Shiv Kumar
September 20th, 2007, 01:18 AM
Well to my surprise the received my Merlin today. I was really excited and dropped everything to get cracking with it.
The first impression of the Merlin was that it’s a great product. Very well made and they’ve paid a lot of attention to detail. I mean what a box! The parts inside were well protected and the various pieces looked well made. But soon however, I wasn't so impressed. It seemed that they paid a lot of attention to the frills but not the details.
The following are my personal impressions. I expect what I pay for and most times I'll buy new only because I expect the best. I highlight the bad first and then the good. Please also note, that I have not used any other "similar" product. So I'm not comparing the Merlin with another product.
Finish:
First of all it looks like I got a used piece. There were some marks/scratches/dings on the dovetail plate and a little piece from the guide (I learned much later that it was from the guide) just dropped off. If I weren’t sitting on a table where I could have heard a tiny plastic piece fall, I would have missed it entirely. This thing could fall off while shooting and you’ve never know. Even though the exterior of the Merlin if very well finished, when you look closely at the gimbal (practically the most important piece), you'll find that they've scrimped on quality/finish. The gimbal on my Merlin looks worn or filed. Not what you'd expect for the price. Hell, I'll go so far as to say, "I don't care for the box. Give me a well finished product." I’ve only seen something like it in homemade stuff, not factory produced items. I’ve been there, done that and I know that it can be made better.
Grip:
For my hands, I found the grip could be bigger (larger in circumference) as well as taller. Plus they could have provided for a lip on the top to not only keep your hands from slipping, but it would mean that your grip wouldn’t need to be so tight. I mean you do have to carry the weight of the camera and counter balance weights with the one hand. There are so many variations I can think of to improve the grip and maybe not all are workable. But a better grip can be made.
DVD/Manual:
I think the DVD is really of no help. Details, close ups etc. of key parts (by parts I mean steps/procedures) were totally missing and a lot was assumed. Someone new to the product will not get these things. It seemed to me that they were most concerned with delicate parts of the product, not to warn the customer but more so to not have to replace parts, because the areas that they should be spending time on they either don't cover or skimmed over casually.
The other issue with the DVD is that you can’t really go back and watch the section again. You can either continue, or go right back to the main menu and forward through all the sections you’ve already seen and get to the section you want to. Yes, there may be 10 other ways to get there but no menu options to do this. Eventually, after Section 3 I just gave up on the DVD.
The manual is a lot better in my opinion. Or maybe it's just that my expectation of a DVD (where someone has the advantage of using a video to help explain things to the customer is much higher than a printed document.
Balancing the Merlin:
I strongly recommend that you read the manual and understand the basic principles of how to balance, when to use what option and how to know when your Merlin is balanced. There are 2 user supplied cookbook settings for the A1. They are vastly different. Those settings may work because there are many permutations (as well as many variables) one can use to balance the Merlin. So understand the principles and when to use what option and why and do your own balancing. The only thing that you should use from the cookbook is the mounting hole on the dovetail plate to use.
Now the Good part:
Be prepared to use the horizontal and vertical trims each time you lay the Merlin down or during long shooting periods. Not sure why this happens, but it does (maybe it because the tape moves from one side to the other). The more familiar you are fiddling with these (kind of blindly) the better off you'll be. Also note that when you’re almost at perfect balance, even though the camera looks like it’s tilting to one side (left/right) you may need to in fact trim the vertical trim instead. This is normal (It’s not mentioned in the manual) and will happen when you are almost “there”.
Since it took me a while to balance my Merlin (my arms were sore) I ended up placing the grip on the edge of the table with the spars hanging off. I was able to fiddle with the trims without having to lift the weight of the camera.
Once I had the Merlin balanced, I simply got up with the Merlin and walked off. I’ll be posting a few videos in the Clips newsgroup so you all can see. I had no practice whatsoever. The footage is a real rollercoaster ride. I mean Disney style rollercoaster. I was having fun, and the Merlin is a lot of fun. I felt “free”. I shot for about 45 minutes with a 5 minute break in between. I switched hands and sometimes used two hands (for support). You normally use two hands. One to carry the weight and the other (very light touch) to control the pan/tilt.
