- So, check this out.
This is Zhiyun Smooth X. In a nutshell
It is a two axis gimbal that telescopes
and is priced at 59 U.S. dollars.
So a couple interesting things there,
first thing is it's two axis,
not a three axis.
So check this out,
usually there is a tilt axis to stabilize that motion,
then a pan axis to stabilize that,
and then a roll axis to stabilize that.
But, this is a two axis gimbal so it stabilizes your roll
and your pan, but not the tilt.
But Zhiyun's telling me that you
can still get really smooth shots with only two axis,
and because it's only two,
it's going to be much more compact,
a little bit simpler, and also less expensive
which brings me to me second point, it's 59 dollars.
59 bucks for a gimbal, I mean, that's pretty hard to beat.
And, on top of that Zhiyun is sponsoring this video
and they're giving us all a code down below
to get 10 percent off if you buy this in the month of June.
So, this inexpensive gimbal becomes even less-er expensive.
Yeah? (laughs)
And, the final thing that's unique
about this is how it extends and kind of folds
so you can use it as a selfie stick
or whatever else you want to do.
- [Man] Backscratcher?
- A backscratcher?
Yeah, maybe.
Oh, yeah, that works.
Push an elevator button.
(clicking) Bink!
(laughs) I don't know.
Of course Zhiyun does have their line up
of three axis gimbals which,
pretty sure you're gonna get smoother footage out of it,
but again it's a little bit bigger,
little bit more complicated,
and a little bit more expensive.
So, I don't know.
There might be something here.
I think the first test is to go
and just get some footage with this thing and see,
does it actually look decently stable?
(relaxing lounge music)
All right, so here's the front facing camera here
and we're on selfie mode,
but if I extend you out a little bit, hold it out,
oh, look at that - Whoa.
- We got a wider shot.
This is pretty cool, huh? - Yeah.
- Kinda handy.
How stable is it?
It's a pretty good wide angle
'cause I can push the camera out fairly far.
To me it's looking pretty smooth,
not as smooth as the three axis gimbal,
but definitely not as bad as I thought.
I thought it was gonna be a lot more
duh duh duh duh duh. (laughs)
But, it's not so bad.
There's that one You Tube channel
where he just goes and hikes --
- Oh, yeah with celebrities?
- Yeah, this would be a good descent set up
for something like that, huh?
- Yeah, man.
- This is kind of a descent vlog angle
and it's a front facing camera
so I can actually see what I'm recording,
and look here's some goose.
Are they goose or ducks or what are they?
- Plural is geese.
- Geese.
One of the things I like about this extending handle
is that you can just go inverted really easily.
I like how I could just be standing normally
and still get that ultra low angle,
but usually I'm down here
like this getting my low angles like a crab.
I'm liking the telescoping handle more than
I initially thought I would.
Now, this is the iPhone 11 Pro Max,
and while I'm filming with the telephoto lens on here,
it does look a little bit shakey, but then after I cut
and I played back the clip it looks a lot smoother,
so I think there's some post stabilization added
in the iPhone app.
But, honestly it's looking pretty stable
from what I can tell so far.
Let's go to the next location shall we?
All right, so let's take a closer look
at the Smooth X.
Right now it's in its collapsed position
and for the most part you can throw it
in your pocket, a little bit of a bulge,
but you know if you wanna try to impress some people.
And, let's open it up.
And, it's very simple, straight forward,
you got your USB-C charging,
you got your power button right there,
you got a zoom rocker, joystick, two buttons,
and a 1/4"-20 down here in case you wanna throw it
on a tripod or if you wanna attach these little feet.
I do kinda like how simple this thing
is very straight forward.
So, you have your pan follow so
as you turn the gimbal the camera follows with it.
And then you just double tap that button to switch
between landscape and portrait; pretty straight forward.
Let me try this pano shot.
It think it's suppose to just take a full 180 degree shot.
So I'm just gonna hit it and it's gonna go
and get all my frames for me.
So, that's cool.
That's a full 180 degree shot.
You can also program in a motion time lapse
which is kinda cool.
You just leave it there for a couple minutes,
check back and what kind of shots you get.
First time you use it you do have to activate the gimbal
so you have to install the app and then just run it
through the activation process or else it will not work.
- [Man] What's your name?
- Gene.
- [Man] Oh.
- Or, PotatoJet Maybe
- [Man] Cool - Yeah.
- [Man] I watch all of your tutorials for the Sony
- Oh, really?
- [Man] a6400 --
- Oh, right on.
It's it funny how not many people know my actual name?
I was like, "My name's Gene."
He's like, "Oh, okay, you're not Potato."
(laughs)
The basics work with the default camera app
but you actually get access
to more features once you use the ZY Cami App?
I think that's what it's called but I got it opened up now.
And now, I can use my zoom rocker down here
to get an extreme close up of Sam!
