Vlog Live ep10 - Zhiyun Smooth 4 and Moza Mini MX smartphone gimbals - a Yolobox multistream

  

... https://youtu.be/HCqqSmTl_So

 In this video, we are going to compare the Zhiyun Smooth 4 with the MOZA Mini MX. We will be looking into the hardware, the software, and also how it performs in real life. The Zhiyun Smooth 4 and the MOZA Mini MX are handheld gimbal stabilizers for iPhones and Android smartphones. The primary purpose is to keep your phone steady while shooting videos on the move. Whenever I introduce this to people that have never heard of a smartphone gimbal, their first question is... "Is it heavy?" WEIGHT The Zhiyun Smooth 4 weighs 547g while the MOZA Mini MX is lighter at 412g. It's not heavy for me, but to some people it is. Well, it gets heavy after prolonged use. Towards the end of this video, I will introduce to you another truly lightweight gimbal. By the way, the weight I mentioned earlier does not include the phone. The bigger the phone, the heavier it becomes. Not all gimbals can carry big and heavy phones. That brings us to the next hardware specs. PAYLOAD Payload or payload capacity to the maximum weight of the phone the gimbal can carry. The flimsy arms will just stop working when the load is too heavy. The Zhiyun Smooth 4 can handle a phone up to 210g, while the MOZA Mini MX up to 280g. How heavy is your phone? Have you got the iPhone 12? The iPhone 12 Pro weighs 187g. So, these 2 gimbals can handle the iPhone 12 Pro. The iPhone 12 Pro MAX, the bigger one, weighs 226g. The Smooth 4 can handle up 210g. So if you have the iPhone 12 Pro MAX, this is not for you. You may consider the Mini MX because it can handle up to 280g. Now that we know the weight of the gimbals and the weight of the phones they can carry, the next thing to know is... how long can the battery last. BATTERY Both these gimbals have built-in rechargeable batteries that are not easily replaceable. When fully charged, the Zhiyun Smooth 4 can run for 12 hours while the MOZA Mini MX can run 20 hours. That's according to the specs on paper. The battery drainage could be faster depending on what we do with the gimbals. So, what do we do with the gimbals? STABILIZATION As I mentioned earlier, The primary purpose of a gimbal is to keep your phone steady while shooting videos on the MOVE. When you are just standing on a spot recording videos, you don't need a gimbal. The gimbal will be most useful when you are walking or running. Check out my walking and running test reviews in the description. They both do a job in their primary function, but I have one COMPLAINT. They both do not solve my walking bobbing up-down motion. I have to compensate for that on my own by walking like a ninja... knees bent, heel to toe, heel to toe. Hey! Why can't they make gimbals with the 4th axis? Right now, it's 3-axis. Pan left, pan right, tilt-up, tilt down, and roll. The 4th axis should be, elevate up and elevate down. Other than just stabilizing our phones, we can control the gimbals to do a lot more other tricks. CONTROL PANEL On the Zhiyun Smooth 4, we can see 8 buttons, 1 handwheel, and 1 thumb dial. On the MOZA Mini MX, we see only 3 buttons and 1 joystick. Smooth 4 is designed for people who want to have more control. If you are a sophisticated user and don't mind learning all the buttons, the Smooth 4 is for you. Check out my tutorials on how to use the Zhiyun Smooth 4 in the description. If you are a user that doesn't want to learn a lot of technical stuff and just want to get the gimbal working, then the MOZA Mini MX is for you. Now let's talk about the joystick. JOYSTICK With the joystick on the MOZA Mini MX, I can manually control the direction of my smartphone camera. Pan left and right, tilt up and down. On the Zhiyun Smooth 4, there is no joystick... so we have to be familiar with the 5 essential gimbal modes to control the movement. MODE #1 - PAN-FOLLOW When you first turn on the gimbals, they both go into the Pan-Follow mode. That means the phone follows your left-right pan motion and not the up-down tilt motion. That keeps the phone pointing forward all the time. So what if you want to shoot an action that is happening below?

