Today we’re taking a closer look at three gimbal camera systems, all of which offer the ability to capture professional-quality stabilised video footage, be from a connected smartphone, action camera or larger DSLR/Mirrorless camera.
Starting off with the most popular DJI Osmo Mobile 4 hand-held gimbal we have an excellent example of a smartphone accessory that can turn everyday footage captured using smartphones, into cinematic moments.
Via DJI: Life’s extraordinary moments deserve to be captured with smooth video. DJI OM 4 is a foldable stabilizer designed to complement your smartphone, allowing you to start recording right away. Magnetic, ultra-compact, and bursting with easy-to-use features, OM 4 is the ultimate solution for sharing your world.
The motorised gimbal works on 3-axis, and it powerful enough to hold large modern phones such as the iPhone 12.
A magnetic phone clamp combines with an included magnetic ring holder that user attach to their phone, this enables near effortless attachment and removal of the connected smartphone, for quick capture whenever inspiration strikes, it’s a great design that’s perfect for filming while out and about. The ring also doubles as a discrete kickstand, it’s slim design means you can just leave in on your phone too.
In addition to the mechanical smoothness of the device itself, a DJI app adds all sorts of functionality through powerful active tracking and smart gesture controls.
The DJI Mimo APP has a lot of outstanding features, but some popular favourites include:
ActiveTrack 3.0: Makes having the camera follow targets super easy. This new version recognizes adults, children, and pets with higher accuracy. You can fine-tune your image composition with the joystick, making outstanding new captures possible through the combination of both automatic and manual controls.
Dynamic Zoom: Popularly known as the “Hitchcock effect” a creative zoom shot that delivers a Hollywood feel with minimal effort. Advanced algorithms know what to do, so all you have to do is tap and walk.
Timelapse: Speed up fluffy white clouds drifting across an open sky or condense a road trip into a few seconds. Impress your friends with captivating, compact videos.
The DJI Mimo app even includes a rather capable video editor, and it’s good enough to make little masterpieces on the fly. Best of all, the built-in tutorials provide guidance that makes it all very easy to learn and use.
If you’re after an all-in-one solution for stable video capture, the DJI Osmo Pocket 2 is a motorised gimbal with a camera built-in.
Pocket-sized and extremely portable, DJI Pocket 2 is a tiny camera that lets us record memorable moments - with just one hand. It’s equipped to stabilise movement, taking sharp photos and smooth videos, it’s a powerful solution that’s able to fit easily into a bag so that you can take it anywhere. Should something suddenly catch your eye, grab your DJI Pocket 2 and capture it all.
The camera is, of course, a very important part of what makes the Pocket 2 so good, and although small, it can capture stunning 4K 60FPS video footage, or 64MP photos.
With HDR video, DJI Pocket 2 separates exposure levels by area and layers the image so that the footage pops with life-like detail. When taking 64MP photos, the stabilized camera takes sharp 8x zoom shots. DJI Matrix Stereo technology records audio with so much real detail, it lets you relive the scene, 4x microphones on the handle provide surround-sound audio too.
Even though the camera is built-in you can still enjoy all the benefits that come from having a connected APP - for example, you could use the Ai editor to automatically combine footage from a birthday party into one beautiful video to share with all who attended the event!
The final word in Gimbal technology comes from the DJI Ronin series, which we’ve likely all seen in use at everything from Rugby through to the Olympics, Rally and Racing events.
The Ronin S 2 can hold DLSR/Mirrorless cameras weighing up to 4.5KG, it’s pretty serious stuff able to hold the body with a large lens attached.
The motorised gimbal system itself only weighs in at around 1 KG though, with monocoque carbon fibre construction providing incredible strength and unbelievable lightness to the axis arms.
A built-in front dial above the trigger allows for single-handed focus control. It also complements a mounted Focus Wheel for two-channel focus and zoom control, right from the handle. The 3D Focus System uses ToF sensors to measure the distance between lens and subject for a sharp picture, even in low lighting. This advanced system enables fast autofocusing on manual, large-aperture lenses.
Having a gimbal to stabilise your camera footage while you tilt, pan and roll, will help to capture smooth footage, even while you’re moving. Smaller gimbals like the DJI Pocket 2 or OM 4 are also handy for shooting stills from tricky angles and above crowds, great for capturing concerts and events. Larger gimbals such as the Ronin S 2 are part of the professional filmmaking equipment kit.
These are just some of the range available today, and this gimbal camera technology extends into drones as well! Check out the full range in Cameras & Drones today!
