Zhiyun - Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer - Black

My review title pretty much sums this up. This is a relatively cheap gimbal, as most similar gimbals can easily be over $200. I bought this to use on multiple trips to Big Sur, Yosemite, and Lake Tahoe. Coupled with the brilliant camera on the Galaxy S8 (I'm writing this review 1.5 years later), this thing is GREAT for the purpose. Standing alone as a product (in other words, excluding the app, I will address that later), this is great for phones and will get you beautiful smooth footage almost every time. As long as you dont accidentally turn it on without the phone installed (which I did a couple times.....oops), the motors are silent and work very well. The joystick is extremely helpful, and its awesome the thing can be used as an external battery pack. And the the tripod thread on the bottom is a godsend. I would attach this thing to a mini flexible tripod I had and could get great group photos on a timer, perfectly stabilized left-right pans, and good standing footage anywhere. If you buy this, I highly recommend having a mini tripod too. Some criticisms I have are: 1) I wish it could be extended just a little farther out, as sometimes I will catch the tail end of the gimbal in some shots when panning around. 2) Had a rubberized grip or something that wasnt matte plastic. When hiking with this, sweaty hands make this slippery. 3) It came with a PLASTIC attachment/adapter for gopros. I know this is not necessarily the products fault, but all the gopro attachments Ive seen with this are metal of a solid slab of metal. And coupled with a gopro hero 6, its too heavy. A plastic adapter + weight of gopro is basically equivalent to a phone. Why does it have to be metal?! Aside from that, I just wish Zhiyun sold an adapter made by them. All these 3rd party attachments have such shady and spotty reviews, I dont trust them. If Zhiyun sold their own, Id gladly buy one from them, knowing it was from a company that knows the capabilities of its own products. So a couple other things to address about this. The charging cable is flat which is a nice plus!! The carrying case is a great plus as well! Its not the highest quality case ever and can get scuffed pretty easily. But better the case than your gimbal right? The fact its included is something I love. Battery life is great as well. I've gone a whole week, using this thing throughout every day, without charging it. And it still seems to hold up fine. The one thing I will say is that knowing its battery life is a little mysterious. I went a whole month without charging it and it still trudged on just fine and never would blink yellow for a charge. Then one day it just wouldnt turn on. So I charged it, then it was fine. Idk, what Im saying is, I wish there was a better way for battery life indication. Like 5 dot lights on the side or something. Lastly, the app. Yikes.....the dreaded app. Simply put, dont use it. Dont download it, dont even bother. Its just downright terrible. The tracking is a cool idea, and being able to use the zoom in/out button on the gimbal is enticing, but honestly. The frustration the app brings is not even worth it. I tried it on both an iphone and my own galaxy, and it sucked for both. If the app was as amazing as the product itself, this would be a 7/5 star thing!!!!! But because the app is just flatout garbage, its a -1 star for a 5 star product. I do recommend this for anyone who wants their footage to look more professional and smooth!

For $125 (on sale), this gimbal is EXCELLENT. During my first few hours messing around with the gimbal, it's proven itself to be capable of matching up to the more expensive GoPro/Smartphone gimbals. I've taken a few videos already using my iPhone and GoPro 4 and it has kept each video as stable as possible even while I was running and jumping around. I've even tried it in different angles including holding it such that the handle was above the smartphone for a low ground shot. Like other reviews you will see online, the very first thing that you NEED to do upon putting your smartphone onto the gimbal is to balance. Balancing the smartphone is a must because leaving it unbalanced will put way too much strain on the motors and the last thing you need is to break the gimbal because you refused to balance it. Another thing that needs to be done is to update the Gimbal's firmware. There isn't much instruction on that part but a short youtube search "Smooth Q firmware update" will lead you to a short tutorial. The Smooth-Q has 3 modes: Pan Following Mode, Locking Mode, and Following Mode. When you turn the gimbal on it'll automatically enter Pan Following Mode. To switch to Locking Mode, press the mode button ONCE. To switch to Following Mode, press mode TWICE. To go back to the PREVIOUS (the last mode you were in before switching), press the mode button ONCE. This whole mode switching thing was the most complicated thing about this gimbal. The Zhiyun App does tell you what mode the gimbal is in while you're switching but when you're using it with a GoPro it just gets a little confusing. Zhiyun has two different apps - Zhiyun Assistant and Zhiyun Play. They both do the same thing but I believe Play is the more recent app and Play's tracking feature works better. Be warned, the apps do need work but everything you need is in there like adjusting the speed of the gimbal's movements. For anyone wondering how you can use a GoPro with this, you can buy an adapter that will let you mount the GoPro like a smartphone. I didn't get one of those but instead I kept the gimbal's smartphone mount on horizontal, took the GoPro out of its housing placed it onto the mount facing me. There was a gap from the top of the GoPro to the upper bracket and in that gap I wedged a pentel eraser which made the GoPro fit perfectly. Of course I had to move the GoPro slightly to the left such that half the GoPro was not on the mount, it's also a way of balancing it without having to move the gimbal bracket around too much. Now, the problem is that the GoPro will be facing you so the simple solution is to press the "mode" button 3-times to put the gimbal in selfie mode. To conclude this long sort-of review, if you're looking for a cheap, quality gimbal that will get you that stable shot then Smooth-Q is definitely the way to go. However, be warned that it does take some getting used to especially the Pan Follow mode. You will certainly have to adjust the speed settings (how fast it pans, rolls, and tilts) of the gimbal in the Zhiyun app to where you like it. But after setting it all up and getting everything together, it works how it's supposed to and it'll get you the smooth shots that you've been looking for.

