PharmerPhil

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Posts posted by PharmerPhil

  1. Quote

    I admit that my next statement is from an ignorant point of view



    Yep. That says it best.

    Quote

    but: I don't plan on flying a "camera slot" I just want to see again what I experience on the weekends.



    You obviously haven't read a lot of what has been written on this forum (including, I think, in the sticky). The complications of adding a camera are multiple, regardless of whether you are flying a "camera slot" or doing "point-of-view type filming nothing too complicated..."

    If you jump with a camera, you WILL think about it lot, and that will take precious inexperienced brain energy away from the rest of the skydive; where it is needed most. Particularly at this stage in your jumping.

    Re-read Doug's comment about following recommendations.

  3. You're not giving much to go on (what software, which connection, what do you see/not see). But I'll point out the obvious first.

    Connect the camera with Firewire only (USB won't work). Connect camera first, turn on camera second, and then open your video editing/capture software.

  6. Quote

    ...But...anything that distorts the peripheriy and expands foreground from the center is technically a fisheye. But that's not how the industry generally defines the term...



    My understanding of fisheye is in how the lens distorts the periphery.

    Any lens distorts the image somewhat, as you are effectively putting a part of a sphere (that is, the part of the sphere the camera sees) onto a flat plane (film, imager, or a print). Of course, the wider the lens, the more the distortion because the lens is "seeing" and flattening a larger part of the sphere.

    The simplest method of squashing the arc of the sphere is to just make a lens with all the elements being circular around the axis of the lens. This leads to circular distortion where lines on the edges of the frame are curved around the imager (hence non-centered horizons bend around the image).

    A different, and more costly method, is to make an aspherical lens where the corners of the lens elements are stretched outward. This straightens lines, and is perceived as less distorted to the average eye. Keep in mind that it is still distorted (it has to be if the image is flat), but we just don't notice this distortion as much. However, if you take a picture of a group of people with an aspherical lanes, everything looks okay until you notice that the people in the corners of the frame have bulges in their heads that stretch towards to corners of the frame. Again, many people won't notice this until it is pointed out to them, but will instead think of these images as more "natural."

    I believe the Canon 10-22 is considered an aspherical lens. I have never jumped with one, but I did use on on a trip. Compare the shots below to any shots taken by the fisheye Canon or Sigma. The first was taken at a focal length of 14mm, and the second is at 10mm. In each case, there are strong horizontal lines on the edge of the images that are hardly curved at all.

  8. Quote

    On an APSC camera, 15mm isn't a fisheye.
    On a full-frame camera, it is.



    Well, on a APSC it isn't as much of a fisheye, but it is still very much a fisheye. And any straight line not running through the center of the frame will definitely be distorted. For RW footage from above this doesn't bother me as much because you just don't get that many lines like this (but you still get the images in the center of the frame larger in proportion than those on the sides). But for tandems where the horizon or plane wing is often in view I find it very obvious and bothersome.

    FYI, 15mm on a 20D, check out the roof lines:
    http://www.philroberson.com/lenscomp/images/10%20Canon%2020D%2015mm.jpg

    Here's the same shot with a 17mm, check out the porch roof line in the same part of the frame:
    http://www.philroberson.com/lenscomp/images/09%20Canon%2020D%2017mm%20Tokina.jpg

  10. Quote

    Big fan of the Canon 15mm,...



    Ditto. The Canon is also slightly lighter than the Sigma, and slightly smaller in diameter. On the heavier end is the Tokina 17mm aspherical (it isn't a fisheye lens). It is one of my favorites prime lenses, but it is getting hard to find. It might even have been discontinued.

    I also use the Canon 24mm and 28mm on my Canon DSLR, but not for tandems. They are not wide enough for how I fly.

  12. I don't know about the G10, but you will find that most of the all-in-one digital cameras are not suitable for skydiving without modifying them to accept a port for a remote shutter release. That is why my camera flyers use DSLR cameras.

    Additionally, if your profile is correct, most people on this forum would not recommend you even consider jumping with a camera until you have a lot more experience for a whole host of reasons. A search of this forum will show this to be a recurring discussion, and may give you more insight as to why, or at least read the first Q&A in the stickie at the top of this forum.

  14. Seventeen Years. Seriously.

    I did my first jump (S/L) in 1980. 2nd in 1981. I thought it was cool and I should do lots of this stuff. Fast-forward to 1997 when I moved to a town with a DZ and my buddy with 40+ military S/L jumps told me about to new instructional methods,...tandem (sounded kinda lame) and AFF (sounded cool?). I started AFF (my 3rd jump) in 97 and finished (after an unrelated broken foot) in 98. Been non-stop ever since.

