PharmerPhil

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Everything posted by PharmerPhil

  1. Yeah, that would be nice. But my previous camera was wearing out anyway, and I didn't think it made sense to buy a new camera that wasn't HD (I know, HDV really). That's why I was curious about the HC5 or HC7 (your HC1 is the same internally as my A1U). But it may just be an HDV thing.
  2. Here are three techniques I used on an NvertigoX helmet several years back. Not the prettiest, but they served me well. In the first photo, I took some sort of nylon dowel stock or thick washer. It may have come from a plumbing fixtures repair parts bin (don't remember). Look in your local hardware store. I ground it down on a grinding wheel to match the contour of the box I was mounting. A nut and bolt goes through the box, nlylon and helmet. BTW, nylon or other UHMW plastic is slippery which should help deflect lines and the like. In the second photo, you can see where I added hot glue to fill a small depression that may have snagged a line. And in the third, I found some black plastic 1/4-inch sheet stock that I ground to match the contour of the helmet below an aluminum bracket similar to yours. I had to drill and tap the plastic to accept screws. You have to be creative, think like McGiver (sp?), and it helps to have a well stocked shop or hardware store.
  3. I have been jumping an HDV camera for several months now (HDR-A1U), but have just recently been shooting commercial tandem videos with it. Previously, I have used it for RW and non-skydiving shoots. The following are some observations, questions, conundrums regarding its use. I should point out that my previous tandem video camera was a Sony DV model TRV-38. There are certainly major differences between the two, and some are a little unsettling for my use. I should also mention that although I do a fair amount of NLE (FCP), I do my tandem editing using old linear equipment with my camera as the one and only feeder deck. 1. When I hit slow motion on my remote (LANC or wireless), the image on screen and on the output freezes for slightly more than a second before going into slow motion. Likewise, when I go from slow-mo to normal speed, the image on screen freezes for even more time before resuming normal speed. Previously, I did this regularly during my mix, and my older camera went quickly and smoothly from full-speed to slow speed. I am guessing that this is due to the intra-frame compression, and the fact that the camera needs to buffer and reference frames before and after the current frame before figuring what to output. Unfortunately, this makes for a much less pleasing transition using my older (stone-knives and bear-skins) editing techniques. Additionally, the slow speed is much slower than any of my Mini-DV cameras (TRV-900, TRV-38, and PC-1). 2. The HDV camera takes varying times to go from standby to record. That is, sometimes it is fairly quick, and others it it painfully slow. This seems to be based on how long the camera has been in standby mode (but not always), and can be very frustrating. This weekend I missed a tandem landing because the camera took too long to start back up in record mode. In a non-linear-editing scenario, this shouldn't be a problem, because you can just let the camera roll (and, in fact, it is easier to have some pre-roll and post-roll footage). However, when I "shoot to edit" for my linear editing system, this would compromise my editing ability. 3. When you fast-forward or rewind while in playback mode (shuttling), you get a very blurry image out of the camera. This is okay (and understandable), but when you return to play, the video jumps to a point that is a few seconds different from the preview (earlier in rewind, later in FF). This is a pain when you want to rewind the freefall portion of a tandem quickly, and have it go right to the exit frame. All my previous DV cameras stopped or played right at the point I saw on screen when I returned to play. 4. This last observation (gripe?) may have nothing to do with the HDV format, but the new HDV-A1U seems to hunt much longer when in auto-focus mode. I typically use auto-focus for everything except freefall footage (I set manual focus right before exiting, and turn it back off right after landing). Several times, either in the plane or zooming in on a tandem under canopy, the camera has taken way too long to find the correct focus. So much so that I have missed some good footage on a few tandems. This problem seems to be most acute either in low light (on the plane), or at long distances (i.e., shooting a tandem under canopy from a distance). I am using a new lens for this cam (Raynox HD-5050PRO). I haven't had a chance to put my older lens on this camera to see if this makes a difference, but I seem to remember this problem on some non-skydiving shoots without a WA lens. Sorry for the long and rambling post, but I am hoping some other videographers can either learn from this before making the switch to HDV, or that some can tell me their experiences and shed some light on these problems. I am very curious if any one else (particularly with an HC7 or HC5) has experienced these same problems and what their work-arounds or fixes were. I don't really want to go to non-linear editing for tandems. Pay for tandem videos hasn't gone up enough to justify the additional time, and I am often either on a back-to-back, or have one Super Otter load's worth of time to do an edit, finalize the disk, deliver it, and get my ground footage for the next tandem.
