Hi,
as a wildlifecinemaphotographer I often feel terrible about some of my footage which is jittering due to use of extreme long focal lenght. Even with a super steady tripod jittering is very common.
I have tried to improve my own technique at location but sometimes it's just not possible to get that jitteringfree footage you want. Especially when things start to happend around you and you too busy to just manage to get the action in your viewfinder.
Luckily I found a plug-in for my NLE, which I'm very satisfied with. As I have been reading several posts where people struggle with the same problem, I therefore post this tips which maybe help some of you out.

The tools I've used is called Mercalli and is a very easy to use plug-in for the most common pc editing suites, for more information visit their homepage:
http://www.prodad.de/

I have provided two samples for you to download where you can view what magic this small plug-in does to jittering footage. Even if it's not so noticable in the small video shown here, viewing it on a huge HD-TV or screen make a lots of difference!


Note! Please download to your computer before viewing!
Sample 1: A Brown Bear in the moor during a foggy night - http://www.video-film.no/snutter/stabilize-1.mov (32MB)
Sample 2: A meeting between Brown Bear and Wolf - http://www.video-film.no/snutter/stabilize-2.mov (44MB) Note: this is rarely seen by anyone as this is taken in the wild deep into the forest of Eastern-Finland from a hide/blind.

Sample 1 is shoot with Canon XLH1 + 70-200mm f/2.8 ef-lens at 200mm, focal lenght equivalent of 1440mm
Sample 2 is shoot with Canon XLH1 + 300mm f/4.0, focal length equivalent of 2160mm

Hey Per

Very interesting indeed. I still look at a lot of my Common/Grey seal footage and wince at the amount of shots that fell foul to the jitters. This could be well worth while to save some of them and completely iron out some of the lesser but still noticeable issues. Kevin R showed me something like this built into to Final Cut studio a while back. It also showed similar improvements in some footage.

Out of interest Per what head do you use with your 300mm? I'm looking for a new one at the moment as well as some long lens support although the Ronsrail just seems too expensive for me at the moment. I use a 100-300 Sigma F4 and at the moment its un-supported ! I do worry about the weight and I know it makes the rig as a whole more susceptible to wind shake.

Hi Mat,

I have a H1 which I use with a 70-200mm Canon L lens. Although it is within the weight limits for the mount I did find it unbalanced on the tripod (Miller 10 with solo legs) To over come this I had made up an alluminium plate to support the lens and body £25 including powder coating. I got the idea from the XL2 forum. I am not at home at the moment and therefore don't have with me the specs but maybe a search of that forum will get them for you. I works OK and is much more balanced, although I still have to be careful when useing it to avoid shake.
Hope this is of help and is much cheaper than a Ronsrail.

Regards

Mick

Per Johan

Would you guess whether or not Mercalli might offer any cure for the jitters caused by handheld video of bird flight? Is there any chance you could dig up a bit of bird flight to test it with ... if I remember correctly there was little bird flight in your ravens video and none at or above eye-level ... then again with your heavy gear handholding is difficult if not impossible. I suspect I'm wasting your time ... but I did enjoy your clips from faraway forests. Who skinned the deer?

I think I posted a photo similar to this a long time ago, but posting it again might help those who didn't see it the first time. I just did some measuring and made a drawing of a plate that would tie the camera and lens together as one unit, and had a local machine shop make it. I have been using this plate since 2000 when I purchased my first XL1. I just designed a plate for a friend that just purchased an XL H1 and a Cannon 100-400mm lens. The cost to have it machined was 100USD including the material. I use mine with three different lenses, but I have to use different spacers because of the height differences between the lens tripod mounts and the H1 mounting surface. It works for what I use it for, no complaints.

Also, I hope this post doesn't take away from Per Johan's excellent post, which I'm also interested in.

Hey Per

Very interesting indeed. I still look at a lot of my Common/Grey seal footage and wince at the amount of shots that fell foul to the jitters. This could be well worth while to save some of them and completely iron out some of the lesser but still noticeable issues. Kevin R showed me something like this built into to Final Cut studio a while back. It also showed similar improvements in some footage.
Mat, I think you could rescue some of your seal footage with this one. I have seen the Motion in use for FCP and this is a stunning tool to get rid of jittering footage, unfortunately FCP/Motion only run on Macs. In the PC world, there has been a few stabilizators but I think this one is one of the best I've seen so far and it's very easy in use.


