Hi,

I have a glidecam 4000 and a XHA1 with a onboard light and a bigger battery. It is so heavy that my wrist wobbles I have even tried giving to to a friend of mine who is a Body builder and after a while it was hurting for him. A glidecam 4000 is not the way to go unless you have the vest. Now I have heard that the Merlin is easier because you can use two hands with it, has anybody tried it with a XHA1 is it ok for shoots that last around 20 mins?

For 20 mins I would need a shot of steroids.

get a vest, the camera and sled get heavy after a few minutes no matter who you are.

After a while, the blood stops circulating in the hand as well. You do need a vest system for a long shot.

I believe u need one hand to control the merlin as wel.. it should operate similarly like the glidecam..

Yeah, but with the Merlin, your control hand can also be used to carry the weight of the rig - you can't do that with a Glidecam.

Also, the Merlin is designed & built to place the weight over the operator's hand, not out to the side like the Glidecam does. The Glidecam places a lot of tourque on the operator's hand & wrist, which makes you tire out much faster than without any tourque as is the case with the Merlin.

- Mikko