SantaCruzMichael
Well-known member
Hi folks,
Just wanted to share with you guys a couple recent experiences I had balancing the Steadicam Merlin.
I had been using the Merlin with the DVX alone for six months and love it. But I have read posts with people reporting difficulties balancing it with accessories.
So I had three recent experiences that might be helpful for someone trying to asses the versatility of this tool:
One:
CAMERA -- Common situation here...I needed to attach a mic. I put the mic holder back on the DVX and set up a condenser mic (AKG C451EB, I think) with a short XLR cable.
MERLIN -- Added one extra MID weight on the bottom. Same caliper width, same mounting hole, etc. It balanced pretty easily using just the fine tuning rollers.
Already, I was happy that this was such an easy setup to switch to.
Two:
CAMERA -- I needed to put a Sennheiser G2 wireless receiver (along with mounting plate and cable) on the camera in a pinch. Since I don't have the accessory mounting plate, it had to go on the hot shoe of the Merlin. This is up too high to be ideal....but.....
MERLIN -- Same weight setup as for the condenser mic: just one extra MID weight. Turned the gimbal in one turn to drop the weight a tad lower. Fine tuned with rollers. Worked well, but I imagine someone out there might have a more refined and stable configuration for this receiver. Let me know!
Three:
CAMERA -- So the Belgian rock band shows up ready for me to shoot music video B-roll of them running around (literally running) on an old California farm. We quickly realized they couldn't take home NTSC tapes and capture them with their PAL equipment. Well, duh!
They were travelling with a Sony PDR170 (PAL) with a big wide angle lens on it. Heavy!
MERLIN -- The sun is getting ready to go down, so the only answer seemed to be a quick and dirty set-up of the Sony on the Merlin. We had a laptop online- but there was nothing in the Cookbook, even for the PDR170 without the extra lens....
So we put the PDR on the Merlin mounting plate using the same hole as the DVX (I think it's F, but I don't have the rig in front of me here at the office.)
Then added one extra MID weight to the bottom of the caliper, and one extra START weight at the caliper hinge.
I fine-tuned with the rollers and it looked like we were onto something. However, the PDR170, expecially with the lens out front, demonstrated fierce vertical vibration. Alas, the Merlin's Gezornenplatz screw that's there to help support heavy lens barrels, would have pressed onto the PDR's focus ring.
So we found a black rubber stopper (like the ones from chem lab) in one of the gear cases. Cut the sides of the stopper flat to make a wedge and gently inserted it between the top of the Merlin caliper and the camera body. VIOLA!
The weight seemed manageable. Overall, not quite as stable as the basic DVX/Merlin setup. Maybe a gimbal adjustment would have helped. But it worked well and we got the shots.
I hope some of this is usable for someone, or that it at least gives you an idea of what it's like to cobble together Merlin setups on the fly....
Cheers,
Michael
-----------------------------------------
Michael Thomas
Monark Pictures
Santa Cruz, California
Just wanted to share with you guys a couple recent experiences I had balancing the Steadicam Merlin.
I had been using the Merlin with the DVX alone for six months and love it. But I have read posts with people reporting difficulties balancing it with accessories.
So I had three recent experiences that might be helpful for someone trying to asses the versatility of this tool:
One:
CAMERA -- Common situation here...I needed to attach a mic. I put the mic holder back on the DVX and set up a condenser mic (AKG C451EB, I think) with a short XLR cable.
MERLIN -- Added one extra MID weight on the bottom. Same caliper width, same mounting hole, etc. It balanced pretty easily using just the fine tuning rollers.
Already, I was happy that this was such an easy setup to switch to.
Two:
CAMERA -- I needed to put a Sennheiser G2 wireless receiver (along with mounting plate and cable) on the camera in a pinch. Since I don't have the accessory mounting plate, it had to go on the hot shoe of the Merlin. This is up too high to be ideal....but.....
MERLIN -- Same weight setup as for the condenser mic: just one extra MID weight. Turned the gimbal in one turn to drop the weight a tad lower. Fine tuned with rollers. Worked well, but I imagine someone out there might have a more refined and stable configuration for this receiver. Let me know!
Three:
CAMERA -- So the Belgian rock band shows up ready for me to shoot music video B-roll of them running around (literally running) on an old California farm. We quickly realized they couldn't take home NTSC tapes and capture them with their PAL equipment. Well, duh!
They were travelling with a Sony PDR170 (PAL) with a big wide angle lens on it. Heavy!
MERLIN -- The sun is getting ready to go down, so the only answer seemed to be a quick and dirty set-up of the Sony on the Merlin. We had a laptop online- but there was nothing in the Cookbook, even for the PDR170 without the extra lens....
So we put the PDR on the Merlin mounting plate using the same hole as the DVX (I think it's F, but I don't have the rig in front of me here at the office.)
Then added one extra MID weight to the bottom of the caliper, and one extra START weight at the caliper hinge.
I fine-tuned with the rollers and it looked like we were onto something. However, the PDR170, expecially with the lens out front, demonstrated fierce vertical vibration. Alas, the Merlin's Gezornenplatz screw that's there to help support heavy lens barrels, would have pressed onto the PDR's focus ring.
So we found a black rubber stopper (like the ones from chem lab) in one of the gear cases. Cut the sides of the stopper flat to make a wedge and gently inserted it between the top of the Merlin caliper and the camera body. VIOLA!
The weight seemed manageable. Overall, not quite as stable as the basic DVX/Merlin setup. Maybe a gimbal adjustment would have helped. But it worked well and we got the shots.
I hope some of this is usable for someone, or that it at least gives you an idea of what it's like to cobble together Merlin setups on the fly....
Cheers,
Michael
-----------------------------------------
Michael Thomas
Monark Pictures
Santa Cruz, California