Out of interest Per what head do you use with your 300mm? I'm looking for a new one at the moment as well as some long lens support although the Ronsrail just seems too expensive for me at the moment. I use a 100-300 Sigma F4 and at the moment its un-supported ! I do worry about the weight and I know it makes the rig as a whole more susceptible to wind shake.
With heavy lenses 300mm and beyond I use Ronsrail for support. I think I have mention for you that I'm using the heavy Miller Arrow HD tripod system. The head has 100mm bowl and very sturdy in most situations but with huge focal length I don't think any tripod could support without any jittering.

Per Johan

Would you guess whether or not Mercalli might offer any cure for the jitters caused by handheld video of bird flight? Is there any chance you could dig up a bit of bird flight to test it with ... if I remember correctly there was little bird flight in your ravens video and none at or above eye-level ... then again with your heavy gear handholding is difficult if not impossible. I suspect I'm wasting your time ... but I did enjoy your clips from faraway forests. Who skinned the deer?
Brandon, I will dig up some jittering footage tomorrow and try out, stay tuned!

Also, I hope this post doesn't take away from Per Johan's excellent post, which I'm also interested in.
Don, not at all, your pic was very interesting to look at, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the new stabilizer, Per. The price is reasonable,too at less than $100 US. I use two stabilizers, the Steady Move, which comes bundled in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, and an oldie-but-goodie from DigiStudio. Both work well some of the time. They would be effective with your bear shots. When shooting flying birds, or a scene with surf they are worthless, as they try to stabilize the desired motion in the scene, as well as the shake. The result is that the frames whip to and fro wildly with edges sometimes coming half way across. Not a perfect technology yet.

Wow, I wish I had you guys money and resources.

Dave Rice
Sitka Alaska

HI Guys
Here are two more 1280/720 wmv files to look at done with Mercalli from a EDIUS HDV timeline.

Before
http://hdvunderwater.com/prodad/shaky2a.wmv

After
http://hdvunderwater.com/prodad/shaky2.wmv

Dave,
The DigiStudio stabilizer I mentioned is shareware. To actually buy it is $50.00.

Steve,

It's the ability to purchase quality camcorders, lens, and other items that creates my envy. I live in a very rich video environment. Whales, Sea Lions, Otter, Deer, Mink, Marten, Brown Bears, and millions of birds. All within a few miles of my home. I'm retired, disabled, and on a very limited income. I use a Canon HV20. No extra lens. So the only way I can get a decent shot, is sneak-up on them. I'm Just envious of what others can do with their equipment.

Dave Rice
Sitka, Alaska

Thanks Per and Paul,

In five weeks we are off to Bandhavgarh India for a spot of tiger watching. We are based for 2 weeks in the reserve and have sole use of a guide and vehicle. We have been informed that sometimes it would be difficult to get the shots we want useing a tripod because of the limited space in the vehicle to set up quickly. Also some of the time we will be on elephants.

Having watched your clips I now know I have a way to stabilize some of the clips that I may have other wise thought unusable. I use Canopus Edius and therefore this plug in would work straight of the timeline.

Again many thanks

Mick

Mercalli

Per Johan,

Thanks for the interesting post. You've been shooting in Kuhmo!

The Mercalli software seems to work rather well. It's obvious that BBC and other companies use such kind of software to stabilize their aerial footages etc.

The key issue is to have the mass center precisely over the center of the fluid head. The remainin problem is the rather large moment of inertia (mass far away from the axis). This means, once the lens is in motion, it won't stop until the kinetic energy is transformed to heat, and this is what causes the oscillation. To circumvent the problem, put as little mass on the camera as possible. Say, don't plug the battery or the mic to the camera body, but instead use external cords. Unplug the EVF, if possible and so on. Needless to say, this is a reason why good fluid heads tend to be expensive.

Shot 1 of the bear illustrates the downside of stabilisation software - even at this small size and reduced data rate, the loss of resolution is visible. As the stabilised bear is the same size as the original, I assume that Mercalli was set to give a constant size border and then both clips were cropped to match?

