I'm still experimenting with a variety of different setups on the Merlin to see which works best. The big improvement over the Calicocam is the vastly superior gimbal design, which is not only far smoother, but also allows you to raise and lower the camera. That opens up a whole new can of worms as far as how to properly balance it. So far my indoor footage looks very good, but the outdoor shots still have a bit too much side to side sway.

I suppose I never paid close attention before, but nowadays I'm spotting a lot of errors by professional cameramen on things like local news broadcasts and films.

The Merlin is much better at eliminating side to side motion, but I think that's primarily because the weight of my camera w/wide angle lens and external microphone exceeded the Hague's weight limit. The Merlin is designed for cameras weighing up to 5 lbs. The Merlin's better gimbal does not fix side to side sway in the wind. The imbalance is caused by the fact that the camera has far more surface area than the counterweights below it, so of course the wind pushes much harder against the camera, causing the sway. Others on the HV20 forum report the same problem, irrespective of which brand of steadicam they're using. As far as the 'skill' question goes, I would say operator skill accounts for about 70% of it, and its far more difficult to master the subtle stuff like panning the camera while running, or keeping it level while changing direction, or changing the camera angle while panning. The gimbal is so sensitive that any mistake you make is instantly noticeable when viewing the film, though you're not likely to notice it while filming. I've been talking to a professional cameraman on another forum, and he tells me that they train you for eight hours just holding the camera steady while walking in a straight line! Getting good enough with the steadicam to call yourself a professional can take months of practice.