Zhiyun Smooth Q3 review: Compact smartphone gimbal with rotating fill light

Although considering a smartphone gimbals for my telephones, two brand names immediately came to intellect, DJI and Zhiyun. Zhiyun tends to make gimbals/stabilizers for cameras and smartphones. It smartphone models have the Sleek item identify and for the earlier pair of months I have been testing out the Sleek Q3.

The Zhiyun Sleek Q3 is
obtainable for $89 or $109

if you want the combo bundle that comes with some additional goodies storage bag, ZY Cami a single-year key assistance card, and a wrist strap. The zippered carrying/storage case alone is well worth the $20 additional price. The Sleek Q3 is fairly priced and also a terrific first gimbal if you are interested in improving upon your smartphone video clip outcomes.

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Gimbals supply three-axis stabilization with internal motors that activate after you mount your cellular phone and then convert on the gimbal. The gimbal stabilizes tilt, pan, and roll although also delivering several controls on the gimbal to pan, zoom, and shift by means of several digital camera possibilities. You smartphone is linked through Bluetooth to the gimbal and smartphone application aid tutorial you by means of capturing articles with exciting perspectives. The gimbal also functions as a selfie adhere or even as a tripod and is an essential software for video clip creators.

Hardware

The Zhiyun Smooth Q3  is extremely shut in dimension to the DJI Osmo Cell 4/five, but is also much more cost-effective. Its smaller sized variety component tends to make it quick to pack the case and gimbal alongside with you everywhere. The Sleek Q3 also comes with a tripod attachment for the base that serves as an extended rod for holding on to the gimbal far too. The tripod base is extremely huge and creates a secure platform for applying the gimbal hands-free.

Just take the gimbal out of its bundle and demand it up through USB-C. I very advise you view the Brief Start Manual that will demonstrate you how to total unlock, prolong, and set up your gimbal for use. It is really just a couple of steps to set up the hardware, together with sliding up the principal vertical arm and tightening the screw, rotating the tilt axis fixing buckle, and then rotating the roll axis fixing buckle that has the smartphone mounting bracket connected to it. Slide aside the smartphone clamp, it has rubber braces on both side, and insert your cellular phone with the cameras facing away from you.

A single point to notice about the vertical arm screw is that this is not supposed to thoroughly lock the vertical arm so never crank down far too challenging on the vertical screw. It is utilized to alter the smoothness of the slide slot and lock in the contact points so that power flows to the motors all through the rest of the gimbal.

Prior to turning on the gimbal, you can accomplish a little bit of guide balancing. In landscape orientation, shift the cellular phone remaining or proper in just the cellular phone clamp till it is constant and practically degree with the ground. In portrait mode, you can essentially slide the cellular phone mount alone remaining or proper, there are steel bars involving the two clamp pieces that slide remaining to proper in the mount, till it is practically degree to the ground. You do not require best balancing given that the gimbal will align all the things when turned on, but it aids to get the equilibrium shut so that you never have the cellular phone awkwardly positioned or the gimbal working far too challenging to maintain equilibrium.

There is a LED light above your smartphone, when in landscape orientation, that can be rotated 180 levels so you can use the light although recording selfie video clips far too. Tapping and holding on the major of the light turns it on and then tapping it toggles by means of a few levels of brightness. The built-in light is a terrific element we do not see on the DJI competitor.

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On the back side of the gimbal cope with is the power button and cause button. The USB-C charging port is on the proper side with the zoom rocker on the remaining side. On the working confront of the gimbal, available and controllable with just your thumb although you hold the gimbal, are indicator lights, mode button, seize button, and a directional joystick.

Four of the buttons have various actions access with solitary, double, or triple presses. The cause button is a single of the most utilized with a solitary push toggling on/off Clever Comply with mode, a double push repositioning the cellular phone to centre it, and a triple push switching your cellular phone involving landscape and portrait orientation. A push and hold of the cause also toggles PhoneGo mode. Investigate the various button possibilities for the mode button, seize button, and power button. The joystick only moves you remaining, proper, up, or down.

