DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Zhiyun’s new Smooth Q3 gimbal features a built-in rotating LED fill light

May 10, 2021 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

If you ever needed more proof that smartphone gimbals were primarily designed for vloggers and social media shooters who want to film themselves or others talking to the camera at short range, then this is probably it. Zhiyun has today announced the new Zhiyun Smooth Q3 smartphone gimbal and this one comes with a built-in LED fill light.

The Smooth Q3 is a 3-axis gimbal, boasting a range of new features over the Smooth Q2, including SmartMode, gesture control, SmartFollow 3.0 Object Tracking, Instant Dolly Zoom, MagicClone Pano and, of course, that built-in LED which can rotate from the front for selfies to the back for filming other people.

YouTube video

Zhiyun says that the Smooth Q3 has had a complete redesign over its predecessor, making it both lighter and easier to fold up when you’re not using it. It also features a new and more intuitive button layout for easier operation. But the biggest feature on this one is the built-in 4400K LED. This seems a little warm for general use, but I expect this colour temperature choice was made to help it better blend in with dim interior lighting.

After all, it’s a small LED built into this thing. It’s not going to be able to perform miracles. So, even if it was daylight balanced, it wouldn’t likely have much of an impact outdoors in the daytime. Indoors, though, I expect, or hope, that it’ll be at least as powerful as most smartphone LEDs, if not a bit brighter. The LED might seem redundant as smartphones do have built-in LEDs, but you typically can’t bring those around to the front when filming yourself.

Number of axes3-axis (Pitch, Roll, Yaw)
Mounting clamp height55mm-90mm
Phone thickness7-10mm
Max payload280g
Rotation rangeYaw (pan): -150 to 150°
Pitch (tilt): -260° to 80°
Roll: -170° to 170°
Following deviation (Static)Max: ± 0.04°
Min: ± 0.01°
Following deviation (Motion)Max: ± 0.3°
Standard: ± 0.1°
Min: ± 0.05°
Battery capacity1300mAh
Battery runtime7-15 hours
Mounting points3x 1/4-20" female
Dimensions45*154*180mm (Folded)
90*127*279mm (Unfolded)
Weight340g

As well as the built-in rotating LED, it contains all the usual features we’d expect from a gimbal these days, including gesture control, pano modes, object and facial tracking, timelapse, etc. and a couple of neat features that you might not use all the time, but could definitely help to add some creative flair to some of your work – like the new Dolly Zoom feature.

The Zhiyun Smooth Q3 is available to buy now for $89 and begins shipping in early June. You can find out more on the Zhiyun website.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

DJI’s new OM 5 smartphone gimbal features a built-in selfie stick Adobe Scene Stitch is content aware fill on steroids – Uses AI and image databases to fill holes The all-in-one Removu K1 4K gimbal features a built in LCD monitor The camera in Vivo’s new APEX concept smartphone features a built-in “gimbal”

Filed Under: Gear Tagged With: Gear Announcement, gimbal, Zhiyun

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« Forget the “rules” of composition and learn to use your intuition
Five tips to step up your portrait game without buying new gear »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • Samyang adds 100mm T2.3 to its compact autofocus cine prime lineup
  • Build your own DIY night vision camera with a Raspberry Pi
  • This adorable LEGO retro camera set hits the stores soon
  • Here are the cameras that shot Flickr’s best images
  • Meta AI image generator Imagine gets its own website

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy