camera set up for college club

[DARK 0]

hey guys

we are buying a camera helmet set up for our college skydive club. i have been asked to come up with suggestions for the still camera and the lens to use with it

im think a canon 400d but iv no diea about wide angle lens and we would really like a good one

any suggestions?

also i think they already have their eyes on a helmet but if you have any suggestoins for highly adjustable cam helmets so that they fit as many people in the club as possible then please tell too

thanks

[billvon 2,991]

>also i think they already have their eyes on a helmet but if you have
>any suggestoins for highly adjustable cam helmets so that they fit as many
>people in the club as possible then please tell too . . .

An aluminum mount on a Pro-Tec or equivalent is going to be the cheapest way to go. Pro-Tecs are cheap, and you can get one shell size with several inserts to fit multiple people.

[PhreeZone 20]

This just seems like a really really bad idea. Camera flying is a very personal thing that one persons set up does not work well for another person. Not only that but the typical requirement to jump a camera is 200 jumps at least and some locations like the UK place restriction such CCI approval and cutaway devices on the helmet.

Jumping a camera is a lot more complicated then buying a video camera, attaching it to your head and jumping out of a plane. Jumping a still camera is a LOT more complicated then jumping a video camera. I recommend to my friends to get 200+ video jumps prior to jumping a still camera (4-500 jumps at a min!).

To jump stills you need to have a helmet that is very well fit to the jumper's head, its not something that you can pass around and have a dozen people use it with good results.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[DARK 0]

Quote

This just seems like a really really bad idea. Camera flying is a very personal thing that one persons set up does not work well for another person. Not only that but the typical requirement to jump a camera is 200 jumps at least and some locations like the UK place restriction such CCI approval and cutaway devices on the helmet.

Jumping a camera is a lot more complicated then buying a video camera, attaching it to your head and jumping out of a plane. Jumping a still camera is a LOT more complicated then jumping a video camera. I recommend to my friends to get 200+ video jumps prior to jumping a still camera (4-500 jumps at a min!).

To jump stills you need to have a helmet that is very well fit to the jumper's head, its not something that you can pass around and have a dozen people use it with good results.

i appreciate that but the reasons are as follows

there are a good few members coming up to the requirements for us in ireland :p to jump camera and as students we are at least a few years away from being able to afford out own decent set up. we figure that sharing one good set up between everyone is better than waiting 4 years and then starting from scratch with our own set ups

we are using dz media at the moment to promote the club and most of it is a few years old and we dont own the rights to it

when we go abroad on club trips we have no way of recording the important parts without spending money on coaches or camera flyers and therefore our prospective members only get to see rainy ireland static line jumps and not cool full altitude freefall in the sun

and finally
the college is giving us money for this specific reason if we dont buy it the moneys gone

[PhreeZone 20]

I'd throw the money away rather then use it on something like this. That or I'd get a video camera instead with the money, that has a lot more potential then a still camera does.

Stills should be added after video, video lets you screw most things up and its not a big deal. To shoot decent stills you are going to need a ring sight of some type, that is then sighted in on a per person basis, the video is not near as sensitive on the framing.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[DARK 0]

Quote

I'd throw the money away rather then use it on something like this. That or I'd get a video camera instead with the money, that has a lot more potential then a still camera does.

Stills should be added after video, video lets you screw most things up and its not a big deal. To shoot decent stills you are going to need a ring sight of some type, that is then sighted in on a per person basis, the video is not near as sensitive on the framing.

sry i thought i said it in my original post we are getting a video camera aswell there is just someone else looking after those details

the stills camera will be used in the air too but it will get alot of use on teh ground aswell so even if we cant get a freefal shot to save our lives it wont be wasted same with the video camera, a cameye and bite switch will be bought aswell obviously

[PhreeZone 20]

Have you ran the idea of this past your local club Safety adviser yet? I've be curious to know their thoughts on a bunch of people running around and jumping a full camera set up package at very low jump numbers.

I'd leave the stills on the ground until you get good at flying the video camera.

