Image Stabilization in CS5 (no Mercalli Support)

[ruzun]

I have preordered CS5, and currently make use of the mercalli FX plugin to stabilize shaky video clips.  It doesn't appear that mercalli will be compatible with CS5 for a while, is there some other plug in I can use to provide high quality image stabilization?

Has anyone used motion stabilization in After effects and compared it to what Mercalli does?

For now I guess I will stabilize clips in Premiere Elements, export them, then use the pre-stabilized clips in CS5 but that will get cumbersome fast.

Are there any really high quality motion stabilization plug ins that will be compatible with CS5?  Has anyone here compared Mercalli to other solutions, and found one that's better?

-Roger Uzun

[Guest]

Hey all, we're happy to read these great threads. The official release is upcoming, as you know, and we're excited about it. The new version includes rolling-shutter correction to compensate for footage shot with CMOS-based camcorders, and uses 3D technology to track movement more carefully to get better results and to reduce the zooming that is inherent with video stabilization. We have sample footage up to show what the new technology can do, and you can try a demo version yourself. Let us know what you think! We're looking for all feedback to make this the best product it can be. We're very excited to have full CS5 support--Windows first and Mac in a little while.

[shooternz]

I would like to see a comparison.

Same footage stabilised with Mercalli, Mocha and After Effects.

[Cowboy22]

I did finally go ahead and purchase the Mercalli V2 Pro. The plugin for Premiere Pro CS5 works fantastic. I had tried NewBlue and also Boris. Mercalli beats them both by far. I don't nokw how they do it but Mercalli is able to stabilize without having to zoom in or create the strange borders you see on the other products. I shot some HD and rocked the camera right to left and it did a wonderful job of correcting.

The Stand Alone Version still needs some work. My mpg files from the Sony camera stabilize in the SAL version but I cannot output avi. Only WMA.

They are working on this issue.

If you do nature and wildlife or any situations where you have to hand hold this is the solution for you.

[the_wine_snob]

Glad to hear about Mercalli in CS5.

Thanks for reporting,

Hunt

[Alan_Craven]

I am a long time user of Mercalli 1 with Cs4, and as I noted in an earlier post in this thread, it gave better results than any of the other available stabilisers - note I do not have After Effects.

I acquired Mercalli 2 a couple of weeks ago, and tried out the 32 bit version and the SAL version, still using CS4.  After a fair bit of trying out the two new versions on problem clips from my archive, I came to the conclusion that the new version was easier to use as you no longer have to select a preset.  Even though there were many presets available in version 1, each with a detailed description of the type of problem it could address, I often found that better results were obtained using a different preset to the one indicated.  With SD material, in most cases, there was no obvious improvement in the output using Mercalli 2. With HDV, there is a small improvement on most clips, but sometimes you have to try your hand with the various sliders to tweak the settings to get the best result.

Against my better judgement, I have just shelled out for CS5, so I have tried the 64 bit version of Mercalli 2, and I am convinced that this does give superior results to Mercalli 1 in virtually every case, particularly with HDV rather than PAL material.

All my material is wildlife, principally birds.  Mercalli 2 has still not reached the holy grail of stabilisation - A cormorant perched on a large rock on the shore with a choppy sea behind occupying nearly half the height of the frame.  I have never yet achieved a static rock with motion confined to the sea.  You need to be able to select just which part of the frame is to be stabilised, using something like the magic wand tool in Photoshop.  The only stabiliser which could achieve that was the short-lived stabiliser in the ancient Pinnacle Pro 1, but only in the preview, the rendered file was never as good!

Mercalli may seem expensive - but nothing like the price that the old 2d3 SteadyMove became - but if you are addicted to long lenses, and use them in situations where a tripod is not viable, there is nothing else to beat it at the price, 

[Cowboy22]

Alan, good feedback. As guess we agree Mercalli is the

software of choice.

[usa1]

Hi,

I have just tested vReveal and then upgraded the Mercalli V1 to V2. Is the better choice.

[Ann Bens]

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}

usa@bottazzoli.com wrote:

Hi,

I have just tested vReveal and then upgraded the Mercalli V1 to V2. Is the better choice.

Mercalli does a far better job in stabilisation but gives a much less sharper picture then vReveal does.

I went for vReveal, also it uses Cuda.

[idar_lettrem]

.. and the very best one - w.o noticable picture degradation - is imho MOCHA.  But then again it's AE

[Ann Bens]

Yes Mocha is very good. vReveal is foolproof and it costs jus 35 dollars. Support is terrible.

[Cowboy22]

Both this Mocha a vReveal have kept a low profile. I searched for stabilization software for some time. Evaluated several that I could find and went with Mercalli which I am very satisfied with.

I have never heard of nor did I find either of the two above. The don't show up in search engins very well.

[Alan_Craven]

Ann Bens wrote:

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}

usa@bottazzoli.com wrote:

Hi,

I have just tested vReveal and then upgraded the Mercalli V1 to V2. Is the better choice.

Mercalli does a far better job in stabilisation but gives a much less sharper picture then vReveal does.

I went for vReveal, also it uses Cuda.

With image stabilisation, inevitably you  trade off resolution for stability.

[NoahGreuter]

The mercalli demo version is available:

64bit Plugins (CS5):

http://www.prodad.de/setup/Download-(1)(support+mercalli)-mercalli-20-demoplugins64bit.exe

32bit Plugins (CS2 - CS4):

http://www.prodad.de/setup/Download-(1)(support+mercalli)-mercalli-20-demoplugins32bit.exe

More downloads:

http://www.prodad.com/home/trial,l-us.xhtml

[idar_lettrem]

upgrade prices beeing close to a robbery though