BMFin

A good example over the two schools of thought on pulling the risers on opening. I counted 5 canopies on the video. Im assuming the same wing was piloted by the same person on each take. 2 of the pilots had a habit of pulling the risers and 3 of the pilots did not pull the risers. Red - no Purple - no Yellow - yes (although on one opening no) White - no Green - yes (perhaps the yellow one was piloted by another individual on the last one) Personally I have always thought that it is best not to pull the risers before a canopy is fully inflated. I thought you are more likely to cause linetwists than prevent them. I have always thought that if necessary, some steering harness pressure may be in place, but no pulling by hand. After demoing the Scirocco last fall, I started to question my self on this issue. Made one jump with no pulling on the risers and had some horrible linetwists. Someone with more experience on the canopy told me that the Scirocco requires you to pull on the risers on the opening. Even the manual says this. The next two jumps I tried this and contrary to my beliefes it seemed to work. I still had some minor twists on the last one, but it was much better. The scirocco seemed like a nightmare in terms of its affection towards linetwists. I thought my take on this canopy is still a bit limited, so I searched for some youtube videos on the openings on this canopy to test if others seemed to have same problems. Yes, they did. You can see some examples here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiw4NegPVTc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RmHjnvkZSE However, Im still not sure if pulling down the risers is a good thing or not? On the second videolink provided it is IMO quite obvious that the pilot is actually preventing linetwists that are clearly beginning to occur. The few openings @ 0:50 and the few after that are the most obvious examples of this. Also pretty much every scirocco video I could find had a pilot who pulled down the risers. It seems this canopy needs it ? However, looking at those petra openings it didnt seem to make any difference whether you pulled on the risers or not. What do you think? Note that I think steering the opening is not the same as pulling on the rears. IMO you can do some steering adustments from the harness also, and also you can simply pull down both rears without really steering the opening.

Hope you learned a thing or two about gear maintenance.

+1 In Finland, there hasnt been really any professional training. Traditionally all student training has been moreless a hobby for the instructor. For 2 years now we have had our first commercial DZ. The difference in the professionalism of the instructors is huge IMO. No matter how good you are, an instructor who makes 200-400 instructor jumps per summer is going to be so much more professional in his job, than the instructor who only makes 20-50 jumps per summer. You are not going to get professional instructors unless you pay a decent wage.

May I ask why is that? Is it because then you could chase the student untill his/hers AAD fires and you would still have some time to deploy your own reserve slightly lower?

Yes, I would very much think so. AFAIK fogging occurs when there are fast changes in temperature. In skydiving environment there is often a huge difference in the air temperature at exit altitude compared to deployment altitude. When a thick front element of the lens is cooled down to exit temp. it is still much colder than the surrounding air when we get to lower altitudes. The lens suffers the same consequence as a cold bottle of beer, when we take it out from the fridge. Moisture will condensate from surrounding air. Also the humidity of surrounding air plays a large role in this. If the front element is thinner, it will comply with the surrounding temperatures more quickly and fogging is much less likely to occur. IMO weather sealing wont make any difference. Weather sealing wont prevent the front element from cooling down at exit altitude.

Full frame + 8-15mm would be an interesting combo for sure. I have no experience with the lens, but I would suspect it has a rather thick front element and it is very prone to fogging which is a major drawback in skydiving enviroment.

They spell different-like on the island of Cypres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-re.2C_-er Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Something I have been wondering for years: Why is it that so many americans spell it saber and not sabre? Is saber actually some sort of nickname for sabre, or is it just because so many people are illiterate?

Relaxing is a good advice. Also listening to your instructors is recommendable. However, some healthy scepticism is always recommendable also at the DZ, not only on the internet. Reading these forums is a great way to learn about this sport. Infact I actually think most of the times you will find there is not only one single answer to your question. At the DZ a skygod might make you believe there is. This is why I think you are in the right place to come and browse these forums. I started reading these forums almost at the same time I signed up for my FJC. Have learned a lot and still learning. Carry on.

I stand corrected. I agree, speed wont totally prevent the possibility of a collapse.

+1 I definetly feel safer landing with extra speed which will prevent stalling from any turbulence.

No question about it. It adds benefit to any zoom. Yeah, that too. Though it doesnt really play any role in freefall photography. I guess you already know this, but tell this in case theres someone else who havent thought about this. If the two cameras have the same pixel density you are effectively going to get the same picture. The only difference is that with the cropped body you wont have to crop the image. Nowadays pixel density exeeds the capabilities of the lens, so the lens becomes the weak point. One major advantage with cropped bodies comes with faster frame rate. Because the sensor is smaller, the shutter curtains dont need to travel as long as they do with full frame. As long as were using a focal plane shutter, full frame will always be slower and worse in this way.

