It has been a loooong day... Took me 4 hours to finally rig the Stedicam Merlin onto the 5DMKII with kit lens (tried the 50mm 1.4 but it didn't want to balance - too light and too wide instead of long is my guess...)

There are about 7 adjusting points on the rig, each of which can enhance or totally mess up your balance. Here is the final setup with weights:

twitpic.com/2s2in

Use the M hole for best result with the 24-105 f4 kit lens!

This is my first ever Stedicam footage so don't be too harsh! I have a lot to learn and still need to make some more tweaks to make the rig balance even better...

P.S. Garrett Brown is a genius and a legend in my honest opinion! You HAVE to listen to this interview with Garrett from my good friends at FreshDV: freshdv.com/2008/09/freshdv-podcast-interview-with-garrett-brown.html

I'm going to give my arm a rest now... Been holding the rig for the past 8 hours. I might do some lessons learned from the setup in the near future...

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!

-Tyler
blog.tylerginter.com
tylerginter@mac.com
twitter.com/tylerginter
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” -Steve Prefontaine