I have used the 2d3 SteadyMove Pro for this for some years now, and used the Dynapel SteadyHand, Digi-Studio and the Huber stabilisers before that. They all have their strong points with different kinds of material. I now use Mercalli for some material, but still prefer SteadyMove Pro for other material.

The problem with all the older stabilisers is that development has ceased, Mercalli is new and shows a great deal of promise. I hope that ProDad continue to develop it!

All of this software is designed to scan blocks of pixels to reduce the number crunching, and this reduces resolution. The image also has to be "zoomed" to avoid unpleasant borders. The best results are obtained using dedicated hardware stabilisers, and I believe that this is the approach used by professional broadcasters such as the BBC.

Even then it comes a poor second to a good tripod and head combination.

Allan,

"I now use Mercalli for some material, but still prefer SteadyMove Pro for other material."

If you have time, would you point out what you use the other software for as well.

The more information the better!!!

The best results are obtained using dedicated hardware stabilisers, and I believe that this is the approach used by professional broadcasters such as the BBC.

Sure. Still, there exists no, and even can't exist hardware stabilizer which yielded as steady shots as those in say in Planet Earth series. But, my guess is that they shoot in a format which yields plenty of space for cropping. Say, (nowadays) footages taken with Red One's 4K format leave a lot of space for cropping to HD 1080p. That can be fully exploited to stabilize images.

Thanks Per Johan

I'm looking for the same soft for Mac OS X, Shake is really too expensive, but this one well priced but only for Window PC.

Gilles

Per Johan,

Thanks for the interesting post. You've been shooting in Kuhmo!


Yes, was visiting Lassi Rautiainen in July. That area is just like a honey pot, for both, the wildlifephotographer and of course the bears! Spent 7 nights in different hides/blinds in the area.


Shot 1 of the bear illustrates the downside of stabilisation software - even at this small size and reduced data rate, the loss of resolution is visible. As the stabilised bear is the same size as the original, I assume that Mercalli was set to give a constant size border and then both clips were cropped to match?
Alan, I'm aware that using tools for stabilization footage slightly degrade the quality. I'm working with HDV footage which is 8 bit, 4.2.0 and that is also a degrade from the original footage if you compare what you got out from the HD/SDI slot, 10 bit, 4.2.2. I work with the Canon XLH1.
The sample i provided here was and will not be any finally product. It was just to show a sample how the Mercalli stabilize side by side a raw footage.

My end products is delivered on DVD in SD formats which mean that I can work on a HDV (1440x1080) timeline, stabilize and then downconvert to a PAL (720x576) timeline, as you see I can crop much of the original footage, which mean hide the border artifacts you got when you stabilize in Mercalli with dynamic border.



The problem with all the older stabilisers is that development has ceased, Mercalli is new and shows a great deal of promise. I hope that ProDad continue to develop it!
I'm sure that ProDad will, and it's also important to report back to them any issues found.


Even then it comes a poor second to a good tripod and head combination.
Well, I think that my tripod system dosn't lack much in quality and steadyness. I'm using a huge Miller Arrow HD tripod system, but with focal lenght 2000mm and beoynd, I think most of us will struggle with jittering footage!

Yes, was visiting Lassi Rautiainen in July.


Per Johan, right, I recognized the background, so I knew where you had been. Next time you come to Finland, could you send me an email? It would be nice to meet. I could show you some good places to shoot. Perhaps then one day you could show me some bits of Norway.

Per Johan,

I really appreciated the comparison between the two clips. I have not acquired stabilization software yet and had been searching about for something useful. I believe this program is promising and will probably invest in it soon.
Thank you for the comparison!!!

all I need now is an h1 so I have more latitude in my work!!

Per Johan, I was not criticising your work, far from it. I was merely pointing out that there are limitations to what stabilisation software can achieve, before people get too carried away!

I am well aware of the possibilities offered by working with HD material and subsequently outputting as SD, but for those of us who are presently restricted to working with SD, the increased stability comes at a price. In my lengthy experience with this kind of software (I have tried seven different stabilisers) I have found that gains in stability are often more than cancelled out by the inevitable reduced resolution.

As I said, stabilisation software is not a substitute for a good tripod and legs, but when you work at extreme focal lengths, as Per Johan does, even the best tripods do not eliminate tremors entirely, and it can then provide a useful enhancement.

