Laszloimage

Not all of Gitmo inmates are terrorist. Because they were captured in a conflict on THEIR own land fighting U.S. and coalition forces doesn't necesarry qualifies them as a terrorist. Actually just a very few of them are there because of 9/11. They should be on trial just like any other enemy solders. Yes, that would be patriotic because those trials would comply with the laws of the US and everything else this country suppose to stand for. Unborn babies are unborn. That means they are a possibilty of life but they just not quiet there yet. That should be the pregnant woman and doctor's decision when to perform abortion. No one ever (including Obama) tried to encurage such a teribble procedure and spend millions of Dollors on abortion anyway... But sometimes it's just a "better choice" to stop pregnancy in its EARLY stage, even if it's a very sad one. . And ultimately the religious "freaks" should be out of politics and legislation anyway. They didn't do too much good for humanity, just look at history. Stopping wars actually is a lot better idea to save lives... right???

LouDiamond (his real name is Scott) gave you the best answer. ...it's just like when you drive a car. There's no "best gear", "what pedal?", or "what road signal?". Right? Just like Velocityphoto (Lonnie) adviced. It's digital, play on the ground a lot to find out what setting works in the given situation and light condition. Personally 90% at the time I use "M"

This 4-way way thing is a very clever advice. I like it.

I'm absolutely agree. No one was born as a camera guy, and everybody has to start somewhere. But one thing is sure, filming tandems shouldn't be that starting point. Jumping along/with the tandems should be the result of a fairly long learning process, the experinence should be gaind elsewhere. IMO jumping in a student enviroment camera people should have a rating as well. They are part of the skydive just as much as the instructor, so the camera people should be just as much responsible.

The answer is: Obviously his profile describes his skill level and knowledge because of his question. "camera suit or wings?". Before you start working with tandems these things should be sorted out. He should have enough experince to know what kind of suit works the best for him. But he doesn't... So he should stay away from the tandems while he doesn't have all the answers about camera flying. The good thing is he asked a question. ...of course the answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. The answer for that is the "business aspect of the game" unfortunatelly allows to make very bad decisions!!! I have video (from the ground) when the TM/I pulled so low the AAD fired on him! The "positeve judgement" of it was he was back doing tandems 20min later!!! If it was up to me he should have lost his rating in that very moment when the AAD fired. ...Yes he's an "instructor" because a piece of paper states that, but who knows him from close they all know he's a "wanna be yahoo". And he gives out advices too... (the aad fire wasn't his only f%^&k up though). The bottom end is 200 (even 3-400) jump is way too little experince to work in the tandem business. ...but what a F*&^k do I know???

Robert, The most you need for tandem photography is 3-400 more jumps and 1-2 more years in the sport! Actually 500 RW jumps (yes RW and not only jump numbers!!!) and additional 100 camera jumps are REQUIRED to film tandems!!! Sadly DZ operators/owner ignoring that. ...maybe a rating to do tandem jumps won't be that important either.

Another possibility for tandems... please see the attached picture. ...we talking about fancy equipment for tandems here on this forum. But do we really get paid for it? Does it really worth to jump with that heavy gear on our head for a tandem? Is that OK to give a whole bunch of high res. files to a costumer for $50? I love my 5D and all the other "kick ass" gear I own, but I prefer not use them for every day tandems. Just an idea how much an avarage "Joe Shmoe" wedding photographer charges near by to my DZ (Z-hills right now). see this link: http://www.wedj.com/dj-photo-video.nsf/gosite?open&U=844113021AC2C6BA86257306002558AA ...now try to get the digital files from him. ...and of course he can't take photos in freefall either. So, for tandems I use that point-shoot camera. That's the best because it's light and small (and the built in lens is 23mm wide!) No one ever complained either!

I started to follow with the zoom as they left. Not that easy from the door though. I didn't have the budget for the 5D mkII yet.

The best lens for tandems is the Canon 70-200mm L f2.8 IS ...see the sample shots

"Awesome indeed ! Now we need some belly shots like that !!!!! " ...like these? http://www.laszloimage.com/Nov_2006_New/pages/Nov_23rd_06_MG_0134.htm http://www.laszloimage.com/June_2008_NEW/pages/June_30th_08_MG_0183.htm http://www.laszloimage.com/Sept_2007_NEW/pages/Sept_5th_07_MG_6619.htm

Those pictures are very nice man!

it depends what kind of helmet do you have. In the other hand there's a million different way to ount that camera on million different helmets. If you hava flat surface on the top of your helmet I recommend to drill a 1/4 inch (6.5mm) hole on it and use aregular camera screw (1/4 inch).