- Whoa!
- And, I like this app layout, it's pretty easy
to understand.
On the left here you have auto exposure
which I have it set to but I can switch it over
to manual if you wanna manually dial in your settings.
And here, I have it at 4K 24, but you can go ahead
and adjust the different frame rates and resolution.
And here on the top right, we have our templates,
so you have a couple of different options here,
and I was playing around with it last night.
You get a set of two, three second shots
and it stitches everything together
and gives you a little edited sequence.
(strumming guitar)
It's not a feature I really use, but
you know, if you're kind of just getting into it
it's kinda fun, and there's also subject tracking
which is cool, but it's not supported in 4K
so I'm gonna go ahead, switch it over to HD,
and I'm gonna go ahead and select Sam right there.
So now I'm no longer controlling the gimbal
it's all doing it automatically.
And of course, you gotta
have your glamor effects right here, auto.
Do I look prettier?
Whoa, look at that, I just enlarged my eyeballs.
See?
This is normal, and enlarged!
Whoa!
That's too much!
Here, Sam, let me make you beautiful.
Let's slim up your face right there all the way, uh huh.
Smoothness, uh huh.
Whoa, oh, my Gosh!
You look like a Mexican Ken doll.
(laughs)
I'm gonna go ahead and just shut that all off.
There we go, there's my normal ugly ass face, perfect!
All right, so now I got it on gesture control.
See, I no longer need a camera man,
it just kind of does it all for me.
- I guess I'll go home now.
- Yeah, you can go home now, Sam,
this thing is basically my camera operator.
I'm over here.
Oh, wait, now it's taking pictures of you.
Don't take pictures of Sam.
(laughs) He doesn't deserve
this screen time.
Over here, buddy.
Over here, there we go.
(laughs)
All right, mic check one, two, can you guys hear me okay?
(taps on microphone)
Studio's still a work in progress,
starting to plug stuff in like our sound
and we've got an overhead camera,
still need to get an air conditioner in here and all that,
but we'll get there eventually.
All right, so let's take a look at this website real quick.
Smooth X is $59.99 for the gimbal, comes in gray and white,
and you can get it in standard
or the combo that's an extra 10 bucks,
comes with this little baggie, and inside of here
you have your little feet.
If we take a look at their other mobile stabilizers,
there's the Smooth Q2 and the Smooth 4.
The Smooth 4 is 99 bucks so what is that?
Like, 40 bucks more than this thing?
So, there's a little bit more extra cost to it
but then you get that three axis stabilization.
I guess if you're looking for smoothest
of the smoothest shots then, yeah,
definitely go for something three axis.
There's also the Q2 which I already did a review on,
that's 119 bucks so basically double the price of this.
Another thing that's nice about only having two axis
is that this is very low profile, it's pretty flat
so you don't really have to worry about this motor getting
in the frame of your ultra wide angle lens.
On the other ones the motors can creep
in a little bit at the corners.
If you hold it at the right angle,
you can clear it out of frame,
but what's nice about this you don't even have
to worry about it.
There is no way for you to get that motor
in that ultra wide angle lens.
But overall, I think this gimbal sits really nicely
in the middle here.
I love how you can telescope it,
that was a feature I really like.
And, I honestly thought the footage
came out looking decently smooth.
All the sample shots were straight out
of the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
I didn't do any sort
of warp stabilizer or anything afterwards in post.
I just hit the record button, and that's the level
of smoothness I was able to get.
But overall, I think it's pretty awesome, especially
when you consider how simple it is,
how inexpensive it is, and how compact it is.
And of course this is a sponsored video,
so we're doing a give away with five of these.
So, all you gotta do for a chance to win,
drop a comment down below.
When in the first, let's do two and a half hours
of this video going live, that's it.
So, let's wrap this up by reading some comments
in my brand new yoga room.
I don't know how to do yoga at all,
but if you didn't know me
and saw me sitting here like this you would totally
be like, "Oh, yeah, that guy knows what he's doing."
"He can probably touch his forehead with his heel."
I actually might be able to do that, I don't know.
Yeah!
You know, this spot might actually look pretty descent
if we cleaned up the yard and then put a light up.
And striking, oh, yeah, ya go, hey!
In my last video I asked you guys where you would want
to go to fly some drones, the responses are in.
Drew says, "I would go and fly
"this over a potato field to pay my respects."
What does a potato field even look like?
- I just picture a bunch of little sheds
with a maniac on each one
with a bunch of cameras around him.
(laughs) - "I'd fly this thing
"near the house of my daughter's boyfriend."
"If I win the Mavic Air 2,
"I certainly wouldn't be flying it into anyone's bananas."
You always have bananas on your shirt.
- Actually, - Somewhere
- Today they're --
- Hey, hey, hey!
(gentle hip music)