MODE #2 - PAN-TILT FOLLOW 

On the Mini MX, we press on the top left button once to go into pan-tilt follow mode. On Smooth 4, we hold on to the lower trigger to go into the full follow mode. Now the gimbals follow your up-down tilt motion as well as the pan.

We have the pan. We have the tilt. What about the roll? 

MODE #3 - FPV  

That's called the FPV, First Person View on the mini MX. Just press the bottom left button once. 

With that, the camera follows in every direction. Pan, tilt and roll. 

Very useful when shooting something like a roller coaster ride where we are never level with the ground.

On the Zhiyun Smooth 4, there is no First Person View mode. 

The next mode is directly opposite. We don't want the phone to move. 

MODE #4 - Lock

It's called the lock mode.

On the Smooth 4, switch the Pan-follow mode to Lock mode. 

On the Mini MX, hold on to the trigger. 

In the Lock mode, the phone now stays fixated in one direction even when we move.

Very useful when we are walking towards a subject and want the subject to remain in the scene.

MODE #5 - Sports

Zhiyun calls it the Phone Go mode. MOZA calls it the Sports mode. 

Notice how slowly and slowly the gimbals responds to your movement?

If you want them to respond faster in fast-moving events, do this. 

Press the top trigger on the Smooth 4. 

Press the button on the Mini MX.

The gimbal arms now respond immediately. 

"Hey, Adrian! It looks like the gimbals can only shoot landscape. Can we shoot a portrait for social media?" 

PORTRAIT

On the Zhiyun Smooth 4, we just push the handle forward and tilt it about 90 degrees.

The phone's orientation will automatically switch to the portrait or vertical mode. 

Hold the handle straight up again to go back to landscape or horizontal mode.  

On the MOZA Mini MX, press the power 3 times quickly to go into portrait mode.

Three times again to go back to the landscape. 

Until now, our gimbals can do so much using the phone native camera app.

We can do even more using the gimbals own camera app. 

APP 

The Zhiyun Smooth 4 has got the ZY Play app.

The MOZA Mini MX has got the MOZA Genie app.

You have to download and install the apps when you set up the gimbals for the first time.

They are available on both the iPhone App Store and the Android Play Store. 

These are camera apps on their own with extra features activated once you pair the phone with the gimbals via Bluetooth.

Here's the thing. Gimbal apps usually work well with the iPhone but not with Android phones.

If you know why leave a comment. 

Right now, I am going to show you what works.

ZOOM 

On the Zhiyun Smooth 4, you can turn the handwheel to control the camera zoom.

The zoom control works only with its app, not with the phone native camera app.

Same with the MOZA Mini MX, the zoom is controlled with the + and - buttons. 

The problem with Mini MX is that the zoom buttons are the mode switching buttons. So I tend to activate the wrong thing at times. 

Anyway, this is a digital zoom. Our image quality will deteriorate the further we zoom in. 

So don't count on it unless you want to do the vertigo effect.

VERTIGO

What is the Vertigo effect?

It is a scene where the subject remains the same size while the background expands or shrinks.

Watch the example and tutorials here.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Vertigo Effect Tutorial - https://youtu.be/4Ihoc5MFCxc

MOZA Mini MX Vertigo Effect Tutorial - https://youtu.be/VXeH2wrlFhw

The vertigo effect is achieved by walking towards the subject while zooming out or walk away from the subject while zooming in... the objective is to try to maintain the subject at the same size.

Let me introduce another popular cool effect you can do.

INCEPTION

The word Inception is borrowed from the movie of the same name, where the world around you starts flipping around.

Watch the examples and tutorials.

MOZA Mini MX Inception Mode - https://youtu.be/VXeH2wrlFhw

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Inception Mode - coming soon

On the Mini MX, go into FPV mode and push the joystick horizontally.

