Steadicam Merlin

Videos and Articles related to the Steadicam Merlin flying camera stabilizer

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I posted an article about my Steadicam JR auction and there was definitely some interest in that item. I also posted about a single Hollywood VS1 stabilizer that went up for auction, and somebody was lucky to grab it by the next day. Looks like lightweight stabilizers are still in demand. After posting an article and a video review from Vimeo member Kaydawgy about the Flycam Nano video camera stabilizer, those little units have been very popular as well.

Periodically I'll get comments and emails asking about where to find the Flycam Nano lightweight video stabilizers when they are sold out, so right now a few of them have shown back up on auctions. If you've missed out on the other lightweight stabilizers i've been posting about, check out the Flycam Nano stabilizers while they're around.

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find-price-button Flycam Nano DSLR Video Camera Stabilizer

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[Update] Item is gone....already sold.

One single unit shows up on eBay auctions. This little (possibly discontinued) video stabilizing Gizmo is called the Hollywood Lite VS1. My guess is the Stabilizer was out too early before tiny DSLR's started changing the video market. It functions similar to other common stabilizers with a center Gimbal handle, top stage, and lower counter weight sled. YouTube member Chung123video does a good job demonstrating the balance techniques, but no real footage to look at. From the movements though, I can tell you it's going to be pretty smooth.

How much weight does it hold? Not sure, doesn't look like much but claims it can support cameras up to 4lbs. If that's true, it should hold up better than a Hague and support cameras around the size of the Panasonic GH1 or GH2 with ease. The Hollywood Lite unit itself weighs only 2.5lbs perfect for packing up and traveling. It should definitely suffice for point and shoot video shooters and iPhone video junkies. If you can find it elsewhere, it's a pretty penny. This single on eBay is looking to accept some offers or has a Buy It Now price (I don't think it's worth the Buy It Now price). Link to Hollywood Lite Stabilizer: Hollywood Lite VS1 Video Camera Stabilizer

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Click Image for Hollywood Lite VS1 Auction

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Many of you have probably already seen this video. It was posted up over a year ago as Part 1 of 2. I know i've had my eyes on it for quite a while waiting for the follow up, but Part #2 of this project doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon. This one is based on the Gimbal Handle that is used on the Glidecam series stabilizers. There seems to be a million ways to make a Steadicam Merlin gimbal handle, but little ways to make a decent Glidecam type gimbal handle. In this interesting video, there's some really nice techniques in mounting several bearings into some cheap PVC making it into a full 3 axis gimbal. It's been a year already, and there's some really good ideas in here to just let this sit back without being tackled by someone. Since video #2 hasn't been released to follow up on this, i'm curious if anyone has attempted this DIY project, and how far did you get?

If you're not familiar with what a Glidecam Stabilizer is capable of, check out my HD1000 video demonstration here: http://cheesycam.com/glidecam-hd1000-dslr-video-stabilizer-demonstration/

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click image for pricing on Glidecam HD1000 Stabilizer System

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Now that Panasonic has announced the GH2, i'm sure this is going to open up a market of new Panasonic shooters. If the GH2 shares the same form factor and weight as the GH1, this might be a Panasonic GH2 video camera stabilizer worth looking at. I posted an earlier article on this website with Vimeo member Choon Ean showing off some Hague MMC skills with a GH1, but here's another one that should sell it as a capable GH1 / GH2 steadicam. Lots of panning and full on jogging shots while maintaining great results in this video. Remember, this isn't on flat smooth ground, but more on an uphill run in some uneven terrain. Good job showcasing the product on this one.
[Thanks - Choon Ean]

The Hague MMC can be found here: Hague Mini Motion Cam Video Camera Stabilizer
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click image for pricing on Hague MMC