We bought this to take better videos of our outings and start vlogging our adventures. We tried vlogging with our Sony a5100 camera several times in the past but we hated the shakiness and how close up the shots were. Also we would have too many things with us. Our canon 70D, our cellphones, our Sony and sometimes tripods depending on where we were going. This eliminated all of those factors for us. Now we only need our phones and tripods aren't necessary. For pictures we may bring the 70d, but rarely do. We did purchase a sturdy heavy duty extendable selfie stick to attach to the bottom to add length for those low close to the action shots. It adds enough length without extending. We couldn't be happier. The battery lasts forever. When we took it out the box it was practically charged all the way, we have not had to charge it yet. It comes with a nice case for carrying around. It can also charge your cellphone if it runs low on battery. Our footage from just our 6splus iPhones are amazing, clear, crisp and SMOOTH! I highly recommend if you want to upgrade the quality of phone videos you create. We can also attach our GoPro with a separate attachment. Once we get the full hang of it, we will be purchasing the zhiyun gimbal for our camera. P.S. For those who may not watch tons of YouTube review videos before purchasing. Make sure you stabilize your camera in the gimbal before you operate it. If not you will be putting stress on the motors and could potentially damage it. That goes for any gimbal, not just this one. Also never turn it on without your phone or GoPro already attached. Same deal.

As my youtube channel continues to grow, so does the equipment I use to film those videos. Now I'm not a big youtuber who makes enough extra income a month to call this a job, but I'm getting closer to my goal. With that said it was time to look into some sort of handheld gimbal stabilization to take more cinematic footage and I stumbled across this little gadget. It's called the Smooth Q by Zhiyun which has a 3 Axis Gimbal and sells for a great price of around $139 through major retailers like Best Buy. In the past few days I have taken some pretty cool videos of the kids and other clips for youtube and it has performed flawlessly. I have not even had time to really go through all of the features available and will update them with time. The ZY play app for IOS and android will connect the Gimbal t your smartphone for some really cool extra perks, like time lapse, slow mo, moving time lapse and much more. Although using this with the app I did notice a significant drop in battery on my iPhone 7 plus. But the app is not required to use the gimbal. The battery life has a rating of about 12 hours and since I charged it 2 days ago it has continued to work within this range. I also have a GoPro that works excellent with this and has made the footage look crisp and much smoother. It has a bottom mounting thread to support most tripods and monopod extensions as well. Another cool feature is object tracking which helps the gimbal and phone camera follow a target and focus automatically. The Gimbal fits most smartphones and select action cameras weighing up to 7.7 oz and up to 3.3" wide. ​This is by far the best purchase I have made for 2017 aside from the DJI Spark. The price point is great and won't leave your wallet feeling empty after the purchase and it works just as great if not better than the other high priced models out there today.

