The Best Gimbal You Can Buy

 

This is the best gimbal you can buy for your money today, besides spending > 1K for the RS2. I consider this gimbal to be professional quality. It comes in a nice kit bag, which keeps all the parts and gimbal together neatly.

The hand grip is soft and has a rubber grip, it's easy to hold and doesn't weigh too much. However, if you are shooting video for >20 minutes, your arm is going to be tired. I had my GoPro 8 on the gimbal, but if you use a 2-4 pound camera set, this thing could seriously weigh you down.

I had no problem having it do pan, follow, and tilt. It has a selfie mode, which is cute. You hit a button and the camera immediately faces you. What's nice is when you walk, it doesn't have to be held upright. You can even use this gimbal upside down and it will hold the camera very steady.

I had to update the firmware before I could use the gimbal. The battery life is excellent, you could easily get 8-10 hours out of this thing. The most important thing to do is to properly balance your camera on the gimbal, otherwise it can cause issues.

A few times, the gimbal went wacky and I had to power it off. I think I went beyond the normal axis range, and because the GoPro is so small and weighs about 200 grams, the gimbal really doesn't balance very light cameras  if you put it into extreme movements. It was my fault, I was just learning to use it.

I'm curious to try the RavenEye on my Ricoh GR2, since it does have an HDMI output port. I can then stream from the RavenEye to my smartphone. There's many attachments and all are sturdy & made of metal. 

You get a ton of extra cables to connect a variety of cameras such as Sony, Panasonic, and the standard USB connectors. 

The joystick is very nice, and the movement is pretty smooth. Coupled with the GoPro's software stabilization, this should prove to be a very good setup.

Hold down the "M" button and the trigger, the camera will perform an auto-balance. It puts the motors into overdrive, finding the optimal balance for your camera. It takes about 30 seconds and vibrates like crazy.

I took it to the park, and people don't really care about you holding this thing. They are more curious than anything, but nobody asked me about it. I doubt they know what the hell it is anyway. RONIN in large letters is visible on the side of the unit. No subtle messages here. 

It has a focus wheel, a trigger with multiple action points, and a thumb wheel. The OLED screen provides good information and is easily visible in bright daylight.

I like the fact you can lock all 3 axis when you are done shooting, and just carry it by the handle upside down. There is no movement when you lock the gimbal. Unlike the Chinese Feiyu A2000c, which rattled when you locked it, this has none of that.

Finally, I get go outside and take long walks without worrying about people hearing my breathing. You could in theory strap this to a car, but I wouldn't risk it. Use the gopro car mount for that. 

The old adage is true: If you want quality, sometimes you have to pay for it. In this case, the gimbal out performs my expectations and I hope it lasts a very, very long time.