DSE

Chicagoland Skydiving Center 28 September – 4 October Both Artistic and Performance Categories will be completed. Bring your best game, see you at CSC!

Stab is really not needed in 4K, as you can use third party tools such as Mercalli to smooth it out better when transcoding to HD. That's the thought process, anyway....

Beautiful experience, Brian. Thank you for sharing.

I won't be back up to the DZ for a week; I'll happily shoot a pic when I go. However, notice that the lens cover on your housing pops out. It's not molded to the housing; it's pressure-fitted. Removing the lid from the housing, put the flat part on a table or counter top. With a round screwdriver handle, or a roll of nickels (something that has a near-diameter), you can pop that "window" out. From there, it's quite self explanatory. You don't even need the Dremel for that, but you'll find the PolarPro just barely fits, and isn't held with enough integrity for a skydive.

Actually, you can. The doors are so cheap, I've Dremel'd out the front not just for the lens, but for the audio upgrade too. You can buy a kit of 3 doors on Amazon for a few bucks.

This issue is endemic to all small cameras, global shutter is simply too expensive at this time, to put into a small package. The PolarPro kit for Sony is indeed the best answer, and it should be slowing your shutter down enough that it's below 1/250 (where jellocam mostly dies)

This will likely become more and more common, and within the next three years, expect to find more tunnel-trained people becoming AFF instructors well shy of the currently required experience, unless you start early in letting your regional director know you're opposed to the idea. It has already been put before the USPA BOD once, and barely failed. I'm betting it'll go before the BOD again in a very short time, and pass unless you speak up. That said, there are some that feel the tunnel is a direct replacement for airtime. I'm not one of them for the reasons you mention and more. Exit, breakoff, deployment, traffic management/pattern, landing are not tunnel skills.

Fortunately, things don't quite work that way in aviation law. Although Ms. Gibbs provides a very small reason for concern, rest assured that Randy O at USPA is well aware of this topic, her lawsuit, and is actively involved in advising DZO's and government officials. If you're genuinely interested, contact USPA and ask these very questions. You'll get an answer, guaranteed. Among other things, this is something they do very, very well.

Hopefully you took more from that video than the camera snag. The suit burble causes a problem for the riders deployment, which is one of the two issues with pulling off the 'horse's' back.

Wait, what?? You're comfortable with a GoPro mount and not a Sony mount? Sony's mount covers nearly double the surface area of the competitor. It is of a softer material that not only dampes vibration, but also doesn't shatter on impact. Side mounting the AS100v upside down in the Helmet side mount (because you want it on your left side), is a solid option. The AM1 is very solid as well, for a top mount. Put a GoPro adapter on it, and your video will greatly suffer. The whole fulcrum point is why GP is inherently unstable, and why most pro's use cages vs lick n' sticks.

I may be mistaken, but I believe the first-ever AFF instructor fatality was at Cedar Fort, Utah when an AFF instructor was in front of the student. On deployment, the student's feet kicked her in the jaw and snapped her neck. And this is why during AFFI courses, we're taught to stay off to the side.

https://vimeo.com/64251059 Yeah, that deploying off the back thing is so under-rated.

I've witnessed fatalities while my camera was rolling, and I kept it rolling. When called over to a fatality to ask questions, I took photos for evidence with my DSLR, to be given to the police. I still have the photos, in the event that they might be used for education. The videos of canopy collisions and impacts have been used (edited) for educational purposes, but they'll never be on the web.

If the rider doesn't know how to manage the much harder opening (remember, they're in the WS burble), it'll hurt, and in once case, caused whiplash. Riders should also be aware that their altimeter isnt accurate in the WS burble. Dirt dive it.

Replay appears to be more stable due to the mount design. Only sony and JVC have stabilization. JVC's is terrible.

That's a useful resource, thank you for taking the time!

The Wired Review on YouTube is probably the best; the reviewer is very independent, and has no dog in the hunt. He's got a very well-done review in a variety of settings.

Again...(and again, and again)...USPA has been presented with a no-cost camera training program, and a conversation of reducing the recommended number for those that satisfactorily complete the camera training program. It was met with crickets. This class has been offered and available for several years, dating back to when I first produced the Norman Kent "Videographer" DVD training. I'm still a fan of the idea. More knowledge is never a bad thing. There *is* a class. How accessible it is to everyone is another topic.

Why? built in camera systems have never been very successful. Today, cameras are shifting rapidly. Ambarella is micro-sizing their imagers, and we'll see a significant drop in size and increase in some quality aspects in the next 18 months. Why buy a helmet that is outdated before it has 500 jumps on it?

They count as jumps, and do indeed count as jumps towards a license. However, your home DZ may not take them in to account for purposes of their training requirements. But they do indeed count as jumps, as they are aircraft exits, landing under a parachute.

There is some genuine value to this...I have uploaded several very helpful "training videos" about 'what not to do' thanks to low-timers doing foolish things. A couple, you don't get to see because they end up un-alive. But there is value in those "oops" moments. Thankfully YouTube is filled with them, great training aids.

The first demo units are just now reaching the distributors outside of Australia. It has indeed been jumped, however.

I've felt that camera training should be part of the coaches course. Yes, it would lengthen the course, and that's OK. It distresses me anyway, to see coach courses that only last half a day. Adding a new component that has some testing of camera awareness is a good add, IMO. As the "small camera incidents" list shows, the issue of small cameras has almost nothing to do with snag hazards. Sure...there have been a couple of deaths in the BASE community due to snags, but we're talking skydiving. Yes, there have been a couple of camera ignorance-related collisions that have caused injury, and certainly we've had multiple screwups because of altitude loss of awareness related to camera, and more than a few AAD fires (seen three of them up close and personal). Overall, the big issue is altitude and situational awareness. Size of camera doesn't matter, trying to "get the shot" matters. https://vimeo.com/64251059 and then there is just general "ignorance" or being unaware. Somewhere on dz.com is a video of two jumpers with around 100 jumps each, trying to film each other and admitting on here that "we just wanted to get a dock on video." One of them, his canopy blew up when he deployed on his back at a low altitude. There is also one where two jumpers were trying for a "cool shot" and both had AAD fires. Awareness comes with experience. Perhaps experiential requirements could be reduced with education, signoffs, oversight. However, suggesting the size of the camera bears any valid relevance in this conversation is ignoring the greater issue.

Assuming of course, that the picture has any quality. Initial reviews are not encouraging.

Has anyone suggested otherwise somewhere in this thread?