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My Review of the Zhiyun Crane 3-Axis Gimbal


Mattias Burling
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For those who are located in the USA, where did you purchased the Zhiyun Crane from? I'm looking to order one, but B&H list it as back ordered. The one on Amazon shows as $650 + $44.60 for shipping!! I'm looking for the Crane with case package. I have a bunch of 18650 batteries so I'm not too worried about that. I saw a few deals on eBay going for $600, but are those legit sellers?

Thank you

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8 hours ago, Somnang said:

For those who are located in the USA, where did you purchased the Zhiyun Crane from? I'm looking to order one, but B&H list it as back ordered. The one on Amazon shows as $650 + $44.60 for shipping!! I'm looking for the Crane with case package. I have a bunch of 18650 batteries so I'm not too worried about that. I saw a few deals on eBay going for $600, but are those legit sellers?

Thank you

I ordered from B&H on 9/20 (item was listed as back ordered) and it was delivered on 9/26. I checked the item's page and it never changed from back ordered for some reason. Might be worth a try if you don't need it right away.

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I planned to use my G7 and Metabones Speedbooster XL with the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 however I have found a cheaper and lighter lens combo that still allows me to achieve decent low light performance and won't place any long term stress on the gimbal motors with a heavy load! There is no doubt the Crane can handle these moderately heavy loads, but this is a killer little combo for a gimbal of this size or smaller.

The lens I ordered was the Rokinon/Samyang 12mm F2.0 lens MFT mount. I've found it well constructed, very lightweight at just 270g and has little to no distortion or chroma, also takes filters. The lens has decent reviews, and at $300usd (often less) and given its weight I much prefer it over the heavier and bulkier Panasonic 12-35 f2.8, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 or Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 lenses with a speedbooster.

There's a tiny bit of footage in this promotional video above that I shot in Sydney recently, most at night. This was the first and only time I have used the Crane, I didnt get a chance to balance the gimbal very well or calibrate it. The footage is noticeably not perfect but i'm super impressed on it's performance straight out of the box first use, i'm sure them little bumps in the footage will be smoothed out once I calibrate it and balance carefully next time. 

Cannot wait to fine tune this thing and get some heavy testing shooting some weddings next month, seems like it will be the perfect low light lens/gimbal combo for weddings. 

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1 hour ago, DriftProductions said:

I planned to use my G7 and Metabones Speedbooster XL with the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 however I have found a cheaper and lighter lens combo that still allows me to achieve decent low light performance and won't place any long term stress on the gimbal motors with a heavy load! There is no doubt the Crane can handle these moderately heavy loads, but this is a killer little combo for a gimbal of this size or smaller.

The lens I ordered was the Rokinon/Samyang 12mm F2.0 lens MFT mount. I've found it well constructed, very lightweight at just 270g and has little to no distortion or chroma, also takes filters. The lens has decent reviews, and at $300usd (often less) and given its weight I much prefer it over the heavier and bulkier Panasonic 12-35 f2.8, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 or Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 lenses with a speedbooster.

There's a tiny bit of footage in this promotional video above that I shot in Sydney recently, most at night. This was the first and only time I have used the Crane, I didnt get a chance to balance the gimbal very well or calibrate it. The footage is noticeably not perfect but i'm super impressed on it's performance straight out of the box first use, i'm sure them little bumps in the footage will be smoothed out once I calibrate it and balance carefully next time. 

Cannot wait to fine tune this thing and get some heavy testing shooting some weddings next month, seems like it will be the perfect low light lens/gimbal combo for weddings. 

I have the same dilemma. I'm looking for a replacement for my Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 for the gimbal as well. My biggest gripe with the lens is the weak performance against bright light, which just destroys the image: and nearly every time I shoot at 12mm, there is a window, the sky, bright reflective surfaces or something that inevitably destroys the image. The Rokinon looks like good value for the money, but it looks as though its performance against bright light could still be improved a bit. Also, I'm with you when it comes to not wanting to exceed the gimbal's recommended payload.

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I"ve written before that I was having a small problem with the roll axis screw becoming loose when picking up the gimbal by the roll arm. This usually meant having to readjust the camera balance every time I set it down between takes. I made a short video illustrating the problem. Rose over at Zhiyun has been extremely helpful, usually responding to my emails the very same day.

 

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On 9/2/2016 at 10:59 PM, jonpais said:

I had v1.41, just updated via Bluetooth as well. I didn't touch BLE, since I'm not sure what it is either. I will contact Zhiyun and ask...

edit I just Googled BLE, it refers to v4.0 Bluetooth standard, lower energy consumption, longer range, as far as I can tell. I never use the remote when shooting, so it shouldn't make any difference. It's pretty swell you can update the device without having to connect it to the computer. Once it began updating, I noticed the camera move, and when it was finished, the motors seemed clunky when I moved the gimbal around. I switched it off then on again, and it appears to be fine. I'll also be shooting this afternoon to see if the update makes any difference in handling.

edit #2 Now, I'm interested in how to operate the Zhiyun Assistant app for calibration, there's lots of neat stuff in there, but I don't see any how-to videos anywhere. According to Zhiyun's website, you're supposed to lay down the stabilizer like in the picture shown in the app, and it goes through and calibrates your gimbal, but... Are you expected to leave the gimbal on during the process? Won't it start rotating like the devil with no camera attached? Lots of questions still... But the footage I shot this afternoon after updating to v1.50 looks fine, no difference from before as far as I can tell. I'm still working on my ninja walk, it's not as straightforward and simple as some reviewers would have you believe. And I am really enjoying the inverted mode, since in Vietnam, many people crouch or sit on tiny stools or on curbs. :)

I thought of getting replacement from China, but I ended up returning it. Shipping to China from US is expensive and delivery took about 20 days.

I bought Came TV Optimus and Sony a6300 for the gimbal, I'm happy with my choice.

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