Mercalli is the first stabiliser that I have found that produces acceptable results of a bird such as a cormorant perched on a rock reef with a background of moving sea. Everything else produces a gently undulating reef as it tries desperately to stabilise that sea! On the other hand my best efforts so far with Mercalli have not been successful with a raptor in flight, such as a Red Kite, which tends to jink about the sky. Not that anything else has given me satisfactory results. Another clip where I found that I got better results with my SteadyMove Pro (which is more than twice the price of Mercalli in the UK now – I paid £50 when it first appeared!) is of a Red Backed Shrike perched on the top of a rather spindly bush, with a great deal of pale blue sky as a backdrop.

Note that the version of Steadymove which comes with Premiere is a cut down version. The full version SteadyMove Pro offers extra user control (but nowhere near as much as Mercalli), but costs around £200 now in the UK.

Mercalli offers a wide range of user controls if you buy the Expert version, and I am finding that the supplied presets often provide only a good starting point. One can easily while away an entire afternoon trying a succession of tweaks to the settings without achieving much improvement in the results.

Incidentally Mercalli was an Italian geologist who devised a qualitative scale for describing the strength of earthquakes, similar in concept to the Beaufort Scale for wind speed.

Per Johan,

On your recommendation, I purchased the Expert version of Mercalli and am delighted with the results. It has brought some previously unusable footage back from the "Gee, I really wish I could have used that" into ""that will work!" part of the hard drive.

As a group we tend to be a very critical lot. My girlfriend has said to me numerous times. "Quit being so picky! Your the only guy I know that if you shot some footage of Bigfoot running would say something like; "You know, the focus drifted a little during the shot and I probably should have stepped it up a stop or two...."Who cares, it's Bigfoot!"

That's part of the allure of shooting wildlife, if you miss it, it's gone forever. But if you do capture it........

Thanks again Per Johan! As a side note, your footage on your web site is stunning. Keep up the good work.

Dave

Well Per I have also taken the plunge and purchased, an Ideal plug in for edius.

I have tried it on a few small clips with small amounts of movement which have been smoothed out very well. Lets hope that on my upcoming trip to India I can achieve most of my shots from the tripod but just incase a tiger suddenly appears from the bush I can get a bit of hand held before putting on to the tripod and hopefully be able to stablilize in post?

By the way are you on commission from Prodad!!

Regards

Mick

I wish I could say something positive about Mercalli.

proDAD seems incapable of communicating in English or even American; or perhaps their original link was an exceptional bummer, anyway I just get keep getting an instruction to install every time I try to open the "installed" version of Mercalli Expert ... not glad I parted with my money ... I have my reg.code but there's no sign of a "Register" button ...

Bredan,

This fooled me to start with, what you need to do is when you enter all the registration details including your what they call your registration code you e-mail these details to prodad and they will e-mail you back an activation download. I do not have e-mail on my editing suit so I copied all the registration details which I then e-mailed to info@prodad.de It took a about 2hrs before I received the activation e-mail,

Hope this helps

Mick

Thanks for your support, Mick. I'm hoping you will translate the following for me ... like, where is the license key, or is the "key" the same as the "code" and if so why call it 2 different names ???


2. License key for unlocking the product

The product is licensed to "Brendan Marnell".

The license key for "Mercalli Expert" is listed below. You will need this
license key to complete the process and activate the product. The license
key and the text below originate from the software publisher and may be
written in another language.

Please use following registration code for the registration: ZBJR-9R8H-YWJQ
<br>
Enhanced information about registration are available in the program´s help
(access by pressing F1)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The following information is from the publisher and may be written in
another language:

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE REGISTRATION PROCESS:
SOME PRODUCTS INCLUDE A MENU "HELP" OR "?" WITH AN ITEM "REGISTER...".
THEN IT IS NECESSARY TO SEND THE APPLICATION FOR A TIME-UNLIMITED KEY TO
PRODAD. USING THE MENU
ITEM "REGISTER..." ASSURES TO SEND A CLEAR COMPLETE APPLICATION. THE KEY
WILL BEING SENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (NORMALLY IN 1-3 DAYS). THE ABOVE
DELIVERED REGISTRATION
CODE PLEASE ENTER INTO THE FIELD "REGISTRATION CODE". FURTHER
INFORMATIONS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE PRINTED MANUAL OR IN THE PROGRAM HELP
(ACCESIBLE BY USING THE F1-KEY).

