bofh

It's 300 in Sweden and 500 for "bigger" wingsuits. I had around 320 when I did my first jumps with the Prodigy.

I've not seen any 10 nor 12mm fixed lenses with Canon EF or EF-S mounts, but ff weight is all you worry about, the fixed lenses are not always lighter. Ie the Canon EF 14/2.8L weighs 560g, compared to the mentioned Sigma at 470g. The Canon EF-S 10-22/3.5-4.5 USM is a rather good and light lens, only 385g. It costs a bit more than the Sigma though.

I'm curious to know where you got that from? It was just some rule our high school teacher talked about. I've never competed in it and never questioned it, so I never bothered to look up the rules. I should stick to the F1 rules in my examples...

Most sports have rules of three kinds: 1) To make it safer for the competitors. The highest you can jump is by diving over the bar, yet that technique is forbidden in a sport where the goal it to jump as high as possible because it is more dangerous. 2) To make it a bit more fair and/or cheaper, like weight rules and the banning of some computer assistance in F1. 3) To make the event more fun for the audience. Do you think rules of the third kind isn't important? If the audience isn't allowed to comment on how the events are run, how are such rules going to be formulated?

In theory AADs can perform self tests the whole time they are turned on and are exposed to "environmental extremes", not just during power-up. How it works in practice, I have no idea about since I've never seen the design of any AAD. I see a value in a proper factory test, but that should IMHO only be used to make sure the self tests are working and update those procedures. If the AAD is damaged, and the self tests don't notice, the device will be useless until the factory takes a look at it. Up to four years later. So if the choice was between a factory test every forth year and good self-diagnostics, I rather take the later. Fortunally one doesn't have to make that choice.

But that's the easiest settings for the camera to handle. I've taken some pictures from the side of the swooper with the 350D, 18-55mm kit lens, all AF points on, AI-single shot mode and time priority and it managed to focus fast enough (I missed some shots due to having all focus points on so it locked on to the wrong point, but the camera did what it was told quickly enough). But given the same USM lens, all AF points turned on, AI single shot and some exposure measurement, you turn, aim and shot and you'll notice that a 1D is faster than a 350D.

One doesn't have to transfer as much sweat to the canopy while packing it. My previous canopy started to become yellow in the middle (white) cell's top skin... But the whuffo aspect is a reason enough.

Uranium can also be found in nature...

Here's one: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1486509;search_string=FF2;#1486509

A lens hood.

I don't think the temperature compensation works so good, since (at least on the alti-track), it seems to be measured via the pressure sensor's thermometer and since that one is inside the device it doesn't measure the outside temperature so good. Mine rarely goes under 18 degrees, even if the ambient temperature is a lot lower.

According to the specs, the PC1000 has the equivalent of a 48mm focal length on a 35mm camera. The PC107/109 has 43mm, the PC5/9 has 42mm.

A ".45" is a conversion lens, it takes the camera's focal length and changes it by 0.45, but it doesn't force you to use a specific focal length on the camera. So if the image angle is too large, you can always zoom out and get a smaller image angle. If you think the image angle is too large even on max zoom, you don't need a conversion lens. I know nothing about that Tokina, but if it has moving parts (like filter holder or whatnot), put some tape around it, otherwise I doubt there would be any problems with it.

But that was not what I was saying and thus your example is irrelevant. I said belly fliers, FF:ers exiting on the belly and then FF:ers exiting in HD, or at least that was what I intended to say, sorry if I have expressed myself poorly. The program that plotted that chart didn't take into account someone exiting on the belly, then moving on to HD/HU, did it? My whole point is, and have been, that the forward motion in the beginning of the jump is quite significant.

There are computer programs to correct the pictures afterwards, if one wants. I don't have a fisheye, so I've not tried them, but I've heard that they do give really good results. One extra step in the photography though and I would only take photos in RAW if I were to postprocess them like that...

We had a jumper that jumped with a GPS and measured how much he moved forward with the plane when exiting on the belly and in HD. It made quite a difference. If FF group 1 exits in HD, then FF group 2 exits on belly and then transitions to HD, group 1 will be quite near group 2 unless group 2 waits an extra long time and that is just a waste of fuel... For this reason I say: belly fliers, FFers exiting on belly and then FF exiting in HD. When the upper and lower winds are rather equal, the drift doesn't matter at all since you continue to blow with the wind even under canopy. Yes, if they move around a lot, put them last. If they can't make a good exit, they must wait more when exiting after a FFer that did. But then again, it is hard to move a lot in head up, especially if they end up on the belly all the time...

My PC107 has about the same image angle as a 43mm lens on a 35mm camera. With Sony's 0625 converter (a 0.6x converter), it then becomes about the same as a 26mm lens on a 35mm camera. With a proper 0.45 converter it would become 19mm. The Canon kit lens at 18mm has the same image angle as a 29mm on a 35mm camera (there's a 1.6 factor between the 400D's image sensor and the full 35mm sensor, making the image angle wider), so one need a 12mm lens to get the same image angle as a proper 0.45 converter on a PC107. The DCR-PC5 and DCR-PC9's image is slightly wider, 42mm in 35mm terms, but the end result is about the same (11.8mm focal length is needed). A few converters are incorrectly labeled. If you have a stepring inbetween the converter and the camera, it will also change the convertion factor. If you want the exact same image angle, borrow a Canon 10-22mm and adjust until you get the same image angle, then you know the focal length you want and can choose a lense (fixed or zoom) that match. Edited to also answer the OP: I'd go for a Canon EF-S 10-22/f3.5-4.5, it is fast, light (340g) and generally a really good zoom lens. Its a bit expensive though. Cheaper zoom lenses to examine are: Tokina AT-X Pro 12-24/4,0 DX Tamron AF SP 11-18/4,5-5,6 Di II Sigma EX 10-20/4,0-5,6 DC HSM Search the net for reviews. A friend of mine is very happy with his Tamron for his Nikon. It is also quite light (355g). You could also go for a fixed lense, they generally need less light, are smaller and are better at handling direct sunlight on them, but the ones I've seen that are non-fisheye are quite expensive (Canon's 14/2.8L, Sigma EX 14/2,8 HSM and Tamron AF SP 14/2,8 ASL).

I doubt it. The main reason for the exit order is to account for the different forward movements in the exits, there a head-up/down exit will make the person continue to fly in the jumprun for a longer period of time compared to someone exiting on the belly. So if someone is going to make a belly exit and then transition to head-up/down, they should exit with the belly flyers, before the free-flyers.

It is available with a linear-scale as well if one prefers that.

In some countries it is better to simply ignore the patent and if sued, show the prior art.

Unless there is some unintentional high opening...

Due to the weather, the balloon jump was moved forward a bit so I got to make three WS flights out of our aircraft on Saturday. Before my first flight a grumpy jumper claimed the suit wasn't better than a pair of tracking pants and someone experienced with the pants could fly just as long, so an experienced tracking pants flyer exited with me. I only concentrated on the practice pulls and heading/flight path and didn't see him until I had pulled and was looking around under the canopy. He was around 500m shorter than me, had taken a narrower path compared to the jump run and had pulled 700m lower than I did... . On the third flight I let go of the grippers five seconds before pulling and it was easy flying with the arms forward as well. I had some nice clouds at 1700m which I got to make a turn around as well. As avonfoto said, the Prodigy is a really easy suit to fly, the only problem I had was that I was a bit tense on the first flight and oversteered when turning and due to my inability to read the altimeter without turning my head (or moving the hand) I turned a bit when checking the altitude, both problems got better on jump two where I relaxed more. On the second jump I got 92 seconds of FF time (at least that was what my altitrack said) when exiting at 3700m and pulled at 1500m and I mostly tried different body positions during that jump.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/06082416canoneos400drebelxti.asp

I would really hope that also holds true for solo aircraft exits as well Well, there is this turbulence around the aircraft body that one normal compensates for when exiting (as well as having a lot of motion while jumping out of the door). With a WS that compensation will of course be slightly different and since I've never done it before, I would think that there would be a slightly higher risk of becoming unstable. But what do I know? Its not something that I'm really worried about since I'll will have another 2000m to recover and practice the pull.

... Is that last part still not aimed at me? Otherwise I want to know if you just didn't read my other posts in this thread or if I expressed myself so poorly in them that I am not making myself understood. I quote from the second posting I made (post #11): Perhaps I should have written the full sentance: "...instead of making a WS jump from the balloon", but I thought it was obvious. Post #15 (my 4:th in the thread) said almost the same thing as your post here, or at least that was my intention with it.