Troubles balancing my camera on Merlin 2

[Pete S.]

Hello,

 

I registered on the forum in hope some of you can help me :)

 

I'm a happy Steadicam Smoothee Operator and used it now almost 1.5 years.

Recently I bought myself a Steadicam Merlin 2 for a good price in hope to even get better shots (especially when there's a little bit of wind).

 

Now to my problem: I can't get the rig setup perfectly. I reach a drop-time of about 1-2 seconds but for example as soon I want to start panning the whole rig starts to spin around and going down+up to one side rather then panning. Moreover when I make a "test" where I spin the whole rig front-back-side-side it wont stay horizontally stable. Any tips how to improve that?

 

I tried it with several combinations of weight/arc size/... but I always have problems.

My whole camera setup has about 600 gramms (with dovetail-place) so shouldn't normally be too light for the Merlin.

 

My setup right now:

• GoPro Hero 3 with Battery BacPac + extra weights
• Manfrotto 357 Quick-Release-Plate
• Arc size: on it's minimum
• Weights: front: 1 finish weight; bottom: 1 mid-weight and 1 finish-weight.
• when operating I'm using the one-hand-technique (like it more than with two hands).

Would be very happy if some of you can give me tips how to properly balance a camera like this.

Thanks!

[Alessandro Ugo]

This might help you.