Elliot Gabor

This is making more sense now, thank you.

Good to know but i'm afraid we will be shooting in 24p so not an option.

Thank you for the advice.

I still don't really get the need for an F-Bracket for the pilot. The telescoping center post allows the rig to get pretty low and I don't see an issue of clearance whenever I've seen it inverted to go to low mode. Would you mind explaining the benefit in a different way, maybe I'm missing something.

I reread your post and I think maybe what you are asking is if you can drop the merlin so that you get a perfect tilt motion while maintaining horizontal pitch. Because the gimbal is so sensitive due to the lack of inertia, this is something very challenging to do with the merlin and works much better on full rigs. its very difficult to let go of the rig without slightly pulling or pushing it to one direction or the other.

The drop test looked fairly good for your Merlin. It sounds like you were more bottom heavy when you had it configured without the mic. The more bottom heavy you are the faster the camera will drop and the faster it resets to an upright position. The downside to a short droptime/bottom heavy rig is that your rig will have a tendency to pendulum when you are accelerating or decelerating. As you showed in your drop test, you camera has very little pendulum when moving it quickly forward or to the side. The issue you are experiencing with the wobble is that because of the low drop time, the gimbal and weight distribution is a lot more sensitive so every little touch, bump, even air resistance has a greater effect on the cameras balance so you have to guide the gimbal to compensate for this. The sensativity is actually a good thing but with such a light weight rig as the merlin, every little shift in weight (camera strap, lens hood, even having a CF card in the chamber) will cause you to have at least microadjust the position of the camera on the stage. If you are shooting outdoors with even a slight wind, you will want to add a little weight to make it more bottom heavy so that the wind doesn't keep throwing you rig off balance. As Brain Mentioned, you need to you keep your non flying hand on the gimble, ready to counteract any unwanted wobble that is occurring. The more practice you have making slight adjustments and not overcompensating the better you will become at flying the merlin. Lastly, camera/stage weight is your friend with the merlin. Weight adds inertia which means the rig will have less of a tendency to wobble from the smallest factors. Even if I'm using a light camera on my merlin, I add additional weight to the stage (and counterbalance weights to keep the drop time short) so that I'm close to the maximum weight recommended. This really helps get a nice stable and controlled shot with a lot less pendulum effect than flying with half the weight. Full size rigs fly even better, partly do to the fact that they have more inertia from weight but also because the sled length adds additional inertia without having to add additional total weight. Hope this helps.

Will be using a SD pilot rig with a C300 and Nanoflash setup. I don't believe C300 has an SD monitoring output but was wondering if anyone is familiar if the Nanoflash can downconvert an HD signal for SD monitoring (while still recording to HD). Otherwise I think I will be foreced to get a HD to SD downconverter or just buy an HD monitor and replace the standard SD Marshall. Thanks in advance!

Using a Pilot on a feature in Novemeber. Trying to keep costs down so the producer was asking about being tethered for a director and AC feed (could just be one shared BNC) I know in the broadcast world I've seen steadicam ops fly tethered but is this something that I should even attempt on such a low weight rig? Any tips on this type of flying, alternative solutions, or cheap wireless transmitters that would be useful to a focus puller (under $500) would be much appreciated!

I have weights that already have a 3/8" thread and it would be pretty easy to thread random gear to shift around weight as needed. Do you know what type of metal is used in the weights? I've always wondered. I usually buy copper for its density/price point.

What is the thread size of the pilot weights? Wondering if I can adapt them to 3/8"

I havent even gotten into dynamic balance with the merlin since as you say its very difficult to spin properly and there really isnt a way to properly adjust dynamic balance without sacrificng some very key positioning. Just an update/disclaimer on adding additional weight, it seems that the more i max out the weight of the merlin, the more play gets introduced into the rig. I'm currently having issues with dovetail locking down properly without shifting and i'm having trouble with play in the sled where it fold up which really affects tilt shots. That being said i really feel with additional weight, proper balancing and practice flying, the merlin has new life and can do basic shots that look just as good as a pilot.

Looking to just buy a pilot sled. I already have an arm/vest and I plan on using a DP6 as well.

Nobody seems to be weighing in...no pun intended. I decided to add an additional manfrotto adapter plate and also custom ordered some copper flat bars to stack and velcro onto the stage. I wanted to go with tungsten because of the density but it was too expensive...copper seems to be the next best metal at an affordable price. I'm now using the Merlin with a 5DII, rode videomic, two manfrotto adapter plates and the 24-70 at 24. I have to use all of my counterweights for this setup but my drop time is incredible. Putting a CF card in the chamber or taking off the lenses cap causes me to have to re-balance. Very different experience than a 1-2 second drop time.

Thanks for the advice. I would rather not have to ship it back to tiffen. I think that part of the design just isn't great so I can see it happening again even if I send it back to them. For now I'll just repair it by super gluing the velcro down to the plastic frame...hopefully I won't have to reapply too often. I like the heavy duty sewing machine or riveting idea as a more permanent solution.

I use a Merlin with a 5D II (sometimes with a 24 1.4 II and sometimes with a 24-70 2.8). With these two lenses the Merlin is almost at full weight which is great for drop times especially with the 24-70. The problem I have is when using it with lighter lenses. Just a few grams makes a world of a difference in terms of stability. How would I go about adding weight to the stage of the Merlin so that I'm always using it at its full capacity?

I own a steadicam merlin with vest/arm. I use it at or close too it's full weight capacity. The problem I'm having is that the glue that is holding the velcro strips onto the plastic chest frame is not strong anymore and separates from the frame. This is especially true when using it outdoors in the heat. Yes, I could purchase more velcro strips or just gaff tape the whole thing but I wanted to see if there is a preffered solution to this problem that I've heard of others experiencing. I would rather not use gaff tape as it looks a little "custom" and I don't want to to have to maintain it every few jobs. Any ideas?

I agree, any bad footage coming from the merlin is probably due to not operating it precisely enough. I get some very nice results in controlled environments, however I wish the wobble was more forgiving for event work. I always felt the full size rigs seemed more stable and now I understand why. Ha don't sweat it. Do I need to buy the pilot arm post to replace my merlin arm post?

Isn't this just the sled? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/619414-REG/Steadicam_PILOT_ABS_PILOT_ABS_Pilot_Sled_Camera.html

Now that I am realizing the limitations of the Merlin I'm wondering how much it would cost to upgrade to the pilot. I have the arm/vest which I hear is the same as the pilot. Can anyone confirm this? Is the connection on the arm the same for the merlin and the pilot? Will I need to buy an adapter or anything or can I just buy the pilot sled and use the arm and vest as is?

Thanks, this helped. So what your saying is that the heavier my camera is (and the greater the distance between the camera and counterbalancing weights), the less susceptible to wobble it would be? I'm probably pretty close to the weight limit of the Merlin but based on what you are saying, it's preferable to use all Steadicams just under their maximum recommended weight (fatigue aspect aside). If I were to mount a really light camera to the Merlin, it would be more stable if I somehow increased the weight of said camera? Thanks Again!

I currently own the Merlin with arm and vest. I'm noticing from footage i've seen of the pilot that it appears to be a lot less susceptible to side to side wobble. What is it about the pilot that helps in this regard? Is it the length of the sled or the depth of the bottom counterbalance or maybe it's just the way the gimbal is designed that makes it easier to use without accidentally wobbling it? What are some tips setup or operational to limit the amount of wobble I experience with the Merlin? I'm using the Merlin with the 5D II and either the 24 1.4 or 24-70 2.8 @ 24. Is my camera too heavy for the Merlin?