- Today we're talking about the AK4500 from FeiyuTech,
that this gimbal right here.
And we're gonna go through my thoughts
on whether I think this gimbal is a good choice or not.
(dramatic music)
So I've been using FeiyuTech products for a little while now
and I've tested a bunch of their gimbals over time.
Some of the older ones that I worked with,
I wasn't the biggest fan of.
But the FeiyuTech G6 Plus was actually
a smaller gimbal that I really like
and it's made for small cameras like the M50
or a smartphone or a GoPro.
You could put a bunch of different cameras on that.
So I was pretty excited to work with the AK4500
and they sent me this one a little while ago.
But I didn't put a video out right away
because I wanted to test it in some real world settings.
I really wanted to try this gimbal and work with it
because I think when you're doing a gimbal review
you really have to use a gimbal in different settings
and use it in different ways to really understand
if it's a good gimbal or not.
Guys, if you're new here this channel
my name is Jeven Dovey.
I do filmmaking tutorials, I do product reviews
and I also do a lot of YouTube training.
So make sure you hit that subscribe button
and turn on those bell notifications,
so you don't miss one of these reviews.
So the most important feature when it comes to a gimbal
is whether it's smooth or not.
You can have all the bells and whistles in the world
but what it comes down to is is the gimbal smooth.
A gimbal is there so that you can do these shots
that you can't necessarily do with handheld,
so you don't have to carry things like sliders
and other products around to be able to get
smooth stabilized shots.
That's the point of a gimbal.
So when I shoot I take my stabilizer off the camera
and I test it all in 30 frames a second
so I can see whether there's micro jitters or not
in the footage that you're seeing.
If a gimbal has like a ton of micro jitters
and you get these little movements,
then no matter what feature it has,
it's not a good gimbal to get.
And on the other side of things no gimbal is perfect,
there's always gonna be little things that happen
when you're shooting and a lot of times
if you just put it through some post stabilization,
that's when you get that crazy smooth footage.
You just have to figure out the limitations of a gimbal,
where it's good, where it's bad
and how you're gonna actually use it.
So before we get into the features about this gimbal
and the things that I really like
about this setup in particular.
Let me just show you some of the footage
that I've been getting out of this
and I've actually taken this gimbal out with me
on a ton of shoots recently.
However there's one in particular where I shot
single camera, five minute takes
and I shot over 10 workouts for my friends Pilates channel,
here on YouTube and basically did this all one camera,
no cuts, no nothing.
Because I really wanted to test and see
how this performs over time.
So let me just show you some of the footage
from that shoot so you can see how this gimbal performs
as I'm moving around.
(upbeat music)
So that was just a little bit of footage
that I've been getting out of this gimbal.
If you wanna see the full five minute takes,
I'm gonna put a link down in the description
to my friends channel.
You can go check out Jenny's videos
and you can just see how this gimbal performs
for a longer period of time.
There's no post stabilization on this videos,
it's just the footage straight from this camera.
Using auto focus from the Olympus E-M1X.
Now the reason that I chose this camera to shoot with
on this gimbal is two reasons.
This camera is much heavier and also
it's got amazing auto focus.
So typically when I'm running a one-man band
and I'm shooting in this kind of a setup,
maybe a handle off to the back like this.
It's harder to judge focus
because you don't have a big monitor.
And also I'm trying to shoot
in a smaller setup so that I don't have
big pieces of gear all over.
Now when I'm shooting in that style
I have to use auto focus,
you can't really judge focus off of this tiny screen
and that's where this focus wheel,
I really don't use on these gimbals a lot of times.
Now the FeiyuTech 4500 has a focus wheel here,
and it does have a motor that you can stick on
to be able to do your focus.
However, personally,
I'm never gonna use it in this configuration.
So FeiyuTech actually makes a ring for this gimbal
and actually puts the focus wheel on the outer edge
so you can use your thumb with a two-handed grip.
And with this setup you can mount a monitor
and all the externals to really be able to judge focus
and use your thumb controller so you really have control
in that ring format.
But what's cool about this focus wheel,
even in this configuration,
is that this is mapped out to not only focus.
You can use it to control your camera's tilt.
You can use it to control your cameras pan.
You can use it to control the roll.
So instead of just being a focus wheel,
you actually have the ability
to control different directions.
So if you're in a tilt lock mode,
you can have this set to tilt,
so you can make minor adjustments as you're shooting
and not have to manually do it
using the little thumb wheel on the back.
'Cause sometimes your finger slips and it pushes it too far
and all of a sudden your shots ruined
and you have to start over.
So having the focus wheel, that gives you some more options
is a nice touch.
Now in terms of working with it,
the thumb controller on the back is great,
it allows you to reset and it also allows you
to lock the direction.
So as you're shooting you can hold it,
it will lock all directions.
So you don't have to put it in lock mode.
Now one of the really cool things about this line of gimbals
is that they have a touchscreen on the back here.
You actually really never need to control this gimbal
using an app because I typically don't like
pulling up the app and having to do like all the adjustments
if I wanna go shoot.
I'd rather just be able to turn on the gimbal
and then just do a few minor adjustments,
like changing the power based on my camera
and things like that.
And you can do that all from the touch screen.
So that is one thing that's really nice about this gimbal.
And also as you're shooting you have all your modes here,
at your thumb.
So if I have two hands on and I'm shooting,
what's cool is I have it in, right now, tilt lock,
but let's say I want to take it out of tilt lock.
It's just a quick touch.
It's not a click of a button, it's not a double click,
it's not a triple click, nothing like that.
It's just a thumb tap on the touchscreen
and now I'm in a different mode.
