texvanwinkle
Well-known member
Okay, I've sent an e-mail to a gentleman at Tiffen asking for help on this issue, but I realize I'd be a fool not to put this to the community as well, especially with my time constraints.
Here's the deal: My photographer wife is doing an all-day boudoir shoot Saturday with several models that she wants me to capture for a promotional video. (It's a tough job, etc.) I've had a Merlin for a year and a half now and taken a few runs at trying to use it, but each time have given up in frustration. More than once I feel like I've gotten it balanced correctly—I'll be able to walk it back and forth, sideways and forward and backward, with it remaining still—only to have one of two things happen:
One, after a few practice runs, it begins not returning to level and needs significant trimming to get it back to normal, or two, it stays relatively solid, but still swims quite a bit at the end of a movement. That is, it swings back and forth some after a side-to-side move, or forward and backward if moving in that line.
If in the latter case the balancing is fine and it's just operator error, what do I do as an operator to keep the pendulum effect to a minimum and keep the frame of my shots? I'm using all of Garrett Brown's advice from the video and from the manual, but after a few days of regular practice, I'm still no closer to figuring this out and getting quite frustrated. I don't know if it's just what I'm doing wrong or if I still haven't managed to get the balance correct.
Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Thanks,
Clint
Here's the deal: My photographer wife is doing an all-day boudoir shoot Saturday with several models that she wants me to capture for a promotional video. (It's a tough job, etc.) I've had a Merlin for a year and a half now and taken a few runs at trying to use it, but each time have given up in frustration. More than once I feel like I've gotten it balanced correctly—I'll be able to walk it back and forth, sideways and forward and backward, with it remaining still—only to have one of two things happen:
One, after a few practice runs, it begins not returning to level and needs significant trimming to get it back to normal, or two, it stays relatively solid, but still swims quite a bit at the end of a movement. That is, it swings back and forth some after a side-to-side move, or forward and backward if moving in that line.
If in the latter case the balancing is fine and it's just operator error, what do I do as an operator to keep the pendulum effect to a minimum and keep the frame of my shots? I'm using all of Garrett Brown's advice from the video and from the manual, but after a few days of regular practice, I'm still no closer to figuring this out and getting quite frustrated. I don't know if it's just what I'm doing wrong or if I still haven't managed to get the balance correct.
Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Thanks,
Clint