My TR-7000 Digatal-8 has it ...from 1999

Conservative media says climate change has nothing to do with our industrialized world. Libereal media sometimes over dramitizes the situation. But now let me ask how many of you (who makes comments here at DZ.com) actually have information about this issue directly from a scientist? How many of you had acces to pure data? ...Because I had. A few months ago I was working on a TV show (working as a camera man, hopefully the show will be aired on Discovery) which touched the climate change issue as well. I recorded some stunning interview with a scientist who's head of this research center. A person from a laboratory which collects weather data for 130 years every single day (!!! that's a lot of data to have good conclusion). THE DATA CLEARLY SHOWS THE "HUMAN EFFECT" OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE! ...yes the Earth has it's natural temperature change cycle, but it should happen through milleniums not through decades. The good news is most likely the "Climate change"is reversable and fixable. -Laszlo-

Tony Hathaway made his 14,000th jump (yes 14 thousand!)

a Liberal Jew

She is http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=106816;guest=52430348 gorgeous!

DNA, Computers, sciense... Are you seriously trying to link those the Bible??? ...as far as I know that book doesn't mention anything like that. If every body was believing in the Bible's teaching we were still in Europe and using "dark age" technologie. Religious mind is just like a computer infected with a bunch of virus and spy-ware. All its performance controlled by the infection, the system is usless and sometimes dangerous. ...by the way Jesus wasn't the first to die for humanity!!! Prometheus did his sacrifice way before Jesus. Also he has been punished lot worse than Jesus!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus so which story is more true??? the Bible or the Greek one?

Those are very nice man!

The Nikon D40 doesn't have remote connection port. It uses wireless (infra red) control. The Nikon D70s and the D80 come with connection. To avoid further issues I also recommend one of those smaller Canon cameras (XTi, XSi, XS) The D40 is very outdated technology anyway.

…later is better than never. I should have added these followings to this thread earlier: Besides just saying what X-braced I jump when I shoot video I also feel obligated to talk about safety and make some clarifications. Probably we all know already, but I just want to re-enforce that X-braced parachutes are not on the top of the list for camera work. Even if they work 100% fine for most of us (just looking at the jump #s and experience of the profiles) maybe it can give a bad idea for others. Any heavily loaded small parachutes (not only X-braced) can turn very quick against its pilot whether because of a malfunction or traffic situation. Combining any of those issues with wearing a camera helmet and a camera suit can make things even more difficult. To jump an X-braced parachute (or any heavily loaded small canopy) requires lot of training, experience, skills, knowledge, and even some talent. X-braced canopies only recommended for those who have all of those things listed above. Only for every day skydivers (jumpers who are make at least a few hundred jumps a year). With these canopies the deployment altitude should be higher, and even more altitude if it used for a camera jump (my personal hard deck is 4000feet with my Velo when I jump with camera gear) so there’s more time to respond to any problem or malfunction if occurs. Coming in for landing and “dealing” with traffic also becomes more and more difficult as the canopy flies and descends faster and faster. As we know these X-braced canopies are build for speed. So please keep this “aspect of the game” in the mind as well. …sometimes we just have to land our “bad ass” canopy from a straight in approach. Make this long posting short, X-braced canopies are not generally recommended for camera work! They are may be used only by those who ready for it!!! …like a couple of thousand jumps. (and lot of camera experience of course if it used for that) I don’t want to be rude (or a dick) with anyone but I see some guys weighting in only a 3 digit jump#, while a 1000 isn’t really enough either. Patience! Please learn to walk before you run! My personal canopy progression: 300 jumps with Sabre-150, 1300 jumps with Stiletto-135, 1600 jumps with Stiletto-120, and then I took the Velocity (so far 1500 jumps) …who knows maybe I’m wrong, ……..NOOOOOOOOOOT

Thank you! Have fun in Sebastian!

Spot, I red the manul (Scotty's) of the new 5D MkII about the video stuff. According with that it uses 4GB for 12 minutes .MOV video. It almost twice as much as HDV (which is 2GB for 10min right?). So in my eyes it should be a very good camera for production as long as you don't need sound (like most of the skydiving stuff). Also the stuff I saw online is amazing. The manual mentioned a bunch of AF restrictions and "dramatic" exposure adjustment issues. The 5D MkII basically changes the ISO to achive AE. But the good thin again you can use all the other settings like shutter speed and aperture (35mm format DOF of course...) ...now I just need to see some footage from Scotty Burns (he used it for only stills so far). Anyway, can you please weight in the 4GB for 12 min MOV? That's pretty good right? (also it's combined with 14bit A/D converter and 42bit sRGB color depth) What do you think? -Laszlo-

Yes it is. Scotty has the toy...

I would love to see this movie, but not too many theaters are playing it. No showing in Tampa, Fl area for sure.