pope

I'm sorry I guess I could have been more clear, but generally speaking, yes that's what I mean. What I was trying to get at is that when we make the choice to jump out of an airplane each time, we each take personal responsibility to make educated decisions about our jumps that help keep incidents like this from happening. Even if the student(?) was on radios, even if it was their first jump, did they not (presumably) go through a ground school previous to the jump? Another scenario: Let's say Johnny buys a street motorcycle to commute to work. He is taught that the real danger of riding a motorcycle amongst traffic isn't necessarily the bike, but rather inattentive (automobile) drivers who don't bother to look for him. On his way to work, as he sits in the blind spot of the car next to him, the car suddenly changes lanes right into him and causes him to crash. Yes, the driver of the car should not have changed lanes into him, and that was his mistake. But also, the driver of the bike also was aware that he needs to ride that thing as if everyone else is trying to kill him--assuming that they not only don't see him, but are also going to do some stupid shit to try to make them crash. So agree or not, but that's how I feel about it. Mostly the real point I was trying to make is that BLAME is the least important thing to assign once the accident has happened and the carnage is being sorted out. That's the time to be constructive and for people to learn from others' mistakes.

Bullshit. the student (or whoever was in control of his position) was 'partly' to blame. I clearly stated that the majority of the blame goes on the TM. If you land downwind into the traffic at any DZ you are going to get a butt whippin... well I really hope so anyway. There is a really good reason you should not land in the opposite direction of traffic... what do you think that reason might be? The lower canopy was to the tandem's left side as he approached, he only needed to look before turning... I am all for 180's on a tandem if the instructor is competent, 270's should be left for wing loadings of more than 1.5 in my opinion. However this is subjective and is a tangent away from the lack of general awareness that was the 'major' cause of this incident. Firstly, I hope everyone involved is unhurt and doing well. Sorry, I couldn't be bothered to sift through all the crap I've seen in this thread, but just wanted to offer my opinion, FWIW: The only person who WASN'T at fault in this incident was the tandem passenger (assuming they didn't reach up and yank down the left toggle, overpowering the TI). My opinion on 180's (even at altitude) can be summed up pretty simply with something that is taught to every beginning canopy pilot (or DRIVER for that matter); 'look first, then turn.' If common sense didn't make you understand this point, this video is a perfect graphic example of why. You have blind spots... INCLUDING being struck by a bolt of lightning on a solo freefall jump, the responsibility for our incidents lies smack dab in the middle of each of our laps. We CHOOSE to jump out of an airplane. If one of the people on my freefly jump corks and breaks me, did I have the knowledge to take that into consideration BEFORE I JUMPED with them? Yes. To do gear checks? Yes. Any other actions/decisions I make/do not make? Of course. Therefore, it's MY OWN fault if I get hurt. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is it necessary to be fair? NO. People in these forums (and in real life for that matter) are always so quick to point fingers and assign blame rather than simply learn lessons from incidents such as this. People take risks, make mistakes--sometimes at high prices. Hope this was a positive contribution.

Just curious to hear jumper perspectives on using these cameras in skydiving/BASE environments. Pros/Cons? What do they do really well? What do they suck at? cheers! pope

IMHO, as a professional skydiver, you have just as much (if not MORE) responsibility to jump within your personal limits (regardless of the others on the jump). Perhaps I misunderstand, but I don't get how being a videographer (or anything else) removes your right to make the decision to NOT jump in conditions you're uncomfortable with. Having seen the result first hand on more than one occasion of the extreme consequences of NOT stepping down for these reasons, I personally could care less if a customer gets to jump/a video of their jump/etc. if the option is jumping outside of your boundaries. No response necessary, but I thought that was worth mentioning. Hopefully someone already beat me to it... Cheers!

This is facebook culture. It will not change because of these concerns. Period. Not defending it, just calling out the facts.

You continue to service mankind's best interests Trunk...thanks bro

...if you're interested. The camera staff at Skydive Dubai are creating the videos at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtkHACtRn_oC3jTo9OLDPCA daily (ish) to help document the current DIPC comp. Check it it you're interested. Also see some past work at youtube/skydivedubaivideo. cheers. pope

In case you want to know what's going on during the comp: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtkHACtRn_oC3jTo9OLDPCA

Hello all; I'm re-working our DZ editing stations and upgrading both hardware and software. I've installed Gigabyte HD 7970 (3072MB, GDDR5) Graphics cards and am currently running Vegas Pro 11 on Windows 7 Pro, and final output is to USB and sometimes DVD. No overclocking. As I'm looking to increase our output speed, I'm re-considering our software configurations, and wondering if an upgrade to Vegas Pro 12 and/or Windows 8 will aid in this speed increase...? I should note that I'm not interested very much in which operating system is better between Windows 7 Pro or 8 (those are my 2 options). These computers are solely purposed for video editing with Vegas Pro (and Premiere depending on edit needs and source input). Can anyone make suggestions for making these computers lightning fast with our current options? (We could upgrade software, OS, etc) Hardware will be more difficult to upgrade. [So far, initial testing in VP11 with 7970 graphics card is speeding up our renders by +/- 25%, But I'd like to increase that percentage if possible. Any opinions/advice on software/configurations to aid in delivery time will be appreciated.] Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge! Cheers! pope

HOWEVER, if you're not shooting for those distances, and not doing anything but tandems/students, or low-pressure fun jumps, there's no need for a ringsight. Truth be told, digital photography and photoshop have made it so you can even compensate for centering problems by just getting further back, and than cropping the photo as needed on a bigger RW jumps. Good point. I guess the most sure way to not need a ring sight is to just not jump a camera at all. I hear CGI is pretty good these days too. ;) I'm hardly saying that quality shots CAN'T be taken without a ring sight--I have a feeling we're talking about slightly different things here.

