Zhiyun Smooth Q Review – Three-Axis Motorized Stabilizer For Smartphones

The progress of electronic gadgets, which are not related to the photo and video technology, has risen to the point that the quality of the video shot on the smartphone is just a little below the video shot on a professional video camera. Those wishing to shoot video on smartphones are growing every day, the market is constantly replenished with accessories for the creative intentions of smartphone owners. Zhiyun-Tech company has opened a new direction for the Smooth line, creating a three-axis stabilizer for smartphones Smooth Q. Today I will tell you about the new stabilizer Zhiyun Smooth Q. This is a budget three-axis motorized stabilizer for a smartphone. Zhiyun Smooth Q review unit Provided By GearBest.

There are several colors of the stabilizer. My Review Unit is black.

Unboxing

Zhiyun Smooth Q comes in a large box with dimensions of 36.8 * 15.5 * 7cm / 14.4 * 6.1 * 2.8in and has a total weight of 1000g / 35.3oz. On the reverse side, there is information about the company Zhiyun Tech, including a link to the website.

• The items you get in the product box:
  1 * Zhiyun Smooth-Q Mobile Gimbal
  1 * Micro USB Charging Cable
  1 * Carrying Bag
  1 * User Manual (English)

Design

The stabilizer body is made of plastic and aluminum. Budget is felt. The plastic body of the handle is made of two connected parts, creaks under strong compression. The weight of the stabilizer is about 447.

The bottom of the thread is 1/4 “.The battery is built-in (on the handle), non-removable.The charger is not included since the battery is charged via the micro-USB port of the stabilizer.

The bottom of the handle has a USB A. It is designed for charging smartphones.

On the handle are: stick (4 positions), the function button (selection mode), switching on and off button (it is the activation of the shooting button via Bluetooth), lever scaling via Bluetooth, power indicator, and status indicator LEDs.

On the left arm is micro-USB connector for charging and Turning to the computer.

Phone Bracket with rubber inserts. The maximum width of the smartphone is 85 mm, weight is up to 200 g.

The Phone Bracket can be installed both vertically and horizontally with a screw.

The counterweight is implemented very interestingly in this model. In most stabilizers, the counterweight (for balancing) is attached to the tilt motor. Here, the counterweight is realized in the form of a retractable lever of the tilt motor. The lever is fixed with a special screw.

Pre-Setting

From Zhiyun you can download: drivers (for Windows and Mac OS X), the latest firmware for Smooth Q, a program for customization and firmware (for Windows and Mac OS X), PDF instructions in English.

If necessary, you can install a new firmware on the stabilizer. At the time of writing the review on the site was posted firmware 1.60, it was also installed on the stabilizer. It’s easy to update the firmware yourself. Install the drivers. Connect the cable Steadicam to the computer and press the power button (on the stabilizer). Run the Zhiyun Gimbal Tools program, press the Open button (opposite the COM port with the number) and go to the Firmware Upgrade tab. Select the firmware file and click Upgrade.

In the Settings section, you can change various behavior parameters of the device. Here you can adjust the “dead zone”, change the speed, the speed of movement when using the stick, smoothness, re-direction the movement of the stick (reverse). Settings can always be reset to factory settings, so do not be afraid to change them.

The device has an auto-calibration feature, and in most cases, nothing needs to be done. But, if something suddenly works wrong (wrong angles of inclination, etc.), then you need to do the calibration yourself. You can calibrate the device in two ways. Through Zhiyun Gimbal Tools on the computer:

Or through the program Zhiyun Assistant on the smartphone via Bluetooth:

In both cases, you just need to perform a sequence of actions that the program will display.

Functionality

To turn on the stabilizer, you need to press and hold the power button for 3 seconds. Important note to turn off the stabilizer. Zhiyun Smooth Q does not just “extinguish” the motors when shutting down, but smoothly returns them to their natural position (that is, controls the motors during shutdown). This is the first time I have met in stabilizers. Usually, the power is cut off sharply, and the basket with the smartphone under its weight drops sharply to its natural position.

The main modes are three: Pan following, pan, and tilt following, and Locking mode. There are additional modes – rotation of 180 ° and shooting “Upside down”. The default mode is Pan following. Switching modes is performed by pressing the function button once or twice using the following scheme:

3 presses of the function button – rotation by 180 °. The “Upside down” mode is convenient for shooting from the bottom. To turn it on, you need to go into Pan and Tilt the following mode and turn the stabilizer. The motors are absolutely noiseless. Do not even buzz when you force them to block. When the stabilizer was working, I never felt the resistance of the motors.

Control via Bluetooth

Management via Bluetooth works only in the regular program for photos and videos ZY Play. For example, in the stabilizer, FeiyuTech SPG c, the review of which I recently did, the activation function of shooting through Bluetooth worked in virtually any program.

Zhiyun Tech has two programs. ZY Play ( Android and iOS ) for taking photos and videos and Zhiyun Assistant ( Android ) for adjusting and calibrating the stabilizer. They are secondary, the stabilizer can be used without them.

The version of ZY Play for Android is of little interest (I, personally, do not see any point in it). It’s plus only is that you can use the activation functions of shooting and zoom through Bluetooth, plus some stabilizer settings are available. But the version for iOS is more advanced, there is a function for tracking objects, i.e. The program monitors the selected object and controls the position of the stabilizer itself.

Zhiyun Assistant duplicates the settings that can be made using the Zhiyun Gimbal Tools program on the PC.

Battery

The charge level is determined by the number of blinks of the charge indicator. Up to 12 hours of work from one full charge is declared. Naturally, it all depends on the load on the motors. Full charging time is about 2 hours 30 minutes. After the battery was fully charged, I spent about 4 hours total time studying and shooting, and the stabilizer continued to work.

Conclusion

Its function stabilizer Zhiyun Smooth Q performs well. I liked the device of the counterweight system, the smooth switching off of the motors, the function of charging the smartphone and the presence of a hard cover-carrying kit. By the minutes of the device, I can include the plastic body of the handle and control via Bluetooth, which is tied only to the regular program ZY Play. You can buy Zhiyun Smooth Q from GearBest at 109$.