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From my point of view, the demon might be a fun canopy to fly for some people. But I think toggle-whipping is an old-school facet of the sport. Canopy-Piloting has evolved a lot over the past 10 years, modern canopies might not turn as hard as a demon on toggles, but they dive a lot more, stall way later - and don't forget, they flare for miles compared to a demon. If you like toggle whipping a canopy that stalls around shoulder level, but turns like crazy - go for it. I would much rather jump a canopy that can generate lots of speed but still flies fine at super slow speeds, is easy to control without the need of toggles and flares like crazy.

I am very surprised that you compare two different framerates... On the other hand, i am not suprised at all that the lower-framerate camera offers more quality, as your findings are pretty much lower quality because of higher compression (which is what you usually find when shooting higher fps in almost any camera: same datarate per second = less data per frame at higher fps). I would strongly suggest to make a review with the same settings. This review is rather pointless and misleading!

Get it. OS-X is a fantastic OS, way easier to use, way more fun to use than Windows. It will take you some time and effort to get to know it, and certainly a fair bit of frustration, but while you get the hang of it you will never want to switch back again. And the hardware is just beautifully designed and crafted. Photo-related software works the same as on Windows, except some keys being switched - think of my words when you first quit your browser trying to type an email adress for the fist time ;) Oh, and for the right-click just tap the touchpad with both fingers. Btw, you will simply love the touchpad and gestures!

Why I got the storm... I've got ~450 Jumps now. Before I got the storm, I did a bit more than 300 jumps on a Sabre2 170, which I think was the perfect entry-level canopy for me. I spent those 300 jumps doing a Flight1 canopy course and working actively on my canopy piloting skills. When I was able to safely and repeatedly execute precise, clean and smooth 90° frontriser-turns for landing I decided it was time for a new canopy, and I selected Crossfire2, Sabre2 and the Storm as possible candidates for my second canopy. The Crossfire would have been the most powerful choice, but given my low experience (~350 jumps at that time), I decided it would be better to get a more docile canopy that would be more forgiving if I ever fuck up a landing (Murphy says I will at one point). I already knew the Sabre2 (and sincerely loved it), but it would be nice to experience a new canopy, and since I do a lot of wingsuiting, I decided it would be a good idea to get a Storm 135 as a next canopy. I load the canopy around 1:1.35 and have put a little more than 100 jumps on it. Toggle turns: Quick and responsive, with a very long range on inputs. You can fly them quick and responsive, and also slow and altitude saving. The brake setting seems quite deep, so when you unstow the brakes the canopy goes into a relatively deep dive, which you will get used to quickly. Harness turns: On the fist jumps I quickly noticed is that its a lot more responsive on harness input than I expected from a 7 cell, you can easily turn the canopy around with harness right after opening with your harness while the brakes are still stowed, which is great for wingsuiting. The counter part of this is of course that especially after downsizing, you might sometimes perform accidental 180° turns during inflation, I learned to control this after a couple of jumps though. Openings I found the openings to be generally nice, it's got a longish snivel, but the last inflation phase tended to be a little bit brisk, which I didn't like, because I'm jumping heavier cameras frequently. So I tried to find a solution in packing, and guess what, I found it. During the last 50 jumps I stopped flaking the canopy during packing. I only check the lines, give the canopy a decent shake and directly quarter the slider. I do not even touch the inside of the canopy in any way. This gave me a noticeably (!) softer second inflation phase during opening, and safes me a couple of minutes while packing, which is great! Recovery-Arch As I mentioned earlier, I'm very interested in learning the basics of high-performance-canopy control, as I simply like the learning process, and it's tons of fun! At the first landings I found it a lot harder to load the storm with power, than it was on the Sabre2. Although 2 sizes larger, I had much more power and longer swoops on the Sabre2 170 with 90° turns. This on one side seems to be due to not yet perfect technique and on the other side the much shorter recovery arch of the storm (7 cell - thicker profile). I managed to refine my technique a lot during the last 100 jumps on the storm, but the first jumps were very frustrating. I had to put down my setup a lot lower than I was used to from the Sabre2 (which I found scary). Since the last 100 jumps I got used to the quicker recovery, and while refining the technique I could put my setup back up to less scary heights, but still, the storm loses the power much quicker than the sabre2 (no real surprise, is it?). This is a con if you wanna have long swoops, but then swooping is not the reason why you would get a Storm. On the pro side, the short recovery-arch makes me very comfortable landing in tight spots with that canopy, since I know I can get it to a stop very quickly and safely.

