Laszloimage

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Posts posted by Laszloimage

  1. Normally I get 30-40 8x10s at "photo" setting with the Epson 1430 ( it was similar with the Artisan50). And sometimes only 20... Ligh Cyan goes 3 or 4 times faster because of the blue sky in the shots. And you need to clean printing head here and there, and sometimes there's a smudge... Printing isn't always a smooth process takes some experience to learn about it. I charge $20 for an 8x10 tandem landing to make it profitable...

  3. Epson 1430
    I'm using it a lot I mean a lot! I'm selling 8x10s for tandems... Not the best quality but a very good quality.
    It works great with 3rd party refillable ink cartridges. It takes some tweaking in the advanced settings to shift colors ( cyan, magenta, yellow, contrast, saturation...) to get descent color accuracy with non Epson inks though. Also get the ink (dye based only!) from the same source.
    For ultimate quality I'm still useing my Epson R1900 and 3880
    Ilford Gallery Pearl 310g/ sqm paper. The 250sheet per package is the deal. Epson paper is very good too.
    -Laszlo-

  4. Wind tunnels are fantastic traing tools. But real skydiving is different since you are falling through the air ( pulled by gravity) vs. floating on an air stream ( wind tunnel). This means there are different dynamics of movment ( read into Newton's laws of physics).
    But most importantly besides flying skills a proper mental atidue towards skydiving/student operation is the most in order to film tandems!
    That comes from actual jumping!

  6. I used/rented the Sony 28mm f2 lens made for Sony full frame sensors. I'm very impressed with the results (definitely at 42Mp resolution using it on the A7R-II), but I didn't have a chance to test any other lens. Sony lenses generally made or at least designed by Zeiss which means very good :)
    Stay away from the adapter options!

  7. I shot freefall video with both the Sony A7R II and the A7S II.
    Both camera worked well with the on-sensor stabilization.
    I assume Sony uses the same exact system on the 24Mp A7 II as well. The A7S II is a fantastic video camera, and most definitely is when it comes to low light.

  8. ...it was longer than few weeks to get back, but here it is.
    It is digital and, it has the range, and hooks up to control rooms in stadiums.
    At the DZ the range is couple of miles! In urban environment a mile or two, during a game barley a mile.
    The reason for the "decreasing" range is the wireless devices and their noise. They cause no interference in the signal but a stadium full of people with cell phones and all the broadcasters create lot of "noise" which means less signal to noise ratio for the receiver, therefore less range.
    It provided live HD feed already at Yankee and MetLife stadium displayed on the Jumbotron.

  10. Those who interested stayed tuned!
    I got the budget to build a digital wireless air to ground system.
    It's 1080p h.264 but digital...
    Hopefully in 2-3weeks I can provide test results.

    ps. I successfully provided live feed demo jumps places like Yankee Stadium and Mets Field using SD analog.

  11. It was discussed already in this thread...
    Simply we just don't have the internet service available which would be capable to deliver such a large amount of data. Most Drop Zones located at country side... :)Instant gratification is also the most. The costumer can watch the video literary 10minutes after they landed. When I started to shoot tandem videos in 1999 we handed out VHS tapes and a roll of films. Now we give them a USB sticks have both the video and stills on them. Either way whether its a VCR, DVD player or a media player they watch their skydive 10 minutes after. :)

  12. Finally here at the Ranch we started to hand out USB drives instead of DVDs (actually the costumer can choose either option).
    I can make the 1080 HD video in 5 minutes from transferring the files from my camera (Sony CX-100) to outputting onto a USB drive either in MP4 or MOV format (for "Mac people" I hand out h.264 in MOV wrap).
    sample video: http://youtu.be/eZ02XeC_TUY
    The slowest and most limiting part of the process is the slow 3MB/s write and 8MB/s read speed of the USB drives.
    I use Corel's Video Studio X8 Ultimate for the editing. This software is cheap, easy to use and has handy tools like audio ducking, and supports all file formats we have to deal with in skydiving. When I render the video I select the "Mpeg Optimizer" option which basically will output the video in the same exact format as the camera used for recording, so no re-encoding slows down the rendering process. The 5min long tandem video (1080 HD) renders in 30-40sec. Instead of drag and drop the edited AVCHD (m2t) file directly onto the USB drive I drop it into Movavi file converter. If the costumer has a PC I select MP4, if the costumer has a Mac I select MOV as an output format while keeping the original structure of the video (data rate, frame rate, resolution, and etc...) and convert it onto the USB drive. The conversion process doesn't require any extra time, the software works lot faster than the write speed of the USB stick.
    ...and here's my question. Where can I order fast USB drives in 1,000+ quantities? The ones we have now have 3MB/s write and 7-8MB/s read speed only. This limits us give out higher data rate videos because they freeze up when they directly played from the USB stick on a media player.
    The ideal USB drive would be 2GB storage 30MB/s read speed (would not freeze playing 1080 60p video at 28MB/s) and 15-20MB/s write speed, around $2.50 each price. Faster of course would be even better...
    Does any one have a source for $2.50 with the mentioned specs above? DSE?
    Thanks!

  16. Good glass is important, even if your camera is older.
    I do landing shots for the living (at least a significant part of my income). Back then when I mounted the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens on my 8mp Xt the results were insanely better.
    For landings you don't need f2.8 , the cheaper f4 is just as good.
    Here's a descent used one:
    http://m.ebay.com/itm/Canon-EF-70-200-mm-F-4-L-IS-USM-Lens-/271955581766?nav=SEARCH
    It will earn more $ :)

  17. The BMD video is meant to be colored (processed in post production). The captured video has lot of information which needs to be adjusted for the desired look. The captured image coming out of them look very flat. As far as I know Sony Vegas supports ProRes HQ 422 but doesn't support BMD's RAW (Cine Dng) format which gives you the most. With the purchase of a camera from BMD coloring software is provided called DaVinci Resolve. Very powerful (industry leading) coloring software, needs lot of time to learn how to use it.
    While you can create a breathtaking amazing look/video with BMD cameras, they're not for everyday skydiving.

  20. Thank you Spot!
    I remember Panasonic from the "beginning era" of HD when they sold the 1080 24p HVX100 with P2 card recording... The problem was the sensor of the camera had only 540 lines , and it was up duplicated to create 1080... Lot of people loved it though by some reason... We shoot a TV project back then where I was using the Sony V1U which was visibly superior compare to the HVX100, the only disadvantage of the V1U was the tape recording.
    Thank you for your input and pointing out Panasonic's non standard codec!
    The main reason I was looking into these cameras because of the relatively compact size with pretty descent specs which could make some travel photography easier (longer zoom becomes handy here and there)
    But I guess based on your input the RX10-II is the best option.
    Sony claims while the RX10-II doesn't have a global shutter it reads out the frames so fast the rolling shutter effect isn't an issue. How does it work for the video? What is your experience so far with the rolling shutter?

  21. Spot,
    What do you think about Panasonic's FZ 1000?
    [/url]http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=getItemDetail&Q=&sku=1057135&is=REG&si=rev#costumerReview
    The internet reviews are descent...
    [url]http://www.imaging-resource.com/cameras/panasonic/fz1000/vs/sony/rx10-ii/
    It seemed pretty good at PDN's expo last October and B&H where I had a chance to play with it a bit...

    For jumping only the Sony RX100 IV seems the best choice for size/qality/performance/price consideration
    [/url]http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1159879-REG/sony_dsc_rx100_mark_4_digital.html[url] I wish if had an external flash option though...