Personally I think the best test would be to get a complete novice. Someone with no experience in using any stabilizer give him each product for two weeks and check the results. Or get the same person to use each product for the same time over a two year period then check the results. If just fluidity in yourr shot is what your looking for.
The owner of a company / engineer damn well better be able to produce good results with his/her own unit otherwise no one is going to even look at it. I have no doubt there are people out there who can get a better result with a glidecam than I can with my merlin.... but theres a few HUMAN factors to consider, experience and general skill.
Other point that popped up in this thread....... handheld. What is the definition of handheld? A bare camera being held in ones hand? that plus using any device that needs to be held in the hand? A device that in some way is not isolated (lack of gimbal) from the human using it? A shoulder mount?
Then ... what are these shots to be used for? What delivers the desired result for your requirements? This can vary shot to shot in a movie production. Is it ENG? Weddings? Live music? Every apparatus listed her would serve better in any one of these situations. For example, for overall convenience, the stand with a tripod head on top, the steadipod would be very useful at say a wedding or for ENG when you want to use it all day for the event. For a short or feature production with a 20 second shot that requires a perfect fluid motion theres the glidcame and to a greater extent the merlin. I cant see a steadipod would come in at near the ballpark I require for this. But let me put that in perspective also. That point comes down to production values, many people may see the steadipod offering them a lot in this situation, and theres no wrong or right. For me I know the merlin is going to give me perfect fluidity and thats what I want on some shots and that all comes to what works best, for the particular compostion I want for that particluar shot. To decide this takes months of shot planning.
When purchasing you need to know what is the best for the result you want or the type of shot your going to use it for.
The owner of a company / engineer damn well better be able to produce good results with his/her own unit otherwise no one is going to even look at it. I have no doubt there are people out there who can get a better result with a glidecam than I can with my merlin.... but theres a few HUMAN factors to consider, experience and general skill.
Other point that popped up in this thread....... handheld. What is the definition of handheld? A bare camera being held in ones hand? that plus using any device that needs to be held in the hand? A device that in some way is not isolated (lack of gimbal) from the human using it? A shoulder mount?
Then ... what are these shots to be used for? What delivers the desired result for your requirements? This can vary shot to shot in a movie production. Is it ENG? Weddings? Live music? Every apparatus listed her would serve better in any one of these situations. For example, for overall convenience, the stand with a tripod head on top, the steadipod would be very useful at say a wedding or for ENG when you want to use it all day for the event. For a short or feature production with a 20 second shot that requires a perfect fluid motion theres the glidcame and to a greater extent the merlin. I cant see a steadipod would come in at near the ballpark I require for this. But let me put that in perspective also. That point comes down to production values, many people may see the steadipod offering them a lot in this situation, and theres no wrong or right. For me I know the merlin is going to give me perfect fluidity and thats what I want on some shots and that all comes to what works best, for the particular compostion I want for that particluar shot. To decide this takes months of shot planning.
When purchasing you need to know what is the best for the result you want or the type of shot your going to use it for.