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***The Skydance SkyCam IS a Canon Elph LT. Was it something different in the past? Has anyone jumped one? Any feedback on the Elph LT? [\qupte] It was previously a different model. I don't remember what it was. I did not realize that they had switched to the elph. It should be pretty good then. I have had a lot of succes with the elph. The last skycam I bought from them was so bad it left a bad taste in my mouth about the whole company. Our dropzone ordered about a dozen of them @ about $115 a piece and all were crap.

[QUOTE]$2500?! I hope it's bloody good for that amount of money. [/QUOTE] Have you seen the list price of other cross braced canopies?

Most canopies are never flown untill they are worn out. Most any kind of ZP material will last over a thousand jumps. I think PD may be right about their fabric lasting longer, but that does not mean that Gelvenor fabric will not last over a thousand jumps. I do not think this will come into play for most people since so few people jump their canopies untill they wear out.

Unless they have changed the way the sony cameras work on the new models, they will not record to the memory while they are recording to tape. Some JVC models have this function but they are much less popular in skydiving than Sony.

I have found that the best belly exit is to leave just before the tandem with your hands and feet on your butt. This will make you fall most like a tandem. At first you will be a little below them so you get the plane in the background. Just before they throw the drogue they will pass you. If you arch hard and stay in this position you should only get about 30 feet of horizontal separation. William

No No No. Do a search. Everyone I have seen or had has been a waste of money.

Run away. Run away. Those things are crap. I have seen about a dozen of them and the best ones were only marginally usable and the picture quality is very bad. If you want a small APS camera, I recommend a modified Canon ELPH LT. The picture quality is so much better that any non-photographer can tell a big difference in the quality at a glance. The camera is also smaller, lighter, and more reliable. There is someone who converts them but I can't remember who.

Or at least have lenses designed for the size of the CCD. Nikon just came out with one such lens but I there is not a Nikon camera I am interested in.

Filming at night with a light is not an option. I tried it a couple of years ago with the built in light for the camera. The video came out fine but it blinded everyone on the jump. You would not believe how bright that little light is in complete darkness. If you stayed straight above them it would not be so bad, but still a risk.

I have never turned off a cypress and I have two of them. I don't think any of my friends do either. I have never seen any problem with this. The only time I have seen a cypress fire when it wasn't wanted was last weekend. A student cypress fired in a descending plane. Student cypress' will fire at a lower rate of descent.

You will most likely not find a place cheaper to buy the camera than dbuys that is worth dealing with. If they advertise a cheaper price they will usually backorder it forever unless you buy their very over priced accessories. As far as the accessories go, check www.bhphoto.com. They have pretty good prices on the cameras as well. I pay a little bit more and buy from them because they are the best to deal with and the accessories are usually cheaper than anywhere else. As far as the trv25 or 27, I would go with the 27. The difference is the 27 has a bigger lcd screen for viewing your video on the camera. This feature goes a long way when people want to look at the video and there isn't a tv available. It is also very handy when editing. There are a lot of times that I use that screen. When you buy the camera from a deep discounter like dbuys, the difference in price between the two cameras is not that much. One other thing you should get is a uv filter for your wide angle lense. You can buy one for less than $10 and it will act as a lense protector. When it gets scratched you can replace it cheaper than the wide angle lense. William

Only if you want to do a crappy tandem video. You will get a lot of seperation and have less face time. If all you do is 4 way, that does not make you a good tandem videographer. You need to practice shooting whatever you want to shoot. William

Rumor has it that the Canon D-60 will soon be discontinued. It has been discontinued in several countries already. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0301/03010702d60question.asp

Containers that have the closing loop attach to the bottom of the container (like the Javelin) tend to allow you more room to downsize. If the closing loop attaches on the top of the inside of the container it still can usually allow for some downsizing. If the closing loop is on the bottom flap you are going to have very little room do downsize. this isn't the whole story but should give you an idea.

