DSE

You're saying you've used the Blue Tube in the past (CM5U)? You must have serious connections in the biz. They just started shipping slightly before Xmas. Either way, good that your recording worked out in small rooms with an ME66. I'd have to hear it to believe it. As would most any recordist/mixer. The BlueTube on the other hand, is a great mic, but it's still a long hyper vs a real shotgun. It's based on the MK41 capsule. Many people will see scenes like the images attached and think they're seeing a shotgun, when neither of them are. The outdoor shot seen here is an AT 4051, while the indoor is a 4053 and an MK41. Whatever works for you, works for you. However, you'd be hard pressed to find any CSA that could make a shotgun work properly in a small room, and particularly in an aircraft where amplitude is effectively equal on all axis.

So, you've told "high ranking people at USPA" but how are they supposed to deal with it when their instructor/examiners are buddy/buddy, or when the evaluator in question is maybe a reseller or buyer of whatever the evaluator has for sale or is buying? I can't help but keep looking at the threads in the Rigging forum where someone comments "He bought his riggers ticket from XXX" and then some unnamed person is referred to. Then a couple others that clearly shouldn't have passed the riggers cert post about MLW's and "what is it." In other words, if it goes to the top, it goes to the top at all levels, yes? I worry more about a rigger not knowing how to flat pack or not knowing what a main lift web is than I'd worry about a 100 jump buddy that has a coach rating. this sport needs more "friendlies" helping bring and retain skydivers, not fewer, IMO. BTW, Bob Dino...you're a hero of a coach. when did you start helping out?

First, indoor film *rarely* uses shotguns, second, you'll never find the linked POS on a serious shoot. its' a short shotgun designed for the wedding/event shooter, and again...not designed for indoor use. it is what the new generation call a "short shotgun" which is about the same as a standard hypercardioid, but cheaper to manufacture due to the way the linear grade works. Good for the weekend wedding warrior, but nothing for good sound anywhere else (then again, I'm an audio snob). Waves striking the sides of a line grad mic at identical or near identical amplitude as the wave striking the element, cartridge, head, whatever you prefer to call it, creates phase issues with impulses, causing boominess or muddiness. Hypercardioids are very common, such as the AT 4051 or 4053 (First mic ever to win an Emmy was teh 4053) Generally speaking, the more directional the mic, the more it emphasizes the echo in the room. Add to that the reflections hitting the sides of a grade mic, and you've got boomy echo. Sound stages are an exception, because the room is designed for...sound. Senn 416 is a good exterior, if you can find the 435, it's a killer for indoors as a "short shotgun" but was discontinued a few years ago. Schoeps MK41 and MK4's are probably the *most* common on film and television sets, with Neuman KM184's in the mix. The AT 4053 is what I prefer, almost identical to the old BK4011. Anyway, back to comment, shotguns as a general rule, should not be used indoors, definitely not in boomy rooms, small interiors (such as aircraft) or where air can strike the sides of the mic. Many people confuse boom'd mics with being shotguns, when rarely is that the case. If you're seriously interested in the subject, rec.audio.pro is a great newsgroup, so is the "Now Hear This" forum at DVInfo.net. Or, spend some time on Fred Ginsburg's pages, he was a recordist on a couple skydiving movies in addition to owning Equipment Emporium. Or attend my NAB class (where I demonstrate in a "normal" room, why shotguns are less than desirable for any seriously good sound. Next one is NAB. I've still got a couple free passes to anyone who is interested in the show. JC Colclasure is showing off on Monday night. Apologies for the length, I'm more passionate about audio for film/video than I am for skydiving...

If you're trying to get the E100 to go air to ground, give it up. Not a prayer. it's nowhere near powerful enough. What is it you're wanting to accomplish, exactly?

Shotguns are not at all for indoor use. In an aircraft, you're best served with either a hypercardioid or a Hemi-cardioid mic. We've mic'd live work inside Kings, DC3, heli's, etc. Hypers work great. Take a shotgun (any shotgun) and speak on axis while listening via a sound system or headphones cranked loud enough that you cannot hear the original source (you're only hearing the mic source). Now speak along side the shotgun, moving your way towards the back of the mic. You'll note that your voice becomes thinner/tinny and then thicker/muddy. this is because a shotgun works on rejection/gradients of frequency. And the louder the aircraft and lesser the voice, the less useful it becomes. Back to point, you'll end up with muddy voices, lots of aircraft noise, and less than useful audio. You can use a uni for freefall if you have serious wind protection; we've done it, I know Joe Jennings has done some aerial recording as well (BTW, you *can* record voices in freefall) but you'll need a serious mouse and pottyball. if you have specifics on what you're attempting to accomplish, I can probably help you figure it out pretty easily.

