Merlin Steadicam Stabilizer

So were SERIOUSLY THIS TIME (again) looking into buying a stabilizer system. It's been a struggle to find a stabilizer that doesn't cost a gazillion dollars but is still robust enough to handle our 5.5 lb Canon XHA1 with an extra 1.5 lbs of light, mic and battery. We've been leaning for awhile towards the Merlin. There's a lot of talk that it can't handle the Canon without support, but I think we'll give B&H a call this week and see if it might just need a little practice in order to work correctly. We've been checking some Merlin/Canon XHA1 test videos (like the one below) and it is giving us some encouragement that the Merlin just might work.

2 days with the Steadicam Merlin from Peter Szilveszter // Living Lens on Vimeo.