Is the Weebill S a good gimbal for this year 2021? I've had my Weebill S now for two years
and it has been everywhere with me and it has survived quite well I've slung it around my
shoulder on a shoulder strap I've tossed it into bags I've stuffed it into small corners,
stood it on the table and I thought it was time after two years use of it to bring you the good
and the bad of the Weebill S so you can decide if it is a suitable gimbal for you.
Now a note on the weight that I've been carrying on it I've been using the a7riii with a 16 to 35
f4 lens, a microphone, and nothing else so that's been putting a carry weight about 1.4 kilos
on the gimbal which is about 2.6 pounds and it has worked perfectly with that weight so
that's a full-frame camera with a nice moderate size zoom lens on it.
Now let's start down the list. First form factor.
This was a big selling point and a big advertising point for the Weebill S when it first came and the
lab that came out before it in that it was a new radical design of gimbals and yes I'd have to say
it is it's compact and light it folds really nice it stores away nicely
and the transition between like held upright down to a sling mode can work really smoothly
with if you put the two tripods on for the dual handle works really well, so yes it is
more compact, it is lighter to hold during the day which is great and does do that suitcase or under
slung mode very well but I'd have to say a lot of people, you know when they first got it, they
said oh yes it's so much smaller it tucks away any corner but it is actually quite an awkward
shape. It is lighter but when you actually fold it it looks like this and that doesn't actually fit
in to a lot of camera bags as neatly as a gimbal, okay you don't have to disassemble it as much but
you still have to take the handle off the bottom like you would with an upright gimbal and then
it's, yeah, so I'm in two ways on it. I've got used to it, this compact, the Weebill S shape,
but it is not as convenient as you first think about tucking into bags especially a camera bag I
sit with a Lowepro tactic camera bag and I used to be able to put the camera on my gimbal
and put the gimbal in and to be able to pull it out in and out the top quite easily so if I was
on a motorbike or in transit I could put it in but I could pull it out and deploy it really quickly.
On the, with the Weeble S I had to rearrange the bag and it really doesn't quite fit conveniently
because the upper area where the camera goes is too small for the the whole of the gimbal this
way so it's got its pros and it's cons. It is light, also because it's quite small the lower
handle when you take the tripod off has all the controls on which it doesn't work as well because
you knock all the controls all the time. Yes you can lock them but if you're on the go, run and gun
or travel photography like a videography like I do you don't want to have to, ooh double click that
button to lock them, and then you want something to work on it you have to double unclick it and
then use the joystick and the change the settings or change mode so it has a good form factor
but there's one or two things that are a little inconvenient especially if you've got big hands.
You can put the tripod at the bottom and hold it there so you've got the controls clear,
but then of course you've created more leverage which means less stability
and of course the gimbal is all about getting nice stable footage so it is a revolutionary design,
it has some good things and it has some downsides you just have to adapt to using it.
Gimbal use. It is a great gimbal to use, easy to balance friendly to use lightweight but with
strong motors and it functions very well. As a first gimbal it's a great choice you can get it
set up and operating quickly and it is quite intuitive with its controls. As with all equipment
the more you learn and handle it, how to control it the better it will perform the Weebill S has
plenty custom settings as well so you can tweak the strength of the motors the speed of the turns
to suit your videography needs so it's a gimbal you shouldn't outgrow either.
Construction. The construction of the Weebill S is I'd have to say a little bit hmmm.
It's not a expensive top of the line pro product so a lot of it is made of plastic
and through the two years it's continued working but I've had one or two niggles and problems
with it specifically the locks on the arms, one of them doesn't work one of them works half the time,
a few of the wheels and the triggers have become a little loose
um so I'd say it's not a long-term durability product it's not going to last a year and years
it is going to wear and things are going to get knocked having said that the motors and the
mechanics of it have always worked perfectly, so that's not such a bad thing so construction wise
it's okay but not brilliant, but mechanically has performed admirably.
Next the locks. The locking arms on the mechanism now this is a great feature to have on any gimbal
it makes setting up the gimbal so much easier and also for transport and storage is really
good. I'd have to say the locks on the Weebill S though unfortunately are not quite up to standard
as I mentioned in a previous um on the construction side the the locks just
don't work and I've had one or two seen online one or two other people who have the same issue
is the locks either slip off or they don't work at all so unfortunately I'd have to say it's a
great idea works well when they work but the ones on the Weebill S are not quite up to standard.
Price. Now you'd have to say that for a gimbal with a payload that it can carry and all the
things it can do the Weebill S offers good value for money. It's come down in price since it was
first launched, it's now a two-year-old product there's been new products come on the market that
are very similar to it do all the same things but I would say in value for money for what you get
and the payload and what it can do I would say the Weebill S is good value for money.