    Had I started seriously in 1981, I figure I would either have become a skygod or become dead.

  15. I just found this thread, and am having a ball reading the "recommendations." I mean just read this crap:

    Quote

    have you added any users, or are you still using the original administrator login? If you're not already, try logging in on the admin acocunt and see if it shows up - if so, then go to the permissions on the drive and add your other username with read/write/modify permissions.




    Quote

    1) Detach all USB devices from the computer
    2) Reboot and enter SAFE mode with Admin rights
    3) On the Device Manager
    a) Delete all Human Interface Devices
    b) Delete all USB Controllers
    4) Reboot
    5) Attached USB Hard drive first and wait for the drivers to install
    6) Repeat #5 for every USB port on the sytem (seriosly).
    7) Reboot and make sure you can see the drive in subsequent reboots on any USB port.
    8) Now you can plug (one at a time) any other HID devices (mouse, etc)




    Quote

    NO added users. I have admin rights. I can see the drive if I go to device manager. But I can not open the drive from "my computer."

    I get the usb (pluck) sound when I plug in my device but it won't let me see or access it.
    I can go into the device settings and try to update the driver but it says it is up to date.
    I can not get into the files though.



    All the Mac users reading this just laugh at this s#&$. Oh, and anyone buying a Mac just to run Windows is getting the worst of both worlds (price for the Mac and ridiculousness for the OS), and doesn't really qualify as a Mac user,... just as a loser.

  16. Keep in mind that the two will never perfectly match. Your CX6 is widescreen, and its image is about 75 percent wider than its height. Your Canon is 4:3, so its image is only 33 percent wider than its height.

    Plus if you print 8x10 or A4 photos, they are only 25 percent wider than their height.

    Personally, I like the still camera to be a little wider FOV than the video so I can crop to whatever print size I need. Also, if a hand or top of a head goes slightly out of frame, it isn't a big deal on video but is more bothersome (I think) in a static image.

    Everybody is different, but for tandems I use a .45 Raynox and either a 24mm lens for my film camera or a 15mm for my APS-sized DSLR.

    Last spring I posted this comparison using a few different combinations:

    http://www.philroberson.com/lenscomp/index.htm

  17. I need to get another Terabyte of external storage in a hurry (with FW800 and eSATA) for video capturing/storage, and I am wondering about other's experiences with different brands.

    I have always used LaCie drives and have been very, very happy with them. But I am looking at a Western Digital My Book Studio Edition HD that is $50 cheaper than the small desktop Lacie. Anyone used either or both? Any problems? Are the Western externals quiet? Reliable?

    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/522059-REG/Western_Digital_WDH1Q10000N_1_TB_My_Book.html

    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/542673-REG/LaCie_301827U_1TB_d2_Quadra_Hard.html

  18. Quote

    Here in Norway there are laws to protect the person on the picture and the one taking it. No-one can use a picture unless the photographer and the person in it approves it. If only one approves the publication, it won't hit the media/web(in theory).



    We have the same theoretical laws in the U.S. for commercial use, but the subject of the photo does not need to grant permission it if it is for news purposes. But I am less worried about publications than I am about Joe Blow Jumper who asks to buy an image, and then prints copies for his pals, or somehow lets the file out into the general domain.

  20. I have kind of a soft spot for lots of monitors. My home set-up has two dual monitor cards (ATI Radeon 2600s), Normally I just use one card feeding two Samsung 20-inch LCDs for most computer use including a lot of editing. Even this helps because I can fit my timeline full width and my preview and canvas windows each taking up half of one screen, and my browser items and any other stuff on the other screen.

    But my second card is hooked up to both an LG 20-inch TV next to my monitors (via RGB input), and my 40-inch LCD in the adjacent living room. I also have a BlackMagic HDMI out PCIe card which feeds the HDMI input on my LG TV, and that is what I use when previewing on my desktop TV. But I can switch to the RGB input on the TV when I just need more desktop space for other computer projects (no, sometimes two screens isn't enough). For many smaller editing tasks, the little canvas on my computer monitor is fine and I use it very often. But when you want to really look at a sequence you just edited, or how a transition really looks, it helps to have something bigger and closer to what others will view the finished product on (it's also nice to be able to preview your stuff with a real audio system).