Everyone would prefer great coaches, which would lead to phenomenal AFFI's in most cases, yes? But as posted in the other thread, but it's better than no one helping out/instructing anyone. You'd rather leave smaller DZ's with no one at all due to the smaller pool? Either way, you're right on one level,...folks should voice their opinions to the USPA on either side of the issue.

What kind of ignorance is acceptable? By comparison to Peek, Billvon, or Bill Booth, you and I are both incomparable, ignorant morons. By comparison with any jumper with say...10 jumps, you and I are skygods. On the other hand, there is a newbie rigger in the Gear forum that doesn't understand flat packing vs propacking, and another rigger that didn't know what an MLW is. One of them claims 100,000 jumps, while the other claims 500+ jumps. IMO, neither one of them should be riggers, but I'm not the rigger examiner, so my opinion doesn't matter. But at the end of the day, these guys that are FAA certified to pack reserves don't know about flat-packs, propacks, and MLW's. That's basic stuff that even a low-number jumper like me understands. So where do you draw the line? USPA, after a lot of discussion, input, arguing, whatever, determined that 100 jumps is sufficient to be a coach. You could set the number at 150, 200, 300...and still leave a percentage unhappy with the baseline. Look at all the threads bitching about how low the requirements for an AFFI rating is. Look at the bitching about how low the TM rating is... As long as there are jumpers with numbers greater than the rating requires, and as long as there are jumpers with lesser numbers than the rating requires, the only people who will be at the least, accepting of the benchmark, are those that aspire to it, and those that are near that rating goal. For me, I'm well past the numbers you're wanting a coach to have, so it's a moot point, personally. But I sure as hell wish there had been a 100 jump coach to help me out when I was just getting going. During a busy tandem season, AFF season, and the C/D license "Jump with my buddies" time, it's tough to find a D license holder that has time to jump. 'Course, if you want the newbies to sit around all day in hopes of jumping with someone of quality, now you've got a great program for getting folks to want to come back to the DZ.(tongue in cheek, in case you didn't get it) Unless of course, the student in question is a cute lil' lady. Then *everyone* wants to jump w/her. Do you have your coach rating? Been through the process? Do you jump with newbies on your own dime? [edited to add] doesn't matter what industry you're in, incompetent teachers exist at every level. Years of experience don't ameliorate idiocy, it just means they've got years of experience.

Same here, Mads seems to bend over backwards trying to make folks happy.

Cookie, was glad to hear David got you set up, and that you were able to modify the box. What further did you do with the original design, past widening the lens bezel?

"SB179 crapola?" SB179 (if you're referring to the Utah Senate Bill that passed last week, #SB179, that bill supports dropzones specifically in preventing municipalities from being sued due to an incident on municipal property, or airport in the State of Utah) has nothing to do with Skyride. I think you've got a couple subjects confused?

Your last point is moot. Whether they did march or not is completely irrelevant. The US Bureau of Ethnology under JW Powell (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs underneath the Dept of the Interior), set the stipulations for reparations, not the tribe. As it turned out nearly 200 years later, the tribe chose to take responsibility for themselves. The slaves were not slaves to the Cherokee or any other tribe, but rather were runaways from their white masters. Is there any sense of irony that non-Cherokees are discussing whether the tribe should or should not be able to control their destiny? While I may or may not agree with the decision on the part of the tribe, bringing the Trail of Tears to the discussion is an invalid component in the argument. Where this discussion bears real weight, is that there were slaves that intermarried within the tribe, and their descendants may now find themselves disenfranchised. There are full-blooded indigenous peoples in this country that don't meet the blood quantum of either mother or father's tribe, therefore rendering them (by federal law), non-indigenous regardless of their heritage.

No problem putting vids on my iPod nor on my Zune. Having both, my Zune is by far preferable.

