Crazy Idea.. Skydiving

Skydive with a DSLR!!

Would it work and would you risk it? I would think that VR and great auto focus would make it possible..

Depends on how experienced you are jumping & what you plan to take images of? A Dslr is pretty heavy & has lots of inertia, & may be difficult to control during free fall in a 120 mph wind - not recommended. You're probably going to have to be pulling on risers to adjust your direction after you open, but it would be a better time to take some images.
I've done it with a small Rolli 35 film camera, so it can be done. That doesn't mean that you should do it. There's a reason that most skydiving images are done with a helmet cam.

Time to bring this thread back to life

Not crazy, just a little ... different
40+ year old home scanned 35mm slides
Australian National Skydiving Championship
Gloucester, NSW December 1978

Dirt Dive

You know I used to go to our local airshow every year, get me a spot by the fence and start snapping away with the rented 100-400mm lens. When I would see the Golden Knights Parachute Team jumping out of their jumbo plane, I thought to myself "how cool would it be to be a photographer up there grabbing shots in freefall?". Then I remembered that I am afraid of heights, and the requirements to be on the Golden Knights in the 1st place, I don't meet.

This thread is too good to die!... Not until it hits the ground, anyways

While reading the comments, I kept being taken back to those -oh to be young and irresponsible- times where I'd climb roller coasters and other rides with an SLR/DSLR attempting to snap amazing photos of great dynamic fluidity. Well, I ended up with a slightly busted tooth and more than one black eye. Turns out my worst injury was -of all places- during a trip to Disney with the family, I had been carrying around my 1Dmk3 while not on assignment at the moment, trying to be the snappy dad with the awesome photos. Equipped with a 24-105L, by far the largest setup I had taken with me to any ride. Man oh man, even though the Mattern-Horn did not have any thrills for those seeking real adrenaline, that 1D body was really tough to keep centered to my body, let alone try to frame a good image while turning in and out, up and down. Till I stuck it in my eye. To date one of the most painful things I've gone through, without permanent damage thank goodness. (Well I do get rather elaborate at times and over-explain my thinking in parentheses, though not very often).

So the thought alone of skydiving with a regular camera body, accelerating it to over 100mph, and then de-accelerating it ever so suddenly, just didn't seem like a good slash intuitive idea. Hence my research on how it was done.

Well, first things first: If you're going to try it, don't use your own camera.
Back in 2014, Wolfgang Lienacher borrowed Christian Anderl's brand new Canon 7dMk2, and took it for a ride:

If at first you don't succeed
Skydiving is not for you!