    So I can preview stuff my desktop TV when editing, and on the big screen when I want/need to. But keep in mind that neither of these are really video monitors per se, they're televisions, although you can set them up pretty good. I do have a real Sony 13-inch monitor (PVM-something) for more critical color stuff if I want it (SD only, do you know how much a real broadcast HD monitor costs?), but during the summer it lives at the DZ as my main preview monitor for doing analog SD editing. Oh yeah, and I have two other B&W Sony 9-inch monitors next to that for a preview screen off my feeder cam and for my titler's preview out.

    Of course, all this means I don't really have a life.

  21. Quote

    For top mount it doesn't matter



    Which is one (more) advantage of top-mounts. I have had four different video cameras on my current top-mount helmet (plus brackets, flashes, stills, etc.), and am apt to put others on there as well. A good helmet should outlast any given camera or format.

  22. Just my observation (I haven't compete since 2004, and then it was all composite).

    I would think that whereas most NLEs can handle multiple formats (often on the same timeline), the requirement shouldn't be one of which format, but of which, or which of many different delivery protocols are acceptable. For example, rather than mandating 1080i widescreen, how about saying that the video must be delivered via one of a few cables such as firewire, usb, HDMI, or even (shutter) composite. It is still the teams responsibility to show the skydive (for example, grips in RW).

    That way you are not excluding many very good and serviceable cameras (or flyers), and you are not ruling out potential future codecs or formats. I mean really, who cares if it is 16:9 vs. 4:3 or 1080P vs. 480i as long as you can see the skydive? There definitely would be an advantage to those who use higher quality formats. i.e. if the judges can't quite make out whether a grip is there or not based on your old 300 line composite feed, that's your fault just as a non-judgeable angle would be your fault. That's what you gave them to judge on. The teams that deliver smokin' 1080p resolution have an advantage, but it is an advantage that is available to any team.

    BTW, on a somewhat related issue, I have always wondered in the old days if grips that were provided on video by the camera person weren't seen by the judges because of old over-scanning televisions (i.e. the grips were in the full screen signal, but were chopped by the judging TV). I can't imagine it hasn't happened, but was it ever challenged?

    And BTW, the "standerd" (sic) method of spelling is "Standardization."

  23. Ditto on vignetting, helmet parts, etc in frame. Nothing says "amateur" more than that.

    Quote

    I've had another look and I am 99% sure the 0.5 will be fine...

    ...or worse still camera housing that moves about all over the place.



    Keep in mind that checking for objects or lenses in frame on the ground is no guarantee it will work in the air. If you have any sort of image stabilization, the video may look fine while static on the ground, but may show unwanted objects when your IS kicks in during freefall. This may be the "camera housing that moves about all over the place" you are referring to.

  24. Quote

    I've mentioned this to a few guys in person, and maybe posted it at some point, but it's important to understand that there is a window of time you have to get off the plane before the tandem (a leading exit). Once you miss this window, you need to just hang on, let them go by, and follow them off of the plane (a trailing exit). If you leave at the same time, you wil be in the mushy air of their burble, and about to get a drouge tossed at your face.



    I totally disagree (see? I told you aI would add more later). My best exit shots are when I leave EXACTLY at the same time as the tandem. The simple part of it is that you just have to be in a different relative wind than the tandem. For example, if rear floating, jump further away or lower down than the tandem. Personally, when I do a rear float, on exit I leap far out and forward of the tandem looking back at the passenger. The trick is to not just fall off the plane, but to plan and find a spot in the slip-stream where you can be close to, but not in the same relative wind as, the tandem pair.

    Think of good 4-way teams or RW jumps with an 8-way base chunking out of the plane. They ALL leave at exactly the dame time. They just make sure they leave in such a way that they all get their own "air." Every time I see tandem videographers leave early or late, the footage isn't nearly as good as a good videographer who leaves right with the tandem.

  25. Quote

    When flying with tandems, what are your top three "Do's and Don'ts?"



    Well, these are just off the top of my head (I may add more later). And they are not necessarily safety related. But here goes:

    DO keep in mind (and keep the attention on) the person who is paying for the video. Hint: it is not the tandem instructor or the videographer.

    DO have a good relationship with, a good routine with, and good trust in, your tandem instructor(s).

    DON'T get complacent, jaded, bored, or otherwise unmotivated by your work. It is still the customers' first skydive, and one of the most memorable moments in their lives.

    P.S. Sounds like a Camera Corner topic to me...