A few weeks back, our team in China reviewed the Zhiyun Smooth X smartphone gimbal. We were impressed with its functionality and design. Today, Zhiyun has announced a new variant of the Smooth X, called the Zhiyun Smooth XS, featuring bolder colors and some cosmetic design changes. The rest of the features and specifications are exactly the same as the older Smooth X model.

The Zhiyun Smooth XS comes with subtle design changes. For example, the buttons on the white color model come in an orange shade, while other parts of the gimbal, like the extendable telescopic selfie stick and the smartphone holder, come in a dark grey / black shade. The new cosmetic change is likely to make it more appealing to its target audience – the young and energic Vloggers, especially since the Smooth X had a basic and bland design. Another significant change in design is the new titled handle. The gentle tilt is said to make for better ergonomics, especially with an anti-slip grip on both sides.

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The portable form factor including its folding design and 249 grams weight is the same as the Smooth X. You also get a 260mm (10-inch) aluminum telescopic rod, which is one of its biggest highlights. In our review back in July, we mentioned that the Zhiyun Smooth X wasn’t an ordinary gimbal. It was a selfie stick gimbal hybrid. The same basic design and features are carried forward in this new Smooth XS model. This includes 2-axis motorized stabilization (pan and roll).

You get three buttons upfront, a joystick, a photo/video button, and a mode button – exactly the same as the older model. You also get a zoom button on the left side. But what’s new is that Zhiyun has bundled the mini tripod (1/4″ mount), soft travel bag, and a hand strap right inside the box.

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Along with the regular templates and features found on the ZY Cami app, the company confirms that it has added new video templates for the device. The rest of the features and specs are the same as the Zhiyun Smooth X. If you want to know more about it, make sure to check out our review here.

The Zhiyun Smooth XS retails for $74.99 and is available on Amazon in two colors – ivory white and pearly pink. The company confirms the Smooth XS will arrive in two other colors later – navy blue, and shining yellow.

The Smooth XS is costlier than the $59.99 Smooth X. In return, you get additional accessories in the box and a slightly better design.

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The post Zhiyun Smooth XS Smartphone Gimbal Launched: Features a new Grip & Bolder Color accents appeared first on Gizmochina.

Ever since Zhiyun impressed us with its fine-designed Smooth Q2 mobile gimbal last year, we’ve been looking forward to its new gimbal in 2020. And we finally have their latest product, the Zhiyun Smooth X, in for review. Its design is so special that we cannot classify it as a basic gimbal or a selfie stick at first glance. It seems that Zhiyun just created a new market segment, a combination of mobile gimbal and a smart selfie stick. That’s probably the reason why Zhiyun keeps attracting a wider crowd globally: its product design is often unique. But how about its actual performance? Let’s find out the answer.

In addition to the white version we’re holding, there is a gray option for the Smooth X. But the white model is really impressive as there are very few white gimbals in the market in this shade.

Unlike the Smooth Q2’s metal casing, the body of Smooth X is made of plastic material, which is probably out of light weight and convenience concerns. Although we still miss the feeling of metallic solidity on the Smooth Q2, lighter weight should be a higher priority for most people. The smooth X’s physical control includes a mode button, another shutter button, and a joystick on the front face. The side one is for zoom-range adjustment, and the power button is on the right side of the upper arm.

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There are other commands for the front buttons as well, like Double click the mode button for changing the phone direction; double click the shutter button for switch photo or video shooting, and press it three times for a switch between selfie camera and rear camera. So, when you use the telescopic rod of the Smooth X, you can control almost all the basic camera settings through the handle’s buttons without touching your phone.

The backside has an anti-slip design, which allows users to place it firmly on a surface. Thanks to the foldable and rotatable mechanism, the pocketable gimbal could be easily stored without taking up much space. But at the same time, it also complicates the unfolding process. So just follow the instruction in the manual and remember the right rotating direction so as to not damage the gimbal.

Even so, as compared to most mobile gimbals in the market, the overall user experience was still quite easy. Before first use, the Smooth X would require a phone connection to activate the gimbal through an official app — ZY Cami. In this app, you will find quite a lot of tutorials teaching you how to use the gimbal appropriately. Even though you may not have prior knowledge about mobile videography, the tutorials should be helpful for you to improve your skill in a short time.

The Smooth X has Pan and roll motors but no tilt motor, which means that it features 4-axis stabilization. But as a gimbal-like selfie stick, the stabilization is already good enough for general users. Especially for Vloggers who use phones to shoot their work, the Smooth X creatively sports a telescopic rod. The rod can extend up to 26cm. So we can call the Smooth X as a convenient selfie stick essentially with gimbal features, rather than a full-featured mobile gimbal. So, as I said, it’s special equipment designed for vloggers and travelers.

