AS1 0 #1 July 20, 2008 What milestones do you think are important to pass before adding a stills camera to a video setup? I'm thinking along the lines of the "before you downsize your canopy, can you do the following..." list I saw elsewhere on the forums. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSE 5 #2 July 20, 2008 This should be a good thread; it's been discussed before, but it'll be interesting to hear what the new crop has to say. I'm still a "new" camera flyer by comparison to many of those here, so take my nickel's worth for what it's costing you.... You should be able to manage solid video, getting the shot at all angles. You should have a solid sense of deployment, how your head/neck/body manage the extra weight, balance (or lack thereof). Hopefully the helmet is set up to easily add stills vs some of the clusterf*** helmets we occasionally see around here. Stills add yet another set of (often worse) snag points. Can you fly close enough in a solid, locked on position with the video camera? IMO, you can't get great stills and great video on the same jump. You can get adequate/good on one or the other, but stills require getting from point A to B, and video doesn't quite like that as much. but that's another subject. Can you manage a bite/tongue/blow switch while flying without thinking about it? Can you recognize when something is going to happen before it does, so you have this "sixth sense" about when to pull/push/blow the trigger? Are you ready for the added responsibility of stills and all that a still camera brings to the table on your head? Can you shoot good photos on the ground? Or, you can toss on a still, keep your teeth/tongue/blow down and select the couple or more that luckily find their way to your card... It weighs more, adds balance challenges, can significantly affect your flight depending on the helmet and your skill, adds extra steps pre, during, and post flight, extra parts, extra gear you need to carry. Lots to think about when adding any new component. I took at least 25-40 jumps with one or the other before jumping with both. Too conservative? probably. But getting a bunch of stills-only jumps helped me a lot, and having had a bunch of video-only jumps did the same. Mixing them brought a whole new degree of dissatisfaction and self-criticism of my talents. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dragon2 2 #3 July 20, 2008 I had about 100 video jumps before adding stills. You need to be ready for something new, ie have the video thing down pat. Still camera requires more work and thought than video, you have to be ready for that, free and skilled enough in the sky. A still camera adds: more weight more to balance another battery to worry about another medium (memory card) to worry about way more settings to worry about another thing to turn on/off on time more activity on your part: you have to actively take pics instead of letting the video record whatever you point at more stuff to do in your workflow, you probably need a laptop at the dz, need a cd burner of some kind, if people are waiting for the shots you need to be able to do whatever you want/need to do to them (rotate, select just a few, print some, add a watermark or logo, burn to disc, whatever you want to do) so keep that in mind too, otherwise you'll be spending a lot of evenings sorting through pics and emailing the right pics to the right people, at least that was what I did at first... For me adding stills was mainly a weight problem, i've taken 10's of thousands of pics on the ground so I knew my camera stuff, the settings I want and paying attention to battery levels, available memory etc and framing the shot were all already ingrained. The actively taking pics took longer, first few jumps I came down with 100 pics from one freefall, bite-bite-bite-bite on automatic, that changed to seeing the shot I wanted quickly and after that, anticipating and actively making sure I get the shots I want now. But for me, taking stills is way better than taking video, I started skydiving to photograph skydiving ciel bleu, Saskia Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
velocityphoto 0 #4 July 20, 2008 I believe you should have at least 500 jumps before you add a still camera. At least 200 video jumps would be good . Adding a still is sensory over load .So be careful and have fun .. A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vdschoor 0 #5 July 21, 2008 Quote I believe you should have at least 500 jumps before you add a still camera. At least 200 video jumps would be good . Adding a still is sensory over load .So be careful and have fun .. Thats a pretty good indicator.. I think the 200 video jumps only is a lot, but you do want to be solid with your video skills like DSE mentioned. Then on top of that.. learn about photography, learn about the camera, learn to take good photos on the ground before putting it on your helmet.. Just because you land with 250 shots doesnt make you a good photographer.. just means you have a fast camera. Lighting is way more critical with photography than it is with video, learn about this. Have fun learning, cause it sure has been fun for me.. I have about 2000 camera jumps under my belt now and I am still learning, and still having a blast learning every single time.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DougH 270 #6 July 21, 2008 I waited about 250 video jumps. I have been getting solid stills since adding my XSi to my setup so I think the wait to add video to my skydive, and then the wait to complicate matters further was a smart choice. I might wait another 50 still jumps before I add my ringsite. YMMV "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