The tribe has this right to post-Dawes tribal membership; the Ute nation did this 40 years ago. So far, it's worked out to be a situation of political nightmares, financial disaster, and many very difficult relationships. However, most Utes live on the rez, as do what are now known as the "disenfranchised" Utes. Very few Cherokee live on the rez. What's scary about this one, is that if similar tribes such as the Choctaw, Seminole, Miccosukee, and Muscogee follow the same pattern, the economy of those tribes and the tourist areas in general, will significantly suffer. Watch...The nation itself, is probably prepping up for a major casino push. Fewer tribabl members means smaller distribution of funds.

There isn't a DZ in the state of Utah that accepts them. All four DZO's in Utah have gotten together to create a stand against Skyride. This is why the Attorney General of the State of Utah is well aware, and investigating, is that there have been 4 consumer fraud-type news stories relating to Skyride, and they have no Utah presence nor DZ's that will accept their coupons. Therefore, by advertising as though they are a local provider, they are committing fraud in the eyes of the DZ's here, and hopefully the AG will find the same.

Apologies for the time it took to get these online. I've been traveling. This is one of two Cookie boxes for the HC3. The HC5 and 7 fit in the HC3 box, but, because Sony went from a 30mm lens to a 37mm lens on the exterior, two problems occur. the radial center of the lens is now not in the center of the Cookie box, but a Dremel will fix this very quickly. I've already modified one box (it's at the DZ, however). The HC5/7 is *slightly* shorter than the HC3, so you'll have more room in the back end of the box. You'll need to Dremel/cut out approx 1/8 around the top edge. If you go too far, you'll remove all of the lens housing 'lip' (which you probably won't want to do.) The arrows indicate the gap caused when you add a wide angle (In this shot, it's a Royal .5 37mm lens) that will go away once you Dremel the top half of the box' lens housing. BTW, the tape on the upper half of the box was put there to help prevent the box edge poly coat from chipping, as those chips are very sharp, and very bad for the camcorder's insides. Once the top is Dremeled, the box will close properly, as you can see it does without the lens on. The only problem is that the lens isn't on-center, and as such, the box will show in the upper right of the frame, even with the cam pushed all the way forward.

I haven't heard any updates on the ASC/Skyride portion, but the Attorney General for the state of Utah is very well aware of Skyride and their other aliases, and is investigating them at this time. Apparently Skyride is aware of the investigation, because they've changed their Utahskydiving.com page several times. I'm guessing they're not smart enough to realize that everytime they change the page, the page is screen cap'd, saved, and kept as part of the evidence folder. Three changes to the website in less than a month. so someone is actively prepping Skyride/Thrillride for the season, or trying to dodge bullets.

No, but a Hypeye is at least twice as bright.

I completely agree. Where it's different at our DZ however, is that coaches aren't paid. They may get their slot paid, but otherwise, it's just a rating. IMO, the coach rating is really an "instructor in training" rating.

I don't know that I'd say "most people" don't agree with coaching at 100 jumps. Bill von said it best, IMO, that it's better than the blind leading the In this thread it's pretty clear that even though you are a senior rigger, you might not have all the information you need to be correctly teaching packing. Does that mean you shouldn't be a senior rigger? Or does it mean that you've started on the journey of becoming a good rigger? Passing the course doesn't mean you're a good rigger, it merely means you have the skills to pass the test. Same with being a coach. One might not be a skygod, but they've demonstrated the skills that theUSPA deems necessary to be able to pass along basic information, help newbies have a jump companion, and someone to provide new jumpers with feedback. Had there been a good 100 jump coach available to watch out for me when I first started jumping, I'd have been much better off than I was with the 5000 jump skygod who was more interested in showing me how good he could fly, but wanted me to pay his slot anyway. I finally met some good jumpers without their coach rating that spent time in the air with me, and eventually in the tunnel with me. So, while a 100 jump person might not be the best, the 100 jump person is someone, and if they're willing to undergo the coaching eval and rating as managed by someone like say...Jay Stokes, who makes you work for it and doesn't allow any corners to be cut...then at least that person has demonstrated not only a willingness to teach, but an acumen and enthusiasm for doing so. There are bad coaches at 5000 jumps just as there are bad TM's and bad AFFI's. There are great low-number jumpers just as there are great TM's and great AFFI's. Personally, I'd like to see spelling tests and punctuation become part of a passed requirement for a rigging or AFFI rating, too. After all, communication is a significant component of either.

