According to Norman, the Vegas stabilizer is apparently ProDad Mercalli V2 underneath, but with less control. That thread probably serves as a pretty good initial tutorial. I used it recently and I was happy with leaving it at default settings for one slightly shaky clip. I was cropping in from 4k to HD so I didn't care about any issues at the borders.

Mercalli is now up to V4. There is a standalone version and a Vegas plugin. There is an introductory offer for the Vegas plugin (or upgrade to the Vegas plugin) that finishes tomorrow. There is some debate over whether the SAL (standalone version) gives better results than the plugin. If you buy the SAL version, it's cheaper at Altarvic's Vegasaur site.

Some people also use the Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub but it's a more complicated round-trip, even with previous efforts to automate the process from Vegas. I have had success with it.

I have literally just shot some shaky footage with a view to testing the 4 alternative methods before the offer closes. I'll come back with my results.

the internal stabilizer in vegas didn't make a very good results in my eyes, so, i used till a while ago deshaker, using a batch script to process all files in a folder.

but now i got the mercalli v4 for vegas, and i found it quite impressive. i prefer the plugin, as i can use in any format video, and processing only the part i want after i made the editing cuts. i found the SAL a but clumsy and horrible interface.

also, mercalli 4 has 2 plugins, stabilizer and cmos fixr. the first do the stabilization with rolling shutter correction, its good enough, and the second is very good to fix very problematic videos, like high rate of "jello", and "wobble". this morning i was testing with a video that i accidentally kicked the tripod, and i got that "rubber jello" motion. cmos fixr fixed that.

the best ting to do is test, mercalli have watermarked trial versions, so get it and test with your videos.

OBS: cmos fixr appears to use GPU, so if you have a basic graphics card like me, it can process very slowly. but i dont care, as i value results, not speed ;)

Driving myself crazy with testing here. Really hard to draw conclusions. One problem I keep getting with the trial Mercalli plugin is that it seems to not hold its settings and keeps telling me I need to analyze again. If that happens in the non-trial version it will be super-annoying as I wouldn't trust it to render what I originally told it to.

Well, I've been testing for hours and I've not seen enough to convince me that it's worth me buying any of the ProDad stuff for my type of footage, which is not generally high-action footage. For minor stabilizing I'll use the Vegas stabilizer, probably at default settings usually, and for more serious stuff I'll continue to use Deshaker with extreme settings and render out MagicYUV intermediates.

I agree that the Mercalli SAL interface is horrible, but I also think the Mercalli Vegas plugin interface is pretty bad too. Not intuitive at all IMO.

As I see it the biggest problem with the Vegas Stabilizer plugin is the amount of cropping it does, with no options to compensate for it.

Dont know what you are expecting of a stabilizer sir Hope, or what you expect to magically happen... But there is absolutely nothing currently available that can
stabilize a footage while maintaining a decent image quality better than Mercalli 4.
Plus Mercalli 4 plugin for Vegas is no different.

Cropping is a must feature of any stabilization process and Mercalli 4 handles it best, so i cannot understand what you are implying or expecting to happen, As
mercalli 4 has options to compensate for that....Testing for hours you say?

Anyway, Mercalli plugin is a valuable tool to have in ones editing arsenal, especially
if one is an editor etc who uses materials/footages from their varied clients.

Nick, have you tried a tip from NormanPCN? Quote:
> "...I set Stabilization amount to the smallest amount it allowed, 0.01. Voila, I got good stabilization and a very tiny crop as I would have expected.So if you don't want tilt and zoom adjustments and only the major shift adjustments, then do not set Stabilization amount to 0 to turn it off, but use 0.01"

"[I]... sir Hope...[/I]"

Is knighthood influenced by recommendations from commoners? If so, I'll begin my write-up to get Nick a title right now.

I adopted the title [I]GITSWAPAS[/I] some time ago.

Grandpa in the stands with a Point-and-Shoot

Since my thread has been referenced, for the record, what I was stabilizing is very shaky and not something handheld. A GoPro attached to a mountain bike is my mode.

