I have been looking for a reasonably priced stabilization system for a while now but with exchange rate and import duties the Merlin is a little too pricey for my liking.

Has anyone out there had any experience with the Manfrotto Fig Rig and if so I would like a show of hands as to Yay or Nay! I use a XHA1S by the way....

Thanks

Graeme

I have a Fig Rig, REALLY like it, but am able to live within it's parameters. Your camera will be very heavy to hand hold on the fig, but at least it gives you two hands instead of one like the Merlin.

And make no mistake, it is a stabilizer, NOT a steadicam.

For instance I recently used it to shoot a play in three takes. Using the Fig Rig I could get angles and framing that would have taken forever to set up with a tripod.

But what it was doing here was completely different from a steadicam, like a Merlin.

I have both. They are completely different beasts.

I have no personal experience with it - but I have a friend in Burundi Africa who is using it with his Sony EX1 and likes it. He said it isn't perfect, and certainly isn't a Steadicam - but for the environment he is in it works great.