CTSkydiver

I use a "Power 2000" generic 700mAh battery (from B&H) with my 350D. I can't imagine needing a higher capacity battery than that.... both that and the original will take at least a 1000 pictures, probably much more, some with flash, between recharging. And the generic works OK on the Canon charger. I also picked up the same no-name generic brand battery for my TRV-17 with a super-high capacity ( I shoot all weekend on one charge) and it work pretty well too, although I occasionally have an issue with the camera turning itself off (only immediately after turning it on) ... rejecting the battery as a non-infolithium. Simpy turn it on again and all is well. However, once on, it always stays on, and it works fine. No problem at all with the Canon, though.

Wow... I looked at (presumably) your pic on your site and still can't imagine how that could'a happened so often. Weird. Does your main lift web have two pieces of webbing where the handles attach in between (in a pocket) or are your handles just stuck to the underside of a single (or double) layer of webbing? My first rig was like the latter, and I'd suppose that would make it more snag prone. Do you peel your handles frequently or just when necessary for use? I wonder if this has happened to anyone else... Good luck to you in the future, in any case. BTW, your girlfriend is pretty hot. :-) .

One would think you'd revise your procedures and/or equipment to prevent this from happening, at least after the SECOND time. You've got to be kidding. Your camera wing can pull your cutaway handle? Ever hear of velcro?

My favorites (of those taken Sunday, June 19, 2005).

The conceptus stereo switch works fine with my 350D without modification of any kind.

Using film i shot 24 frames using a burst on exit and deployment ... i'm having trouble with my 350D and conceptus (1 Gig Sandisk UltraII card) taking under 50 when the student is smiling and the clouds are pretty. I could easily take 80 from exit to deployment, probably lots more if I just held it down. Go continuous ... films free with digital, dude. Using Large Jpeg (Fine); the one gig card holds about 300 shots. Should go all day with discipline, or you could stop once to swap cards or download to a pc - really fast with USB 2.0 on the 350D (only USB 1.0 on the 300 & Nikon D70,D70s ... takes a lot longer). Sport mode works fine, if you can't out-think the camera like the "real" photogs can. The auto focus and auto metering response of this camera is smart and fast! You gotta work hard to screw up a pic.

Well, damn. I'm pretty surprised none of you hand-cammers have bothered mounting a still to the other hand. You got two, don't yah? Can't you squeeze a few more bucks out of the jump? What'd I read earlier, $25 for a 4x6 print from a video source? Wa-hoo! Bleed 'em, dude!

According to the specs, there's no firewire.

Wow Jim, you don't say? Coupled with a mal and chop, you're awfully right. I Think Dave G. posted the vid.

Any comments on the HP 8450? I haven't used anything else so nothing to compare it too.

Seems to be. Take care. See ya then.

More in-depth preliminary review, here: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-Announces-Under-$2,000-HDV-HDR-HC1-High-Def-1080i-Camcorder.htm Looks like it has at least minimal manual control via buttons ... and they mention a more expensive model with full manual control. EDIT: And here's an interesting quote comparing the data bandwidth of MiniDV and HDV (which uses the same tape): This might be important to consider. "The NAB announcements highlight the weaknesses of the HDV specification. While HDV video can record either at 1080 lines of resolution 60 frames interlaced, or 720 lines of resolution progressive scan video, it actually includes the same amount of information as the MiniDV spec. Both DV and HDV video formats use 25 Megabits of data per second, and the 720 lines spec for HDV only uses 19 Megabits of data per second. The HDV spec includes less color information about the picture than did the DV specification. Because of the downgraded amount of information, some prosumers have criticized the HDV specification. Panasonic's professional division has decided to break away from the consortium to announce a prosumer non-HDV camcorder. Their HDV camcorder which was announced at NAB can record 100 Megabits of data to solid state media, and can record 1080 lines of progressive video instead of just the interlaced video included in the HDV spec. "

The link you posted mentions it should be about $2000. F---ing Touch Screens!

Your welcome... I've done a ton of searching recently myself and know how you feel. I'm still in CT (acutally, I just arrived, I'm usually a Florida guy). My father grew up in Trumbull and my Mom's mom had\has a cabin on Pinewood Lake ... I never live there myself but visited a bit. This will be my second summer in CT and at CPI (Ellington). I've nothing but good things to say about the d.z. Definitely check them out. They have a pretty busy schedule of events this summer ... helicopter boogy this weekend I think and some multi-otter State Record attempts later on ... I don't know of any other turbine dz's in CT ... but that doesn't mean there aren't any ... I haven't been to any other CT dz's. I think there is a place in Danielson (?) but I'm not ever sure where that is. There's probably a list on this site. CPI is a member owned club and has some pretty great members. Pretty well rounded group, too ... there's freeflyers, belly flyers, style & accuracy guys, some CRW dudes, wing suit flockers ... An awesome Super Otter (a pretty decent 182, too) ... they could use some better weather gods though. Apologies to everyone else for drifting off topic.