The grip handle, how you carry the gimbal this is one of the most important things in conjunction
with stability, how the thing handles how you hold it now as standard it comes with a little clip
release tripod at the bottom which can be moved into the secondary position for under slung mode
and with that one handle you can hold it with two hands and then you can use your thumb or your
fingers to control the things but if you want the trigger you have to put your hand further up the
handle where the controls are now I mentioned this in the form factor as well um you can
then knock the controls. Now you can obviously lock the controls with double clicking a button
but then if you're moving and you want to change something as you're moving and still film you have
to unclick not knock any buttons and move it so there is a little bit of limitations on there. The
handle itself is quite comfy I've never slipped on it or anything, the trigger works quite well
once you've learnt it all the buttons are quite conveniently placed but they are going to be
under your hand if you're holding on to that top thing, so you do have to adapt how you hold it and
I would say it's not the most convenient place to have all the buttons especially on the front
because a lot of them were facing you and that's where this part of your hand go where you tend to
carry quite a bit of the weight of the gimbal so hmm, I'm on the fence on there I've adapted
to it but I have lost a few shots where suddenly I've just squeezed it too tight or I've wanted to
think and suddenly the camera's been wandering off and of course I've lost a shot because the camera
is wandering in the wrong direction instead of where I'm pointing it. You live and learn.
The tripod legs that are included with it, now this is a very good idea nice little sturdy tripod
good quality has never let me down it became a little loose one time but you can actually fasten
up the legs again so it doesn't flip around and the handle can come from the bottom position you
can unscrew it or I've got these great clip fast clip things which are brilliant you must get them
if you have one where you can unclip it from one and put it on the other very quickly and easy to
change where the handle goes even better get a second small tripod or a monopod and keep both
to use it as a dual handle system that gives a lot more stability it also does take away a little bit
from having your hand on the controls because you can hold it at the back the second upright handle
and take most of the weight there and the control while you steady it with the other
hand as you guide it along so I do like the system the tripod has been quite good
and it does help initially to be able to for a couple of reasons for balancing the thing you
can flip the tripod out stand it down do the balancing also if you're wandering around like
I do a lot of travel videos I can then put it on the table on the tripod and turn the gimbal
off and check the settings and it can stand there quite safely so you can put it down and rest it,
quite nice. Overall the tripod works quite well and with the clip quick release clips is really
good for transferring between the two but I would recommend just getting two, works much better.
Batteries. It has two rechargeable batteries that fit nicely into the handle
and you can take them out and recharge them separately so you can buy a couple
of spares and swap them out as you need to keep shooting all day. They're good sized batteries,
I get six hours reliably out of them sometimes eight or ten depending how I'm using them
so two sets of batteries gets me through all day. They do, if you wear them down, they do take four
three to four hours to recharge so the end of the day if you're doing a shoot the next day you do
need to get them on to recharge but I found them very reliable they've always recharged
and two sets of batteries i.e. 4 in total has got me through the day. One little quirk is undoing
the battery on the handle, the cover, it's in the handle so it actually makes the weight nice and
compact in the center it's not down low it's right under the camera but getting the cover
off is it's got a little technique to it you have to put your hand on slide it out once you
get the technique it's easy but it can be a bit fiddly at first, but batteries I would say good.
Quick release plate now this nifty system that they designed on the top where the
where the camera sits works very well it's basically a quick release system that when
you first set up your gimbal mount your camera on it you can attach the plate to it when you want to
take your camera off you just push the button lift it off and you can then hand hold the camera then
you can come back to the gimbal put it on click it in position and it's still balanced so that is
actually a very nice system. I've actually mounted my manfrotto square plate on top of that as well
so again I can just lift the camera off from there put it back in again all balanced
ready to go so no fiddling about re-balancing each time. The quick release system works very well.
Gimbal settings. All the settings are fully adjustable directly from the gimbal so no need
to open up an external app which is great but you do need to learn how to adjust everything
so you can do it on the fly and you do need to set up your gimbal beforehand that takes a bit
of time once it's done then it's done but you can change everything direct from the handle.
You can use the app but we'll come to that shortly. The modes that it does have it
has a POV mode point of view mode, vortex, go mode, pan follow, lock and selfie mode.
The app, the play app. Um okay, it's just, oh, half the time I can't even get it to connect,
it disconnects, there's some useful features in it but it is just not worth my time and effort
using I mean you can control the camera with it if you can get it connected and stay connected
but in general it's not very intuitive it's not very user-friendly disconnects too much I don't
see the point in it, unless they really improve it and even then I still don't see the point of it.
Conclusion. So does it do the job and is it worth getting? Well if you want a gimbal that
is easily portable, easy to use and can perform well and is at a reasonable price then yeah it's
a great choice. Undoubtedly newer versions will come out in hopefully improving on a few things
but if you want smooth video footage now, then yes I can recommend this. I am still happily
using mine and see no reason to change it unless I want a heavier camera setup
that will go over the payload, but for travel photography it's brilliant.
It's portable, can carry a full-frame camera, it's reliable, batteries last all day, it's great.
So to finish off with here's a short video I made using the Weebill
S.