Skydiving in 3K

[MrSlaton]

I am a 15 year veteran of free fall photography and long time skydiver. I have done many documentaries about the evolution of our sport including Parachuting newest discipline called "swooping". We have been very limited with the cameras we could bring into the sky since we have to carry the weight on our head using special made helmets. For those of us shooting aerial stunts for commercials and movies we are carrying a 35 pound film cameras with very large helmets, a ring sights and a neck brace for the opening shock of the parachute.

A small and lighter camera like the Scarlet will able us to shoot our aerial scenes like never before. The Scarlet will not only make our job safer but will be able to shoot more scenes at a higher frame rate. As you might expect you cannot change film loads in free fall so we are typically limited to short rolls. Our team is doing more aerial parachuting expeditions using small high performance parachutes that are right out of a James Bond movie. We use these special parachutes to swoop down some of the worlds largest mountains, soon to include Mt. Everest. The Scarlet is going to revolutionize free fall cinematography in a way we could only dream about a few years back.

I still remember the excitement and amazement when we mounted the small Sony PC-7 on our helmets for the first time. I am now flying a HVX 200 and have dreamed of the day I could shoot something smaller, over 2K with high resolution pictures too! So we wait with great anticipation to take Red's small great wonder into the blue...

Jim Slaton,
Producer, free fall cinematographer, stunt jumper
1.888.752.8660
www.jimslaton.com
www.worldstuntteam.com

 

[MrSlaton]

What do you think the still frames from the Scarlet will look like? Will they look like they are from an SLR at 120fps?

 

[Wayne Morellini]

I am a 15 year veteran of free fall photography and long time skydiver.
..
We have been very limited with the cameras we could bring into the sky since we have to carry the weight on our head using special made helmets. For those of us shooting aerial stunts for commercials and movies we are carrying a 35 pound film cameras with very large helmets, a ring sights and a neck brace for the opening shock of the parachute.
..
A small and lighter camera like the Scarlet will able us to shoot our aerial scenes like never before.

Hi Jim, a heads up, literally . I have been researching pocket hybrid camera a bit, which might be a good compromise in the meantime.

Sony has just announced the TG1 (I think that is the name) pocket camera, uses smaller chip but similar tech to the SR12. The Sanyo HD1000 (but test to see if it has blue lens flare when pointed at bright objects (like lots of things when skydiving). Of the $200 dollar pocket cameras, the Aiptek AHD+ (No optical zoom, big depth of field = good for you) and Action HD (optical lens and macro) both have 720p60 modes (though am not entirely sure if AHD+ has it) around 9mb/s H264 from what I can tell, bad rolling shutter, but generally good picture fro $200 and 9mb/s data-rate.

The Canon TX1 is the only one that has what i would call descent movement compression potential, but only 30fps. The compression is intra 35mb/s 720p30, vs the Panasonics higher intra codec data rate (and 60fps). Then, you probably know all that already.

Something we found is that progressive compresses better per mbit than interlace.

 

[MrSlaton]

Thanks for all your feedback guys, I think I will keep the cameras I have until the Scarlet comes out. Don't be a stranger!