The Merlin Steadicam - Easter Break

After having a short induction with Stu on the Merlin Steadicam, I decided to book it out to learn and practice with it over the Easter Break (2 weeks). Joe came over to my house and for 2 days solid we watched the Instructional DVD through on a few occasions and practiced setting the Merlin up first along with the DVD and then eventually from memory, whilst referring to the manual when we were struggling to get the balance quite right. 

Over the 2 days we actually managed to set the Merlin up very with with various different lenses with the Canon 550D:

Merlin Set-Ups (Canon 550D)

Kit Lens

Mount Hole - M

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x mid 1 x start

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 6 turns

Stage Mount - minus 2.25

Arc Size - Between quarter and half open

28mm Canon 2.8f

Mount Hole - N

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x start 1 x mid 1 x end

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 0 turns

Stage Mount - plus 1

Arc Size - 8.5 inches from plate to bottom weight

Trim Left - 0.75

Trim Right - 2.2cm from left of plate

10-20mm Sigma 3.5fx

Mount Hole - M

Weights

Lower Weight - 1 x start 2 x mids 1 x end

Middle Weight - 1 x end

Gimbal - 0 

Stage Mount - 0

Arc Size - 9 inches from plate to bottom weight

Trim left - 1

Trim Right - 2.6cm from left of plate

Practice

After finding a few days of practice and these notes above to help set up the Merlin (though it always needs tweaking) we managed to get the set up time down to around 10-20 minutes from getting the Merlin set up to getting it correctly balanced.

During the rest of the Easter break, me and Joe practice shooting with the Merlin, and even went out onto the Hoe under some quite breezy conditions to try and shoot with the Merlin out in the open and Joe wanted to test using the Steadicam combined with his roller blades, which under the weather conditions worked quite well. Joe also had an idea to try and pass the Merlin from operator to operator, so we practiced passing the Merlin to one another with me crouched down and passing the Merlin up to Joe who'd be stood on a chair to try and get that crane motion action look, which we nailed after a day of practice.