Hey Guys! I'm afraid I totally screwed up my planning, and had to cancel my reservation of 2 slots for the ToraTora Wingsuit camp in Eloy from March 3-16 with Jarno Cordia. The camp prize includes 50 Tickets, organized groupjumps, coaching (Jarno and Benoit from fly like brick are coaching!), accomodation and transport, it's a pretty good deal, and Jarno is the best coach! More details here: http://toratora.nl/events/eloy2013/ Since Hotels and Coaches are already booked, I'm facing quite some costs due to my cancellation (it's completely my fault). So if anyone says: hey 2 weeks wingsuiting in eloy with two awesome coaches sounds great for me, please let me know! thanks! Wolfgang

Don't you think opening a new thread would be the same amout of work and would give you more attention? Next to keeping threads on topic and thus more readable ...

Thanks very much for the warm welcome! :) @DSE: yes that orange bat was a pita, not only that he talks a lot, he's ruining the picture on every occasion when you're on a jump with him! ;) @Jason: It might look dangerous indeed, but wuzi grew up playing around skyvans, and his dad has been flying it for decades. If anyone can pull off that stunt safely, it's those two. And as pointed out by holie, the right prop was feathered with the engine off, while he crawled to the nose around the right side. :)

Hey Guys, I've been a silent observer of the forums for quite some time now, and thought it might be a good time to introduce myself and share some of the stuff I do. I've been skydiving for 3 years now, and this year I started to jump an SLR camera on my head. Being a full-time photographer on the ground, it was a natural step for me. Of course, with less than 500 jumps and only 3 years in the sport I still have to learn tons of stuff. I've taken some time to make a best of collection of my first year of camera jumping, and uploaded an album of my Best of 2012 skydiving pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151396161316694.530418.40099546693&type=1 I've also added some of my favourites as attachments to the post. For the tech guys, I jump a Canon 5D Mk3, usually with a 16-35mm. I've tried to 550D, as it's a lot more lightweight, but actually found the heavier camera more comfortable to fly. Hope you like my shots, and any feedback you can provide is very much appreciated. Happy holidays everyone! Wolfgang

Thanks for that info, pretty much sounds like thats my problem. I have sent them a support request on friday via their website and haven't heard back yet (no surprise though). I'll post again once I hear from them.

Hey fellow skydivers, I just received a Paratec Next Harness yester, that i'm planning to buy used. It's made in 2003 and is in quite good condition. The parachute is almost new, only 40 jumps and made in 2010, so it's still a little difficult to pack, also the POD is a little tight, but if you pack nicely it fits well. Here's where the problem is. The inside of the POD has got a coating (kind of rubber maybe?), and this coating is very very sticky. It does not transfer to your fingers, but if you touch the inside of the pod you clearly notice that your fingers stick there. So when you put the parachute into the pod, the parachutes material sticks to the pod, and screws up your parachute. You definately can't just slide it in, like i'm used to with my almost 20 years old PdF Atom POD ... I'd say, this is the newest pod I've packed, but the first one that prevents the chute to slide into the pod due to the sticky surface on the inside. I tried to clean it with a wet towel, but it didn't really help at all. Has anyone experienced something like this before and has a possible cure for it? I've already contacted paratec support yesterday, but haven't received an answer, and propably will not until monday. I'll post here once I get one. Would be cool if anyone has some experience with this phenomenon that he could share. cheers! Wolfgang

If the only purpose is editing videos, i personally would recommend getting a macbook pro or an imac, along with final cut x. Edits Gopro footage natively, Sony is naturally a bit less comfortable, as you have to convert the AVCHD footage first. Very easy File management once you're used to it, and very quick editing and easy color correction. The only downside of final cut is a lack of pro-features. But since you're not working in broadcast this will not be a problem for you. Hopefully I don't start a mac vs pc brandwar, as i think this discussion is totally obsolete. If you say you don't like macs, don't get it. If you haven't tried, i'd recommend trying it. Especially video editing is big fun on a mac. just my 2 cts.

Been using it for a week now, and for a professional it's a true recommendation. A lot snappier (faster and more responsive) than CS5. Lots of professionals are complaining about the new Interface, I actually find it quite comfortable. And there are a lot of improvements under the hood, content aware move just being one of them. For me the speed increase alone is worth the upgrade.