As long as it works for you, that's great. I've found that the focal length of the lens has a great deal to do with how accurately I want to be able to compose/frame a shot. Shooting lens at a larger focal length in my experience is usually worthless with the "dot on the goggles" method.

How well does that dot work when you aren't shooting such a wide lens? How about shooting more "professional" cameras?

thanks Doug! I'll give it a try! cheers! pope

Hi Spot! Have you seen a difference between a 6Mbps render and say a 10-12 Mbps render when it comes to playback on larger 50-84"+ TVs? Have you noticed a difference at all? I've been looking for the right formula for our renders, but I'm weighing time vs quality...especially because we sometimes deliver in 1080 :| Looking forward to taking advantage of the GPU rendering too! Comments from you AND Chris would be greatly appreciated! cheers!

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but what does using a handcam system have to do with editing on an NLE? Or are you saying that you're an old enough bugger to have been editing on-camera? Are you adding outside video to your edits? Just curious. pope

Do ring sights complicate a video setup some? Yes. Do they present an extra snag hazard? Yes. Do I think they're outdated? No Way. While I understand why people would be against jumping them, I would bet that almost anyone who is willing to fork out money for higher priced cameras (even higher end consumer cameras) and DSLRs has also forked out the $ for a ring sight and uses it every jump. IMHO, They are also [still] the best way to frame a shot in freefall. I wouldn't even want to CONSIDER jumping without one for any professional cameras, Particularly for lens instruments less blunt then the typical wide angle lenses of the action sport world. They will only become outdated when technology provides us with another (better) way of safely composing/framing shots. I've seen a couple cool options, but none that were more than a novelty. I jumped a pair of glasses for a little bit that I could see the output of the camera in the top right 1/3 of the right eye. They were scary in so many ways. I'm still waiting for a HUD in a full-face or the projected holographic frame...

side mount? It might help to post a pic of your setup. cheers!

try the battery in someone else's camera and vice versa If you can find another model...might help a bit.

I would garner as much local support as you can from anyone with any influence, and at least have a trusted local to help with negotiations...FWIW

I think the issue is not so much of its past, as its present. Yeah. America's present is SO clean & shiny...Sounds like arm chair quarterbacking to me -- Unless you can provide contextual specifics...

I played with a RePlay 1080, I like 'em a lot, and their tiny.

I'm amazed at the amount of intolerance, bigotry and straight up ignorant posts in this thread. If this attitude represents a cross section of skydivers throughout the world, I'll be embarrassed to call myself one. I find it unbelievable that we're 14 years into the 21st century and still hearing stuff like: -"The power of money." -"can they use slave labor in Spain?" -"stinkin' rich spoiled prince buying his friends all over the world..." -"First 'our' oil...now our air?" -"The problem with those deep pockets is that they are indeed very deep. What that means is that his life and fortune don't rely on the DZ succeeding, like it would for an 'average' DZO. Those guys have the need and the drive to make the DZ survive against all odds, where this guy could buy and sell the place in his sleep, and it wouldn't bother his bottom line to shut the place down and liquidate all the assests at a loss. An average DZO would try to avoid this as he would be down a huge pile of money, maybe all their equity in the DZ, but the prince doesn't have that sort of concern. " -"So, how will this effect atheists, beer drinkers, drug users, and females who skydive in Spain?" -"I heard that for the world championships, female judges were banned, all women have to jump in burkas, the men had to be circumcised and all swoopers had to convert to islam." -"Sorry, no chicks with "open-faces" -"Gonna be a bitch shutting down the operation five times a day. Suppose they'll be turning the old control tower into a minaret We are all free to hold our own opinions. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see so many uneducated and unthinking comments as these. That seems to be half the reason these forums exist. I'm not sure why the 'hard line' about using pedophilia on this site doesn't extend to other types of discrimination, but IMHO it should though. Dubai is not a perfect place, and has aspects about it's history that it surely regrets, like every other place in the world. Think about the shit that ALL of our different countries have done in the past before you condemn a people for their religious practices, or how much money they have, etc. /rant. Flame away.

The market seems to be moving toward wifi. I'd look on eBay if you need the 10.

They work great but the wide angle is probably not as wide as you're used to. It's worth reading up on/demoing.

Personally I think that well-taken stills will ultimately be more appreciated for longer by most customers, ESPECIALLY at a holiday/destination drop zone such as yours. If you have an outside video flyer that can CHOOSE his shots (rather than hope that 150 shots at a 2 second interval covers everything), you'll end up with a higher quality product to promote your dz and make the customer that much more happy. For video, I think it's personal preference, but even the cx110/115/150 series has many features that an action cam can't match...One possible exception being the AS-15 which has a good steadyshot system for skydiving on it. Other than that they definitely need to put more thought in to mounts, cases, etc. I finally found two mounts that I like a lot for the AS-15 which I don't need to have it in the underwater case for (did Zeiss design the plastic case too?) You might also want to think about doing some testing if you can for post processing time differences. In short, while my neck doesn't agree, I still prefer quality for the customer over ease for the video flyer. good luck.