  4. The flash determines it's settings through the lens if you are in E-TTL mode (Electronic Through The Lens). However, to do this with the flash mounted remotely, you need to use Canon's off-shoe multi-pin connecting cord instead of a simple sync cord.
  5. Please DO NOT JUMP THIS HELMET in it's current configuration! You need to take that rough-cut, pointed aluminum bracket and modify it so that the corners are well rounded off (min. 1/2-inch radius), and the edges of the aluminum are filed or milled smooth. I can picture a riser, line or piece of skin (yours or someone elses) slamming against what is effectively a sharp serrated knife, and doing major damage. Plus, you have a major snag point between the bracket and the helmet in the back. You need to fill in that space with something solid that gives a line more of a chance to slip off. I use hot glue for small paces, but that crevice is so deep, you need to attach something solid to fill that void before addressing the little depressions. Also, it may not be as much of a safety issue, but that's a fairly large lens for a side mount, and if it rips off, it may do major damage to your camera as well (but that's your dime rather than someone else's safety). Usually I don't like camera boxes (can't access most camera functions), but in the case of side-mount I think they are advisable.
  6. The best video interviewers I have seen have a very natural way about them, and are good at unscripted talk. The worst I have seen are too full of themselves, and think the video is about the videographer (I hate it when videots put themselves in the video). It's a fine line. I'm not as good as some, so I tend to stick to scripted material that works. You do have to mix it up though, particularly if you are videoing several people from the same group. One tip I think helps is to get used to framing your customer without putting the camera to your face (i.e. hold it low or off to the side). First, sticking the camera between you and the subject makes camera-shy people more camera-shy, and second, your voice will invariably be much louder on the video than theirs. Also, if you pull your face away from the camera and look them in the eyes, you start having a real conversation with the customer with less focus (no pun intended) on the camera ("Oh S#@%, I'm on camera!"). One last thing. IMHO, don't ask the "is there anything you want to say before we go?" question. Particularly from the people who are already too reserved on camera. It violates the ask-open-ended-questions rule, and 95 percent of the time, all you will hear is "uh, no." (Great. That was a good closer.)
  7. Well no one else chimed in, so,... I only looked at one on the ground (it was on a Nikon). It looks fairly large, and like most Tokinas, it is pretty heavy. Haven't jumped it though. I do occasionally jump a Tokina 17mm on my Canon 20D, and it is a beautiful lens. It is also a little heavy though, but not as heavy or long as the 12-24.
  8. I gotta disagree with the previous respondents. Unless I'm missing something, it sounds like you are falling too slow to start with (even while belly flying). In this case the last thing you need is a freefly suit. I am a big believer in wing suits for camera. Not to slow you down, but to give you more range to an already optimally fitting (and falling) suit. But if you are using a freefly suit, and you are falling to slow, you need to speed up your medium fall rate. Instead of adding wings to an already slow suit, I would scrap the ff suit, get a real camera suit (with wings) and learn how to fly a camera suit. BTW, they fly differently than a regular suit (ff or rw). Typically, I fly on the wings (slightly knees down,..I think), and use legs and hands for additional control. This doesn't make sense. If you are flying with your arms closed, you are no longer using your wings (i.e. they aren't doing anything). You should be shooting (no pun intended) for a freefall speed that is ideal with medium wings. Then, more wing slows you down, and less wing (elbows in, arms closed) speeds you up. It is late, but that's my too sense.
