I use both, and see with the latest update no difference in result with the events I need stabilization and because since the last update the Vegas stabilizer can be used on an event in stead of made subclips, I use this one the most while it takes for me a little bit shorter time as Mercalli 4.

Thanks have both, but would be nice not to have to go out of the program. Must play with it more as so far I am getting better results with Mercalli.

I found the internal VP17 stabilizer superior assumed I did a proper CMOS fixing before. Though without CMOS fixing the internal stabilizer isn't useful for most of my handheld (or gimbal) shots.

I prefer Mercalli for smoothening motion and Vegas for freezing motion.

Marco, how do you fix CMOS rolling shutter pre-stabilization?

When I just bought the VP17 I tried the new stabilizer: opened VP, added "Stabilizer" to fragment, pressed Analyze and... pressed Cancel in 30 seconds as I realized that it is extremely slow and analyzing will takes ages.

When I saw this discussion, I wanted to give my feedback straight away. However, as some people were impressed, I decided to try VP17 stabilizer again.

And it turned out that last time I tried "Vegas 360º Stabilizer" instead... Silly me. Will try to use new VP17 Stabilizer in my further projects.

Marco, how do you fix CMOS rolling shutter pre-stabilization?

With Mercalli.

@fifonik

I use stabilization in all my projects, even with already stabilized footage from Hero7 and Osmo Pocket. It makes handheld shooted footage solid as a rock or smooth as shooted from a tripod.

I'm also stabilizing almost all my handheld footage (with Mercalli v4). However, I'm not trying to make it rock solid as in this case all the perspective changes are extremely visible on big screen and looks awful, imho.

"Marco, how do you fix CMOS rolling shutter pre-stabilization?"

With the ProDAD cmosFIXR.

I'm also stabilizing almost all my handheld footage (with Mercalli v4). However, I'm not trying to make it rock solid as in this case all the perspective changes are extremely visible on big screen and looks awful, imho.

Ofcourse I do not make every shot rock solid, only those shots that I already intended to be rock solid, shots with no pans or tilts, with just a bit shakiness of my handheld camera. This goes perfect with Vpro17 Stabilizer with "Freeze Motion" setting. For removing shakiness and smoothing shots with pans and tilts, I prefer to use Prodad Mercalli 4 plugin. CMOS rolling shutter problems from my FZ300 (2160p25)  I correct first with Prodad CMOS fixer, like Marco, but only in extreme cases.

Thanks Marco!

I get a lot of footage shot by clients so sometimes I'm stuck with shaky footage that is difficult to fix... Footage that has a lot of pans or tilts can be tricky... Lately I've been running the entire footage through stand-alone Mercalli AND Vegas using presets that work well 95% of the time... Then I drop both onto my timeline as separate tracks below the orginal's track. When I get to the rough spots, I just pick the best one which saves me a lot of time... If it's really bad, I might stabilize just that portion using custom settings... I'm paid by the project, so if my clients want me to so spend a lot of time fixing THEIR mistakes, I'll redo those portions based on an hourly labor rate... However, 95% of the time they are very happy that I made the final video much better than the original...

I tried to use VP17 Stabilizer in project that I finished yesterday. It definitely works better than Legacy Stabilizer.

So my comparison vs Mercalli v4 based on my work flow (usually I am trying to remove as much rotation as possible, smoothen zoom but keep some pannings):

+ It is possible to specify analized area

+ It is slightly faster on preview. In my project with Mercalli added, preview frame rate was around 56 fps, while VP17 Stabilizer applied, preview frame rate was 60 fps (project framerate). All Best Full and no changes other than the stab applied to fragment.

+ Based on manual, it is possible to specify reference frame in freeze motion mode (have not tried it)

- Analyze is 1.5 times slower on my system. As I'm stabilizing most of my events this would make big impact on the process

- No separate control on rotation. So I could not rid off rotation as I'd like.

- In 1/3 of all my attempts I got quite big movements at very beginning of fragment (where there were no such movements in original footage). I do not know why (tried different settings). This makes the VP17 stab completely useless on these fragments.

=> Will continue to use Mercalli v4.

Going to try VP17 stabilizer when I will need to exclude something from analysis or when I will need "freeze motion"/"rock steady" stabilization.

Since a while I primarily use the for my footage very good working  VEGAS Video Stabilization and extended my AddMercalli Automation to also use this FX. The main reason to avoid Mercalli V4 are the still existing Mercalli Glitches, that require to set the maximum number of render threads to exactly '1' to void them. See other threads about this problem.

@fifonik ... IMO, both stabs are good, but I do prefer the 2nd Mercalli stab as being the better one.

@Peter_P ... do you have a link to the other threads about Mercalli glitches. I've been using Mercalli SAL for years - especially 4 - and have not encountered anything that would amount to "glitches'. Of course, any stab program has its plusses an minuses; for example, I've had instances where Merc4 actually makes stab worse, but stab within Mocha Pro works really well for the exact same shot because Mocha's method of setting the criteria for stab is completely different to Mercalli.

@Dexcon

The glitches can not occur with the SAL version - only with the plugin. I had to use the forum search funktion, which will give some more links to this problem. But here is the solution presented.

@Peter_P ... thanks for the link. I did get the Merc VP plugin years ago (maybe in Merc 3 days) but I never liked it - I always got vertically judder which worsened the original footage - a big glitch for me. That's why I've stuck with Merc 4 SAL notwithstanding having to create another video event/clip - but then using the Merc plugin within VP blows out the veg size.

For stabilization of interlaced sources I prefer Vegas stabilizer plugin also before Mercalli 4 plugin, but for the best results I prefer Mercalli 4 SAL again.

Just a heads up. Mercalli 5 has been released and it seems to be a free update for all owners of Mercalli 4.

See here: https://www.prodad.com/Video-Stabilization-for-Professionals/Mercalli-V5-SAL-Windows-29795,l-us.html

Yes it is free, its being called a Service Pack which is a freeup grade. You have to be signed in to get to it.

Wow. I missed the discussion about the Mercalli v4 glitch (thanks for the link). I've read it and pretty sure I do not have the glitch. I already mentioned I'm stabilizing almost every fragment (from the Mercalli v2 era). Stab is the second stage of my workflow (trim, stab, crop, colour correct) so I would notice such glitches on stages 3, 4 or render check during my years of editing.

Based on the discussion I read, the most possible reason -- I'm working with FullHD, not 4K. I tried to download demo project to try to re-produce, but the link does not work any longer.

I tried to download demo project to try to re-produce, but the link does not work any longer.

@fifonik

It was hosted by an other user, who obviously deleted it meanwhile. It was no demo, but a sample output showing the glitch. The problem with these glitches is, that they occur only on larger projects with almost all events with the Mercalli V4 FX and they appear absolutely randomly. One may be happy getting a render without any and next time there be quite a number. I also hat them with the initial Vp17 version.