drunkenmunkey

Hey all, the title sums my question up pretty much completely. i bought an Opteka 0.3x to take me wider than my faithful way cool 0.45 and it is without doubt a beautiful lens, and I cant wait to pair it up with a CX, due in about 3 weeks, but I cant help thinking that the lens hood does nothing in the environment that we sky-jumpers employ our camcorders Thoughts??

Thanks so much for those pics and your advice Reinier. Looking at those pics, I will have no problems using a Zkull on my helmet. what are your opinions with this system then? in response to Dave, your advice on purchasing mounts from the helmet manufacturer makes sound sense to me, but the helmet was made by a local guy at his home, and he does not make mounts - at least not yet. so yes this will be a custom installation as you say. some pics attached of my helmet's flat top, but basically, FF2 copy

Hey all I need a little advice here. I have just purchased a canon Eos1000d / Rebel something or other, and I have a locally made fibreglass camera helmet (FF2 style) with a nice flat area on top for a stills camera. I quite fancy the Zkull quick release system as the method of mounting my camera but my concern is over just how flat the top of my helmet actually is. when I hold the camera against the top of the helmet in the position it would mount to, there appears to be a small difference where the centreline of the top of the helmet is a small fraction lower down than the outside edge of the flat component of the helmet. when i hold the camera against the top of the helmet, a gap of maybe only 0.2 - 0.3mm between the camera's screw thread and the helmet. my concern is that this gap would prevent the camera from mating successfully with the helmet if I used the Zkull system since it is apparently so flush with the helmet when installed. so my question is for anybody who has retrofitted a zkull kit to their helmet to let me know if you have had a similar issue when installing it. or is it quite a common thing for the flat top to be less than 100% flat. im sure you can see my concern since installing the zkull requires drill sawing a huge hole in the top of your helmet, and its really not something i want to commit to until I am satisfied that it will be a succesfull install. and before somebody advises that I contact the manufacturer, I have already emailed and got no reply after a week or so thanks for looking

thanks all for the advice I think i may end up getting the EOS 1000, think thats the Rebel Xti over the water. as a retailer of these cameras, i will get the 18-55mm kit for under $540 equivilent. is there soo much difference between that and the Xsi Eos 450?

do you have the same issue with the manual focus reverting back to automatic after powering off as does the guys jumping an olympus E400 i know the olympus E410 doesnt have a switch for Af/Mf so this could well be the case on the E410 also.

Hi all I am looking at getting my first DSLR camera to go on my helmet. just for fun jumps, to get some pics of my mates really. the olympus E4xx have always appealed to be because of the huge weight saving, and the great prices. I actually work for an electrical retailer and have toyed with the idea for months. anyway, we have recently started recieving stock of the E410 kit, with a revised lens of 14mm - 42mm. now for what i understand so far, it seems that I may not need to purchase a wide angle lens so to me, this now seems to be a great way of getting into DSLR without breaking the bank, or my neck lol but I could have the completely wrong end of the stick here so i am hoping that some people who use this forum might have experience with this range of cameras, and can share their experience and advice with me. also, I would need one of the USB style bite/blow switches, so I am wondering if these have any limitations themselves. my helmet is an FF2 with propor 2 ring cutaway system, and newton cross ringsight. experience 300 jumps, mostly freefly, under 100 video jumps thanks for looking

no takers then lol..

Hi all I just completed the first 5 jumps on my new Mirage G4. the container is a size MO and I have a safire 2 129 which fits snug into the bag. I have 26" risers with the new teflon swoop loops at the top (pic attached) I am very unsure on how to pack the loops, the 5 jumps I have had on this container so far resulted in twists almost every jump, I am concerned that the risers are catching the bottom of the reserve container and causing me twists. this container is absolutely brand new, but the canopy is not with about 100 jumps on it, and I previously had it in a voodoo container and enjoyed pretty good on heading openings. I am uncurrent with a 2 month break, so bd pull position could be the issue and I dont know if there is a period of 'wearing in' on a new container with the riser covers being very stiff and all. so I am hoping to get some opinions on how to pack these things. jimmy

me too. I offered to sell it the item for 3 million magic beans. I dont expect a reply, but it would be entertaining if I got one. this guy has been busy..

Hey mate I dont know If you will find this useful since you said you had got yourself on a canopy control course since your chop, but I found listening to the skydive radio recording found on Brian germains website http://www.bigairsportz.com/article.php, Show #14 “General Canopy Flight Dynamics” to be hugely helpful. I think It is one of the finest bits of advice you can get for free, and I have listened to it several times to absorb the lessons within. I don't post here very often since im really only a beginner myself, but I really think this post will be beneficial to somebody. Jimmy

I was given a Mirage 35% off from a guy who i didnt know particularly well. he won it but had no intention of buying a new mirage so he gave it me. i plan on giving him a couple of tickets when i do order a container. I just thought it would be good to cite a good example here.

Hi all trying to find out some experiences with the voodoo container and getting the pouch replaced. i have no rigging experience but to me, the spandex pouch on the voodoo seems needlessly complicated, covering the entire flap including the grommet. javelin and other manufacturers seem to be a simpler one piece design, easily replaced. so i am trying to find out from voodoo owners out there your experiences on getting your pouch replaced, and how many jumps you got before it required replacing. mine showed signs of wear after only 100 jumps from brand new. voodoo 2.0 V2

Well i almost ordered a lineset, having a few probs with the factory.. i have searched a few threads about HMA lines and a lot of peaple are recommending non-cascaded HMA lines as being more stable and longer lasting. is this the case, and is there any down sides to non-cascaded hma lines?

HMA lineset ordered...

now then dude dz sports sell the cookie composites screw, get the 10mm one for an FF2 [http://www.dzsports.co.uk/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=77]