- Today I have four iPhone gimbals
and we're gonna see which one wins
when we put them side by side.
(upbeat music)
So I get requests from companies all the time
to do reviews on my channel for gimbals.
It seems to be like the hot thing right now,
is gimbals and smart phone gimbals specifically.
There are so many different types of smartphone gimbals
on the market so I decided to test a few of them
back to back to see what differences there are
between different gimbals of this size
and find one that works best because I'm sure
a lot of you are interested in the differences
because these gimbals aren't that much different;
however, I've found there is quite a range
in how these gimbals function and what my experience
was working with each one.
Now before we get into testing these gimbals
against each other, I was not paid to do this video
by any of these companies; however, these four gimbals
were sent to me for me to product test,
but I definitely am gonna give you
an honest opinion on my thoughts
on these different gimbals.
So I've got the DJI Osmo Mobile 2,
I've got the Moza Mini M,
I've got the Zhiyun Smooth 4
and I've got the FreeVision VILTA M.
Now there's a few things to think about
before we get into the minor differences
between each of these gimbals.
What is the reason that you want an iPhone gimbal?
There's a few features that come on gimbals
that make it a lot easier to shoot
than it is to shoot with just your iPhone
in your hand.
Now one thing that I discovered
is that when you're shooting with these
small gimbals, when you take the stabilizer off
your phone, so these stabilizers in the phone
are very good and when you take the stabilizer off
you actually get really jittery footage.
So when I was doing the test,
when I was playing around with all four
of these gimbals, I took the stabilizer off
and I realized that across the board,
these gimbals aren't super stable
unless you have the stabilizer on in the phone.
You do get like jittery footage,
especially when you're doing things like running
and especially because I'm shooting in daylight
and I don't have an indie filter on my camera.
That's one thing that I would suggest adding
if you want to make your footage look
much better when your shooting with an iPhone
is that get an indie filter because if you don't,
you get that really jittery look.
So that's the most important thing with the gimbal
is that is your gimbal stable?
Well what I've found out is that all of these
do have a lot of shake in it
when you turn that stabilizer off.
So that's one interesting thing to note
that stabilizers are great and they do a good job
of keeping your footage stable,
but you have to keep the stabilizer on.
And the two work together in unison
to give you some really awesome, stable footage.
And that's the purpose of a gimbal for an iPhone,
is that you get awesome, stable footage.
You can do some cool things like time lapses.
You can do some really cool motion moves
with your camera that you wouldn't be able to do
if you're just using your iPhone because even if
the stabilizer is good in your phone,
you're still hand holding it,
so when you have a stabilizer,
it does give you better looking, smooth footage
when you use the gimbal properly
and you're not jarring it around all over the place.
If you shake it up and down,
you're still gonna get poor footage.
So let me give you a rundown of each of these gimbals
so you have an idea of the key features
that each of these gimbals have
and what makes each of them unique.
The DJI Osmo Mobile 2 has a 15 hour battery life.
It's got some key features like time lapse,
motion lapse, hyper lapse, slow mo,
and it does have zoom control which allows you
to get smooth zooms while your filming.
This gimbal is lightweight, it's super portable
with not a ton of buttons on it.
You can use the DJI app or you can use FiLMiC Pro
because it is integrated into the app.
The FreeVision VILTA Mobile is another
small, portable gimbal.
This one has a nice rubber grip that's easy to hold.
It also has a 17 hour battery life.
With this gimbal, you have a little bit
more freedom with your time lapses
and you can specify how long you want to go
between each shot.
This gimbal uses a trigger on the back side
to control all the modes and when you hold the trigger,
you can push up and down on the joystick
to be able to zoom in and out
or you can push left and right and actually
get a roll so that makes it a little bit unique.
You can get those nice touch angles.
The Smooth 4 was born for filmmakers
as it says on the website.
This gimbal has a lot more buttons
and the design of it is made so you don't have
to use the app as much.
You can just use the buttons on the gimbal itself
and be able to do everything that you need to do.
It has focus pull and zoom capability
using the wheel on the side.
This one, just like all the rest,
have time lapse, motion lapse, and hyper lapse options.
But beyond the focus and zoom control
on the side, one of the unique things
is the trigger on the back.
So instead of using a joystick on the front,
you actually use the trigger on the back
and point the gimbal in a direction
and that's how you control which way
the gimbal is looking.
Now the MOZA Mimi-MI is actually
the cheapest out of all four of these
and one of the really cool features
about this is the wireless phone charging.
So you don't have to have a cable plugged in
to charge your phone while you're using the gimbal.
All these gimbals allow you to charge
while your filming; however, if you have to
plug in a cable, then it's gonna throw off
the balance and you won't be able to use
a bigger phone like a 7 Plus.
So one of the key things that they talk about
on the website for this one is that with the tracking,
you're able to detect multiple people within
the screen and be able to track them all precisely.
This one also has the ability to zoom
using the scroll on the front
and it's got multiple accessory points
so you can add different things on to the gimbal
like microphones or lights or anything
that you want to add.
So let's talk about the worst and work our way up
to the one that I personally would use.
So the lowest on the totem pole for me
was the MOZA Mimi-M and the reason
I did not like this when I was using it
is that the whole menu structure
is super confusing when you're in the app.
So when you're trying to get to any settings
or trying to change how the gimbal works,
it just took a lot of time and it was kind of confusing.
When you look at the layout of the buttons,
it's really not intuitive.
So you have to click through these buttons
and use this wheel here for your zooming
and it just didn't really work that well.
So when I was playing with this,
this one gave me the biggest issues
because it was just hard to use.
Now out of all four, this is the cheapest one,
so this is like $100.
It's supposed to be the cheapest iPhone gimbal
that you can get.
It will keep your footage smooth
but one of the major things that went wrong
is the tracking.
So I think tracking is one of those things
that is really useful in an iPhone gimbal
because when you're using a gimbal of this size
and you're using the tracking, it's actually
really powerful when it works well.
So if you're doing like a live stream
or if you're making videos and you're shooting yourself,
the tracking makes it so that you don't have
to focus so much on making sure the shot's right.
You could just focus on holding the camera out
and the camera will always stay on your face.
When you're shooting in the other direction
and you want to keep a shot centered the whole time,
makes it really easy to use the tracking feature.
I think gimbals with this size of phones,
that's one of the cool features that you have
is that tracking.
This tracking didn't work at all.
It was just all over the place
and it did not work.
They're supposed to be some special tracking
software in this that you could track
multiple people and do all these different things
and it just could not hold the shot at all.
Out of all four gimbals, I'm gonna say
the MOZA Mimi-M is the lowest on the totem pole.
So number three out of the four
I would have to say, this was a shock to me,
is the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and the reason
that I'm giving this number three
on the totem pole of gimbals
is just the way it functions and the usability of it.
So all the buttons are here.
You got this cool jog wheel
which does the focusing and zooming.
Even though it's super easy to use,
one of the biggest issues first and foremost
is that the tracking doesn't work.
So I would try and track an object
and it just kept losing the object.
Now the other reason I didn't really like
this gimbal is the zoom and focus wheel.
Because it's there, I want to use it
and I want to have these smooth focus and zooms,
but it's not really user friendly.
You start spinning it and it kind of moves,
it kind of stops.
It doesn't work all the time.
So I had issues playing around with that.
I had issues with the tracking
and then just in general, using this gimbal
is a different kind of motion than other gimbals
that I've worked with.
So you actually have to hold the trigger
on the back of the gimbal to be able to set it
into follow mode where it will follow you.
You let go and it's gonna freeze the camera.
Now you can physically move it using your hand
and put it in different directions,
but just the way that this works
where you have this different kind of motion
to move the gimbal around,
it made it harder to use because if I'm
switching between my bigger gimbals
and this gimbal, it's different functionalities.
So you're actually having to relearn
how to do these movement patterns to get
the shots that you want.
Now this isn't that big of a deal
if this is the only gimbal that you're working with
and you're playing with this.
You can really master it but it actually
stands out from a lot of other gimbals
in general because it has
this kind of different functionality.
That mixed with the zoom and focus control
not working very well, mixed with the tracking
makes it not the best gimbal.
And then out of these four gimbals,
it's actually the biggest.
So it has the biggest footprint
which means that it's not as easy
to carry around.
Now the DJI and the VILTA I can put in my pocket
pretty easily as I'm walking around.
The Moza has a weird setup where
to keep it flat, you have to flip
the gimbal motor upwards.
So it actually stretches out as long
as the Smooth 4.
There's no way to collapse it
where the motor sits flush against the base
of the handle, which I think is a crazy design flaw.
If you're gonna make a gimbal,
make it easy to pack up and make it small.
So out of these four, the Smooth 4
is definitely number three.
Now it's actually a toss up between
the last two gimbals.
You got the VILTA and you got the DJI Osmo Mobile 2.
Now both of these gimbals are similar in size
and similar in functionality.
And one thing that stood out is both of these gimbals
had very good tracking in their software.
So if you tracked in an object
it would stay centered almost the entire time
and you would never have issues.
Now one thing with the DJI Osmo Mobile 2
is that you either only have lock mode
or you have follow all mode, meaning that
when you're holding the gimbal,
it's completely locked.
And the other mode, follow mode, is the camera
follows in all directions.
Well, the DJI only has those two modes
whereas the VILTA also has an additional mode
where it keeps the tilt locked off
but the pan moves, which I think
is actually useful sometimes.
Another thing with the DJI Osmo Mobile 2
is that you're limited in your range.
So this motor specifically is not
360 degrees around so you can't
move all the way around.
It actually hits at a certain point.
So if you're tracking something
or if you're moving around a lot,
you could hit that range.
Whereas on the VILTA, you have a 360 degree motor here.
Now in terms of keeping your footage stable,
both of them do a really good job.
I did see a little bit more of an improvement
with the DJI over the VILTA, but it's pretty small
and it's not the biggest deal in the world.
Now one really cool feature about using
the DJI is that they have integrated
into the FiLMiC Pro app.
So I know a lot of people use the FiLMiC Pro app,
it's the app I use, to be able to have
more creative control over your image
on an iPhone and the DJI Osmo is actually
built into that app so that you can use
the functions of your DJI Osmo Mobile 2
within the app FiLMiC Pro so they work together.
But both of these side by side are good choices
if you're looking for an iPhone gimbal.
I highly suggest either getting
the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 or getting the VILTA M.
I like keeping this one on me,
it's a great gimbal to use all the time.
The grip is amazing on it.
The DJI is just plastic whereas this one
has a rubberized grip.
It's just built a little bit stronger, more beefier.
It just feels like this gimbal's gonna last
whereas this one's a little bit more plastic-y.
So like I said, it's a toss up.
Both these gimbals are very good
but out of these selections, I would choose
one of the two.
The DJI, if you want more creative control
and you want to use the FiLMiC Pro app,
and it's integrated with the gimbal.
Now you can definitely use FiLMiC Pro
with the free Vision VILTA M because you can
access all the modes just from the trigger
and the joystick on the front.
So you actually can use it,
it's just not integrated the same way
that the DJI has.
Okay guys, I hope this gives you an idea
of the range of gimbals
that are out there for smartphones.
There's definitely a lot of options
and a lot of them are around the same price point.
But I highly suggest not looking at
the marketing that goes into some of these gimbals
and actually look at the functionality of them
because there are some cool features
that are stated on different companies' websites
but when you actually use the gimbal,
it doesn't have the same functionality.
It just doesn't work the same.
So I'd love to know your thoughts
on my choice between the VILTA and the DJI
and I'd love to know if you guys have had
a different experience with the Moza
or the Smooth 4.
I hope this video helped in making your decision
on which gimbal to get.
If you're new to this channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
turn on those notifications, 'cause you're not
gonna want to miss any of the videos
I got on this channel.
There's lots of filmmaking tutorials.
I've got different reviews.
Also some pretty awesome travel vlogs
from when me and my wife travel around the world.
Also come find me on Instagram at JevenDovey
and guys, I will see you on the next one.