  9. I keep the keepers there. I only use iPhoto to catalog the photos I want to keep for myself for future use. My contract photos (mostly news photos) go to CD-ROM the week I shoot them for archive purposes. I can't comment on iPhoto for editing (I use Photoshop for editing and as my default when I double-click), but I find that it works great (no problems) as library/catalog software.
  10. Never. I also take tons of photos. More non-skydiving than skydiving, but tons and tons of both. I never, ever reformat my card and never have a problem with space, speed, errors, etc. My routine is to download to iPhoto and automatically delete the photos as I do this (it is an option). My 20D creates a new folder for every 100(?) images. Every so often, I go in and trash the empty folders (iPhoto deletes the images, but somehow doesn't know to delete the folders once they are empty). In reality I only do this every couple thousand photos. I have taken many tens of thousands of photos this way on the same card without a hitch.
  11. Actually, and I believe the rope was tied off at each grommet. You can see in the attached photo, that the grommets actually ripped off the raft (must not have been TSO'd) and are still equally spaced along the rope. Obviously, that raft dive didn't go so well. You'll note the divers have their legs out, two of the floaters are sharing airspace, and a split second after the photo in Parachutist was taken all hell broke loose. Along with the grommets.
  12. I agree that workflow-wise, it is would be nice to have solid state, or even hard-drive based files. But archivally (is that a word?) I still want a format that is as cheap and robust as tape. I have pretty much kept everything I have ever shot; skydiving or not. And tape is (so far) the cheapest bit-for-bit storage medium. Don't get me wrong, I would love to lose the tape drive and necessary power requirements from my head, and I'd love to dump footage to my NLE faster than 1:1. But I still will need something to download all that footage down to when I'm done (other than my local hard drives). My too sense.
  13. You can, but you might not want to. If you video tandems on your belly, you really want to get a little lower than the tandem looking up to get a good face shot (even more so with Vector rigs). I find that freefly pants put way too much drag on my legs to make it easy to film in this position. They want to pull your legs up and put you slightly head down.
  14. I jump with and without booties, but mostly without. This in itself is a good reason to go two-piece (get both pants). IMHO booties are only mildly helpful for RW and tailgate jumps. I hate them for tandems. I video tandems on my belly, and there is just too much drag on my legs to get in a good body position for shooting horizontally or looking slightly upwards. Without booties I can also get the entire opening by simply looking up (without flipping on my back). I think this is much smoother, safer, and quicker to recover from. Doing video, you also don't usually have to track very far (if at all). With two-piece, you also have the option of going in just shorts with the wing jacket for very fast fallers or very hot days.
  15. Congratulations to all involved. Photos of the dives posted here: http://www.philroberson.com/zteam07.html
  16. I just returned home and started posting photos of the record dive, and other shots from the week. Images can be found here: http://www.philroberson.com/zteam07.html The two record points are up, and I'll keep uploading others throughout the day.
  17. Don't dump your still camera too fast, and don't confuse mega-pixels and "reasonaable resolution" with quality still images like you can get from a dedicated SLR. I have not seen a still from a video camera compare with stills that even a basic DLSR set-up is capable (or film SLR for that matter). There are many technical reasons for this (obvious ones being a puny sensor and less than stellar lenses). Spec sheets can be enticing, but they do not tell the whole story in this case. If you go this route, you better give a significant discount.
  18. As previously posted, that reflection is most likely off of the inside surface of the lens or lens adapter. It amazes me that companies make the inside of lenses or adapters out of bright metal. If it is an adapter, you can get a replacement in black (Kenko is famous for shipping bright metal adapters with their lenses, I don't know about Cookie). Replace either with black equipment (like any real lens or camera company) and the ring should go away.
