.

Does anyone have any advice on minimum shutter speed? Obviosuly high is better but it's at the sacrifice of boosting ISO on those sunset jumps - so what do you guys seem to find is the sweet spot? I was shooting at 1/1000th...

Not tandem stuff, freefly, tracking etc...

Best "knock off" action camera is the Yi 4k (now the Yi4k+). They are a pretty high end knock off, share the same sony sensor as gopro 4/5, same lens, and the more upto date ambrella chipset. They have about twice the battery life, a touchcreen, EIS (for what it's worth) and shoot 4k 30fps, 1080 120fps. The plus version shoots 4k at 60fps.

They also share the gopro mounts so you can use the same hardware.

The only downside is users are finding the cases a bit weak, especially around the tripod mount screw hole.

I paid about £180 for mine new, about $220. Not super cheap but they arguably have surpassed gopro at a cheaper price.

I also appreciated they added in firmware LED output from the USB so I could built a status indicator for 99p :-)

So I hear, too lazy to make another picture though!

Didn't realize today was apparently Star Wars Day. Did a lightsaber jump in Algarve to celebrate, all CI approved:

pic: http://vertexskysports.com/gallery/2017-05-04%2014-11-08.jpg

Fair enough to ask! Got an account here if anyone has questions for us. We don't currently have any promos running, keep an eye on our facebook page as we just ran a suit giveaway / discount code promo to celebrate reaching a "likes" milestone.

Thanks for the nice feedback, we do our best to keep everyone happy!


http://www.vertexskysports.com

I've been following 360 cameras for quite a while, as I'm really into videography / photography and I think this could be great tech for skydiving.
The Nikon was quite disappointing, the Kodak SP360 seems to have been the best 360 consumer version, however they are jsut about to release a new model, the Kodak Orbit 360. Same kinda single cam, dual sensor, dual lens as samsung / Nikon but I'm thinking this could be the one I end up buying, there last effort was very good and if this is better it might be the time to jump on board!


http://www.vertexskysports.com

Hi, I won't review it as we made it, but we just added camera jackets. This one is my personal:
http://vertexskysports.com/gallery/2017-03-19%2017-00-25.jpg

http://vertexskysports.com