HV20 and Merlin
 

Put 'er up today for a spin (literally/figuratively)...took less than 10 minutes to balance from scratch. Talk about a featherweight! Truly amazing to be shooting stabilized HD with such little effort, you could carry this setup around for a good long while I suspect. For serious work you would want to add some weight (wide angle lens would be a good start).

Charles, any footage posted ?

I would truly love to see some footage using the Merlin. I'm thinking of getting one so seeing some footage from it might ease the pain of the price tag.

OK, I'll try to put some up. Is it OK with you guys if it isn't HD m2t's, if I just put up a Quicktime? hope so...there are many threads where you can evaluate the picture quality.

No problem there. Whatever you can post. Just want to see it fly a bit..

I'll try to get something going tomorrow if I can.

Yeah it doesn't have to be m2ts as long as it properly represents the footage. I'm dying to see some!

really interesting!

I currently have the HV10 and the Glidecam 2000 pro but really struggled to get it to balance as the HV10 is just so light. Is the HV20 heavier than the HV10? With the HV10it would just about balance if no weights are used at all on the bottom.

Any ideas how to weight up the HV10 or HV20 (as I am upgrading soon!)

Yes! Put some weights on top, add a wide angle adapter, and use large battery!
If you want more heavier, add another HV10 on top, and shoot GREAT 3D-HD videos :)

Awesome! Can't wait to see the footage Charles.

I have a merlin also and I love it. I just bought the HV20 to replace my dying HC1. Can you tell me what the adjustments are on your setup since Merlin cookbook does not have the HV20 yet. Thanks.

OK, I will admit that I'm not a "cookbook" guy--normally I'm not adverse to reading directions but my 8 zillion years as a Steadicam operator make me a little too proud to think I can't soldier my way through this sort of thing. Although some of the more obscure bits that are unique to the Merlin left me a bit baffled at first (G-platz??!) but I quickly got the hang of those.

So, having now consulted the online cookbook to understand what to call the settings, here goes:

Front weight: 1 finish
Lower weight: 1 start, 1 finish
Arc size: 9 1/4"
Mounting hole: J
Stage mark: n/a (already took the camera off...somewhere in the middle)
Z: -2
G-platz: no

This is for stock HV20 with tape, standard battery and no accessories.

As far as what kind of additional weight to add, I'm itching to tell you...there's an amazing and wonderful device that should be part of the Merlin accessory kit that will make lightweight camera users dance with glee when it becomes available (3rd party), but I can't tell you what it is yet because the person who invented it (for the big rigs) should be the one to market it for the DV world, and I've been telling him to do so for 3 years now, and pretty soon I'm just going to make the damn thing myself but I really can't be bothered probably, because half of the people will claim it overpriced and insist on making it themselves. Rant over. Nope, you can't beg me to tell you what it is.

Thanks, Charles! It actually helped me out a lot with your configuration. I probably saved easily 1 hour's worth of fiddling around. Your "cookbook" worked perfect! What else should I expect from a professional Steadicam operator, huh? Well, I hope your friend decide to market that new accessory! Again, thanks, Charles!

There are some HV20 settings in the "user" section of the cookbook area:

http://www.merlincookbook.com/user.php

I ordered a Merlin a few days ago... should be delivered tomorrow. Can't wait to try it out.

Looks like we had identical settings...except 1.5" different in the arc, which seems inexplicable! Maybe I didn't measure it correctly.

Incidentally, I sent a pic of the camera atop Merlin to Garrett, who was surprised at the weights and arc for this weight of camera, so a bigger arc seems even less likely...