Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson (Post 680870)

The sportster is a similar idea, but falls FAR short of the Merlin arm and vest in terms of performance and features.

The Merlin arm is a a scaled down version of the Flyer and G-series arms, which are regarded to be some of the best arms ever made. (There are only a very few other high-end ($20,000ish+) arms that can compare.) It's a dual-articulated iso-elastic arm with all the standard features of a Steadicam arm (Tools free adjustments, fully trimmable socket block, flippable bridge plate, etc..)
Where as in comparison the Sportster is a notably stiffer one-section arm with much less boom range and a very restrictive horizontal range of movement. Plus with the lack of a socket block it can't be trimmed to the operator so you may have to stand at an awkward angle.
There are some other finer differences too, but that's it in a nutshell.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a no-brainer as to which system is worth spending hard earned money on.

- Mikko