I had high hopes for this gimbal, but unfortunately, it failed to meet all expectations. If you have a smartphone that is perhaps less than 5.5 inches in diagonal screen size, this gimbal would be perfect. However, if you have said size or larger, look for another product that will support that weight. An IPhone X though works perfectly even with a case, but that is the only exception since it is narrower than the 6 plus lengthwise. I am currently using an IPhone 6 plus, with a standard case(spigen). The instructions says to make sure it balances before turning on the unit. The iPhone 6 plus with a case barely balances the gimbal. The extendable arm does not go far enough to counter the weight of the phone at the camera end. Now the gimbal will still work, but it is using all that power to keep your phone balanced. The supposed 12hr battery life will most likely be cut in half or more. I also used this gimbal with a moment case + lens. It was not balanced at all since the lens just overpowered the counter weight. I still turned it on and it balanced at first, but gradual movements will make it fall. If anything is beyond what the counterweight can handle, the motors overheat and becomes too hot to the touch. Two things could have improved this product. 1. A longer extendable arm or at least be able to swap it with another longer arm. 2. A detachable counterweight design to be able to match the weight at the other end no matter what screen size or weight you have. Again, I used an IPhone 6 plus with a spigen case and it barely balanced. It works fine without a case, but it is simply such an inconvenience having to put my case again and again after I take it off from the gimbal. Iphone X works perfectly though, but I do not have this phone so I returned the unit. I will also be upgrading to the much larger Iphone in 2018 so this gimbal simply would not have supported the weight.

At first I was a bit hesitant to purchase this gimbal stabilizer, since I never heard of this brand, but also was looking no to spend a lot, so my only two options were the Zhiyun Smooth Q and the DJI osmo mobile, (I happen to own a DJI phantom quadropter and I have experienced and convinced by the quality and build of their products) So I went to do my own research and found encouraging reviews about this stabilizer and the fact that for the price it was a great deal, and that made me decide to give this a chance and i'm glad I did... this gimbal has exceeded my expectations. its pretty cool and works great, I love it has a feature to follow a subject. I do recommend to practice before you try to make your shots in order to get familiar with the controls...It connects via Bluetooth with your smartphone and once you start using it, you notice how smooth your shots become, you can even walk fast and also run and it does a great job !! you can also hook it to a tripod via the screw hole in the bottom of the stick, so you can make time lapses. Its not a Selfie stick... but you can use also take selfies if you want.. One thing I must point out I think the iphone app works better than the one for android version, I look forward that in future updates it gets better.. Another feature I want to mention is that unlike the OSMO mobile, this one carries inside a huge battery that lasts forever !! ...so you can also charge your devices. It´s a great deal and really recommend this gadget !!

1) Upon charge up the indicator light just flutter vs. steady on. Called Zhinyu for replacement. Ended up taking to Best Buy for exchange. Unit was taken in and UPC code scanned to complete process. Replacement unit to be shipped to me. 2) Found out that my confirmation of return was a black unit but what I turned in was grey. Went to have this clarified and BB said that "Jet Black" was being picked up on SKU # label. 3) I was told to order one (grey) thru BB and would complete an exchange upon bringing in the original replacement that was being shipped to me...are you following all of this? 4) I get notification that my ordered grey unit was ready for pick up. So went in and had this ordered grey unit to be used to take the place of the black replacement unit...which has yet to arrive. Furthermore I was routinely checking UPS tracking number it was last seen in San Pablo, CA and handed over to USPS for delivery. Most recent check of USPS tracking number indicates..."NoTracking"...I presumed lost(?). Regardless all is good I was able to get credit on the ordered unit and was able to keep it as my replacment unit...got it? So how's Zhihyu gimbal? Well folks it's O.K. but there are a couple of things that should be done to improve the unit. 1) provide the ability to add weights to achieve center of gravity with the heavier iPhone Plus units especially if you opt to charge your iPhone while using gimbal 2) position of USB should be located at top of handle (like the newly introduced Osmos Mobile 2). Other than that I need to really complete a deep dive into using this...spent too much time waiting for replacement ~ 1 month.

Just began in the mini-camera mode with a Hero 5 Black. After trying it out with its related accessories, there is a compelling need for a gimbal stabilizer if you plan out taking decent shots. Most are priced around the $300+ mark. After reading many reviews and videos, the Zhiyun made good sense @ $100 for just starting off and most reviews were positive for the hobbyist. So, why not? I can upgrade later if I stick with the hobby. I have not had it long enough to test durability but just the fact that it could also be used as a power source to extend shooting time is a big plus. So far the only negative is mounting the Hero. Standard mounting will cover the camera screen so you need to buy a bracket (cell phone size and weighted) to compensate but you need to use mode 3 exclusively for the correct orientation forward and screen viewable. Not Zhiyun's fault since it was designed for a cell phone not a GoPro. But it does the job and when using my cell it does work as well with the 3 different modes. However, if you use your cell phone as a monitor with the Hero screen blocked, that works. But you're burning two batteries along with the added drain for bluetooth so you may be limited in a long shoot with just basic power sources. Add more!