Recently, You must have seen that there’s hardly much difference in features and functions among mobile gimbals.
But what if I tell you that a mobile gimbal can be smart and can do much more than good stabilization. And today we bring you such a creative gimbal, the Hohem iSteady V2. It’s the second-generation model in the Hohem iSteady series, mainly focused on the mobile video shooting market. The main selling point of the iSteady V2 is the built-in AI tracking sensor, which can independently achieve face tracking and gesture tracking without software assistance. With this creative hardware design, the iSteady V2 gimbal is very likely to become one of the most popular mobile gimbals in the market.
So Let’s check out what we get on this iSteady V2.
Hohem iSteady V2 Design
From the gimbal’s design, we’re pretty sure that the brand Hohem knows exactly how a mobile gimbal should be. The iSteady V2’s design seems to be inspired by the success of the iSteady X gimbal.
Although they share a similar design with each other, the V2 gimbal improves the build quality of the gimbal body and adds an AI vision module on the top of the gripper. The light and compact design of the gimbal brings users great convenience during travel. Especially with the unique foldable form, the gimbal can be easily carried in your small bag or even your pocket without occupying much space.
For better stabilization performance, Hohem upgraded the 3-axis anti-shake algorithm on the iSteady V2. The 3-axis mechanical gimbal stabilization is much better than the electronic image stabilization or even the phone camera’s optical stabilization in avoiding footage quality being damaged or cropped.
Hohem iSteady V2 Review: Fit & Performance
In actual use, the Roll and Pan motors can be rotated up to a maximum range of 320°, while the Tilt motor supports a controllable range of 60°. And the Gimbal has pretty good load capacity. It can provide excellent stabilization for almost all the phones in the mainstream market. But you still need to pay attention to your phones’ camera position. If your camera module is too close to the central area of the phone, the motor may be shown in the shooting image. One such example is the Mi 10.
However when compared to most other gimbals, the V2 gimbal has done much better to avoid this issue. Even for the Mi 11 Ultra which has a large camera module, the motor design perfectly avoids the blocking issue.
Now, let’s check out how it works with some footage that was shot on the Mi 11 Ultra.
During our stabilization test, we found an interesting detail of the gimbal. The V2 gimbal can immediately switch to low-angle shooting by turning it upside down. Such specialized camera movement and extreme low-angle shooting can probably inspire your creation when you need a different perspective.
In addition to the reliable traditional features of the V2 as a mobile gimbal, its AI Tracking powered by the vision sensor should be the most surprising feature. Unlike most gimbals that support face tracking through software control, the V2 gimbal creatively features a sensor that provides face tracking and gesture tracking independently without the exclusive app. Whether it is using the phone camera app or the Hohem App, the tracking functions can work well all the time with only one gesture. Since most gimbal apps cannot perfectly adapt to different phones’ native cameras, the AI tracking sensor is a significant addition to the gimbal. Now, those who want face-tracking motion sensing can get it even when they are using the native camera app.
Besides facing tracking, the iSteady V2 also supports independent simple gesture control, such as an OK gesture for shutter, a palm gesture for AI tracking, and thumb gestures for filming direction switch.
In our actual test, the auto-rotating speed of tracking is just right for achieving flexible tracking. But if the object moves too fast, it’s likely to cause tracking failure, which requires filmmakers to leave enough distance between the subject and the gimbal.
Meanwhile, we also commend its Bluetooth connection. Once you connect the gimbal to the phone, almost all the essential buttons on the gimbal work well via most phones’ default camera app, such as zoom-in or zoom out with the pusher button or the shutter button.
And speaking of the Hohem’s exclusive app for the iSteady V2 gimbal, although most common shooting can be performed without it, we still found some special shooting modes in the Hohem app, such as inception, Dolly zoom and smart motion Time-lapse.
In addition to the AI face tracking, the LED fill flash is another reason why we thought the V2 is an excellent gadget for live streamers and Vloggers. The gimbal comes with built-in LED light with adjustable brightness to better handle low-light conditions.
Hohem iSteady V2 Review: Battery Life & Reverse Charge
Hohem also upgrades the battery life of the iSteady V2, which can continuously work for around 9 hours. And at the same time, the long battery life also can turn into an emergency power bank for the phone. It’s so versatile that it not only plays a role as an important accessory for shooting outdoors but also guarantees a long working time for the shooting device as well.
After we experienced it for over a week, we are pretty sure that such a built-in AI vision sensor is going to be popular in the mobile gimbal industry. The biggest benefit of the gimbal’s AI tracking is that there is no software limitation to activate it. And it performs much better with more accurate recognition and quicker tracking. Not to mention that the iSteady V2 as a mobile gimbal has reliable stabilization for mobile devices.
So that’s all about the Hohem iSteady V2 gimbal. If you are interested in this creative gimbal with Ai sensor, you can visit their official website for more information or check out its Hohem official shop.
