If I were to pick a single buzzword for 2023 it would be the term AI it's Something that in 2022 no one was Talking about it was some weird sidekick To an antagonist in a Cheesy action Movie but now all of a sudden AI is in Every single thing that you own it's in Your phone it's in your photoshop Application it's on your computer it's In your new Sony camera body and now Apparently it's also in your brand new Gimbals and that is the point of this Video is to talk about this gimbal from A company called hohem I have reviewed a Couple of their gimbals in the past a Long long time ago but this one is Interesting it's the first gimbal that I've ever seen that has built in Ai and I mean it's built in you don't need an App you don't need a phone you don't Need to connect it to anything it just Has AI built into the gimbal which is Pretty revolutionary and I think this is The future for gimbal so let's check it Out it comes in a black and orange box With a picture of the gimbal on the Front and a picture of what you can put On the gimbal on the back I suppose this Makes it a four in one gimbal by Someone's marketing scheme but it's Simply a gimbal that can balance Anything from a phone to a larger camera On it inside there is a zippered branded Case and in that case is everything
There is a user manual every type of USB Cable known to man an action camera Mount a bracket for normal cameras and a Spring-loaded cell phone holder mount There is a mini tripod another L bracket With a little genius magnetized Flathead Built in which I'm a big fan of and the Gimbal itself the gimbal looks like Standard issue it's black with a little Bit of orange accents here and there Starting at the bottom is where you Screw in the mini tripod it works well And it adds a little bit of length to The grip so that if you are using two Hands to stabilize it's a little better The main grip is well done it has this Curved finish on it it's made out of Some sort of softer plastic stick not Sticky but comfortable above that is the Main control there's a nice OLED display Here that is clear and easy to read There's a joystick a mode switch button A record button and a zoom rocker in Case you are using a power Zoom Sony Lens on this side there is a USBC port For charging the gimbal a power button And another quarter 20 for adding Accessories on the other side there is An A and B button for setting up an A B Motion for time lapses a control wheel That controls Focus the roll and also Controls the light at the top of the Gimbal around the front there is a Trigger button and axis lock the axis
Arms are metal and plastic the motors Have a little bit of branding on them But overall it's a pretty subdued design From a branding perspective at the top There are two more USBC ports one for Charging your phone or camera and Another to control your camera and here Is where the AI lives it's a little Detachable unit that has a little camera On it and it also functions as a fill Light but beyond that it can do our RGB As well which is cool it attaches to the Gimbal with two little magnets and a Couple of metal connector pins and Presumably is powered by the gimbal Itself now as far as why this thing is Detachable I don't know I can't think of A situation in which you would use this Separately from the gimbal itself but I Suppose that this is an expansion port And they could potentially come up with Other devices and other accessories that They can attach magnetically to the Gimbal and do other functions I don't Know as for the mounting bracket it is Well done it's easy to use not a quick Release but it is an ARCA Swiss Compatible bracket which for many people Is everything this bracket is also an L Shape because it allows for vertical Mounting which is nice because you don't Have to remove your camera from the Bracket you just slide the bracket off With the camera on the top axis and then
You rotate it slide it back on you do Have to rebalance the gimbal however to Shoot in vertical or portrait mode and That applies again when going from Vertical to horizontal but balancing is Pretty easy on this gimbal most of the Balancing takes place on the very top Plate so if you've balanced a gimbal Before you can do this in two to three Minutes flat and it supports a camera Such as this one so this is the Sony Fx30 with the Sigma 18 to 50 on it kind Of a go-to combo for me when I'm running Around with the Gimbal and the official Payload capacity of this gimbal is 1.2 Kilograms which is 2.64 pounds which is Enough for most setups even if you have A heavier camera setup you should be Fine I mean I put it on a scale and Double check but you should be okay the Motors are nice and torquey so they do Balance a full frame camera and an Average full-frame lens with ease and Keep in mind it is doing all of this in Approximately the same footprint as the Crane M3s so it's nice and compact as For battery hoem says in ideal Situations it can last up to 17 hours But using the a AI tracking and the fill Light that drops to a more credible six To eight hours alright so I have a lot To say about the AI features of this Gimbal which I will get to here shortly But before I do that let's take a look
