Any recommendations for a good gimbal/stabilizer?

[deejayguy]

I've been thinking about creating some videos of my travels, and wondering if anyone has experience with gimbals.

I don't have a dedicated camera, so I'd be looking for something that can hold a phone and has a decent Android app for control.

DJI seems to be a popular brand, and I'm checking out reviews now, but if anyone has some hands-on experience they can share I'd be grateful!

[Garzan]

An advantage I'd see in going the safe route and going with DJI is that there is a DJI store in Tukcom and you can go touch it before you buy it. It would be hard for me to come up with a gimbal setup with more name recognition than DJI.

When I was looking at buying my own gimbal, I read a lot of good things about Feiyu-Tech. However, in the end, I bought a stablized action cam that does not need a gimbal and my phone is a remote display for that camera. Oh, and the DJI is significantly less expensive, though the Feiyu-tech is more adaptable. :-)

Edited February 9, 2020 by Garzan

[ElSueco]

I'm looking at a Zhiyun Crane M2

[Abracadabra]

I had a Zhiyun Smooth. Good phone gimbal and worked perfect with my Android phone. Still found it a little big so sold it after I bought the DJI Osmo Pocket. 

[deejayguy]

Thanks to all for the answers so far. I'm going to take a closer look at the DJI Osmo Pocket. Something on the smaller side would be good and I wasn't aware of the DJI store at Tukcom.

[Gaztop08]

I’ve been looking the last few months with a similar interest and seen quite a few reviews on YouTube.They all speak highly of the Dji Osmo pocket.The only thing that has made me hold off is the release date of the first one was December 2018 .So is version 2 coming soon?

Two good things about is it’s image stabilisation and it looks less conspicuous than holding a mobile phone to do long filming.Though a lot of the new high end phones now have very good optical image stabilisation(OIS)software built in now.

[Queef_Sniffer]

Get a GoPro HERO 8, or even better yet - A GoPro Max. 

Then you won't need a gimbal.  I use the 8, and said goodbye to a gimbal.  Best GoPro camera yet.  

https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras

 

 

 

In case you were wondering, I wanted the Max, but it wasn't out at the same time as the 8, so I went with the 8 instead.  Now I regret not getting it.  :-(

[Garzan]

8 hours ago, Queef_Sniffer said:

In case you were wondering, I wanted the Max, but it wasn't out at the same time as the 8, so I went with the 8 instead.  Now I regret not getting it.  :-(

So long as we're veering off on tangents :-) the stabilized camera I just bought (so I would not need a gimbal ) is the Insta360 One R twin edition (the 360 spherical module and the 4K flat module.) There is an additional 1" sensor module but I haven't bought that yet. I like to film in 360 but export to a 3PV (third person view) since many times, the most interesting thing around you is what you don't have your camera pointed at. 555 If your raw footage is a 360 degree spherical image, then you don't have that problem. 

 

[deejayguy]

These stabilized cameras are really interesting. I was out of the loop and just assumed everyone was still using separate gimbal/camera combinations. Looks like there are a bunch of great "all in one" options now. So much for narrowing down my options... Hahaha

[Queef_Sniffer]

2 minutes ago, deejayguy said:

These stabilized cameras are really interesting. I was out of the loop and just assumed everyone was still using separate gimbal/camera combinations. Looks like there are a bunch of great "all in one" options now. So much for narrowing down my options... Hahaha

You could use a gimbal on a GoPro HERO8 if you’d like, but that’s overkill, the image is already stable. As for the Max, I don’t know of any gimbals for it, but it’s not like if you’ll need it there either. 

Good luck, and let us know what option you go with. 

[Accelord]

I would recommend DJI osmo pocket, awesome movie quality and its very small, can put it in the pocket of your shirt, walk down Soi 6 and tape it all in 4K and no one would even notice