Merlin Steadicam test

I've been wanting to try out a Steadicam for my Canon 5D Mark II for awhile now. I wasn't sure which kind to get and the more research I did the more confusing it became. I finally concluded that the Merlin Steadicam was the best fit for what I needed.

I'm a strong believer in renting something before you buy. Everyone that I spoke to said that a Steadicam was something that needed lots of practice and it wasn't something you could rent for the day. I went against my own advice and bought the Merlin Steadicam. When the Steadicam arrived I thought I was going to pull it out of the box and start filming (duh, see above about the warnings regarding practice).

I spent most of the day learning to balance the camera. Setting up the camera was much harder then I thought. Once I got things configured I went out and started filming. My assistant Michael and I tested walking, running, panning, and walking on stairs. Things were looking good, but we wanted to test something that combined all the challenges at once. We found a block-long flight of stairs to test on that would work perfectly. We needed something to track as we were testing, so of course I volunteered to ride my bike down the stairs as Michael filmed.

I was very impressed with how smoothly things looked considering we didn't have much practice. If this had been filmed without the Steadicam the movie would have been extremely jumpy and unwatchable.

The purpose of the movie was really an exercise to see how the Steadicam would perform in a difficult situation with very little training. I was very happy with the results and am excited to see how much better it will look once we REALLY figure things out.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• steadicam
• Merlin
• test
• canon 5D

[peterbelangerphoto]

I used the Canon 17mm-35mm lens. The video was filmed at 17mm.

[gemsrock80]

Excellent Job .... nice video, i am expecting more videos like these ... nice one :)

[JimmyGentry]

Saweet! I've been trying to build one of my own cuz I can't afford the $800.

Check out my video and design, it's the latest video added to my channel.

[arfurlife]

hey that looked seriously good. Gather you re completely happy with it then. Was it worth the money?

[maltesius]

love the sweeth:D

[greytale]

@avonsworld Really? I have been studying all sorts of these steady cams, but... the cam caddie footage I've seen is nowhere NEAR as smooth as something like the Merlin. Especially when full-on running! :)  I'll check out your channel though.

Although... this would be expected from a $700+ solution vs. a $38 one...

[hollaback1990]

SWEET

[Rockadell]

Bike*

[Rockadell]

I love riding my bikes on the stairs too, it's pretty fun

[avonsworld]

Nice demonstration, I must note that I've been able to capture similar smooth shots using the Cam Caddie SCorpion and it only cost me $38 and a couple of weeks waiting for it in the mail.