I agree Brendon it is confusing. But it turns out that when you install, because the programe is a plug in the licence key is what is needed along with the letters and numbers you see at the top of the registration fields(these come up automaticaly when you open the registration box) as well as the rest of the registration fields to be sent by e-mail to prodad they will then send you an activation download which needs to downloaded on to the computer this then removes the cross across the the screen and gives you unlimited use. If your editing computer is connected to the internet you can send the e-mail directly from it following the prompts after filling in the registration details. You will not be able to fully activate the product until you have recived the activation download.

[QUOTE=Brendan Marnell;771725]
2. License key for unlocking the product

The product is licensed to "Brendan Marnell".

The license key for "Mercalli Expert" is listed below.
QUOTE]

Could someone confirm or deny that this extract from proDAD (full quote in previous post above) is a lie? I think it's worse than an abuse of language. I have never received a license key.

Your explanation Mick sounds circular to me, but thanks for trying. I have installed something which I cannot open. I have sent my username, password, full name, invoice number, credit card details. My credit card has been debited €119 for a week. I have received a reg.code which gives me the permission to do sweet nothing. I have received 11 emails mostly produced by answering machines, none of which helps and most of which show semi-literacy, which is difficult to reply to.

What do you mean Mick, when you say "because the programme is a plug-in"? What is the significance of that? Is that my problem? I have never consciously used a "plug-in" in 15 years.

To answer your firsr question it is not lie just badly written or translated.
A plug in means when it is installed on your computer it needs another programe to open it. In my case I open it from the Edius timeline.

Lets try again

Step 1 Download the prduct and install.

Step 2 Select a clip and put the mecalli on it It will then open the options box.

Step3 Click on registration and fill in the fields including your licence key.

Step 4 It will then ask you to e-mail these details to Prodad which you can do immeadialty if your computer is connected to the internet.

If your computer is not on the net then you need to e-mail them seperately as I have already described, but be sure to include the numbers and letters at the top of the registration box which are there when you open it.

Step 5 You willl then receive an e-mail (mine came within 2hrs) with an activation download which you open up on you editing computer this inturn opens Mercalli

Regards

Mick

To answer your firsr question it is not lie just badly written or translated.
A plug in means when it is installed on your computer it needs another programe to open it. In my case I open it from the Edius timeline.

Lets try again

Step 1 Download the prduct and install.

Step 2 Select a clip and put the mecalli on it It will then open the options box.

Step3 Click on registration and fill in the fields including your licence key.

Step 4 It will then ask you to e-mail these details to Prodad which you can do immeadialty if your computer is connected to the internet.

If your computer is not on the net then you need to e-mail them seperately as I have already described, but be sure to include the numbers and letters at the top of the registration box which are there when you open it.

Step 5 You willl then receive an e-mail (mine came within 2hrs) with an activation download which you open up on you editing computer this inturn opens Mercalli

Regards

Mick

Step 1. I have downloaded the product and when I try to install it I am sent through the same install procedure every time (over 15 times now). How can I uninstall it without being charged for it when I try to download it again?

Step 2. I have opened clips in PPro 1.5 and in Elements 4.0 but when I try to import or drop and drag the "installed" mercalli.exe file it won't "put the Mercalli on it". Instead a WinZip Self-Extractor - mercalli-10-register-expert.exe pops up asking me to install Mercalli Expert all over again ....

... So, I never get to Steps 3,or 4,5

I have made my Will, but don't go away yet

Hold it ... I have found Mercalli already tucked away at the end of the list of EFFECTS in my Premiere Pro 1.5 (& I presume Elements 4.0). When I clicked on it all was revealed ... long number copied & quoted with usual identity details now emailed to proDAD and I am now awaiting the arrival of an email with my license key ... with some optimism !!! Am I incurable, or wha'??

Thanks for your help Mick. If all goes to plan I should be de-trembling about 137 miles of bird-flight footage all the way to the incinerator ...

Brendon,

Pleased you got there in the end. Hope all goes well for you with your clips

Regards

Mick