Let’s see how good Smooth X is in mobile videography (check the review video above). The Smooth X provides 3 working modes, which are Pan-Follow Mode, Lock Mode, and Roll-Pan Follow. All of them were working pretty well. I have to remind you that unlike 6-axis stabilizers, there is no Tilt option for users, which can be adjusted only by changing their holding angle.

Notably, this time the latest ZY Cami app is working better than ever before, not just for its specific tutorials about mobile filming, but also for its targeted optimization for the Smooth X. For example, the app connection is really smooth and fast. And the interface is much user-friendly and intuitive. Its good to see that the app displays important information in a smart way, including phone battery, gimbal connection, and working mode. And the object tracking also works a bit better than it did on the Smooth Q2. But due to the lack of Tilt motor, there is only Pan follow for the tracking.

The other features like gesture control are also quite useful. When turning on the gesture control mode, the camera could automatically activate the object follow and start filming or capture photos once it caught on to the specific gesture.

The app also supports real-time facial beauty options, but only for 1080P and 720P filming. Besides the basic photo and video shooting, the App features Timelapse, Hyperlapse, Pano, and smart modes. The Smart modes allow users to apply the auto-shooting pattern to your filming. There are five patterns with their sample tapes inside the smart mode, including exploration, Fashion, Life, breathtaking, and Delight shots, which absolutely help you add more fun in your filming.

You can also choose your scene mode in the APP when you’re walking or running. And the Running mode indeed is a bit more stable for the scene of running while holding the gimbal.

Using the Zhiyun smooth X is really a different experience. We used to complain that most gimbals are not flexible enough to find special angles or for selfie filming. But the Smooth X is definitely an innovation to solve these specific pain points.

If we had to mention its drawbacks, it should be the lack of a tilt motor and the small size tripod.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t give up on Zhiyun’s reputation as an excellent and stable mobile gimbal. It’s convenient, easily operated, dual-purpose, and more importantly, cheaper than most good quality mobile gimbals in the market right now.

The post Zhiyun Smooth X Mobile Gimbal Review: A selfie stick or a gimbal? BOTH! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Gimbals

Stabilizers used to be professional filmers’ magic sticks. But now, a stabilizer is not an expensive option for general users, especially for those who are creating their works on smartphones and mirrorless cameras. Gizmochina is interesting in mobile filming and has brought two of the outstanding mobile stabilizers on our channel, the Zhuyun Smooth Q2 and the Feiyu Vlog pocket. This time we carried on the DJI OSMO Mobile 3 and let’s do a full comparison among these three gimbals.

We have discussed how possible to shoot a video over a phone. Hard to deny, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro has good image quality and effective stabilization. However, hand holding still is not able to guarantee perfect stabilization. inspired by camera accessories, smartphones with glowing camera capacity are possible to challenge the general market with their born talent, such as a large preview display, convenience, and powerful processing chips. Especially compared to those expensive DSLRs, a smartphone is a necessity for a modern person, which even costs less, not to mention the various lenses and so on.

You can find that even the accessories for smartphones generally are not that expensive, or we can say they are actually targeting people like you, who are not pros and won’t pay much on smartphone filming but looking forward to sharing stories with the great video quality.

Now it’s time.

Design

Well, let’s look at their design. The DJI OSMO mobile 3 finally realized one of the most important features of a mobile stabilizer is convenience. The smaller size plus the foldable arm could save much space for your travel baggage. However, compared to the other two, it still not the best choice. The other two are much more pocket-available. especially for the Feiyu Vlog Pocket, the small foldable body allows you to carry it without gathering surrounding eyes. While for the Zhiyun Smooth Q2, though it has the most elegant design, the metal body leads a heavier weight as it brings such great workmanship. Meanwhile, from Q2’s design, it’s not hard to notice the design accuracy. For example, it’s the only one among the three that you can place it on the ground, even with a phone. As for the other two, you can have a small tripod included for ground placement.

Convenience

One of the best measurements of their convenience is TIME. So, we did a simple test on how long they will take to get ready filming.

There is no surprise that the Feiyu vlog pocket is taking the lead of the race. But we can see all the three gimbals actually did not take much time as the gaps were not very significant.

Stabilization (video)

To judge the performance of a gimbal, the most important standard is always its stabilization. so let’s see some cuts and watch how they really performed during different motions (Please check it in the video).

