billo

Plan on it!!! Hope to see you two again real soon!

Both of them!? You greedy bastard. You can have one, give the other one to Hobbs. Just FYI though, a better cam isn't going to make you a better camera flyer...j/k I don't think that flying your xaos would even rank in the top 5 of the stupidest things i've done at the boogie...go figure...

yup, nekkid slip-n-sliding is definitely a tradition. as are nekkid laps around the windblade. you have many traditions to learn, young grasshopper.

JOE!!! Good to see you, can't wait to party w/ ya @ the boogie. Don't worry, our t-shirts this year are WAY better than that (but we'll keep that one in mind for next year). We've got different ones for different days (or something like that, i don't attend the meetings), with each shirt being malicious (but in a loving way) towards a different freak. 7 days, 11 hours, 1 minutes, 45 seconds... *SIGH*...just crossing my fingers that FedEx pulls some miracles and gets my canopy to me in time. see ya soon, b

You forgot about the 24x7 beer truck! I guess that it is probably a given though... I'll make sure that the beer truck is fully operational before the gates open @ noon on Wednesday.

Doc, We have the DVD or tape in the customer's hands pretty quickly, usually takes about 15 minutes of time sitting down in the editing loft...maybe a couple minutes longer if the customer brings their own music (since we rip it to mp3). Instead of a titler, we use PowerPoint on a PC along with an overlay box that mixes the video input from the camera and the text from the PowerPoint slide. Any area on the slide that is black allows the video to show through. The templates we use are a mix of blank slides and title slides, and we just navigate through the whole deck once per video. So then the audio from the PC and the video mix from the overlay box go through a linear board for fades and audio mixing, and then straight to the VHS/DVD dual recorder box. Using PowerPoint as a titler works great. Even someone with little computer experience can run it very easily and put out a good looking video. I'm pretty sure Ty will be bringing his mobile setup that has the same parts, just ask around and one of us should be able to find him for you. I love using NLE for end-of-year videos and such, but linear is the way to go for tandems, IMHO.

midnight masquness?? did i miss the memo on this or something? give me a holler to let me know if i need to scrounge up something this week. btw shelly, thanks for representing the club and keeping the facts straight. hopefully it'll bring some good PR and we'll get upwards of 700 registered jumpers this year! i'll see ya this weekend in ft. dodge for setup. val, good to hear you'll finally make it! can't wait to see that hot pink jumpsuit , hope your liver is ready to party!

These questions would be easier if i didn't keep misplacing logbooks... Prob 800ish jumps total, 20 previous with a camera latched to my noggin. Lots of those early non-paid jumps spent shooting tandems who weren't getting paid video, or shooting outside video of a tandem who was paying the primary video slot. As Dave mentioned, best to have lots of experience being in the air with tandems (either shooting free video or chasing) so you can know how to fly the slot.

I'll second FeFe's remarks...with AVI->MPEG encoders, you get what you pay for. The link below is for a sweet encoder for only $39. I know you're looking for a *free* encoder, but I don't know of one off the top of my head. http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tds.html

Hmmm...i guess an aluminum case vs. a plastic case might conduct heat a bit differently, but it isn't a topic i've lost any sleep over. The foam in the case cradles the gear, so there is plenty between your gear and the elements. I don't think any case (unless it was some fancy climate-controlled rig) is going to spare your gear from the heat entirely. If my stuff is going to be in the car for awhile, i just try to park in the shade, cover the stuff with a blanket to protect from direct sunlight, and/or crack windows as needed.

If you want to go cheap, here's a case that myself and several folks at my dz use - http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=24981-000010203-VGC-5200&category=15&lpage=none&bc=c The pic on the website doesn't do the case justice. It's got that egg crate foam on the inside of the top (not shown) and the bottom is all tiny foam squares that you can cut to fit your equipment. I use it to store 2 camcorders, tapes, filters, cords, mics, batteries, etc. I would carry it on commercial flights, but don't trust the construction enough to check it when traveling. Works great for me though since I drive to most dz's i hit.

i'm with you doc, the prodigy rules. good to hear the diaper is working out well for you. i think that the more canopy you have hanging out, the better . here's a couple shots of an old prodigy packjob that i had pics of...http://billo.demilune.net/skydive/crwpack.html i've had better and worse packjobs, just depends on the day i suppose.

There are a lot of resources out there on the net describing ways to do it at home instead of sending it to a Canon repair center...best bet is to use the method you are most comfortable with. http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning (has informal endorsement from Canon) http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorcleaning/ (Bob's articles typically have good advice) http://www.pbase.com/image/15899646 (this homestyle method might appeal to jumpers) I'd suggest the blower first, and if that doesn't clean to your satisfaction, go with the pec-pad swab.