Specs

• Light-weight: Integrated LED with 180 diploma rotation and a few brightness levels
• Smartphone potential: a hundred and fifty to 280 grams
• Battery: 1300 mAh for 7-fifteen hours of battery existence and a few hours to thoroughly demand
• Proportions (folded): forty five x 154 x 180 mm
• Proportions (unfolded): ninety x 127 x 279 mm
• Body weight: 340 grams

Software package

You can use the gimbal on your own as a stabilizer for your cellular phone, but you will not practical experience all of the exclusive outcomes and inventive possibilities until you use the provided application. The ZY Cami application is obtainable for Android and Apple iphone models and presents you with a total capturing and modifying alternate to the digital camera application on your cellular phone. There are possibilities for video clip, photo, pano, dolly zoom, timelapse, hyperlapse, and intelligent possibilities.

The principal use of a smartphone gimbal is to seize video clip articles and the mode button on the gimbal is targeted on this practical experience. Pan stick to mode (PF) signifies that the tilt and roll axis motors are locked and the pan axis follows the motion of the stabilizer cope with. The joystick is utilized to command tilt and pan axis in this mode. When Lock mode (L) is enabled the a few motors are locked and will not stick to the motion of the stabilizer cope with with the joystick all over again controlling tilt and pan. In Comply with mode (F) the roll axis motor is locked with the tilt and pan axis motors next the motion of the stabilizer cope with. 

The Position of Perspective mode (POV) is fairly radical in that all a few motors stick to the motion of the stabilizer cope with. Vortex mode is accessed from both the POV or PF modes with the POV indicator light flashing although in this mode. PhoneGo mode is enabled by urgent and holding the rear cause button. The F indicator flashes when this mode is enabled and in this mode the digital camera pans and tilts next the motion of the stabilizer at quickly velocity although the roll axis is locked.

The ZY Cami application also has a impressive editor that lets you thoroughly edit your captured articles proper on your cellular phone. You can trim your video clip, include music, include subtitles, include stickers, alter playback velocity, reverse the video clip, zoom, rotate, include filters, modify colors, and much more. The Key assistance, a single year is provided with the combo bundle, presents you access to on-line modifying, on-line video clip storage, and much more templates for highly developed modifying of your video clips.

User guides, tutorials, and articles from other creators are all contained in just the ZY Cami application. Viewing other articles is excellent for inspiration and for delivering strategies of how you can strengthen your articles far too.

Encounters and conclusions

I shot video clips applying the Zhiyun Sleek Q3 with a OnePlus nine Professional, Google Pixel 5a, and TCL 20 Professional 5G. My Samsung Galaxy Z Fold three has far too odd of a variety component to do the job in the gimbal, which was anticipated. The cellular phone clamp securely held these telephones and the rubber inserts secured the finish on the telephones. You can even mount your cellular phone in a case if it is not a cumbersome case.

The Clever Comply with mode was extremely extraordinary in which a inexperienced box seems that you position on your matter and then the gimbal follows that matter where ever they shift. This is also helpful when applying the tripod to document oneself accomplishing items in entrance of the digital camera.

The panoramic mode with the tripod is wonderful given that you can set the Sleek Q3 down on a secure floor, empower pano in the application, and then hit document to view the gimbal do the job with your cellular phone to seize a flawlessly aligned pano shot. I usually feel to shift up or down a little bit when I check out shooting these just with my cellular phone.

The dolly zoom option is an exciting outcome that we have observed in motion pictures in the earlier and it can be occasionally called the Hitchcock outcome. You shift toward or away from the matter although zooming in the opposite route. This outcome was utilized on Main Brody in Jaws to terrific achievements. The intelligent/template possibilities have been also entertaining as they give you some filters and methods to experiment with simply in which you only pick out the template and then shoot the video clip.

In general, I was extremely satisfied with the Zhiyun Sleek Q3 gimbal’s functionality, price, and impressive shooting/modifying application. The light is a terrific addition and it can be a fairly compact gimbal. Although Zhiyun advertises 7-fifteen hours of battery existence, my practical experience was that the 7 hours is much more common and need to be anticipated. That mentioned, that’s a good deal of time to seize video clip articles all working day lengthy.