Read the online version at http://www.cathayphoto.com.sg/viewfinder/read/2007,12,8

Steadicam’s Merlin arm and gimbal has been hailed by many videographers as the best thing since sliced bread. Amazingly light and ultra compact, the Merlin arm allows you to keep up with the action as smoothly and seamlessly as the big $70,000 rigs used in Hollywood productions.

The original Merlin used two-ball-bearings for the vertical axis, and low-friction bushings for the remaining two horizontal axes. The results were excellent but the maximum payload was limited to 2.2 kg.

The New Merlin has been substantially beefed up and features an all-metal, Six-Ball-Bearing-Gimbal – the smallest precision Steadicam gimbal ever. Using aluminum and stainless-steel in its construction with flanged, extended-race ball bearings in all three axes, the robust new, all-metal gimbal now permits your Merlin to fly cameras weighing up to 3.4 kg.

The new Merlin Six-Ball-Bearing Gimbal is available separately as a plug-and-play replacement for existing Merlins, or as part of the new Merlin Arm & Vest Package, consisting of the new Metal Gimbal, the brilliant new Merlin Arm & Vest and three additional stainless-steel 'mid-weights' to counterbalance cameras weighing up to 3.4 kg.

The 1.2 kg Merlin Vest is the lightest and thinnest ever made – it can even be worn under a jacket – and it has been cleverly designed to fit users of all shapes and sizes. Using the vest provides complete comfort and functionality for extended productions and long continuous shots. All adjustments are ‘no-tools’, including the right-arm/left-arm changeover.

The new Merlin Arm and Vest combination make extended shooting nearly effortless. Even with heavy cameras, the Merlin can now fly for hours without undue fatigue, and preserve all the flexibility and reach of the operator’s own arms.

Used in combination, the Merlin Arm and Vest actually increase your shooting options. The operator can ease the Merlin back against the body and shoot ‘handheld’, with both hands on the camera, and fly seamlessly back off the shoulder and continue moving. With practice, operators can fly the Merlin one-handed right off of the mounting post during a shot (docking the arm to the vest with the other hand) and execute those unique Merlin shot opportunities – ultra-low- or ultra-high-angles – and then slip it back onto the arm to continue the shot.

If you shoot documentaries, weddings, news segments, commercials, even low-budget features, you’ll find the Merlin Arm and Vest invaluable. In practiced hands, it performs as impressively as the big Steadicams used in movie-making; yet it remains ultimately unobtrusive. The Merlin is not only stable, it is also an inherently graceful way to hold a camera – not only for big moves and running around, but also for those subtle, imperceptible and elegant displacements of the lens that cannot be achieved any other way.

Armed with the new Merlin Arm and Vest, you’ll be able to shoot longer and ‘fly’ more easily and more precisely than with anything else on the market.