On Smooth 4,?  

So we have vertigo and inception cool effects. My top favourite effect is this... 

OBJECT TRACKING 

Those who own gimbals will ask me how smooth is the Object or Face Tracking.

Those who never had gimbals don't even know this fantastic function exists.

Activate object tracking on both the ZY Play app and the MOZA Genie app.

Draw a block around my face and the gimbals follow me automatically. 

If you are a trainer, presenter or speaker, that move around a lot, you now have a robot videographer.

Now that we know the gimbals can move on their own, we can now do this...

MOTION TIMELAPSE

Timelapse is an effect where time seems to move faster than normal.

You don't need gimbals to perform timelapse. 

Just fix your phone anywhere and switch your camera to the timelapse recording. we all have a timelapse recording in our smartphones. 

We only need our gimbals for MOTION Timelapse, where the scene moves from one point to another. 

Watch the examples and tutorials.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Motion Timelapse Tutorial -  https://youtu.be/XRA0oAow_M0

MOZA Mini MX Motion Timelapse Tutorial - coming soon

We know the arms can move, but we must know the limitation.

I will now talk about the dark side... the cons.

ANGLE LIMITATIONS

There are 3 motors on a gimbal stabilizer. The pan, the tilt and the roll motors.

It is important how much that can move... the angle limits. the bigger the better.

The pan angle limit on the Mini MX is 340 degrees, while the Smooth 4 is 300 degrees. Mini MX wins.

The tilt angle limit on the Mini MX is 140 degrees, while the Smooth 4 is 240 degrees. Smooth 4 wins. 

The roll angle limit on the Mini MX is 300 degrees, while the Smooth 4 is 240 degrees. Mini MX wins. 

When it comes to these mechanical range angle limitations, I prefer something wider...

...like 360 degrees non-stop on the  MOZA Mini Mi.

Why do we need that? Freedom. 

ULTRAWIDE OBSTRUCTION 

These days, new smartphones come with an Ultrawide camera.

With the Zhiyun Smooth 4 protruding structure, the gimbal arm can be seen when shooting in Ultrawide.

To counter that, we have to hold the Smooth 4 in a torchlight position.

The MOZA Mini MX is almost flat, so there is no Ultrawide camera obstruction issue.

MX wins. 

Size matters... which brings us to the next topic...

COMPACT PORTABILITY

The Mini MX is designed to be compact, while the Smooth 4 is not.

So, this is an unfair comparison. 

The Mini MX can be folded and is perfect for the travel vlogger... trotting place to place... we can just slip it into our pockets.

For Smooth 4, we need to bring along the carry case. 

If you want compact, take a look at the Hohem iSteady X.

It takes time to fold the Mini MX. So now, what if we suddenly see something we want to shoot with gimbal, how long does it take to set them up.

SETTING UPTIME

The Mini MX take a longer time to set up because of the unfolding process. 

Talking about set up, what else can we fix onto the gimbals.

MINI TRIPOD

Both gimbals come with the mini tripod.

I use my gimbals as a tripod most of the time.

The mini tripod is attached to the standard tripod socket... I call it the...

ACCESSORY MOUNT 

Both the gimbals have one standard 1/4-inch screw hole to attach the tripod... as well as other accessories...

EXTERNAL MICROPHONE

I use the Ulanzi triple cold shoe mount to attach my Mirfak N2 external mic.

Need a right-angle audio jack for Smooth 4. 

PHONE CHARGING

The Smooth 4 can charge the phone with a cable. The Mini MX cannot. 

WHAT THEY CANNOT DO

Beyond smartphones? 360 degrees? Removable battery? Wireless charging? Filmic Pro? Anti-Theft? Unobstructed Access to headphone or power jack socket?

 

Did I miss any point?

Leave a comment... Smooth 4 or Mini MX for you? 

- Adrian's Journal

PS: Year released - z2018, m2020