pcalandra

I found that to be pretty tough with the "kit lens" becuase the barrel moves in & out, it's not internal focusing. What about the exposure sticking at F3.5? Does anyone have any ideas on that?

I've been using the autofocus very successfully for over a year. When in manual focus the barrel seems to move pretty freely, although there is one point that feels a little sticky or grindy. I do have the zoom taped o 18mm but that doesn't interfere with the focus. Interestingly I can't get it to do this on the ground. Yes, I am using an EX550 flash. My routine is always the same, I check my camera mode setting, flip to manual focus just to make sure the barrel moves, flip it back to autofocus, and then turn it on when the red light comes on. I can hear the damn thing autofocusing in the plane when I turn it on before climb out, so I know it was at least trying......

Has anyone experienced a problem like this or have any idea what might be going on here? This past weekend I had this happen on 3 skydives, 2 were back to back on Saturday and it happened again on the following day on 1 out of 8 skydives. All of the images are totally out of focus and the exposure appears to be stuck on F3.5. I've attached 2 images and the camera data is below. By the way Canon e-mail support was pretty useless all they had to offer was send the body and lens in and we will look at it? Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. Camera Data: File Name IMG_6781.JPG Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL Shooting Date/Time 8/27/2005 10:32:39 AM Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/500 Av( Aperture Value ) 3.5 Metering Mode Evaluative Metering Exposure Compensation 0 ISO Speed 200 Lens 18.0 - 55.0mm Focal Length 22.0mm Image Size 3072x2048 Image Quality Fine Flash On Flash Type External E-TTL Flash Exposure Compensation -2/3 Red-eye Reduction Off Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync White Balance Mode Auto AF Mode AI Focus AF Parameters Settings Contrast Mid. High Sharpness Mid. High Color saturation Mid. High Color tone 0 Color Space sRGB File Size 1046KB Drive Mode Continuous shooting Camera Body No. 1060310189

How about this? We have been using this at Frontier for a little over a year now. Permission to use still Photographs &/or Video from my Skydive In consideration for value received, receipt whereof is acknowledged, I herby give ______________________________________________ & Frontier Skydivers, Inc. the absolute right and permission to publish, copyright and use pictures &/or video of me in which I may be included in whole or in part, composite or retouched in character or form, in conjunction with (initial those applicable); ______ My own name ______ a fictitious name ______ no name to be used If the person photographed is under 18, I certify that I am his or her parent or legal guardian and I give my consent without reservation to the foregoing on his or her behalf. Date:_______________________ Name:_______________________________________________________________ Adress:_______________________________________________________________ City:_____________________ State:______________ Zip code:_________________ Signature:_____________________________________________________________ e-mail address:_________________________________________________________

Heres what I would do for this situation, I have a 300 w/a 550 ex. ISO 400 TV Mode, 1/500th of a second Flash set to High Speed Sync, fill flash compensation -1/3 or 2/3 (for your balloon I'd do -1/3). Check the manual it will tell you how to make the settings. Go buy some NiMi rechargable batteries and use those. You can get an Energizer charger and 4 AA batteries for about 25.00. Here's a balloon jump from last year shot just the way I explained above!

Note that the mono sub-mini plug will put the camera in constant auto-focus mode, the stereo one will focus as you depress the switch. I'm not sure which one I like better?

Bonehead D-Box secured to helmet using the 4 screws that came with the box. Camera just sits in the box with the top closed using the cable. It workd great.

Heres 2 from last year, it's too early to have a favorite this year, but the on I posted in the condensation thread is in the running. Oh, by the way except for re-sizing the whole image these are not cropped or photoshoped in anyway.

In my humble opinion, there is no substitution for practice, as mentioned above find a TM that will let you chase them around, and practice. Offer to give him or her free video for them, who doesn't like to see themselves on video? You shouldn't be on the rotation until your ready to comfortable and ready to consistently deliver a quality product to your customers.

This sport is filled with egos, rather than get in a pissing contest work it out. I'll bet that sooener or later the tandem people will get sick and tired of the extra work anyway.

Why not try to hook up with those guys/girls doing handcam and offer inside/outside video packages as an option? Personally, I don't like the handcam stuff and lucky for me I guess, nobody else around here does either, so it isn't a problem. Not that I don't think ther's a place for it, but I just don't see it replacing us and outside video in general, it's a whole different perspective.