Sorry, I meant to say that if anyone was interested I would discuss it with them. I will try to explain it here the best I can. Before I would try to build anything I would check to see if that new camera mount accessory will work on the DaBomb. I went to Home Depot and bought some angle aluminum. One piece is small, the other is big enough to make into a still camera mount. Run a strip of the small angle aluminum across the front and bolt it to the helmet. The back of the angle aluminum should be facing forward. I used a hacksaw to cut the angle Aluminum. Cut the big piece of angle aluminum so that it is the right width for the still camera to sit on. Drill holes through the big piece and the small piece so that you can bolt them together. The still mount needs to be low enough so that it does not obstruct the video camera. You will need to file off the edges of the still camera mount. I also have the small pieces running down the side of my video camera with padding on them. This keeps the camera from twisting and gives me somewhere good to attach straps. William

I just wanted to comment on the hand still switch comment. If you use a hand still switch it is important to have a plug in between your helmet and where it goes into your jumpsuit. It you are going to use any kind of camera on your head with a wire attached to it you need to have a plug that will pull off if you eject the camera. For mine I buy a rca cable and cut it in half. I then plug the ends together in the middle so that I have exposed wire on each side. I wire one end to my switch and the other to the plug. I have it so the plug is just below the back of my helmet. I think this might be a not be possible with the video camera. It most likely has many more wires than two in its video connection.

I just got rid of my dabomb and went to a Flat Top Pro. I really like the DaBomb. The reason I got rid of it is because I wanted more mounting surface so I could throw more than one video on my head. When I bought mine they had already stopped making them and I believe that was in 1999 or early 2000. Like others said it is a great helmet. Some one else mentioned the still camera was hard to align for them. I came up with a great way to mount the still camera. The first time I mounted the still camera it was lined up perfect. William

I used an elph that I we modified locally for hundreds of tandems. The camera worked great. The pictures look great, just don't expect to blow them up to poster size. I think it is the best option if you want a basic camera and do not want to do anything fancy with your photos. The quality is much better than the other APS cameras that have been converted to use a remote release that are out there. The one problem that you might run into is if you want to take pics from inside a formation. You can not get a wide angle lens for the elph. For tandems the angle was great. Some of the pics I took with the elph are being used by the dropzone as advertisements. The APS film will cost you about $.50 more a roll but it is a lot faster to load than 35mm.

I can't find the 7hi anywhere. I have looked at the 7i before and they are almost identical externally except the color. I want to just snap off some pics to see just how fast it is first hand but it doesn't look like I am going to find one anywhere around D.C.

Do you know anyone that has tried using a microdrive. I am curious to know what happened.

Good point but it is not as big of a deal for me because I don't like using any type of mouth switch and I was just planning on using the standard switch in my hand. That being said I am sure it is a contact closure because it uses the same switch as their 35mm cameras.

As far as the shutter release, it already has a plug. You just have to buy the cable.

Not that it will probably make much difference but B&H will sell you one for $1049.

Since I can not get anyone else to do it I think I am going roll the dice. Minolta has a new digital camera called the Dimage 7hi. The 7hi is mainly different from the 7 and 7i in that it has a much larger and faster cache. It is much faster than any prosumer digital camera out there. It has a remote shutter release option and its lense goes down to an effective 28mm. 5 MegaPixel. Seems like it will work great. A good review of the camera can be seen at http://www.dpreview.com.

I thought I would post since I have a lot of experience using a Canon Elf for tandem videos. As far as quality goes, at regular sizes it is the same if both camera's lenses are equal. If you enlarge the photos you will begin to notice a small difference at the 8x10 size because of the before mentioned smaller negative area. The elf can be converted to use a remote switch so that is not an issue. For tandem videos I would recommend using an elf. It is very small and very light. That really helps out when you do a whole lot of tandem videos in one day. The way the film is set up makes it a lot easier for quick turnarounds. You do not have to pull out the film and line it up like 35 mm film. You open the case and just drop it in. The camera does the rest. As far as the slightly higher cost of developing, the tandem student is paying for that, so it does not often come into play, and when it does we are talking about a dollar more. All that being said, APS is not for everyone. If you are interested in getting your pictures in a magizine you definately want to go with a 35 mm due to its better qualities at larger prints. Also I only know of one SLR type APS camera and going with that large of a APS camera defeats the pupose. If you need a SLR type camera you already know you need an SLR type camera. I went to a 35 mm SLR when I decided I wanted to do a lot more with my pictures that just hand them over to a tandem student. William