Steadicam Merlin 2, Руководство по установке и эксплуатации

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Basic Set-up
Use your senses to navigate.
Seems
obvious, yes?—what else are you going to use?
Well we just want to remind you of a couple of
non-obvious sensory possibilities:
• Use a foot
to reach out and locate
obstacles and identify doorways, etc. when
backing up or shooting blind.
• Check
your auditory circuits now and then
for voices whispering useful suggestions
like “watch out!” (You’ll be amazed.
Steadicam operating is so absorbing that
you may become oblivious to car horns,
explosions and the word ‘Cut!’)
• Use
what boaters call a “range” by
memorizing the visual alignment of a near
background object with a far-background
object (such as the corner of a chair lining
up with a distant wall switch) just as you
are about to back through a doorway. By
definition, spotting such a visual alignment
means you are on the exact same path every
time.
• Scout
the terrain without the Steadicam rig
if possible before you shoot, so you aren’t
unpleasantly surprised by the unexpected
cliff, pit, low doorway or mad dog.
Level control.
Trim will only provide a basic
tendency for the camera to hang level side-to-
side. It is up to you to keep your shots level by
paying close attention and controlling the guide.
Here are some tips to help you manage this:
• Check
the bubble whenever you are
moving in a straight line – it will not be
accurate when you are cornering.
• Control
the slight tendency of the lower
spar to swing outward when you are
cornering. Imagine that you are holding a
stick upright, and let your hand tell you if
it’s level.
• Watch
the monitor screen to see that
vertical objects such as door frames, appear
vertical as they pass by the center of your
screen. Remember, verticals may not appear
vertical at the sides of the screen if you are
tilted it all up or down!
Shooting Opportunities
Experiment
with longer focal lengths. Shoot
mid-telephoto. With a little care, you can make
some amazing moves and shoot close and
complimentary shots of people without having
to be right on top of them. Plus, today’s amazing
auto-focus circuitry can keep them sharp.
Walking zooms.
Pick a good focal
length and use your
legs to approach
and depart! Unlike
optical zooming,
actual approaches
and departures have
a pleasing three-
dimensional effect and
emphasize foreground
objects as they grow
(or shrink) faster than
distant backgrounds.
Pass
the Merlin 2 close to people’s faces and
they probably won’t shy away as they might if
you came at them with a camera covering your
own face. They understand that it’s a hand-held
object, that you have binocular vision, and you
won’t bump into them — the result can be some
wonderfully affecting pass-by shots.
Hand focus.
Merlin 2’s various shoulder-
modes let you “pull” focus by hand. Many
of today’s camcorder owners have never
experienced the fun of hand-focusing fast-
paced telephoto shooting! Use all your senses
to determine the next move of your subject.
Humans can still “pull focus” faster and more
accurately than most auto-focus devices.
Digital stabilization.
So-called ‘digital
stabilizers’ and optically stabilized lenses work
well to eliminate vibrations, but are useless
for the large-scale bumps that occur when
you attempt to walk, run or climb stairs. We
recommend turning them off unless you intend
to make telephoto moving shots, which can be
very pleasing, and surprisingly easy to obtain if
you make clever use of your camera’s auto-focus
circuitry. Even without internal stabilization, the
stiffness and rigidity of the Merlin 2 encourages
shooting at surprisingly long focal lengths.