So what I found when I'm working on my bigger shoots
and I'm running all day.
Is that this is actually something I use all the time.
I didn't think about this when I first initially
opened the package,
but when I'm actually out there shooting,
this touch screen becomes one of the main things
that I'm using when I'm doing these longer takes.
'Cause I'll be in tilt lock mode
and then I'll click it over to follow all mode
and then I'll click back to tilt lock mode.
And it's seamless because I could just use my thumb
to adjust between the different modes.
And it responds really well
and it's visually very easy to see what mode you're in.
So that's one thing that I personally
really like about this gimbal.
Now, the setup, it's amazing.
Let me turn this off for a second.
You have locks on all the motors,
so when you're balancing you can go one motor at a time.
Or if you're traveling you can lock this
and then it's never gonna move in your backpack.
That's a huge feature for me personally
because when I'm traveling and when I have this in a bag,
I hate it when gimbals are shifting around.
Now everything on this gimbal can strip down
to its basic parts.
So you could take off this big handle,
which is a nice little feature,
it's kind of like the Crane 3 Lab.
However it's removable,
and you don't have all your buttons on this.
Which, personally, on the Crane 3 Lab,
having all the buttons on this handle that's off the back,
it's frustrating because I'll end up hitting those buttons
and changing the modes.
So it's nice just having a really light handle
that I could just use for stability,
versus having it being engineered into the gimbal itself.
Now we're back to a stable just handheld gimbal.
One of the really cool things about
FeiyuTech products in general,
is they do make everything removable.
So the actual motors can be pulled off
and this could be stored in your bag in one place
and this handle can be stored in your bag as well.
Mow this is huge because if you're running
with smaller packs, then you're able to break this down
and still be able to carry this gimbal with you.
Whereas my Accsoon A1-Pro, which is,
this is the gimbal I've been running around with
for the most part.
It doesn't have locks and when you strip it down
you still have this nub off the bottom
that has all your controls and it's kind of a pain
when you're traveling and you wanna break it down.
So I do like the design of the FeiyuTech 4500.
Also this gimbal is so much more heavier than this gimbal.
In general with the FeiyuTech 4500,
it's a pretty light gimbal.
There's still gonna be weight,
it's not gonna be like the lightest thing in the world
because this is a bigger gimbal
that can house bigger cameras.
So you could put your full-frame DSLR bodies on here
and you could also put your small mirrorless on here.
So it kind of fits all sizes of cameras
and you don't really have to worry
if you have multiple bodies and you have bigger bodies,
you're gonna have issues
because this thing can handle a lot of weight.
So it's super easy to set up, like I said,
when I was shooting with Jenny I just pack this in my
backpack and we went hiking and then did her shoot
all over out, in the woods.
And it was great because this gimbal super easy to set up.
Now one of the other things that really stands out
about this gimbal is the sled.
And what's interesting is
it comes with two different mounts.
So you have your typical Manfrotto mount,
but then also you have this dual mount system
where the camera actually lives on an Arca-Swis type plate.
So you have both.
So whether you're carrying video tripods with you
or photo tripods, you can actually adapt this to either.
So you have the Arca-Swis
or you have the Manfrotto standard.
Honestly I have been keeping this plate just on this camera
and I've been bouncing around to my different tripods.
Whether I'm on just a simple photo tripod,
the one behind camera right now is on a simple photo tripod.
Or I have one of my bigger video heads.
I've been able to use this without having to replace plates
as I'm going from tripod to gimbal and back to tripod.
So that's kind of a huge advantage
of this one in particular.
So recently I was on another shoot
where I brought the AK4500 and this one was much more
demanding than the shoot I did out in the woods.
The reason is I had to really move around the subject,
using this gimbal and really had to push it
in various directions and see how it performed.
And overall as you can see through this footage,
the gimbal works very nicely.
I was chucking up, down, left, right
and it held the balance the entire time.
Using the Olympus E-M1X on a 12 millimeter 1.2,
so I was getting that super shallow depth-of-field.
The camera kept it in focus and I was able just to move
and let the camera do all the work
when it comes to to focus,
but you can see how smooth it is
as I'm moving around my subject.
Now I'm not gonna break down every other feature
on this gimbal.
This gimbal does have a bunch of other features.
It's got time-lapse, it's got inception mode.
It's got this thing called shadow mode,
which is like quick whip pans.
So it's got a lot packed into this gimbal
and I don't want to just spout off specs
and things like that.
Honestly, what I wanted to do is show you
how this gimbal works and actually put it through the tests.
And for me, I actually really like this gimbal.
This gimbal works well I've been able to get smooth footage
with all the different productions
that I've taken it on.
And this is actually the gimbal that I've been using
for everything recently.
So I have a bunch of gimbals.
I have the Crane 3 Lab, I have the Accsoon A1-Pro.
And I've been kind of dancing around
between my different gimbals.
And the one I'm currently using for everything is this,
and there's three reasons.
Number one, is that it works well.
It's stable, that's the most important part.
Number two, is that it breaks apart.
So I can break it down super easy,
put it in my bag.
And number three, is that it's super easy to use.
It's super simple with the touch screen,
but also it has the buttons that you need, right here,
on the handle and I never really have to dig into the app.
So personally, yes, I think this is a good gimbal.
If you're in the market for a DSLR gimbal,
I highly suggest checking out the a AK4500.
And like I said, if you want to see more footage
from my shoot with Jenny,
where you can see full five minute takes,
I'll put a link down a little in description
so you can check those out.
And guys that is it,
I'd love to hear your thoughts down in the comments below.
And I'll see you on the next one.