Look up the threads on what can go wrong just with the video camera, there are tons of them on here.

Sharing out a helmet is going to everyone minimal jumps with it since no one will be able to jump it lots since everyone else will want their time with it. Everyone's proficiency is low this way.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[DARK 0]

by the way thanks bill ill get them to have a look at the protects

so......lens?????

[mr2mk1g 10]

I'd echo the comments above - I think it's a really daft idea. I've got a lot of experience in working with a uni club here in England and everyone buys/makes/scrounges their own camera helmet when they're ready to go that way. An older mini-DV camera really shouldn't cost too much so a basic set up can be put together for a couple of hundred ££. I just don't see a need for a 'club' camera helmet. My experience would tell me that it'd just disappear off into an individual's kit anyway.

There are much better things to be spending club money on but if the money's already allocated you've already made the mistake - should have asked for something else in the budget. 'Safety' ALWAYS sells so ask for a new rig or canopy course or something next time.

If you're going to do it, do it cheap so you sink as little club money into it as possible. You seem to be asking about stills so get yourself a second hand canon 350D with the stock 18-55 lens. The 400D's fine too but doesn't give you that many advantages over the 350 so save some money and get the lower model... unless the price break is negligible. I wouldn't get the 300; it doesn't have a fast enough buffer vs. the 350 to make any cash saving worth while.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that setup for a first time deal and it should come in cheaper than almost any other baring an old film camera. Get yourself a couple of 1 gig CF cards with a fairly high speed to keep up with the camera - something like a sandisk UltraII at a minimum. Don't buy in the shops though as you'll pay 5 or 6 times the price on the web.

You'll also want a mount of some kind – there are a dozen on the market place or you could just bolt the camera up top. And a bite switch/tongue switch/blow switch/thumb switch... god knows what you're going to do about that as everyone has their own preference.

Frankly though, putting stills to this step up is really really really really dumb. If you're really going to do this, do it with min-dv ONLY to start with. Add stills later if you really just have to have stills.

Spend any money you save on the set up on a proper seminar with an experienced camera flyer for anyone intending to jump the thing - maybe even in-air training if pos. Have them go through cutaway drills with people using the cutaway you ARE going to put on the helmet. And for god's sake institute a rule mandating audible use and minimum experience level.

[davelepka 4]

Quote

there are a good few members coming up to the requirements for us in ireland

I miss that easy going Irish air. Skydiving is always so much easier in Ireland, I can see why you're hell bent on getting a camera helemt together.

In addition to the other thoughts, a community camera helemt sucks because it won't fit everyone properly. Without a properly fitting helmet, you can't count on everyone shooting crappy video, and being frustrated at the time they waste doing it.

You can also count on the need to adjust the sight for each individual user. It can take several jumps for one person to accurately sight in a camera, and you intend to have several people jump. Yeah, that should work out well.

This is a bad idea all around. You need to take that money and spend it some new gear, or a handful of audible altimeters. Stuff that a group of low jump number college students could actually use.

[DougH 270]

Bad idea.

Let the individual members save up and buy their own gear when they are ready.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[PharmerPhil 0]

And communal mouth switches. Yuck.

[Anta 0]

Quote

we are using dz media at the moment to promote the club and most of it is a few years old and we dont own the rights to it

Why don't you just bring a laptop (with moviemaker or smth to capture video) to the dz, and whenever you do funjumps with someone at the dz who flies a camera, just ask them if you can download it to use in promotional vids?

Alternatively plan a few dives where you'll pay for a cameraman. That way you'll get some cool footage quickly to use for promos =)

[billvon 2,991]

>so......lens?

I'd get a really cheap Sony DSC-V1 off Ebay or something with the standard wide angle lens, and then get a remote shutter release*. You're going to break it, and you're not going to get good material with it before you break it, so best to go with the cheapest setup you can find.

(* - I put together a setup like that for tandems. You just flip a switch before you exit, it fires as fast as it can, you delete the bad ones later.)