The speed of AF is dependent on the body first and then the lens. (http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/autofocus3.htm) It's the processing in the body that first tells the lens to seek around, and the speed of this processing is based on what the camera body can do. If your current lens already has fast enough motors to keep up with commands from the camera body, then a newer lens would not improve your AF speed. However, if your current lens is 15 years old and has slow motors (the lens is always playing "catch-up"), then there is a good chance that a lens with a faster motor would help you out a little bit. As you mentioned, I also found that the AF on the EOS RT is *very* slow (http://www.photozone.de/2Equipment/reviews/eosrt.htm). Based on that, i think a new body would give your AF a lot more *uumpfh* than a new lens. But if you do want to look into a lens upgrade, my suggestion would be to take your RT to a camera shop and ask them to try out some different lenses and do some experimenting there. If they don't let you do that, find a shop that rents lenses and do some experimenting at home.

i'd post just one pic as you requested, but might as well go with the flow and post multiple... here are a few favs from last weekend in particular, not too sure of best one to date.

no problem, you're welcome

The 3270 is actually a Bogen part number (http://www.tripodquickrelease.com/Manfrotto_Quick_Releases.htm), which may be trickier to find around here. I would imagine that you'll want the Manfrotto 354, the 3270's counterpart. (http://www.manfrotto.com/product/templates/templates.php3?sectionid=100&itemid=317 or http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=5563&is=REG). I'm guessing the bubble levels are a newer update to the QR base unit.

I'd recommend to go out to the wedding forum on photo.net for starters... http://photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=2021 IMO, charge what you feel your time is worth. I'm not a big fan of messing around with prints, so i don't go that route. I'd rather just charge them $800-$2000 and give them CD/DVDs of all of the photo files (after you go back over them and crop, reduce noise, adjust white balance, etc). Then your hands are wiped clean of it and you can go onto the next project.

With a slim wide angle, you can zoom to half of the maximum optical zoom for your camera before it gets blurry. If you do zoom into this blurry range accidentally, the camera can be slow to find a focus point when you zoom back out. My frame of reference is PC330 w/ 0.5 royal lens. Good luck!

I don't know about the performance of the 350D, but I can tell you about something I found out when my friend and I sat down with our 20Ds and different CF cards... He's got a 1GB Sandisk Ultra II CF (9MB/s write, =60x) and I've got a 1GB Sandisk Extreme III CF (20MB/s write, = 133x). Setting shutter priority to 1/8000 and letting both cameras rip, mine takes about 45 or 46 shots nonstop before the buffer gets filled and the camera slows from 5 shots a second to about 2 or 3. His buffer fills after 37 shots and then slows from 5 shots a second to 1 or 2. I've got another friend who has been using the Lexar Pro 80x since they came out, and he's been pretty happy with it. If I get the chance to do a side-by-side comparison with the Extreme III I'll be sure to share the results. Although I won't fire off a 45 shot burst on a typical jump, it's good to know it's there, just in case of a special jump or exit...

Have you put any jumps on your new setup yet? Before worrying about vibrations and drilling, you might want to give it a try first. I've got the same helmet but with a 330 in it and haven't had any problems with vibration. The large foam disk on the hinged door of the camera box gives it a bit of cushion and sideways pressure to hold it snug against the helmet. If the 109 is too narrow to make good contact with the foam, then you might want to attach another layer of padding to the existing disc. I've seen a few other folks' FF2s as well and they all seem to be happy with the mounting screw connection point as well. I checked out a bunch before i bought my own and didn't see any mods like the one you're proposing.

so what happened?... 1. did you buy it?, and 2. did you get what you described? 3...if #1 and #2 are "yes", where did you get it?

marcin - to get pics off the MS on the 330, i use the grey USB cable that comes with the camera. plug it in to your computer, and you can browse the pics on your MS as if it is an external drive or something. you can then just copy/paste them from the MS to your computer in 640x840 or 2016x1512, whichever resolution you had set in the menu. no real software really, windows should recognize the camera and let you see the files. b

"one way only"

DUDE!!! they shipped your camera on-time!!!??? that RULES!!! ok pardon the drunken PM. i am just glad to hear that they didn't F you over like they did me. UM, i ordered late april and i got it in mid august??!! F THEM!!! at least it fits. i just got my ring sight in the mail last week and have yet to put it on. i'm drunk and lazy, partially cause my cypres is out on its 4 year anyway. WELL i will chat at you later!!!! b