DancingFlame

Sigma 15 is a fish-eye lens. Canon 14 mm is rectilinear. That's why price differs. On some cameras (Rebel, RebelXT, 20D) edges are cropped and Sigma 15mm looks more like a wide-angle with lots of distortion (no fish-eye effect).

Try this lins: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=forum_7&search_type=AND&search_string=Zenitar Definitely worth reading :)

Soft-box and umbrellas will do the trick better. However one wouldn't call them 'mobile solution'

Manual says 'Error 99 - unidentified (unexpected, unknown) error'. Thus it could be anything from improperly inserted lens to the bent CF card pins. If camera still making any shots, shutter is OK, body does not require any repairs. Check your lens (in particular, aperture settings). I had that error with older Sigma lens that did not understand any aperture setting except 'wide open'. There is a simple way to check this out. Set Av mode with F/8 and press the small button near lens release lock (aperture repeater button IIRC). Through the lens glass you should see aperture blades. If that works, check electrics.

It's common feature of most AF lenses (excluding macrolenses withount infinity). It is required for AF system to focus on infinity. Setting focus ring behind infinity mark will cause lens to focus 'beyondTheVoid' - behind infinity.

Not all AF lenses have motor inside. Nikon and Pentax bodies have built-in motors and lens uses special servo "screwdriver" for AF. Canon bodies do not have built-in motor. Lenses with USM/HSM/SSM (ultrasonic/hypersonic motor) cannot use motor that resides in body thus they have their own motor.

This lens is quite heavy. I wouldn't like it to be strapped to my head on one of those incidentally hard openings. On the ground Sigma is pretty good but my choice is Canon 17-40/4L for far superior colours, contrast and AF speed. As for the fisheye lens, I use Zenitar 16mm.

Try this one: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html Simple DOF calculator.

Bigma (Big Sigma 50-500, about 7 lbs!) is equipped with HSM (hypersonic mechanism). Auto focusing is fast enough to catch such a big bird. However that long lens is never needed for landing shots, 200 mm is more than enough. But with 500 mm one will be able to shoot people in freefall from the ground! I saw shots made at 500 mm and was quite amazed with the quality. VR is not required for landing shots as tripod might be used. Personally, I use Sigma 70-300 APO that costs something around $200 and get perfect shots.

My vote too. But the weather sucks... Average temperature today is already about 3 degrees (Celsius) over zero. That's how one could survive cold winter ;)

There are two sources of that sound: rails of built-in flash and orientation sensor (sensor that tells camera whether you shoot vertical or horizontal frame). Generally, first source is a louder one.

What about this one? http://skyphoto.ru/phpgallery/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=0&pos=1

Yes, it is very agressive at 100-150 jumps, be prepared to be grounded at some DZs. I would also recommend demoing Safire2 and Fusion. At ~1.3 they all fly the same. From my experience Pilot had more oversteer than Sabre2. But it also had better openings.

Yeah, that's the right way :)

Disagree. It is the BEST scenario. What could be better than a good swoop...

I went from Student 235 sqft canopy to the Sabre1-170 (at about ~1.03). That was THE ride... and my first tiny swoop Try it out, you will enjoy it.

Oh, yeah. You can land your canopy fine. But author of this thread would like to swoop a little. Don't you see any difference?

No, they don't lack flare power. It was you not using it. I know a lot of people that got used to PD-style flare (just about shoulders level). Icarus-style is completely different and real flare power starts when your arms are significally lower.

But still my Safire-129 packs a lot larger than Stiletto-120. How could one explain that? My feelings tell me my Safire-129 flies 'larger' than 120'ish canopies. However it might happen that I've got used to my specific instance of Safire1 (made in 1999, Spain).

I'm not buying this 'smaller than placarded' thing. Safire1-139 made by Precision packs a bit larger than Sabre2-135, Safire1-129 (build in Spain) I'm currently jumping packs a lot larger that Stiletto-120. I've tried 120 sq. feet canopies and all of them flew faster than a Safire1-129.

Both are good enough from my expirience. I believe Icarus stopped production of Safire1 some years ago. It's getting difficult to find one in a good condition. It's the pilot who swoops, not the canopy. Choose whatever you like.

That't not true. 1/200 is the maximum sync speed for built-in flash. Rebel is able to sync with external flashes (420, 550, 580) up to 1/2000 or 1/4000 (don't remember actual numbers). That's a 'high-speed sync mode' supported by most external flash units. As a photographer I would recommend another set of settings. When shooting with flash Digital Rebel acts a bit different than without one. Base exposure is calculated as if no flash will be used! Rebel does this to draw the background (flash is not powerful enough to lit the whole world). Shooting in poor light using 'Tv' mode will force camera to use wide open aperture. That will affect depth resoulution. Therefore I recommend 'M' exposure calculation mode. Choose correct shutterspeed (1/200 should be just fine) and an aperture number (depending on lens and desired depth resolution). Set ISO number to 100 or 200. Camera will calculate required amount of light by itself. Flash will be fired to compensate underexposure. It there is no underexposure flash will be fired in compulsory mode (low power flash to highligh shadows). One can always check if there is under or overexposure. Just half-press the shutter button and see expocorrection stick on the LCD. Rebel calculates exposure (as if no flash is used) and displays it there in 'M' mode. Stick shifted to the left means frame is underexposed and camera will use flash to correct the exposition. Stick shifted to the right means you are already overexposing the frame, either shorten shutterspeed o close aperture to get a good exposition. Try reading the manual for complete description. It always helps

I'vw flown all four canopies. Though, I've jumped Pilot only 3 or 4 times. Nitron is fully elliptical canopy. Spinning malfunctions on ellipticals are much more dangerous than on lightly elliptical canopies. So I would never recommend Nitron for anybody with less than 300 jumps. Sabre2 is a good canopy with strong flare. One can get decent swoops even on lightly loaded Sabre2. However I disliked openings (those two I demoed tended to dive and turn 90 degrees after opening). Good packing and body position might help with that. Safire2 opens like a dream. Flies as good as Sabre2 but has different flare. I would say it's easier to find 'sweet spot' on Sabre2 than on Safire2. Oh and I must say I'm a Safire1 fan. In my opinion it opens as good as second version and flies a lot better. Longer recovery arc than on Safire2 and Sabre2 as well. Pity that Icarus stopped pruduction of older Safires. As I've said before I've jumped Pilot only 3 or 4 times so I can't tell much about this canopy. But all those openings were perfect. I liked the way it flew. It is a canopy that will get you from the longest spot. It swooped well too (however Safire1 did that better). You can't go wrong with any of those. Choose one and enjoy the ride.

In winter I prefer those on va.jpg Summer is a good time for second pair.

Even if one can find his contacts inside goggles or visor he can't use it anyway. Contacts should not stay without any moisture for the long (more than 10 sec) time. I wear contacts but had never loose one in freefall even when my full-face sudenly flipped visor up. Just raise you head so that wind will not blow contacts.