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Zhiyun Crane Test


mojo43
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So I got my Zhiyun Crane in the mail last week right before a shoot out West and I decided to leave my other stabilizer at home. Delivery was extremely quick with the priority shipping and the customer service on their Facebook site (messaged them) was fantastic. 

I had some small problems with the stabilizer, but all in all it is quite a step up over a steady cam. This is my first gimbal and I have to admit I wasn't really trying to keep it steady that much as I should have. It seems like it's magic (which it pretty much is), but you definitely still need to practice to make it perfect.

Let me know if you have any questions

 

 

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Yes, nice job, I prefer tests under a variety of conditions and with different subject matter, so, well-done. I've been using my Crane every day now for a couple months, and I still haven't mastered the 'ninja' walk, so my footage is still a little bouncy, Also, I have a bad habit of swinging the gimbal a little, for example, when walking on the sidewalk and aiming the camera at people sitting in the park. I wish there was someone here (in Vietnam) who could show me the proper handling. I've also noticed that, even after calibrating the Crane, the camera is sometimes a fraction off of level, but ever so slightly. Finally, the roll axis has a habit of coming unbalanced and I have to rebalance the camera from time to time. I think the spring that holds the arm in place when tightening the screw has loosened or something, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I'm still quite happy with it, I just have to learn how to move with it.

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So my problems were,

1) The same thing that jonpais mentioned. The axis is slightly off so I had to recalibrate

2) The panning is jarring on default settings and needed to be tweaked. It's right at the start of a pan that it looks jarring I moved the setting to 80 and it seems to have helped

3) The last biggest problem for me was that all I carry with me at shoots is a laptop and a iphone 4. I know it's old tech, but it can't load the app for the gimbal settings. I even had a windows tablet on me and that didn't have an app either so I was stuck until after my shoot which is a bit too late. So to get around this I tried not to pan which sucks.

4) The other thing is that it would be great if the camera were mountable from the other side (having the arm on the left). This way I could at least swap cards and possible batteries without having to change rebalance while on a shoot. I tried to mount from the opposite side, but the pan stopped working. Not sure what is wrong here...

I am not sure what the weight is, but I have a Sony 28mm f2 on an a7sii and than a video quick release system and it doesn't seem to have any problems. If I add a larger lens it does have problems. I also did another test with IBIS on and off and it definitely needs ibis. 

Other than that, I would say that if you are having trouble balancing with the gimbal. It's about 20 times more difficult to balance with a steadicam in my opinion if not more. Throw in some wind and it becomes exponentially difficult with a steadicam. There is a shot in my test of a man's back shooting towards the city. That was in very strong wind and the stabilizer barely budged.

4 hours ago, jonpais said:

Yes, nice job, I prefer tests under a variety of conditions and with different subject matter, so, well-done. I've been using my Crane every day now for a couple months, and I still haven't mastered the 'ninja' walk, so my footage is still a little bouncy, Also, I have a bad habit of swinging the gimbal a little, for example, when walking on the sidewalk and aiming the camera at people sitting in the park. I wish there was someone here (in Vietnam) who could show me the proper handling. I've also noticed that, even after calibrating the Crane, the camera is sometimes a fraction off of level, but ever so slightly. Finally, the roll axis has a habit of coming unbalanced and I have to rebalance the camera from time to time. I think the spring that holds the arm in place when tightening the screw has loosened or something, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I'm still quite happy with it, I just have to learn how to move with it.

Can I see the footage? Are you saying the panning is bouncy? Because if so, set the panning to lower in the menu system and it should help...

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11 hours ago, mojo43 said:

Other than that, I would say that if you are having trouble balancing with the gimbal. It's about 20 times more difficult to balance with a steadicam in my opinion if not more. Throw in some wind and it becomes exponentially difficult with a steadicam. There is a shot in my test of a man's back shooting towards the city. That was in very strong wind and the stabilizer barely budged.

Can I see the footage? Are you saying the panning is bouncy? Because if so, set the panning to lower in the menu system and it should help...

The bounciness is from my walking. Because I mostly wear sandals here in VN, I think it makes it even more challenging to walk smoothly. To make matters worse, most of the sidewalks here are in bad disrepair/  I've tried shooting indoors without shoes and it's an improvement. I may begin editing the footage soon, and I'll upload some. Probably the worst you've ever seen, but all operator error I'm sure. 

Edit: I wrote Zhiyun Tech today about the camera not being level and the roll axis continually needing adjustment. I expect to hear back from them this afternoon. Maybe there's a simple fix.

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Rose over at Zhiyun responded to my email right away. She said to fine tune the roll axis, which I did using the Zhiyun Assistant app on my iPod. Now, the camera is level. It took just minutes to calibrate. The only thing left to figure out is why the roll arm seems to move or something, I have a feeling there is not enough tension when I tighten the screw. Rose asked me to send a video of the problem. So far, very happy with customer service there.

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