Search over. Here's at least three to choose from: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=step+ring+30mm+37mm&image.x=2&image.y=7 There's plenty of lenses available that don't require step rings too. You might also search some other big photo places, like Camera World and such... If the link doesn't work, just search B&H or the web for "step ring 30mm 37mm" ... I got hits from that.

I found a SunPak .45 lens with a 30mm mount at B&H that works great for me, as seen here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1627256;search_string=sunpak%20;#1627256 EDIT: & Here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=285775&is=REG (Maybe someone can teach me that clicky thing) It's a two part lens which is also threaded externally so you can add a filter, which I did, and still have no vignetting (at least at full wide on my TRV-17). There are many lenses available with 30mm mounts. Search B&H Photo/Video and you'll find several. Buy one that requires a step-down ring and you'll be more likely to wind up with vignetting. BTW, this lens was under $50.

Oh crap, your serious! Geeze, you know, I've really been meaning to do something about that myself someday. The junk I've acquired goes back to '95 ... not exactly fresh ... and exist on MiniDv, Digital 8 and Hi8 ... and it would be a monster job to wade through. Besides, you'd need to have some sort of ultimate goal in mind, theme wise, I think. Otherwise you'd wind up with an incoherent mess. While it sure would be neat to have someone go through all that stuff for me, I'm not to sure it would be worth the time for you (or anyone). We might be attached in some way to our own everyday footage, but pretty hard to expect others to be intrigued. In any case, I left all those tapes back home in FL ... and won't be seeing them again till Thanksgiving. Also, they are NTSC. You'd probably be happier finding someone with lots of raw footage of flying cars or flaming naked BASE or something equally eye-popping.

I've got 40 or 50 hours worth of skydiving tapes lying around that I'm sure if you browse through them all you can find a few minutes of really cool stuff... Interested?

I've been browsing this forum quite extensively lately, and dug this up. My goal is to build a short extension cable, of a length equivalent to the CamEye II extension cable provided by SkyTools, with the male Sony equivalent 4 conductor audio/video plug on one end and an equivalent female receptacle on the other ... parts are available as above. UNLESS someone has found such am extension cable already exist? The point of using this is to allow hooking up to the TV for playback without taking the cam out of the D-box ... and to save wear & tear on the camera's female AV receptacle. Since the cam needs to be removed from the box frequently (changing tapes; ground footage using zoom or effects) the lead needs to be small enough to be secured to the camera (as my CamEye extension is - it wraps around the front of my TRV-17 and sticks out the back of the D-box) ... and although I looked into the cool use of adding plugs into the helmet itself the fact the camera needs to be removed from the helmet frequently (sadly) intergration with the helmet is not an option. It looks like this is quite doable with the parts listed at the above sight and a bit of well placed solder. Anyone tried it? How do Sony cameras function with an unplugged AV cable plugged into them? Peace...

Yeah, what IS up with that? I've jumped an FTN several times with relatively heavy cams forgetting to close the bone latch (snugged it down on jump run but left the latch up for comfort and forgot about pushing it down before climbing out) and never had problems... I'm wondering if these lost helmets had something to do with riser strike on the un-protected latches of earlier FTP/FTN's or some sort of structural failure. Or maybe folks trim the ends off the plastic zipper thing and don't have much left if the latch slips? Anyone?

Thanks for the reply... I thought I'd seen some pics here taken with the onboard flash of a digiRebel ... can't remember where I've read pretty much every thread in the past couple weeks. One was a night tandem I believe, and it looked pretty good (on the web anyway ... but mine looked pretty good on the back of the camera too, till you zoomed in). You saying the 350D can't fill flash a close tandem or equivalent? Bummer. And I can fire that flash every two seconds...

not in my experience... I had to come to CT to find a RadioShack that stocked little electronics parts... the FL stores I visited didn't have stereo mini-plugs, switches, photoreceptors, anything. Didn't even know what I meant by "LANC" even after I showed them on a Sony miniDV they sold. I ranted about this somewhere in this forum last week. So I'd say make sure you call first.

So I tried shooting some pics today on a 350D in TV at 250... By the time we jumped it was about 60-75 minutes or so from sunset and the sun was blocked by a cloud ... I got pretty blurry (unusable) pics. It was still "pretty bright" but not like "really bright" out, and I was a bit surprised at the amount of blur. But I did have the iso at 100; I guess that should been cranked higher, but I had to try it Anyone know of a way to get good pics at 200 or so, so that the pop-up flash can be used successfully ... such as for a fill flash on something relatively stationary and close at sunset time? In my case, the kit lens at 18mm.

Thanks, I'll let him know. Seems to me he wants a wide top I guess without the "full face" of an FTP or FTN ... Says he doesn't want to side mount anymore (riser strike issue).

Thanks! I didn't realize how little forehead they had. These helmets are side entry? When / Why were they discontinued? I was speaking with someone at the DZ today who was interested in one ... guess he wasn't impressed with my FTN setup.