I have no first hand experience with parachute jumping but a little bit
of math along with some poorly remembered numbers tells me:
If they jump from as high as 10,000 feet and open their chutes at 2,000
feet the free fall portion (that first 8,000 feet) will last about 45
seconds. That's from something in the back of my head that a human body
in free fall soon approaches a terminal velocity of about 125 mph. I'm
guessing the remaining glide down from 2000 feet will be at 15-30 mph
and another 45-90 seconds so the whole thing will not take long even if
my estimates are off by a factor of 2.
As to exposure, if its mid-day you can probably count on sunny 16 (or
maybe it's sunny 11 at UK latitudes. Actually, I just discovered that
sunny 11 is the correct rule for 60 degrees north. Maybe the southern
part of the UK needs sunny 11-1/2. Alternatively, if you have some blue
sky not close to the sun you can just meter the blue sky which makes a
pretty good gray card. If the sun is high the jumpers faces may be in
shade of the canopy so you might want to open up a bit from the blue sky
reading.
If you shoot at f/8 the 200/5 on an E-1 should have a hyperfocal
distance of 300 meters with everything in focus from 150 meters to
infinity. If you prefocus at something about 300 meters distant then
you shouldn't have to worry about focusing again until well after the
canopy opens. But after they get within 150 meters you'll have to start
focusing and focusing fast as they'll presumably coming at you and
closing the distance fast.
Chuck Norcutt
David Bell wrote:
> A friend is making a tandem freefall jump with the Red Devils (charity
> fundraising)and I thought that I would go along and support and take a few
> pics of the jump. Was planning to use an E-1 with just an OM prime (possibly
> f5 200) as it is compact and light.
>
> Now I have never photographed a parachute jump before, have no knowledge of
> typical jump heights and elapsed time for the drop. Can anyone give me any
> tips recommendations, filtration, camera settings etc.
>
> I am assuming that there is little cloud cover otherwise the jump would not
> take place.
>
> All help gratefully received.
>
> Thanks
> Dave
>
>
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