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Zhiyun enters the lighting market with the Fiveray FR100C portable LED light stick

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LED lights seem to be the 2022 version of 2021’s wireless microphones. Every company seems to be jumping on them. And while they didn’t release a wireless microphone, Zhiyun has entered the LED market by releasing the Fiveray FR100C LED light stick. They say it’s “5x brighter than the alternatives” at 100W and it has a built-in 6-cell (22.2v) 2600mAh battery.

It was actually announced yesterday along with the company’s new Weebill 3 gimbal, although it seemed to slip largely under the radar. But it’s both bicolour and RGB, offering a colour temperature range between 2700K up to 6300K and full RGB control over high, saturation and brightness using the HSI full-colour mode.

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Zhiyun’s Weebill 3 comes with a new, lightweight Sling 2.0 form factor and a built-in microphone

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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.

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Zhiyun’s Smooth Q4 brings improved ergonomics for faster use on location

Zhiyun has announced the new Zhiyun Smooth Q4 gimbal for smartphones. It comes with some ergonomic improvements over its predecessor with a redesigned arm that lets you deploy and start shooting with it very quickly when you’re out and about. And like many of Zhiyun’s smartphone gimbals, it features a built-in extendable selfie stick for when you want to get a bit more vlogging range with a wider background.

It’s available in two packages. The Standard Package contains the basic gimbal, mini tripod and power cord. The Combo Package also includes a small magnetic LED fill light with gel covers, a wrist strap and a case in which to keep everything safe. The gimbal itself offers a multi-function control wheel as well as intelligent shooting modes and one-click switching between landscape and portrait orientation.

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Watch this beginner’s gimbal guide and learn how to get smoothest footage possible out of your camera

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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.

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Zhiyun announces the Crane M2S – A lower budget alternative to the Crane M3

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.

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Holiday Gift Guide – Best Tripods, Sliders and Gimbals of 2021

The season of giving is upon us – which becomes immediately obvious whenever you walk into a store and you’re overwhelmed by Whamageddon. If you want to avoid the Christmas music and prefer to do your shopping online, then have no fear, DIYP’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guides are here to rescue you with some of our favourite new releases of the year, as well as a few old favourites that always seem to find a place in our gear bags.

In this post, we’re going to be taking a look at Tripods, Sliders & Gimbals. Keep an eye out for our next guide coming tomorrow covering other photography and filmmaking accessories and gadgets and be sure to check out our previous guide going over the best of this year’s new Cameras, lenses and lighting gear.

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Zhiyun updates two of its popular smartphone gimbal lines with the Smooth 5 and Smooth X2

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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.

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Zhiyun announces the Crane M3 mirrorless camera gimbal with built-in LED light and a shotgun microphone

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.

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The Zhiyun Weebill 2 Pro Plus kit is the ultimate gimbal combo for solo shooters

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.

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Zhiyun’s new Weebill 2 gimbal has a built in flippy out touchscreen LCD

Zhiyun has today (yes, today, not yesterday) announced the new Zhiyun Weebill 2 gimbal. A couple of retailers jumped the gun a little early yesterday, but now, Zhiyun has made it official. It looks a lot like the Weebill S, but it has a neat flippy out full-colour touchscreen LCD and a few other tricks up its sleeve.

As well as the new LCD, the Weebill 2 dumps the 18650 batteries in favour of a built-in battery that you can charge while you’re using it (with USB-PD support!) and features a new Infineon sensor which Zhiyun says improves its overall performance.

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