Review: proDAD Mercalli V4 Stabilizr Plug-in

Advanced Features

In the bottom of the Mercalli dialog are several Advanced Features (Figure 9, below). The footage used for this review (excepting the Polaroid Cube footage) didn't require any advanced settings, but it’s nice to have them when needed.

Figure 9. Advanced Settings

The Zoom feature is very useful when the stabilized footage incurs significant zoom due to movement and a crop is needed to keep borders even. For legal or documented work, the entire screen may need to be seen border to border, and here, the Forensic setting holds value.

Perspectives may be shifted, angles changed, borders thinned or color matched/filled, and much more.

CMOS Fixr

Accompanying the Mercalli V4 plug-in application is a secondary application named CMOS Fixr (Figure 10, below). This application wouldn’t be commonly used except in instances of very bad jello/CMOS artifacting. It is processor intensive aka a big time-suck but when you need it, it’s exceptionally impressive and just may save that one clip you really need.

Figure 10. CMOS Fixr. Click the image to see it at full size.

As with the stabilization application, features may be tweaked to perfection while watching a split-screen preview of the effect parameters. Using the Estimate feature will allow the system to make a “best guess” at how much correction is needed.

Generally, the CMOS Fixr would precede the Mercalli V4 in an effect chain (different host applications may treat this differently). If you’re applying the CMOS Fixr to a clip, be sure to disable the Rolling Shutter Compensation function in Mercalli V4.

Like all spatial-process applications, you’ll want the fastest CPU setup available, along with plenty of RAM (host-dependent). Mercalli V4 does take advantage of GPU acceleration when it is available.

Documentation

There is a lot to like about the Mercalli V4 stabilizing and CMOS fix application, including its price of $299 USD; so much so, that it’s difficult to find anything to criticize about the application and processing. Yet nothing is perfect, and the one place where Mercalli V4 suffers is in the same vein as all the previous proDAD applications I’ve reviewed over the years: the documentation could really use an edit from someone whose first language is English. The mixed spellings of the same words and the clumsy use of terms for various buttons is mildly annoying, if not frustrating. However, this is a small thing and after an hour or two of use, the nomenclature becomes second nature and ceases to be an issue.

Before and after videos of test footage

Drone Original Before Mercalli

Drone Original After Mercalli

Mercalli Wingsuit 1 Sport Camera

Mercalli Wingsuit 1 Universal Camera

Mercalli 4K Split