  19. I've heard about as many opinions as camera flyers, so you'll have to find out what works for you. Personally, I jump with a heavy helmet, I only jump camera, and I don't have a strong neck. So I throw out, get very big, and when I feel stuff start coming off my back I reach in and grab the chin of my helmet. (If you reach in too soon you can start going head down and start picking up speed. Plus there is a bigger pendulum effect.) The only times I don't do that are with a very few packers that I know very well (in which case I just stay big till it starts inflating). Actual performance may vary...
  20. PRCPs baby. Believe it. If you have never reached for a PC with a wing on your opposite arm, try it high first. It is different. Also, pull high the first few times so you can figure out any restrictions your wings present while reaching for your brakes. Make sure you can reach both before releasing either. Then pull high for all your other camera suit jumps so you have time to deal with any entanglement issues. Also, discuss, plan, and rehearse new emergency prcodures that include jettisoning your potentially snagged helmet before going for your reserve ripcord (if needed). Personally I don't connect my RSL when jumping camera for this reason. Plus all the other recommendations.
  21. Contrary to a previous post, I never see diffusers used in bounce mode. Quite the opposite, I usually see them used in close-up situations when there is nothing to bounce off of (outdoors, red carpet walks, outdoor press conferences, etc.). The idea is to diffuse the light to the maximum extent (sans bounce). Which, as pointed out previously, reduces the direct output of your flash. If you have a good bounce surface (large, close and white) you get much better light diffusion. BTW, the "flip-up" diffuser mentioned previously is a "catchlight" reflector. Typically it is used in addition to bouncing the flash to get a little of the direct flash back at the subject's eyes for that "twinkle in the eyes" look. My flash doesn't have one of those, but I usually rubberband a small white card (actually my printed photo assignment) to the back of the flash for the same, although less convenient, effect. IMHO, neihter of these items has an application in freefall. The only exception to what I've written is that Norm Kent uses a Metz flash that looks like it has a large diffuser on it. I am guessing it is to simply give a wider flash output to a flash that otherwise doesn't have this wide a capability, but I really don't know about this particular flash unit (I am sure you can google or BH it).
  22. Even if SD has long legs, wide-screen is here now. I am amazed at how much broadcast content is now delivered in wide-screen. Lots of ads, and even some major network dramas are now being broadcast in wide screen (16:9) only. So even if you can't deliver HD now, you can have wide-screen images archived. I still edge-crop to 4:3 for normal work, which is one reason I went with the A1 rather than the HC stuff.
  23. Shoot a neutral surface to check it out. I usually shoot an out of focus sky to see if I can see specs. If you have them, proceed carefully and RTFM. There should be a mirror lock-up function. (BTW, dust on the mirror won't show up on images, the mirror isn't in the path when you actually "expose" the sensor.) DO NOT USE COMPRESSED AIR ON THE SENSOR. I don't know why, but the manufacturers are adamant about that. Try a hand (bulb) blower. If that doesn't work, there are sensor brushes, but again, be VERY CAREFUL!. You could do damage to your camera. I jump a 20D which doesn't have an ultra-sonic cleaner. But I do change lenses very often (many time a weekend in the off-season) and dust comes with the territory. My understanding is that the XTi ultra-sonically self-cleans the sensor, but it simply shakes the dust off the sensor and it still remains in the camera body where any shaking (like skydiving?) could put it right back on the sensor. If you get the chamber totally clean, and don't change lenses, I can't see how dust would get on the sensor again.
  24. Is this a brand new XTi? This looks like it might be dust on the sensor, but it would help to see multiple pics at high-res to be sure.
  25. Ditto. I had to replace part of both my leg straps due to dangerous wear from an RSL style clip (brass). Fortunately for me, I had an articulated harness so it was a small piece between the tightener and the articulated ring. But on some rigs, that might have meant replacing a much larger piece. It probably won't do much damage if it is an occasional jump or two, but if that's your permanent settup, I'd use one of the aforementioned mods.