If you guys can get 25PsF to work, that's the best news this year..

@driftwood godspeed, amigo! I've used Quantme on two shoots now with terrific results (I'll try to get something up soon). Keep up the great work.

@bkmcwd I'm very impressed with your DIY steadicam - that looks to be the result of a large amount of work. The gimbal is likely far more sturdy than that of the Merlin, too. I'm curious about it's weight, however.

As for general steadicam opinions - I highly recommend the Merlin and a lot of practice. I've used many steadicam varietals and the price/size/performance of the Merlin wins most often. People are often surprised when they find out I'm not shooting on a larger rig, and frankly the size of the Archer/Pilot/Zephyr or comparable models just cannot get the low or high shots I can on the move. Now, shooting an hour long + show without the vest is always a trial, but hey - practice, rinse, and repeat. Even diy or tiny budget steadicams can make for solid shots in the right hands.

@driftwood I agree with @f1lm3r
I think you should also detail the known strengths and weaknesses of each patch and also what exactly you were going for with the patch (it's uses basically). I think it would be really useful if you did that because not everyone known whats going on with all of these different parameters you're changing and why you're changing them exactly. If you could just detail a little bit more, it'd be greatly appreciate it :D

Also, GREAT job so far!

@DancingCamera
Thanks! :-)

"I'm curious about it's weight"

This set is 2.8 kg including GH2 and 14-140mm lens.
Although I also have a 1.7-kg DIY set including the camera and the lens, for me, the equipment of a weight of about 3 kg is stabilized and I am easy-to-use.

"I highly recommend the Merlin and a lot of practice."
"practice, rinse, and repeat"

You know exactly!
My DIY steadicam has required only 10,000-15,000yen if it is the cost of materials, but I have spent time fairly.
Since it is a hobby to make steadicam, I am enjoying myself, but I also recommend Merlin to those who want to use practically from the beginning.
If there is a person aiming at making steadicam itself, I will be able to do some advice, but it is thread another again...

@driftwood, this is very good news, I am excited for more... just in time for the new cage to start getting made :)

@Stray
I improved the patch again for lowlight. :-)
It seems that the frame size at the time of lowlight becomes larger about twenty more percent than a former setting.
Although the test of zooming and moving was done repeatedly, a write error did not come out, either.
I have not tried on outdoor yet, but I expect that frame size will become large on the whole situation than a former setting.
Although I stick for a sense what changed the former set into AQ3, I consider that the grade from which frame size falls in the set of Q=10 is the better.

NOTE:
It is appropriation from Chris's former 44M except 24p.
All screen shots are from kmcwd154M3GOPQ=10.zip.

EDIT:
My friend gave the name of "NINJA" to these patches.

UPDATE:
The 3rd patch is rong! :P
The 4th patch is improved one from Q=10,NINJA setting.

@bkmcwd I would be interested to see the results of this one outdoors, especially with high detail. You're getting very good I-Frame sizes from a GOP3 at lowlight with the earlier patch I think. I'm currently trying to get a higher bitrate out of 1080i and 720p at GOP12 or I'd give it a go myself now.

On 25p I don't reckon we'll get 25p out of changing any of the settings we currently have in ptool.

Excuse my ignorance but why are so many excited about 25p when we already have 24p? I know it's a PAL thing but other than being a different standard I don't see anything special about it?

@starstuff
PAL is still very widespread. Might even be more people living in PAL countries than NTSC. And apart from theatrical releases we still have to deliver everything at 25fps. 50i would be an option but that just looks ugly and video-ish. So with the GH2 we have to either edit in 24p and then speedup and pitch-correct the final movie to 25fps or speedup and pitch-correct all the footage prior to editing (That's what I do). And working with dual system audio makes the whole workflow even more complicated.
So the hacked GH2 at 24p is great but a bit complicated for us and 25p would make our life with the GH2 quite a bit easier in PAL-Land.
I know this has been discussed in other threads. I'd just like to point out once again that 25p would be very cool and make a lot of people happy.

@Raysito22 The last update, video interview thing, I saw on the subject from panasonic pretty much said there were no plans to include 25p in a firmware update. There is somewhere on this site a link to the interview, it was a Q&A session. There is an update coming from Panasonic, but its just to support the new X lenses I believe. But yeah, I did read Mr Uetmasu say that, but he did use the word 'may'.

@proaudio4
Sorry! My explanation was unclear. ;-)
My latest (20% low light improvement) file is bkmcwd154M3GOPQ=10.zip.

"is the rogue "p" frame at the start causing any issues?"
I do not understand well.
Do you know how to remove this p frame?
I may be having missed.
Or it may be being unable to remove.

What is the most stable SD card for these settings?