Operation

The DJI Osmo 3 has multiple features for meeting filmers’ different filming conditions, which did bring a lot of fun when we were working with it. However, it’s quite complicated when we try to figure out all the operations from distinguishing from the button M and the trigger on the back. For example, you could dual-click the button M to switch the phone directions, and triple-click it to get sleep mode. Meanwhile, the  M is also used for switch between photo mode and video mode with a single click, and power options with a press and hold operation. And it’s just for the operation for the button M. For more shooting mode, you have to distinguish the operations of ‘press and hold’, ‘single click’, ‘dual-click’, ‘triple-click’, and ‘single click, then press and hold’. And the next time I used it; I have to make it clear again.

For the Feiyu vlog pocket, it goes to the opposite extreme. There are only two buttons and a trigger for all physical operations. You can only dual-click the power button for direction change beside the power option, and click a start button to start shooting. Holding the trigger can maintain a follow mode to have rotating angles. And more operations would be available on the Feiyu App. Such solutions are more intuitive and user-friendly.

While for the ZHIYUN Smooth Q2, it’s more like a product with much thinking on simplifying their operation logic with limited buttons. The Joystick is integrated with not only controlling directions but also switching 5 different modes. ‘One-click‘’ for the next mode, and dual-click for the last mode. and the indicator would help you identify which mode you’re working with. As a result, though the gimbal has 5 shooting modes, we could quickly change the mode as we wanted.

Software supports

All of the three gimbals have their customized mobile APPs, with which we are able to find a lot of interesting functions. For example, in the DJI OSMS APP, after connecting the gimbal, you can get a follow mode through selecting a subject on the preview interface, which is available in any mode. So, you can shoot a time-lapse video with a focus of a target subject. Meanwhile, you can have a professional filming experience on the APP to get a more accurate image manually.

A highlight of the OSMO App is the story mode, which brings you over 10 editing samples with fantastic background music and interesting transition style. All you need to do is to enter a sample, then follow the tutorial on preview, and choose shooting time for every cut. It makes filming much easier for those who have not much knowledge of filming but try so hard to please your girlfriend.

For Feiyu vlog pocket, because the gimbal itself only provides basic operations, using the app can help filmer reach more practical functions. So considering multiple filming demands of vloggers, Feiyu applies some customized features for both photos taking and video taking. In photo taking, you can find panorama modes and ultra-wide-angle mode, even though there is no wide-angle camera on your smartphone. And some further updates here, the overlapping mode and light rail mode. such professional techniques are no longer only able on the DSLR, but also able on your smartphone. And no more difficult camera settings but just only one click with the Feiyu vlog pocket. For video taking, the convenience is expanded to wider uses, like Dolly zoom, static timelapse, track timelapse and light rail video. Without much effort, the gimbal will help you reach some fantastic cuts which used to be seen only in professional films.

For the Zhiyun smooth Q2, the updated APP also carries on the Dolly zoom mode and time-lapse options. But compared to the other two, the application simplified the options and operations of the APP viewfinder but also reserved most of the main shooting options. one of the features that could not be found in the other two is the latest vortex mode. Thanks to the all-direction pan arm, the filmer could create a special view with a smooth 360° rotation.

Conclusion

After we experience these three gimbals for over a month. We are pretty confused to recommend the best gimbal for you. We used to draw a conclusion that the Zhiyun Smooth Q2 was the best mobile gimbal. Well, to some extent, it still is. The metal body helps the gimbal achieve a better-stabilizing effect with full angle rotation. Besides, the excellent features like the longest endurance, reverse charging, user-friendly gimbal operations and so on, made it become the most trustworthy gimbal for our video shooting. But meanwhile, the simplified software and blocked the view on a few android phones sometimes caused discomfort, though such problems could be solved with manual adjustment. But surely, it’s still a gimbal that’s worth being called with the term ‘professional’.

For the Feiyu vlog Pocket, its biggest advantage is small and simple, while the most significant drawback is also the too simple body. Though it integrated a lot of features into their APP, the general experience would be affected by the complicated but functional software. To be fair, we would admire its top convenience and recommend it for most vloggers who are planning to travel and record their stories.

As for the DJI OSMO Mobile 3, it’s more like a good product with some compromise. For example, though it’s foldable and claimed to be pocketable, we still are not going to give it a credit on the convenience, not to mention its complicated operations. You always need to unfold the gimbal before loading the phone. The good message is that the DJI team brought stable software with effective tutorials. So if you are a person who has the patience to get used to the inconvenience, you probably would love it.

The post Triple-Gimbal comparison: DJI OSMO Mobile 3, Zhiyun Smooth Q2 & Feiyu Vlog Pocket appeared first on Gizmochina.