Zhiyun is a very young company, in 2015 only released the first handheld stabilizer products, but in just one or two years has occupied half of the global electronic stabilizer market, electronic stabilizer in a few years from the professional user niche products to a few hundred yuan of mass consumer goods, Zhiyun largely led the stabilizer technology progress and popularization.
 
The Zhiyun gimbal product line is very complete, mainly divided into mobile phone stabilizer Smooth series, camera stabilizer Yunhe series and action camera Evo series, and the price is more affordable than DJI. The stability effect of Zhiyun gimbal is outstanding among competitors in the same class, and the signature "mad dog mode" allows the gimbal to respond to transition movements extremely quickly, quickly switching shooting angles while keeping the picture stable, which is very suitable for following fast motion scenes, and this mode has higher requirements for motors and algorithms.
 
Smooth mobile phone stabilizer is the earliest product of Zhiyun to enter the market,It has gone through many iterations,Smooth4 is the latest model,It has the most buttons in the same price product,Rich adjustment options,There is also a knob,You can focus on,But for mobile phone cameras with a very large depth of field,The role is limited,And the volume and weight of Smooth4 are also large in the same level of competitors。 The unique advantage of Smooth4 is that it has a very easy mode switching function, press and hold the upper board button to enter the "mad dog mode" for a quick transition, and release it to return to normal mode to maintain stability.
 
The mobile phone is placed on the gimbal and sometimes needs to be switched to other application processing tasks, but the horizontal screen operation is very inconvenient, the operation amplitude is too large and it is easy to damage the motor, Smooth4 only needs to fold the cross arm of the gimbal down to lock, the mobile phone will return to the vertical screen state, the gimbal enters the standby mode at the same time, which is convenient for users to operate the mobile phone, although the function is simple, but it can greatly improve the user experience, and competing products of the same level rarely provide similar standby functions. In addition, the Smooth4 is also one of the few mobile phone stabilizers that uses a Type-C charging port.
 
Zhiyun has developed the Yunhe series stabilizer for the camera platform, which has been updated to the third generation, and the previous generations of Yunhe stabilizer are the most popular camera stabilizers at home and abroad, which can be said to lead the technical trend of camera stabilizers and are very representative. The Yunhe 1 released in 2016 only has a stabilization function and is known as the most primitive first-generation electronic stabilizer. Released at the end of 2017, the Yunhe 2 adapts to different cameras with a shutter release cable, allowing you to adjust the camera's main parameters such as shutter, ISO, and aperture directly on the gimbal grip. Yunhe 2 is also the first stabilizer to support electronic focusing, recording, focusing, parameter adjustment and other operations can be completed by a photographer, which is a good interpretation of Zhiyun's slogan of "one person is a team". A stabilizer with a parameter focusing function is also known as a second-generation stabilizer.
 
Yunhe 2 can carry 500-3200g, can carry almost all camera and lens combinations, and is currently priced at 3999 yuan, slightly lower than the direct competitor DJI Ronin S. Compared with the Ronin S, the Yunhe 2 is lighter in weight and lower in price, and the purchase of a gimbal comes with an external servo follow-focuser, which can be followed by any brand of camera, while DJI needs to spend an additional thousand yuan to buy. However, the roll axis of Yunhe2 adopts a traditional orthogonal design, which will block the camera screen, and the tilt axis is limited, which is easy to be limited when switching between high and low camera positions, and there is no Ronin S freedom in control. If you are using a lighter camera, it is more recommended to 2799 yuan Yunhe Plus, although the bearing capacity is not as good as Yunhe 2, but it also reaches a maximum of 2500g, almost all mirrorless or small SLR can be used, and the three-axis unlimited design, more free control. However, it is worth mentioning that the electronic parameter adjustment function of Yunhe Plus only has good compatibility with Sony mirrorless.
 
In the fall of 2018, the Yunhe 3rd generation model was released, and the camera stabilizer in the past lagged far behind the mobile phone stabilizer in terms of intelligence and ease of use, mainly because the camera did not have an intelligent system, and could not control the stabilizer, and could only rely on human control. The biggest difference between the third generation of gimbal and the second generation is that it has added a high-definition image transmission function, which can transmit the picture captured by the camera to the mobile phone in real time, which is equivalent to connecting the stabilizer to the brain, and rich functions can be realized through the mobile phone APP, such as face recognition, object tracking, somatosensory control, etc., and the stabilizer with intelligent functions is also known as the third generation stabilizer.
 
Yunhe3-LAB price starts at 5699 yuan, the load gravity is increased to4500g, even if it is a professional camera, and it is equipped with a dual-focus external servo focus that can adjust the focal length and focal length at the same time, and the lens angle angle and focus can be directly adjusted on the handle, which can not be done by the stabilizer in the past. The biggest difference in appearance is that the straight-grip handle has been changed to the industry's first "pot-lifting" handle, the grip point and the center of gravity are in the same line, and there is no superimposed leverage effect, this original grip design is the most ergonomic and can save a lot of effort for shooting.
 
Together with the Yunhe 3-LAB, there is also a microbi LAB, and the three axes of the two gimbal are unlimited, and the switching position is very free. Microbi LAB is equivalent to the deleted version of Yunhe 3-LAB, which is also equipped with a high-definition video transmission system and a pot mode, and the load is reduced to 3000g, although the load is still considerable, but the three-axis size is limited, and it is not easy to level the larger cameras and lenses. Weibi LAB does not have an external servo follower, you need to buy it yourself, and the price has been greatly reduced to 3699 yuan, which poses a strong threat to Yunhe2 and Ronin S.
 
Whether it is Smooth4, Yunhe 3rd generation or Weibi LAB, you can access ZY PLAY through your mobile phone to achieve rich functions, APP can control the action of the gimbal through Bluetooth, with giant screen photography, fixed-point delay, mobile delay, long exposure dynamic time-lapse, face object tracking and other functions. However, there is a big gap between Zhiyun's APP experience and DJI, and its tracking function is easy to lose targets, and its reliability and ease of use need to be enhanced. On the gimbal itself, Zhiyun belongs to the first-class level, with strong scalability, focusing and image transmission can be easily expanded, if you pursue the high performance of the stabilizer, love to try new things, and hope to take into account the cost performance, then Zhiyun will be the ideal choice.
ZHIYUN Smooth 4 Anti-shake Handheld Gimbal Phone Stabilizer