Canon 7D + Steadicam Merlin Test

A test of the Canon 7D mounted on a Steadicam Merlin.

The setup was somewhat too bottom heavy, so the pendulum effect is evident. There are two major difficulties with the 7D/Merlin combination. First you have to learn to live with a fixed focus which is fairly impractical when you are moving around. The 7D has no auto focus in movie mode. Second, it's too heavy for longer shoots as demonstrated in this test. Anything beyond a few minutes at a time becomes very uncomfortable.

Having said all that, here is an example of somebody who has managed to balance the 5D and who knows how to operate a steadicam properly: vimeo.com/6761588
You can also compare it to this where I use it on a properly stabilized (and much lighter) Sony HDR-XR500v: vimeo.com/6885558

The shots of the 7D were done on a Sony HDR-XR500v with a Handy35 DOF adapter using a Canon 50mm 1.4f lens. The steadicam shots were done using a Canon 7D with the 18-135mm stock lens.