Operation Manual

proDAD Mercalli V2 Manual

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proDAD GmbH does not accept any responsibility for the usage of this program and the

publication of its contents and data that has been created with this program.

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What is Mercalli?

Mercalli lets you remove the effects of camera shake, jolts and trembling from recorded video

sequences, to enhance the quality of important footage. Mercalli also improves your material by

smoothing irregular pan or zoom shots.

Whenever a tripod is not to hand or would be impractical to use, an unwanted effect of agitation

results. This is usually the case with unexpected events, which you have to film quickly and

without any preparation, to capture a unique situation. Or whenever you can't use the full range

of video equipment, because it would be impractical.

Where such footage is generally well shot but contains some camera shake, and it is of quite

some value to the whole video, Mercalli can save the day. Mercalli can rescue and optimize this

footage – almost fully automatically!

This makes Mercalli a highly valuable tool that'll rescue and optimize crucial video clips.

Why the name Mercalli?

The Italian volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli created the Mercalli scale, which is used to assess and

categorize the intensity of an earthquake, ranging from "instrumental" to "catastrophic". Mercalli

created this scale based on an assessment of the degree of damage that results from a quake.

That's exactly what it has in common with our program Mercalli:

Mercalli also assesses shocks, shakes and distortions. Using very complex mathematical

operations, it detects irregularities and removes them from a video clip. In a very intricate

procedure, it assesses which movements are intended (e.g. zoom, panning), and which ones are

not (e.g. shakes, shocks to the tripod, vibrations). You are then prompted to remove the

unwanted movements.

What is new in Version 2?

Highlights of Version 2 include the completely new stabilization technology based on all 3 camera

axes (known as 3D stabilization), resulting in a far higher success rate in the detection of

unwanted movements and giving you far better results in the steadied clips. In addition, a new

"smart border" technology reduces the required zoom-in factor to preserve as much image

information as possible from the original footage in the stabilized clip. Version 2 also gives the

cutter the ability to manually control the degree of deshake for just the desired result in terms of

camera dynamics.