Well, as I can't ever leave anything as it is, I have modified/distroyed quite a few things.
A few of them actually still works, so I thought I'd share my humble knowledge with you:

Hitachi Switch:
You don't even have to open the camera to add "real" stand-by- and rec- swithes1

CReW-timer:
You don't want penalty points when you're competing in rotation or sequence?

Front riser pedals:
A really usefull aid when filming CReW.

REC indicator:
Don't buy one, make one.

Hitachi Switch:

How to modify Hitachi H70 without modifying it.

Since i can’t leave anything alone, i could not resist the temptation to look a little closer at,
and in my new video camera. As it would show, my looking resulted in a usefull discovery or two.

I’ve come to know that my camera, Hitachi H70 (I’m not shure if it’s got the same mod. nr, elsewhere),
is rather common in freefall applications (at least here in Sweden). And as many people have
showed interest for my dicoveries, i promised to make a short description of what and how
i’ve made. Then i thougt it might interest people abroad as well, it can’t hurt. Here it is:

The cameras have, as you probably noticed, a rather unusual connection, that have a lot of
pins that are not normally used, but it's not that difficult to modify the plug to connect them.
Why would you want to do that? Well, beside from that you can have external switches for
"Camera (Stand by) and Rec", put the connections (Video, S-Video, Audio) and probably a
bunch of other interesting stuff that I haven't found out yet, you will save the jack in the camera.
It will suffer some sever wearing if you do a lot of filming and plugging it in and out all day.
I haven't checked, but I guess it's not cheap to change it.

To mount the extra pins in the plug, you don't have to be an electronics engineer, hey,
I managed to do it! A little patience, a soldering iron, glue, cable and some sort of pins are
what you need. The cover to the plug is held with snaps, be careful not to break them.

The pin’s positions are marked on the inside of the plug, so it should be no problems
to locate them. Find something You can use as pins, disassemble some other plug that
has pins that seem to fit for instance, that's what I did. Mount the pins in the right position,
solder the wires and re assembly the cover. You may have to adjust the cover a little to
make room for the new wires.

Prepare test:

Connect the plug.

Put the function switch on the camera (Video, Off, Cam) to "Off."

Open the outer cassette lid, there you will find a switch that can choose what function
the start button should have. Put it in the "Hold to rec" mode. That means that the
camera will roll as long as you hold the rec-button. Thereby you can use toggle switches,
slide switches or whatever, so that you really can feel that you have turned on the camera.
How many times have you wondered, "Did I really push firmly enough, or should I push once more?"

Test:
Connect the wire that goes to pin 17 to ground. Now the camera should go into "Camera" mode.
Keep pin 17 grounded and ground pin 12. Now will the camera, hopefully, start to record, cool ee?

Ground pin 17 to go into "Camera" mode.
Ground pin 12 to record while it’s in "Camera" mode.

Since I have mounted the switches to be easy to reach, it could happen, and has, that you accidentally flick the
switches and empty the battery.

To avoid that, I have mounted a mains switch behind a Velcro cover. It disconnects the start switches and also
the power to the indicator LED. When its on, I have a flashing green LED on the helmet to indicate that it’s "active."

I also wanted to be able to use the camera in a "normal" way, on the ground, so I didn't want to kill the cable completley.
That's why I put a D-sub on the cables, so I could hook it up to my home VCR, without the connections on the helmet
I used a 25-pole D-sub, OK, some overkill, but it leave room for furter options in the future.

This is how I connected it

If you need further information on this subject, drop me a line or give me a call.

Another guy who got a few ideas about how to modify your video gear is Arik Drori, and his ideas can be found on
The video domain, a site well worth a visit.

CReW-timer:

Front riser pedals:

Bryan Scott inspired me, via his CReW photo site, located at http://ddi.digital.net/~bryan/bry.html

to make this little device.

It gives more control options to your canopy, while filming CReW.

I sewed a canal down each front riser, where a line, attached to the rapid link, runs.

I left an opening in the middle of the canal, where I fasten the slack wit a piece of Velcro, when I pack.

The line comes out, via a small grommet, in the bottom of the canal and ends in a finger trapped loop, at proper length.

REC indicator: