Hello I'm Graham Houghton and welcome to this video now this is the brand new
Scorp mini and this is video that i really didn't want to make let me explain why now
about two months ago FeiyuTech reached out to most of its youtube collaborators
and asked them would they like to produce a video showing the feature set of this new product
which was going to be launched on kickstarter so we played around with this particular gimbal
with our cameras and then produce some material that FeiyuTech could actually use on launch day
now unfortunately for me it didn't work out quite so good um if you notice most of the
videos that are now showing on the kickstarter page or on youtube are actually made with the
Sony a7 series of cameras if you look at the compatibility list you'll find there's very little
other cameras that are fully compatible with this mini gimbal when i say fully compatible i mean
it's able to control the iso shutter speed and the aperture from the controls on the back of
the gimbal you have two compatibility modes one is over the usb-c mode so here with the canon camera
i've got it connected from the camera port on the gimbal to the usb-c port on the camera and from
the gimbal i'm able to control aperture shutter speed and iso and i can start and stop recording
so that's fully compatible for those cameras that haven't got usb connectivity you can use
the standard connector cable so here i've got the usbc to 2.5 millimeter which is used by
some of the fuji cameras and some of the Canon cameras there's also a cable which will uh
connect between the usb-c and the Panasonic room it's special cable which is 2.5 millimeter trrs
now unfortunately that cable does not work with this mini on any of the Panasonic cameras
it works on the g6 max gimbal but it will not work on this one now i have come up with a fix
which is not commercially available um i'm not sure that i'm going to release the details of
how it works i may put it on my photo blog page under the review but it allows you to
use the canon connect 2.5 millimeter cable and then launch the panasonic camera for
start and stop video and shoot vid shoot stills using this adapter that i've manufactured
let me now talk about the two compatibility modes that i am calling
one is going to be the payload compatibility so with the gimbal it has a payload of
1200 grams now you'll find to use 1200 grams the gimbal has to be absolutely finely balanced
otherwise you end up with much vibration and in some points the gimbal will flop as the motor
can't control the strength i'm saying about 850 grams or 900 grams it's going to be the limit
for this gimbal now it obviously depends on the type of camera and the lens you've got as
to how much extension there is which will tip it over the center point of balance in some dynamic
situations it's all right when the camera is in this position where everything's in static balance
but when you start to move the gimbal into this sort of position you're now putting dynamic
loads on the arms and they can be unbalanced quite easily so it's a case of see it now has
started to move away from its normal position so the payload is is not um holding that back
we got the other compatibility mode which is whether the gimbal can actually fire the
shutter for stills or start and stop recording video now the sony a7 series seems to be fully
compatible and as much that you can start and stop video and take stills now with the canon cameras
i've been using which is the eos m50 mark ii the canon eos m6 mark ii and the canon g7x mark iii
all of those can work over usbc but we have limitations you might notice that you can only
start and stop recording video you can't do a half press shutter release so you can't focus
when you're in the video mode for example so you're relying totally on autofocus to be able to
shoot that video if at some point it wanders off focus when normally if you're using it by hand you
can half press the shutter button and force the camera to reacquire focus unfortunately with the
canon protocol and this gimbal you can't initiate that half focus press so we've lost that facility
so it does pay to look at the camera compatibility list on the feiyutech website and have a look at
the small print as to see which of the features are not available with your particular camera
now that compatibility list only shows three or four cameras that are compatible from the
panasonic range and they include the gh4 gh5 gh6 and something like the g9 now it is possible to
use cameras like the panasonic lumix fz300 330 providing you use the what's called liberator
plate which allows you to get the camera axis on the tripod access it's a little extension plate
with a quarter twenty screw which allows you to screw this to the base of the camera and then
you've got a quarter 20 which is on the center line and the camera that was released by aldo
following a design that i published a long long time ago but it relies on you pressing
the start and stop button for video or pressing the shutter button if you're shooting video
if you had my design for the canon to panasonic adapter then it will start and stop recording
video and it will shoot still so so until we get an update to the firmware for this gimbal it
means that we can't use the panasonic lumix 2.5 millimeter cable to fire the cameras using that
remote wired socket now in compatibility terms even if you don't have the wired compatibility
to start and stop recording video or shooting stills providing the camera can balance then
you can still use the record button on the camera to start and stop your video
recording or pressing the shutter button to take stills so for example i've got the little pentax
sr7 fitted on the top of that gimbal and i just press the start and stop video recording
to capture images on there and it's the same with any of the point and shoots um something
like the canon sx70 you can use on the gimbal and just press the record button to start you
recording video but normally the mirrorless cameras such as the fuji xt3 will use the
2.5 millimeter connection cable or the olympus again we'll use that 2.5 millimeter connection
cable to start and stop recording or taking still so you've got those compatibility terms there
now again with the kickstarter page if you look at the advertisements for this model
you'll see it shows face tracking object tracking and video tracking but be aware for face tracking
you do need to purchase that additional accessory which plugs into the uart port and that acts as a
a signal to the gimbal as to where to follow focus so you do not need that extra
accessory to do face tracking again with object tracking you will need to enable that with that
particular accessory video tracking is one of the nicest features of this particular gimbal you've
probably seen in some of the other demonstration videos where you can actually set waypoints
and then the gimbal will move to those at your predetermined speed and pre-determine time so
that is one of the most outstanding features that i found of this gimbal and is one that
i'll be using quite a bit so that's the video tracking all the other modes like panorama
hyperlapse panorama all those sort of things are standard editions and work quite well
talking about balancing these knobs are not the easiest in the world to balance the camera
quite a few reviewers have pointed out that these locking knobs are not really fine enough for the
precision balance that you need on this gimbal and the one that really is difficult is the one which
adjusts the archer plate you can get it in position think you've locked it but then it
slides away and you have to rebalance it so that archer plate uh lock is not the best in the world
for getting fine balance and again the automatic tuning facility within the gimbal to set the motor
strength just tend to overstress the motors it puts too much power on them and you can get into
some situations and you'll end up with the gimbal vibrating in that sort of situation it's better to
find out which axis is given that vibration and then fine-tune that manually to change the
motor strength until the vibrations stop but the gimbal is a lovely addition to my arsenal of tools
especially like this facility where you can use the magic wheel at the front to either do a pan
press the change button at the side now you can use it for roll press the button again and then
you can use it for tilt so you've got plenty of options there for manual control of the gimbal
and with the associated uh scope app again you can remotely control the camera from that app
change its position change focus if you've got the sony camera
it's a nice addition even if the user interface isn't that intuitive it is a good app to use
now the other thing i haven't pointed out of this gimbal is the little oled display it's
great indoors you can see everything perfectly but as with all these oled displays take them out into
even moderate sunshine and you will not be able to see the oled display i find it near impossible to
use outdoors i've tried shielding the display and looking at it um it's not very useful for outdoors
um being old it's probably hard to drive that even harder to give you a brighter look um so
maybe that's something that needs to be addressed with future issues of these gimbals so i didn't
feel as though i had to produce this video as most of the videos are being shot using a
second camera which gives the impression that the gimbal can actually do more than it actually can
with other brands of camera so it really does point to the fact you need to look at
the camera compatibility list to find out what options will not be available with this gimbal
if you purchase it from that kickstarter page hopefully they will help dictate the software
i was working for several weeks with the technical department especially a chap there called ryan
we've had several interchanges over some of the design features of the gimbal some of the
problems that have been highlighted but not picked up by other reviewers so um hopefully there's
going to be some software updates for this gimbal which will allow the full feature set to operate
now i'm not going to go out with this gimbal and show you a fantastic footage of me walking
and getting nice smooth videos of following people on skateboards you've seen that in all
the other videos that have been showcased on the kickstarter page and some fantastic videos there
i really just wanted to put a balance to that and say have a look at the specifications
and have a look at the camera compatibility list to make sure that what you get is what you need
for your particular shooting needs so that's it for the video hope you found it useful thanks
for watching please do take care and i hope to see you all very very soon goodbye for now