Recently, I say recently, it's been within like the last few months I bought the Samsung
Galaxy s21 Ultra and one of the things I really wanted to try with it was using a smartphone
gimbal.
So I originally got the DJI OM 4.
Actually no, I got that when I had my Pixel 2 so I wanted to try it with that but then
I thought I wasn't going to use it anyway because the camera just wasn't that great
on that phone because it's generations old so I didn't get it with this phone, but I
did get it to try it out but I sent it back so I wasn't going to use it, and so once I
did get the s21 Ultra because the camera's so good on it for photos and video I wanted
to actually try it out with a gimbal and see if it was something that I would actually
use as a vlogging camera sometimes if I didn't want to bring out any of my gear or if I just
wanted to kind of chuck a gimbal in my bag and just use my phone.
So I was sent the Dolphin smartphone 3-axis gimbal from INKEE and one of the things I
wanted to try was seeing how good it was going to be with my phone so this is what it looks
like.
So in the box you get the gimbal, a USB cable, and a little tripod, and the instruction manual,
and so the first thing I noticed was the fact that I can't use the gimbal with my case on
and the very first time I opened it and I got it out the box I was a little bit, I just
couldn't get it to work but after spending some more time trying to figure it out then
I did kind of get it to work but the biggest thing for me is the fact that I can't actually
use the gimbal with my
case on my camera which is a little bit annoying because even though it shouldn't fall out
of the gimbal, if it did, my phone wouldn't be protected so I'll just show you it just
doesn't fit at all so if I want to use it then I have to take my phone out of my case
which is something that I don't really want to have to do, but that's how we have to do
it so to, I think one of the things that I also didn't realize and what potentially stops
the gimbal from balancing properly because this is one of the things the first time I
actually put the phone on the gimbal it didn't balance properly and I think it might have
been because the phone wasn't the right way around, I don't know but on the side of the
phone holder you've got this little arrow which shows you which way the lens needs to
point so make sure that I do that this time and I'm gonna put the phone in so once you've
actually put the phone in it does hold it quite securely but still, you know, I would
prefer it if it didn't, if I didn't have to take my case off.
So I'm just going to make sure that the cam, that the phone's relatively in the middle
because I think that also is going to help with the balancing so once you've done that
make sure that you also use this little knob on the side to actually lock that bit in place
so it doesn't move around and then all you have to do is press the switch to turn it
on.
Just press and hold and then that's going to turn it on.
So the first time I did this, the first time I switched it on with my phone my phone was
flopping around everywhere and I don't really know why I don't know what happened, and,
but doing it now and doing it a couple of times after it's been fine and
I thought originally that was because the phone was too big and the phone was too heavy
but it seems to be working fine now so I don't know what that was about, but it seems, you
know, it seems pretty decent it seems to perform how you would expect a gimbal to.
So these markings on the front of the gimbal, you have obviously, you've got the power button
here and then this is the mode button so you can change the different follow modes so you've
got FPV, Follow, things like tilt shift and whatnot so you can change how the gimbal performs
when you're actually holding the phone and so in order to change the orientation of the
phone you just have to press the Mode button twice so double tap it quite quickly and that'll
change the orientation of the phone.
So let me show you some footage with the gimbal and some footage without the gimbal
So I've got the gimbal attached and this is what the footage looks like in terms of stabilization
and from what I can see it's doing pretty well and my arm's jiggling about a bit because
it's a bit lumpy but yeah this is what the footage looks like with the gimbal.
So this is me walking now with no gimbal attached and this is what the footage looks like.
I didn't bring a little tripod for me to put my phone in so that I could hold it a bit
further away but never mind this is what the footage looks like.
So I think it's a relatively cheap solution if you do want something for your smartphone
and you don't want to spend loads of money but you just want something which is going
to give you that little bit more stable footage whilst you're going out and using your smartphone
then I do think the Dolphin is worth getting.
Just be mindful of the fact that if you have a larger phone and you have your case on it
that it's not gonna work you're gonna have to take it out of the case and you might get
the issue that I had in the beginning where it was kind of flopping around the phone was
flopping around but like I said, I, since that happened it hasn't actually happened
again so I don't know if it was because I was putting the phone in it wrong or if it
was just having a bit of a weird moment, but otherwise you know, I will probably take it
out a few more times and just use it more and also I'll put together some videos about
actually using your smartphone to shoot to vlog and shoot b-roll and what kind of settings
to use in your phone and that kind of thing but, yeah the link to the Dolphin is in the
description so if you want to check it out then do go in there, and if you've liked this
video, if you found it useful then do give it a like and subscribe for more videos, but
otherwise, thanks for watching, and catch you next time.