Actually, smaller sensors have many advantages over the full frame. In sports photography, the advantages come with the wider DoF and the advantage with faster framerate which is very important. AFAIK, most professional sport photographers like to use a smaller sensor than Full frame. I would guess APS-H to be the most popular choice. However, the selection of wide angle lenses is poor for this sensor size. Therefore I personally prefer the APS-C for skydiving. The weight issue doesnt really matter that much for me, but its a plus. Also, using manual focus will most of the time be focused "around there", but isnt really spot on. Makes it kindof useless to spend a lot of money on an expensive body, if you are not able to focus 100% I have seen many skydive photographers spending a lot of money on an expensive body and L-series lens and then shoot off focused photos on manual.

Interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=yZvPBBHAuiI

The majority of people jumping with go pros are mounting them on helmets that arent really ment for cameras. Hemce they lack cutaways. I dont see a big problem there. I wouldnt go as far as calling all of them fools. As I said, I dont see a real need for a cutaway with this type of helmet + go pro. Sure there is some room for debate. Same goes with some other issues like jumping with a hoodie. Some might think its plain stupid and others do it all the time. Other than that, I definetly dont see why the cutaway would be any more necessary when sidemounted. Also I still dont undestand why sidemounts have suddenly became so dangerous.

Yes, in the previous post before the pic he says: "Similar to the picture attached. But my gopro still touches the side of my helmet " If you are able to count 1+1 you might pick up, that it is not his helmet. Also, I have been jumping with a go pro on the side with no problems. (due to my still camra taking so much room on the top) A few years back people were jumping sidemounted cameras all the time. When did this suddenly became a problem? Someone said you cannot cutaway this type of fullface and therefore the sidemount is not recommended. Well, if you mount the camera on the top, is the cutaway is no longer needed? IMO mounting to the side and not having a cutaway are two totally different questions, plus I think people are sometimes exaggerating the need for a cutaway. About the "riser slap". Technically its not the risers that are hitting your camera. It is the camera that might be hitting the risers. We all know how after you throw your PC, your d-bag comes out and your lines start to unstow. At this point you are normally still flying flat, but your risers are already pointing upwards. It is after your canopy catches air that you shift into vertical orientation and it is at this point when your camera might touch the riser. This is why the "so called riser slap" isnt really that violent. My L-bracket is rather broad to the side, and I still havent had any problems with it. However, it is advisable to have the mount rigid enough to cope with your head hitting the risers so you wont loose your camera. Personally I wouldnt mount the go pro to the side if I had enough room on the top. I just dont see the benefit in the sidemount. However, I dont see it as a real risk.

The other has the focal range of 10-22 and the other has 17-40. Totally different FOV.You should only compare lenses that has the same focal length. The 17-40 is the cheaper version of the 16-35 which actually has identical FOV in a Full frame camera, as the 10-22 has in a APS-C camera. In other words, the 10-22 is essentially the same wide angle ment for the cropped sensor. If you want something for the 17-> focal range for a cropped sensor, I most definetly recommend you get the 17-55 2.8, which is a much better choice for your APS-C camera. However, Im almost positive, that you would find the 10-22 focal range better suited for skydiving needs.

I made around 400-500 jumps on my lens. It was still good as new until it got stolen. Im most likely buying another one for next summer. It is generally recognized as the best choice for this focal range. Edited to add: IMO using a lens in skydiving doesnt necessarily cause any additional wear and tear to the lens. However, I have dropped my camera helmet once during a cutaway, and even then my Samyang 8mm + 400D stayed 100% intact.

Of course, but you'll rarely see it when there's a fatality involved. And certainly not in here. We have seen how people here laugh and gloat at someone who was recently paralyzed in a skydiving accident. I think its even worse..

May I ask you how many jumps you have on XF2 and what WL ?

I also jump XF2 109 @ 2.0 and I think there is almost no reason to use rears since the canopy recovers by itself.

Im sure dave didnt mean Europe, He ment Yurop

It has been said to be around 300 dpi/ppi. At least it shouldnt be much more than that. For example iphone 4 retinadisplay is over 300 ppi. In other words, adding more pixels to the iphone wouldnt make a difference for human eye.

Yeah, thats true. I was merely pointing out that normal HD display wont be able to utilize the 4K resolution, so there is no real point to worry about the video not streaming or playing smoothly.

Do you have 4k display ?