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After posting up my BTS footage of the Glidecam HD4000 with the Steadicam Merlin vest found here: http://cheesycam.com/glidecam-hd4000-bts-with-canon-60d-steadicam-vest/, I've been getting quite a bit of emails on how these two different products 'mate'. I'm sure this blog is quite cluttered with random articles, so here's the DIY video dug up from the archives posted 8 months ago. The reason I have this setup is because I used to fly a Merlin, so I had the vest already. I found the Glidecam design to be more flexible and the HD4000 can also carry a heavier load. The Glidecam was very heavy and I didn't want to invest into another Vest. It turned out to be a great cost saving idea since you have a 'dual arm' (two spring things) vest for about $1499 + Glidecam HD4000 for about $600. If you were shopping for a Glidecam Vest, the Dual arm for Glidecam runs more than the Dual Arm of the Steadicam Merlin. Some also argue that the Steadicam Merlin vest is a better design, much more slim profile, and of course cheaper cost. That's all opinion, and I just want to make it clear that I was just trying to make products I already owned work together. So even though it wasn't pre-meditated, there's a bit of cash savings using this method and as you can tell i've been very very happy with my whole system for a very very long time. You'll catch my reference to 'mating' the Steadicam Merlin arm with the Glidecam HD4000 Handle in this video..... Enjoy.

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find-price-button Tiffen Steadicam Arm and Vest

Steadicam Merlin-Vest Glidecam Hybrid DIY adapter
find-price-button Glidecam HD-4000 Hand-Held Stabilizer

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I posted a short sample of some BTS footage with a Glidecam HD4000 Stabilizer about a week ago. The reference to this project can be found here: http://cheesycam.com/3-canon-60ds-music-video/. There were some weird movements and I even flipped the Glidecam upside down. (I don't recommend doing this, but I do it all the time). Some people were asking if the footage was actually usable. I'll leave that up to the editors to decide if a few seconds of this footage would be used, but here's some side by side samples.

On the left is the movement of the Glidecam HD4000 Stabilizer on a Steadicam Merlin Stabilizer Arm and Vest with a Canon EOS 60D flying. On the right is an uncut look at what this RAW footage will look like. Again, we'll just be looking at quick cuts and a few seconds here and there. We'll be mixing it up with other hand held, Crane shots, dolly / slider shots, as well as very static Tripod shots. From what I understand, this music video will be cut in with actual footage from a new movie being released soon. So the movie will be more of the narration and we'll just be highlighting the band periodically. BTW, this is not my usual flying setup and I just rented this lens. So without practicing on this setup, these are the results I got.

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find-price-button Glidecam HD4000 Video Camera Stabilizer

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find-price-button Steadicam Merlin Arm and Vest

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find-price-button Canon 60D Digital SLR Body

Related Articles:
http://cheesycam.com/canon-60d-video-stabilizer-first-flight-glidecam-hd4000/
http://cheesycam.com/3-canon-60ds-music-video/

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It was a scorching hot day yesterday, but the bright sun helped bring in some light into this old unused factory. There was no electricity so the band rented a 5000 watt generator for the shoot. We had full run of the entire abandoned lot which was awesome. This place was huge with several buildings over 8 stories high and had so much texture of steel, brick, and concrete. Sitting right off the water, the place was just so large, we didn't get to see everything. The entire area is private, fenced off, with 24 hour security so we were able to just leave stuff everywhere. I'd love to get back there and shoot again if I could. Would be a perfect setting for a horror film, that's for sure.

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We started indoors with some really slow camera movements on the DIY track. It could have used another saw horse down the center for some additional stability, but worked fine for just slow movements. Going faster, it wanted to flex. We also did a bit of Crane shooting and later threw in some really close up hand held beauty shots of the band.

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We moved up to the roof in the late afternoon, and to really show off the height we were at, slung a Canon 60D on a crane over the side of the building. A bit scary, but it should be a really cool looking swing from over the side of the building back onto the roof. Hopefully that went pretty smooth, but from what we can see on the LCD it came out great.

