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For this giveaway, we’ve partnered with Zhiyun to give away a Smooth-Q4 gimbal to a lucky winner.
We chose this gimbal because it is amazingly small, and it folds to fit in your pocket. This makes it perfect for those times when you travel or explore and just need something better than a selfie stick. All you have to do to enter this giveaway is to let us know what color you prefer for your gimbal (assuming you could get them in any color of the rainbow).
The giveaway ends on July 22nd!
It seems like only 11 months ago since Zhiyun announced the Weebill 2 (review here) but already were’s seeing another announcement from Zhiyun in the form of the Weebill 3. It incorporates what Zhiyun calls a new and updated Sling 2.0 design for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, with improved ergonomics, a built-in microphone, fill light and a powerful built-in battery that Zhiyun says supports “all-day use”.
It doesn’t have the flippy-out LCD of the Weebill 2, which suggests that Zhiyun may continue to sell both models concurrently – at least for a little while – but its new design is geared towards long shooting sessions and keeping things as light as possible while providing more support to your wrist carrying your camera rig.
Gimbals are more popular now than they ever have been and their popularity will no doubt continue to rise in the future as they become more advanced, more accessible and higher-end features come to lower end and lower-cost models. But if you’ve never used one before, they can be a bit of a learning curve to get used to so that you’re shooting nice smooth steady footage.
That’s where Josh Morgan at Momentum Productions is here to help with this beginner’s guide to getting smooth and stable footage from your gimbal as quickly and easily as possible. In the video, Josh uses the Zhiyun Weebill 2 (review here) along with the Sony A7S III and Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lens to demonstrate some exercises to try in order to learn how to use your gimbal effectively.
Zhiyun has today announced their new Crane M2S gimbal. Targeted towards the same audience that would go for the Crane M3, this one is even smaller and lighter, weighing in at only 549g(~180g lighter than the Crane M3). But don’t be fooled by its size. This thing caters to everything from a smartphone to a Sony A7S III and includes many of the Crane M3 features, like a built-in LED, USB-PD fast charging and “flagship-grade” quick release tech.
The Crane M2S, Zhiyun says, is a more cost-effective alternative to the Crane M3, and as such is priced at $269 for the basic gimbal and $349 for the Crane M2S Combo package which includes a backpack and smartphone bracket. This is significantly less expensive than the Crane M3, which is priced at $369 for the basic gimbal, $449 for the Combo package and $649 for the Pro package.
Gimbals are cool. We know they’re cool. They were cool the day they were first introduced to the world and we know they’re still cool now because there are about three million different models of them out there now that just keep on selling. They can be overused, of course, and they definitely have their place, but most of us aren’t that attached to them. Most of us.
Not Russian filmmaker Olesya Zakharova, though, who goes by the name la_rushka on social media. She definitely has something of a… special relationship with her DJI Ronin SC2, as evidenced by her recent Instagram posts. Sure, lockdowns over the last couple of years have been hard on all of us, but this probably isn’t the answer. It is pretty hilarious, though.
Zhiyun has launched two new smartphone gimbals today. The Zhiyun Smooth 5 and the Zhiyun Smooth X2. The Smooth X2 is the follow-up to the popular Smooth X (review here), a 2-axis gimbal with a built-in selfie stick aimed at social media shooters and consumers who generally want smoother videos from their smartphones.
The Smooth 5, on the other hand, is targeted towards more serious smartphone filmmakers, offering a number of features found in Zhiyun’s higher-end range, like a multi-function focus wheel, exposure control, and various different shooting modes, including the “GO” (Sport) and Vortex modes.
Gudsen has today officially announced the Moza AirCross 3 – an update to its popular Moza AirCross 2 gimbal for small DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Gudsen describes the AirCross 3 as “four gimbals in one” combining the classic single handle approach along with sling mode, dual-handle mode and a grip extension for use with devices like the Slypod Pro.
It inherits a number of features from the AirCross 2, though. It’s still a fairly small lightweight gimbal that you can easily slip into a backpack and it allows you to mount the camera in vertical mode for you social media shooters using the supplied quick release L plate.
Zhiyun has today announced the latest iteration of their lightweight mirrorless gimbal, the Zhiyun Crane M3. Unlike its predecessors, the Crane M2 and the original Crane M, it comes with a new bright white colour scheme. It lets you easily swap camera batteries without having to rebalance, a built-in LED and you can even connect it up to an XLR microphone.
In fact, not only can you connect it to an XLR mic, but Zhiyun has released their first XLR Shotgun Mic along with the TransMount Base to go along with the Crane M3 to let you get the best quality audio that you can. There’s also a stylish new Zhiyun backpack to carry it all in.
When it comes to gimbals, there’s no shortage of them on the market these days. So, why has the Zhiyun Weebill 2 become my favourite over the last few weeks? Well, mostly because it makes my life a million times easier when shooting on my own or filming myself.
The Zhiyun Weebill 2 is the follow up to the popular Zhiyun Weebill-S. It’s grown a little in size and weight over its predecessor but comes with some new unique extras. Like that built-in flippy out touchscreen LCD.
With as many companies as there are making gimbals these days, and with a whole wave of new ones coming out each year, it’s become difficult for them to stand out from each other. But Manfrotto thinks they’ve found a good approach with their new modular gimbal, that allows you to go from the traditional handled setup to whatever you want by removing and moving bits around at will.
The Gimbal is part of Manfrotto’s new “Move” ecosystem whose core focus is modularity and versatility. The 300XM Gimbal is the central core of that ecosystem and is designed to fit into the workflows of as many filmmaking needs as possible.
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