In the HVR V1, you can set one camera as a master, connect as many V1's to the first V1 as you'd like via iLink/1394, and the connected V1's will take on the timecode flags from the master cam. Brilliant means of working with non-genlocked cams for post sync.

Norman Kent has a lot of interesting stories of how even now, the camera can become distracting. There are just a handful of people with his experience, yet he's got a story that isn't very old, where he frightened himself and another person so badly that they grounded themselves from camera jumping for a couple weeks. IMO, it takes balls to realize that you f#@! up so badly that you need to ground yourself for a while. Not many people have 20k jumps and have the courage to admit that the camera has created troubles for them.

The pilots are Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo, Jonathan Tagle, Jay Moledzki, and JC Colclasure of the Performance Designs Factory Team. They're flying custom Velocity canopies, with a mix of Wes Rich and Skysystems camera helmets. All are wearing Sony HDV camcorders. Ground and aircraft mounted Z1's and V1's are all closely color matched using picture profiles and a vectorscope, I created custom PP's for both cam models. PP's included use of the CineGamma and Black Stretch on the Z1's and the LUT of the V1. V1's are all time-code matched via the iLink port. The pilots are shooting Sony A1u's, with custom settings as well, all set to 1/60, so that conformto 24p (which is part of what you're seeing on YouTube) is easier and more accurate. High framerates are not critical, contrary to popular belief, and with CMOS cams, you can run into rolling shutter probs anyway (when at high framerates). We also whitebalanced to red cards to cool down the shots, given that warmth in the sky would have been weird in this case. Anyway...pilots didn't have polarizers on their lenses (that's a semi-mistake, in hindsight) but any cam shooting across snow or into sky had a 4x4 polarize on it. Other than one shot (where the image looks like molten lava, sensor FUBAR'd on the cam) there isn't any color correction. That short piece you see is pretty weak, IMO. It's a 20 minute multicam cut done so the team could quickly see what we captured. The real edits/assembly is yet to come. when it's actually corrected, balanced, etc...it should be much more visually compelling. That quick edit is exciting, but it fails to communicate the adrenaline, anticipation, and emotion that took place in that stunt. FWIW, that's one of the more weak stunts that took place. We've got some that just knocked us on our tails. Aerials were shot by all the PD Factory Team members, JC Colclasure of course, is the Factory Team photographer, so he captured the bulk of the usable team footage. Back to the Youtube encode, I failed to mention that the fewer frames fed to the encoder, the better the image. That's a 24fps sequence. At the end of the day, the more redundancy, the fewer frames, less color, the better the encode. HTH.

That particular encode was done with Sony Vegas, but Canopus ProCoder can get you about the same result. Glad you feel the quality is decent. Some tips: ~Crush blacks, reduce/clip whites. Be sure you've got levels locked in at 0-233, and use a black stretch or threshold filter to make black...black. ~Push the contrast. Encoded media loves contrast. ~Avoid lengthy fades/transitions. Encoding likes clean pixels ~Reduce saturation by about 10%. The human eye can't see that small a reduction, but the encoder sure can. ~render your master for YouTube using a 320 x 240, MP4 or 5MB WMV. Do not attempt to use MPEG, MOV of anything but MP4. ~If you're shooting DV, crop 6 pixels off both sides to clean out the DV fringing. ~consider adding .001Box blur or Gaussian blur to the master 720 x 240 before render to 320x240. If you wanna read some old, not quite current stuff that I wrote a few years back about stream

It passed, was signed into law about an hour ago. http://le.utah.gov/~2007/status/sbillsta/sb0179.htm Congrats to the Skydive Utah team/DZO that worked very hard to see this become law.

FWIW, you'll always get at least a minimal amount of vertical smear on a CCD-based camcorder, you'll just see more or less smear depending on the shutter speed and aperture combination. CMOS is smearless. In other words, what works to reduce/mostly avoid smear on a CCD sensor-based cam won't be the same formula as a CMOS cam. Wide angle lens choices will enhance or diminish some of the effects of smear as well. We're just wrapping up a wide angle lens review for a sports photography mag, perhaps Sangiro will publish it here. It comments on which lenses do and don't contribute more or less to CCD smear.