At how it performs as just a gimbal how Stable is it so I took a couple of Sample videos these are all done with my Fx30 with this Sigma 18 to 50 lens I Turned off all in camera stabilization There's no Optical stabilization with This lens so this is just being Stabilized with the gimbal itself Ready Set Go Thank you Challenge Foreign So I'll say this this beats handheld Video any day of the week now it does Work better when you use it in Conjunction with let's say electronic Image stabilization or in-body image Stabilization if you have a camera body That supports either one of those but I Wanted to test out really what this is Capable of separate from those in body Stabilizations because you might be Trying to buy this gimbal for let's say An a6000 which has no stabilization and You have an unstabilized lens and then What are you left with so it's not as Stable as other larger gimbals out there And I've said this before even if you Have a small camera setup there are Benefits to getting a larger gimbal Because the gimbal itself is heavier Usually if you take a gimbal like this New Weeble and you have two points of Contact so you have like a sling arm
Type thing which does help instability And so the results with a bigger gimbal Versus a smaller gimbal the bigger Gimbal in general is smoother when You're comparing one to the other but it It's heavier it's bigger it's more Fatiguing to use on a daily basis and You really can't take it with you as Many places as a compact gimbal such as This one which is again more the size of You know the M3s so these two are very Close and I would say these are more Competitors in terms of operating the Gimbal it was simple and straightforward I did download the hoem app but since This is an unreleased gimbal at the time I'm recording this I wasn't able to Connect anything the one setting I do Wish I could have adjusted is the dead Band and the pan follow speed Unfortunately that isn't available on Just the gimbal as a result I use the L Or lock mode for the majority of shots To eliminate that left to right shake That comes with a narrow dead band but This is all boring and normal gimbal Stuff let's talk about the star of the Show which is really this little AI unit So what you do is you stand in front of This little camera and you show the okay Sign and you'll see a little green light Indicating that AI is now tracking you And it does this very well it will move And rotate and point the camera in your
Direction and when you combine this with Sony's autofocus the result is a very Usable video in which it looks like Someone is standing in place and Following you with a camera now my Favorite part about this is that it's Completely independent you don't need Your phone you don't need an app you Don't need to connect some sort of External device to your camera to make It work if you have this little module You click it in place there's an on and Off switch on the top you turn it on you Do the okay sign and you're ready to go It's that simple and that easy to use Now as good as it is it's not perfect And it does have some limitations as far As I can tell it only tracks human faces You can't set it to track an object Let's say if you wanted to do a Demonstration video in which you are Working with your hands it also doesn't Have any sort of subject recapture Feature so here when Janessa walks out Of the frame the AI tracking simply Turns off and now the light is red so When she comes back into the frame the Gimbal isn't tracking her anymore and The third thing is because these stop Tracking hand signal is a hand in the Air like this I found that a few times The tracking turned off when it really Wasn't my intention to turn it off all Of these little quirks aside it's an
Impressive feature this makes this Gimbal more than just a compact gimbal With a decent payload this is a Potential cameraman replacement this is A potential substitution for buying a New Sony camera body with built-in Subject tracking via a crop and this has A ton of different use cases the genius Part of this tracking unit is that you Can use it while running around with the Gimbals so you can't have your subject Do the okay sign and when you run around Everything will be in frame in theory And because you can use this with a GoPro with a phone with a pocket camera It opens up this technology and Innovation to a group of people that Would have possibly never had it unless They had spent this several thousand Dollars on a new camera body again and This is the future of gimbals in my Opinion I can imagine now people who Have let's say a Sony a5100 they bought For a hundred dollars super cheap camera Still shoots decent video you can plop That camera on this Gimbal and now you Have that AI subject tracking you can Leave it in the center of a room and it Will follow you around completely and Keep you in the center of the frame Which is awesome for a whole lot less Than a new camera body I think the size Of this little accessory and its Performance is incredible I do I also
Know that this is the first iteration And the first time that I've seen this On a gimbal so it will only get better In the future with firmware updates new Accessories app settings Etc but I gotta hand it to Ho ham for a First shot at a gimbal with tracking Built in this is a great little project It truly is so unfortunately I don't Know much about the pricing of this Gimbal yet this is a pre-release unit I Think it's releasing sometime early in June July so we will see where the Pricing comes in but I will leave a link Down in the description below where you Can read more about what this gimbal is Capable of all of the other features That maybe I've missed in this review And you can also pick it up if you Choose to do so so check that out down Below thank you guys so much for Watching thanks for all of your comments All of your likes and your support stay Tuned for more let me know what your Thoughts are regarding AI tracking in Gimbals curious to see what you guys Have to say and I'll see you guys in the Next one thank you bye-bye