Shiv
The first impression of the Merlin was that it’s a great product. Very well made and they’ve paid a lot of attention to detail. I mean what a box! The parts inside were well protected and the various pieces looked well made. But soon however, I wasn't so impressed. It seemed that they paid a lot of attention to the frills but not the details.
The following are my personal impressions. I expect what I pay for and most times I'll buy new only because I expect the best. I highlight the bad first and then the good. Please also note, that I have not used any other "similar" product. So I'm not comparing the Merlin with another product.
Finish:
First of all it looks like I got a used piece. There were some marks/scratches/dings on the dovetail plate and a little piece from the guide (I learned much later that it was from the guide) just dropped off. If I weren’t sitting on a table where I could have heard a tiny plastic piece fall, I would have missed it entirely. This thing could fall off while shooting and you’ve never know. Even though the exterior of the Merlin if very well finished, when you look closely at the gimbal (practically the most important piece), you'll find that they've scrimped on quality/finish. The gimbal on my Merlin looks worn or filed. Not what you'd expect for the price. Hell, I'll go so far as to say, "I don't care for the box. Give me a well finished product." I’ve only seen something like it in homemade stuff, not factory produced items. I’ve been there, done that and I know that it can be made better.
Grip:
For my hands, I found the grip could be bigger (larger in circumference) as well as taller. Plus they could have provided for a lip on the top to not only keep your hands from slipping, but it would mean that your grip wouldn’t need to be so tight. I mean you do have to carry the weight of the camera and counter balance weights with the one hand. There are so many variations I can think of to improve the grip and maybe not all are workable. But a better grip can be made.
DVD/Manual:
I think the DVD is really of no help. Details, close ups etc. of key parts (by parts I mean steps/procedures) were totally missing and a lot was assumed. Someone new to the product will not get these things. It seemed to me that they were most concerned with delicate parts of the product, not to warn the customer but more so to not have to replace parts, because the areas that they should be spending time on they either don't cover or skimmed over casually.
The other issue with the DVD is that you can’t really go back and watch the section again. You can either continue, or go right back to the main menu and forward through all the sections you’ve already seen and get to the section you want to. Yes, there may be 10 other ways to get there but no menu options to do this. Eventually, after Section 3 I just gave up on the DVD.
The manual is a lot better in my opinion. Or maybe it's just that my expectation of a DVD (where someone has the advantage of using a video to help explain things to the customer is much higher than a printed document.
Balancing the Merlin:
I strongly recommend that you read the manual and understand the basic principles of how to balance, when to use what option and how to know when your Merlin is balanced. There are 2 user supplied cookbook settings for the A1. They are vastly different. Those settings may work because there are many permutations (as well as many variables) one can use to balance the Merlin. So understand the principles and when to use what option and why and do your own balancing. The only thing that you should use from the cookbook is the mounting hole on the dovetail plate to use.
Now the Good part:
Be prepared to use the horizontal and vertical trims each time you lay the Merlin down or during long shooting periods. Not sure why this happens, but it does (maybe it because the tape moves from one side to the other). The more familiar you are fiddling with these (kind of blindly) the better off you'll be. Also note that when you’re almost at perfect balance, even though the camera looks like it’s tilting to one side (left/right) you may need to in fact trim the vertical trim instead. This is normal (It’s not mentioned in the manual) and will happen when you are almost “there”.
Since it took me a while to balance my Merlin (my arms were sore) I ended up placing the grip on the edge of the table with the spars hanging off. I was able to fiddle with the trims without having to lift the weight of the camera.
Once I had the Merlin balanced, I simply got up with the Merlin and walked off. I’ll be posting a few videos in the Clips newsgroup so you all can see. I had no practice whatsoever. The footage is a real rollercoaster ride. I mean Disney style rollercoaster. I was having fun, and the Merlin is a lot of fun. I felt “free”. I shot for about 45 minutes with a 5 minute break in between. I switched hands and sometimes used two hands (for support). You normally use two hands. One to carry the weight and the other (very light touch) to control the pan/tilt.
Shiv