Last year I reviewed Zhiyun Crane-M3
three in one gimbal.
You can use it with mirrorless cameras, with smartphones and action cameras.
Well, in this video, I'm going to introduce you to Zhiyun Crane-M3S
upgraded version of Zhiyun Crane M3.
What has changed?
What has been added?
This video is sponsored by Zhiyun. Ahoj, this is Zdenka.
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There are many things
I really liked about the previous version M3. Comfortable grip,
it's very small and I also like the way the reacts.
This gimbal was my choice for filming a short film in the winter
with a smartphone.
It could handle cold temperatures and it's also very smooth.
This video will be first look.
But now let's look at them side by side.
M3 and M3S are pretty much the same.
As I already created an in-depth review of the previous version,
I will link in below for those interested.
I'm standing here literally in a mud and quickly
trying to get to the other location right there.
Sunset is already settling down.
I have to be very quick
to get a few shots over there, so but I want to show you this little bag.
It came with it. So the gimbal was
inside.
Let's take a look how it is organized inside.
I like that it's got a magnetic cover and many different pockets.
You can literally put your
gimbal in and all the tools and the wires, everything you need.
So the design is really nice of the bag.
I got to say that that impressed me right there.
The gimbal weighs 705 grams.
It's small and compact, but very powerful.
You can certainly use it with mainstream cameras.
It supports PD fast charging.
It takes roughly 2 hours to have the gimbal fully charged
and you will get up to 7.5 hours of battery life.
Well, the unfortunate just happened.
Remember when I was filming there few years ago? I was filming all this frozen
Ice Capades and all that. Well, that location,
unfortunately, my friends, is gone.
The city built this beautiful
fence because this location is deemed unsafe.
So this place is out of the question.
But at least we have all these beautiful
B-rolls shot here.
What has really changed is the plates design.
You don't have to remove the whole thing anymore.
The camera plate is very small and clicks directly into the mechanism.
So it's easier now to attach your camera and remove it.
It has a safe locking mechanism. Zhiyun has now customized
release plates for each camera model.
So here, when you look at Sony A7SIII, you can nicely remove the battery.
However, there will be some exceptions when it comes to cameras.
Therefore, you should always check compatibility list
before you purchase any gimbal.
I have here Canon M6 Mark II and then one is a troubled camera.
The design of the battery doors is quite unfortunate.
It's extremely difficult to find a plate which is tiny.
So this one also blocks the doors.
The good thing about the gimbal is that once you balance it
with a certain camera and lens, you don't need to rebalance it again.
Here's how it looks like with the Canon M6 Mark II
and here is how
it looks like with the Sony A7S III.
Let's take a look at the tripod.
It's longer for a good reason.
Vertical content creators might really like this.
I don't do as much vertical content myself,
but I know that there are some of you which really do prefer filming that way.
You don't need to mount the camera vertically.
There's a function for filming in vertical mode with a press of a button.
Once you are in this vertical mode, you just mount the tripod here
to the side for better grip, if you will be vlogging.
I have mounted the gimbal in a vertical position.
Now I have the handle at the bottom of the gimbal as you can see.
So this is how it would look like if it would be vlogging in the vertical
position. If you will be filming a sit down interview,
and need to please to gimbal on a tripod, just mount it to the tripod directly.
This is a very good solution for creators who film both in horizontal and
vertical mode.
You don't need to change anything. No rebalancing.
The only time you would rebalance the gimbal is if you would change camera
or lens or smartphone or action camera because of the change of the weight.
If you will be filming in darker conditions, the gimbal has built in bi-color
fill lights, you can adjust brightness and temperature.
Right now I am in under lit conditions,
so my face should not be really lit properly.
I cannot see myself.
I'm filming with the rear camera, so I'm going to turn the light on.
It's right here. Right now
the light is at 100%, so I should be lit up pretty well.
I'm going to turn it down to 10%.
So this is the look I'm going to get. Again to 100%,
and I'm actually going to shut off the light.
The touch screen display
now does everything. Many advanced settings have been added.
There are two languages, English and Chinese.
You can change modes.
You can check if gimbal is balanced correctly
and if you go to settings,
this is where many things have been added.
Parameters settings will allow you to change motor torque,
smoothness, flow speed, joystick
speed, joystick reverse, and deadband.
You can customize control wheel.
It has all options.
The trigger can be customized as well.
Another new feature is Bluetooth shutter.
Enable Bluetooth on your camera, pair it with gimbal
and now you can control your camera via Bluetooth shutter control,
start and stop recording. If you need to control more, all manual
controls on the camera via gimbal, you would use one of the included cables.
Let's go back to settings. Below
Bluetooth shutter is fine tuning and advanced features.
Let's check it out.
Panorama, 180, 3x3
and customize Panorama.
Here you can program the view you want to capture.
Timelapse,
motion lapse,
vortex mode, which you can fully customize as well.
All can be done directly on the gimbal.
The app to be used with this gimbal is ZY Play.
It also has all camera controls.
There are two application modes. Phone control,
which I have enabled right now, basically a remote control.
I can record video, take photos, film time
lapse,
moving time lapse.
I can change scene mode.
You can also use this app with a smartphone,
which I will show you in a bit.
You can select walking, motion and custom.
You can enable remote control and move the camera
with a joystick on the screen.
You can adjust motor strength
and if you film it's Sony or Panasonic,
you can select the camera manufacturer here.
Until now,
I've been showing this gimbal with a mirrorless camera.
Now let's look at the smartphone.
It can load absolutely anything on this,
any extra heavy lenses and filters.
There is no payload limit.
I have an iPhone 14 pro.
The clamp has a nice deep grip.
I have a Moment case on the phone.
It fits well.
Let's go to ZY Play app
and change the application mode to phone camera.
Now the camera is turned on and I can use this app for filming with a smartphone.
You can do normal video in 4K or 1080p
in 24, 30 and 60 frames per second.
You can film in automatic mode and in manual mode.
You can change white balance, enable grid, turn on light and turn off
anti-shake if you want to. You can film slow motion, you can film timelapse
where you can set the time interval, shutter speed and duration.
You can also enable close shutter.
Moving timelapse is quite advanced here.
You can add waypoints, you will select the frame
you want to film, adjust roll, so you can have motion time lapse
with a roll movement.
You can also adjust focus.
Above all this
you can program the focus as it is moving and also zoom.
You can zoom in or zoom out.
You can lock the pan and tilt and save all this as a preset.
I honestly haven't seen it yet with another smartphone gimbal.
This is a first one for me, so I'm definitely going to try out
that feature.
There are also filters available,
however, they only support 720p video resolution.
Tracking is not available and this app.
For mounting an action camera, you would use one of these attachments.
It's a small gimbal but very powerful, not only because it has strong motors,
but because of all the adjustments and programing you can do with it.
You can really adjust pretty much everything.
Link to this product can be found below the video and a video description.
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What do you think about those upgrades?
And perhaps check out one of those videos next.
See you in the next one. Cau.... Ahoj...