That is why I do not want tilt smoothed out. When the cam tilts left/right it is because the bike is leaning and that should not be smoothed out. There is no zoom, so.any zoom the stabilizer thinks is there is false and should not be smoothed.

In fact if Merc would let me choose to stabilize only the linear Y axis movement I would prefer that. Alas, X/Y go together, even in Merc 4. X axis smoothing takes out some handlebar movements.

Does a panning pre-set help? That should be designed to permit more X movement than Y.

Yes, hours Steve. This type of comparative testing takes a long time.

I wasn't expecting miracles, but after all the praise that Mercalli V4 got recently, I thought I should check it out while the introductory offer is on. I did get good stabilization results with Mercalli SAL and the Mercalli plugins but in my results with MY FOOTAGE they were not significantly better than what I can get with Deshaker 3.1 or (notwithstanding the crop) the Vegas Stabilizer. They all do a good job. Plus I think the Mercalli products' usability/interface could be improved. So I decided not to buy them. That's all. I'm sure they do a great job for those who choose to use them.

I did discover that I was unable to get the Mercalli SAL and plugin to give the same result, despite like-for-like settings. The somehow treat the same clip differently in terms of the borders.

I should just add that Deshaker has moved on a bit since the old versions that were automated with Vegas scripts. For example it now accounts for rolling shutter and has 5 different options for edge compensation. If one is willing to make the round-trip and bring back an intermediate then it's a great option. I would say my results using it were on a par with Mercalli.

Thanks John :) and thanks Altarvic for drawing my attention to Norman's tip, so to speak.

I, too, use smaller settings in the Sony Stabilizer and get results that are better than NOT using it.
With Sony preset LIGHT being .25, I made a preset at .9 and sometimes go lower than that on both.

"[I]With Sony preset LIGHT being .25, I made a preset at .9 and sometimes go lower than that on both.[/I]"

Do you mean 0.09?

@Nick Hope

Sent you a PM regarding the use of completely automated scripts with Deshaker 3.1 which is working very well. Perhaps, you didn't receive. If interested, please PM me.

wwaag

ah yeah .09 sorry :)

The previous version of stabiliser as used in Vegas 10 was perfect because it processed only the selected portion of a clip. The current version takes the whole clip, which means that even if you trim off any shaky camera shots, the stabilisation process still looks at the whole clip, and ends up zooming and cropping at unnecessarily large amounts.

You can use subclips (virtual clips) to stabilize a small part of a media file

Going on 10 years using Vegas and I've never delved into using sub-clips.
Ok so I just tried it and not only is the processing time way faster, but the result is perfect!!

Hey thanks for the tip man :)

That's not true PeteM, Mercalli 4 does not function as how you described how
it handles footage in Vegas!

anyone know if MERC 4 Vegas plugin works on GH4 4K footage that usually crashes the vegas stabilizer?

Well Steve, according to the stabilisation tests I did on a bunch of clips this morning, I found that the method that altarvic described proves that this is exactly how it works. The original clip ended up having much more zoom & crop compared to it's sub-clip counterpart. I have the results right here on my time line and that's all the proof I need.

wwjd, my GH4 4K footage crashes neither the Vegas stabilizer nor the Mercalli plugin.

Thanks for the subclip tip Altarvic

wwaag, if you're reading, I did reply to your PM but maybe it didn't get through. I would love to get a copy of your script and the Deshaker.vds file. nickATbubblevisionDOTcom. Thanks

I think the Mercalli SAL 4 is nothing short of a miracle. Can't imagine life without it. I do a lot of aerial video, and helicopters are always at the hands of nature. Take a look at the side by side before and after of this particularly shaky video. On this shoot in Hawaii, I was on a tourist helicopter, which was traveling at a high rate of speed. I was just "a passenger" and wasn't able to tell the pilot to slow down (not usually the way I operate!). Check this out. No, I do not work for ProDad and no, I do not receive any remuneration from them.
https://vimeo.com/114308851