Forget about the strap, just perform the strapectomy, it really doens't hurt all that bad As far as lenses go, I have a $39.00 Cokin right now on my HC42. It is .5X and at full wide on the HC42 it matches my Canon digtiel rebel, 18 mm almost perfectly with no visible vignetting. I purchased that one because it's the only one that has threads on the front so you can put filters on it like a Polariizer for instance. Aside from having to paint the inside of the lens adapter ring black (you could see a circular silver reflection in the video depending on the lighting) it works fine. I'd rather have a nice piece of glass instead of plastic, but until they put threads on the front I'm not going to spend my money on them.

Steve, if you have the cash try to find an old Panasonic MX-10 or better yet MX-12 video mixer. They were the industrial/pro versions of the WJE5 &7. They have a pretty good synchronizer built in and the technical video quality is good. In laymans terms in won't ruin your video signal. Personally I do all my editing in the camera and have 2 CD players for music with a decent Yamaha audio mixer. If I had some spare cash I'd really try find an MX 12. The only other thing I would consider putting in my video then is some footage of me shooting a tandem video (5 seconds maybe) because you know it's all about us anyway, right

Hey, he said asshole!

If I am sending DV25 video out of my firewire port, yes it does. If on the other hand I'm trying to send something that is not video I would suspect not. I think you are confusing a DVD burner with a video DVD recorder. A standard computer type DVD burner will not accept DV25 video, it can only take data, as in MPEG2 or AVI or whatever file format you are working with. In that case you have to encode your files before they can be recorded on your DVD burner, thats what takes time and that varies b the fiel format, compression ratio, your computer, the DVD burner, etc. etc.

I believe you are correct Matt. As a matter of fact I think all the current crop of non-linear editing packages support real time video/audio out of the firewire port from the timeline whether they callit a digital cut or something else. That's why real time recording/encoding is important, at least to me. Pat

It's pretty stupid when you think about it isn't it? I don't know what's going on with Sony lately, you'd think they hired a bunch of design engineers from Panasonic or JVC or something I was seriously considering that before I read the spec sheet myself. I've opted for the RDVX500 myself, it a really nice combo unit. I just wish it had a hard drive. However now that I've gone out a bought one, I'm sure they will introduce that model next week Pat

Yep, thats me in Larry's goggles all right! I seem to have the urge lately to just fly right in for a quci close up, but somehow I don't think our Tandem passengers would appreciate it, after all it's all bout them not me It's unusual for us to get this weather in June, it's usually a July/August thing here in WNY! Guess I need to get some CatCrap or something. It's funny on the video the majority of it is happening between the lens and wide angle lens adapter? Pat

Here's a photo from today that was pretty intersting. At about 6000' you could feel the humidity build in freefall, here is the last viewable image before opening! Pat

My personal opinion is that MPEG-4 is not good enough today to produce a quality camera original image. MPEG-2 is but I'm not aware of any consumer level eq. that's available yet.

I've recently purchased an HC-42 and it seems to be working fine for tandem and rw. I've only put about a dozen jumps on it so far so I don't have any long term experience with it. Another camera flyer at our DZ just bought an HC-90 but hasn't jumped it yet, he's waiting for his D-Box to come in. I'm really interested in comparing the video from both camcorders & will post again when I've done that. Pat

Chuck, get the 42 that's what I just bought. Call or e-mail ne & I'll fix you up. Pat

In case you didn't already get the information you needed try this site [/url]http://www.vertical-visions.com/tallylight.php[url] Pat

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming. I used to carry my home-made helmet in an old Portbrace carrying case, they make cordura cases and bags used primarily for the professional video market, Unfortunately the FTP now measures 10" wide x 18" tall x 17" front to back (from the front of the lens to the bone) and has outgrown that old case ....... I've looked at several large tool-box type cases that won't work and really want a "hard case" of some sort to get my camera gear back and forth to the DZ safely. I'm not really concerned about air travel, I just need to throw it in my truck or car & go! It's not that I'm a cheap SOB, I can actually buy the Pelican case at cost, I was just really looking for a more cost effective alternative. I'd really like to use that money for some other camera toys or a new camera suit Pat

Any other suggestions? Are you all using Pelican cases or just throwing your helmets in a gear bag or something