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Next we went down to the outside grounds for a walking Steadicam Shot. The band followed the camera slowly while singing to the music. With the Canon 60D articulating LCD, I was able to walk forward and let the band frame themselves by looking into the LCD. They were able to monitor themselves and stay in frame, while I concentrated on not falling over or tripping on anything.

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I'll get the video footage once the editor hands them back, and show some of the shots we did. The Steadicam looked really great with the Canon 10-22mm Lens I rented and had all this space to run around in. Flying through a wide open room with large glass windows and concrete pillars everywhere had a very cool flying effect. I have to admit that with the changes in light, using the white balance on the 60D was much more effective than trying to set it on the T2i (which was being used for some BTS video). The 3 Canon 60D's worked really well and meshes closer to the workings of the 7D than a T2i. Definitely a great camera to work with. Now that i'm done with this project, I may sell one of them, but tempted to keep them both!

[Thanks to Matt for grabbing these BTS photos while we were running around in the heat]

Related Articles:
http://cheesycam.com/canon-60d-video-stabilizer-first-flight-glidecam-hd4000/
http://cheesycam.com/glidecam-hd4000-bts-with-canon-60d-steadicam-vest/

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Wait! Just gotta say sorry about the mess, I just bought the place and still moving crap in. Boxes everywhere, don't know where to put anything yet. Hey you're lucky i'm even sharing this test video, it's almost Midnight! Yeah and it might be a bit dark too, I wasn't going for quality here, just trying to get this darn thing balanced. So I have an early music video shoot tomorrow in which I thought I would do ALL Canon 60D's so I can break her in and get faster at the menu and settings. There will be three Canon 60D's on set. I didn't have the Glidecam HD1000 Stabilizer here, so I had to balance the Glidecam HD4000 Stabilizer. (always balance your rig the night before, saves time).

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The 60D doesn't have the Canon Battery Grip BG-E9 just yet, and i'm shooting with the the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens. BTW, I'm loving that lens. Not much fisheye/barrel distortion as I thought it would have. The entire unit is just way too light for a beast like the Glidecam HD4000 Stabilizer. So in order to correct this, I placed weights above the camera on the hot shoe.

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Yes, you can add weights under the camera, but the hot shoe was a simple way to add or remove weights, keep things almost centered with the camera weight, and also easy to shift it around for additional fine tuning balance. It's a pretty cool setup actually which would work great with some stabilizers that lack fine tuning adjustments. You can add a simple flat bar to the hot shoe and shift it around to center that camera weight. So i'm very close to having it balanced, the rest can be done by moving the lower sled up or down to make it either bottom heavy or top heavy. Check out the video above, and the photos of how I added the weights to the camera with a threaded hot shoe mount. You can find those mounts in this article: http://cheesycam.com/mounting-zoom-h1-on-camera/ or find some below.

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find-price-button variety of shoe mounts

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find-price-button Glidecam HD4000 Stabilizer

Related Articles:
http://cheesycam.com/glidecam-hd4000-bts-with-canon-60d-steadicam-vest/
http://cheesycam.com/3-canon-60ds-music-video/

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Eelke D. over on Vimeo gives us a bit of insight on the Hague DSLR Motion Cam - Camera Stabilizer. I can't remember who exactly asked me about this stabilizer, but sounds like they needed a bit more information. The handle uses the same limited range ball tie rod end (maybe a bit larger) as the smaller Hague Mini Motion Cam Stabilizer which is designed similar to the Tiffen Steadicam Merlin. The Hague DSLR Motion Cam Stabilizer retail price also sells for more than a Flycam Nano as demonstrated by kaydawgy in this article: http://cheesycam.com/flycam-nano-excellent-demo-video/.

Especially because of what it's priced at and the available competition, I've got my own personal opinions about this particular Hague stabilizer. This is why it's never been featured on this blog. Since someone else has taken their time out to share a review, and some people have been looking for information about it, here it is. Thanks Eelke D.! I'm going to sit back and leave you with the video, but i'll be interested in seeing some comments at the video jump here: https://vimeo.com/14803818