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Check out these eight 3D printed photo & video tools designed to make your life a little easier

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I put off getting a 3D printer for the longest time. I didn’t want to get one just for the sake of having a new toy that I’d get bored with, so I held off getting one until I felt I had a genuine need for one. Now, I have five – the most recent of which are the Snapmaker 2.0 A350 and its predecessor, the Snapmaker Original, and I find them absolutely invaluable.

I’ve been using them recently to print a bunch of tools and accessories to help me with my photography and filmmaking. Some of them are workflow and organisation accessories while others are actual tools used to create content. So, here, I’m going to talk about some of the most useful things I’ve printed lately.

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The Zhiyun Crane 2S is a powerful 3-axis gimbal that’s small enough to fit in a backpack

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I’m going to open this post with a very subjective, but completely honest, opinion. The Zhiyun Crane 2S (first look review here) instantly became my favourite gimbal as soon as I took it out of the box.  Ever. That’s it. Review over. Ok, not really review over, but it really has become my new go-to gimbal for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

The Crane 2S is the followup to Zhiyun’s extremely popular Crane 2 (review here), launched in September 2017. Although already a very capable gimbal, the Crane 2S offers some very noticeable upgrades over its predecessor. So, let’s talk about those.

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First Look: Zhiyun updates a legend with the new Zhiyun Crane 2S 3-axis motorised gimbal

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Zhiyun has today announced an update to their ever-popular Crane 2 gimbal. Not surprisingly, it comes in the form of the Zhiyun Crane 2S. Over the original, it offers increased load capacity, a more extensive camera compatibility list, axis locks, an improved follow focus wheel, larger OLED screen, more shooting modes to match the rest of the gimbals in Zhiyun’s current lineup and greater accessory connectivity.

I’ve had one here to play with for a couple of days so far, and we’ll have a much more extensive review coming in the near future, but here are some of its major features and differences over the original Zhiyun Crane 2.

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The Zhiyun Crane 3S is a big beefy gimbal for big beefy cameras that offers a lot of versatility

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The Zhiyun Crane 3S is the latest iteration of Zhiyun’s flagship line of Crane gimbals, traditionally designed for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. On first glance, the Crane 3S looks a lot like the Crane 3 LAB, but it definitely holds a few extra tricks up its sleeve.

I’ve been using one for a few weeks now when weather and Scotland’s lockdown rules have allowed and I’m going to go over some of those differences and the advantages the Crane 3S has to offer over the Crane 3 LAB.

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Zhiyun has now officially announced the new Weebill-S gimbal

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Leaks happen all the time, and manufacturers usually ignore them. But when a retailer like B&H drops the news a little early, it often forces their hand. So, Zhiyun has now officially announced the Zhiyun Weebill-S gimbal. A followup to the Weebill LAB, the new Weebill-S comes with 300% more motor torque and 50% response speed increase.

Despite being small, it’s pretty mighty, capable of handling many of the current popular DSLRs and mirrorless cameras along with 24-70mm and 24-105mm zoom lenses. And it can now auto-tune its power to optimise for the load you’ve placed on it.

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B&H leaks the $439 Zhiyun Weebill-S gimbal ahead of official announcement

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The competition on motorised gimbals these days is pretty intense. They didn’t even really exist a few years ago, except for small devices like phones, action cameras, and drones, but now there are a number of companies producing some solid piece of gear. And these companies are generally pretty secretive about new releases, right up until they’re ready to announce them.

One of the biggest names in gimbals is Zhiyun, who was pretty much an instant hit since they introduced their first Zhiyun Crane back in 2016, and they’ve been going from strength to strength ever since. It turns out they had a new gimbal on the way, the Weebill-S, but B&H broke the secrecy and leaked it ahead of their own official announcement.

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The Zhiyun Smooth Q2 and Crane M2 are small but mighty little gimbals

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Zhiyun has given us no shortage of new gimbal releases over the last year or so. The Crane 3 LAB and Weebill lab have both been big hits. But now Zhiyun is focusing on the smaller things in life with the new Crane M2 and Smooth Q2 gimbals for small compact cameras and smartphones. We had the opportunity to chat with Zhiyun at IBC 2019 and find out more about them.

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The ultralight Moza AirCross 2 lets you mount the Pocket 4K without a cage – even vertically

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The recently announced Moza AirCross 2 is the latest 3-axis motorised gimbal from Gudsen. It was originally teased at NAB 2019, but now it’s been officially announced and is available to order. Gudsen were showing off the Moza AirCross 2 at IBC 2019 in Amsterdam, so we went to go talk to them and find out more about it.

And, yes, while this will upset some and make others giddy, you can mount your camera to it vertically. Of course, it does accept cameras the old fashioned horizontal way, too.

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The new Zhiyun Smooth Q2 truly is a pocket-sized gimbal for your smartphone

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Zhiyun has today announced the new Zhiyun Smooth Q2, their newest teeny tiny gimbal for smartphones. Replacing its two-and-a-half-year-old predecessor, the Smooth Q, the Q2 comes with some great advancements over the original. Surprisingly, though, Zhiyun’s launching it on Kickstarter.

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Gudsen’s new Moza AirCross 2 is an ultra light gimbal with 360° rotation on all axes and 7lb load capacity

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First shown off at NAB 2019, Gudsen has now announced availability and pricing for the Moza AirCross 2. It weighs in at only 950g with a 3.2kg (7lb load capacity), contains a 3,000mAh battery offering 12 hours of runtime, it fits the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (and 6K) natively without weird offset brackets and it’s only $429.

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