Yuri Michurin

Thank you for your responses, guys. Looks like I just expected more than I had to from Merlin with such a light camera. I thought it would be easy to operate it if you once set it up properly, and when I buying it I did not think about outside conditions like wind. From youtube videos it seemed to me very easy to operate it, but it turns out setting it up is the smallest part of the success, many factors do matter to produce well made movies like I saw. And you are probably right regarding my tests without mic: they were likely seemed much better because of bottom heaviness.

I just want to notice that without mic it took me less time to set it up properly and it was a way more stable. On the video I show 'drop test', the strange and probably wrong thing about it is that camera with mic swings in a random way, too chaotic, while without mic it swung significantly less time and all motions were always in one direction, passing same trace.

I have pretty light Samsung TM900. I've managed to set it up with Merlin alone, without microphone. However once I mounted mic (which weights almost half of what camera weights) I could not make it stable anymore. I run The Magic Formula excel and calculated best parameters with dynamic balance = Yes, than I played a lot with parameters changing lower weights, Gimbal position, Z, arc size, but nothing works: all this leads to similar effect: no bottom or top overweight, static balance is Ok, but a slightest impact like wind or occasional touch make the camera swing back and forth many minutes like a pendulum. 'Drop test' works fine in terms of time, but it always make camera swing in different directions, not in one as it supposed to be, you can see it here: http://youtu.be/mvlLH-fjs4E . 2 questions actually: - Is it possible at all make this configuration (camera + mic) stable with Merlin? - If you think it is, any idea on what might be wrong, or any tricks to overcome the problem? Thank you for any recommendations!

Recently I've bought used Steadicam Merlin. I found 8 mid weights in the package as manual describes. The dubious thing they are combined by sets of 1, 3, and 4 weights stuck one upon other in a metal rod, so that I can not detach them, I mean I can not split 3-weiths and 4-weights sets further, I can not remove any single weight from this sets. I wonder if it's 'by design', or they suppose to be detachable and just stuck to each other in years of inactivity. If it's not a natural behavior, any suggestions on how to split them? Thanks

I consider to buy Steadicam Merlin. Could you please explain me what the difference is between Steadicam Merlin and Merlin2, I was unable to find this information over Internet. The second question: does Panasonic TM-900 which is very light weight camera can fit well Merlin? I mean is it easy to set it up, or do I have to buy something additional to make it stabilizer work properly? Thanks