The insanely popular crane M3 has been Updated this is called the crane M3s and It's a significant in many ways Improvement over the predecessor even if You have the crane M3 there may be a Couple of reasons for you to consider Upgrading to this and if you don't own a Gimbal but you own a full-frame Sony Camera then this tiny thing could be Enough for your setup just depending Let's check it out there are two ways to Buy this gimbal the cheaper route is Just the Gimbal and a mini tripod but For sixty dollars more you can get a Backpack with it and a phone mount in Both cases you get all of the cables and The mounts that you will need to mount Your camera to it the backpack is good Quality it's white with some branding on It it's a little bit flashy for my taste But I'm not a fashion connoisseur the Gimbal itself well there is not much to Review here it is the exact same body With some small changes and some fine Tuning if you were buying one of these Gimbals at night you could easily be Slipped a crane M3 instead of the M3s And you would only notice the difference When you got home in short it's a great Compact lightweight gimbal with a nice Bright touchscreen display easy menu System with plenty of control and a Design that is still modern looking and If you are looking for a capable gimbal
But you want it to be as compact as Possible this is the answer as far as Differences and improvements over the Predecessor I can summarize this in five Key points number one is the payload Capacity has been improved more Specifically the compatibility list has Grown that is the amount of cameras and Lenses that are compatible with this Tiny gimbal has grown payload capacity Of this gimbal is unchanged and Unreleased from what I can tell but in My own testing it does a little better Than the M3 and the m2s in balancing Heavier lenses the older model gimbals Couldn't balance the Tamron 28 to 75 G2 On my Sony a7c this M3s balances that Lens on my Sony fx30 which is a heavier Camera body the problem is this is on The cusp of what is the maximum capacity In terms of weight distribution for this Camera setup it's a bit over two pounds Or so And I had to turn the torque up all the Way to the maximum on the settings and Even so I tested this and it only really Stayed balanced for about 15 minutes or So until it failed and then collapsed And it was just like the old ones but Still this is about 14 minutes and 50 Seconds longer than it stayed balanced On the predecessor so I guess it's sort Of a win I don't think that the motors Have more torque this is all the result
Of lengthening some of these gimbal arms To allow you to balance Just a Touch Better and adding a little bit here and There goes a long way with larger Cameras and lenses so this is good news Number two this gimbal now has wireless Bluetooth shutter control just like the Newly released weibull 3s so this means That you don't need to use any cables to Control your shutter you can do that Wirelessly you might think that that's Not quite a big deal but in order to do The same on the old M3 you'd have to buy An X extra extended base plate accessory And a separate Bluetooth module to do it So this is a nice step forward number Three this new gimbal has an improved Fill light built in now I don't know if You guys have noticed this but Gwen has Really been on a lighting kick over the Last couple of years and they've Released a number of new lights that are Pretty cool and if you haven't noticed This five Ray M40 which is a bi-color LED light that they make happens to also Be white and black is it a coincidence Probably but these two things can be Used together quite easily anyway back Into the built-in fill light it is now Brighter the old M3 was a Max 800 Lux This m3x is a Max 1000 Lux which is Significant it's still a stepless Bi-color LED and it's easy to control And use number four the axis locks have
Been redesigned with this Gimbal and This is not a small thing they are all Located optimally on the arms right near The motor as they all click into place With a satisfying sound it's a good Improvement number five this is for me The biggest Improvement but I might be In the minority and that is the quick Release two in one plate Foreign If we remember back to the original M3 That gimbal had a quick release plate as Well but it wasn't standard that is you Had to buy little brackets for your Specific camera model and then the Entire mechanism was extra money with The crane M3s the quick release is Included and it's way better than the Older style quick release anyway it will Work on any camera with a tripod mount And it goes on and comes off way easier Way quicker you can pull your camera off The Gimbal and put it back on the gimbal In seconds this is way better than any Of the mounting brackets on other Gimbals it's not even close so those Five improvements are one thing but Let's see if the performance is any Different I shot a video with my wife And my fx30 and a couple of cine lenses With this gimbal a couple of weeks ago So let's take a look at that this is my Fx30 this Gimbal and then three Different Rokinon vaf cine lenses Ready
Set Go Oh [Music] Foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Thank you [Music] [Music] Foreign Looks a lot smoother when you shoot at 60 frames per second and then slow it Down to 24 frames per second you can Almost get away with shooting handheld Stuff and slowing it down and it looks Relatively smooth sometimes but I'll Summarize the performance of this gimbal As identical to the M3 it's one of the Compromises of a small gimbal it's just Not quite as smooth as larger ones Comparing this M3s to the newly released Weibull 3s the 3s is noticeably smoother But again it's a bigger package that's Not to say the performance of the M3s is Poor it's very good but it's not perfect Especially with the more telephoto focal Lengths like this shot at 75 millimeter It's hard for this gimbal to support the Heavier camera and lens and therefore Some stability is lost the lighter the Load the more stable the end result will Be so if you are using a smaller camera
And a lighter lens you'll see better Results I will also say that that I Think that part of this movement is due To the fact that you don't really have Two points of contact like there's no Sling grip or extra arm or anything like That to support your primary hand and in Most cases unless I was using this Little tripod as a secondary grip which Is still kind of too close for added Stability I was using this mostly with One hand so that's to be expected it's Not going to be as smooth as having a Sling grip still if you enable Electronic stabilization on your camera If your camera comes with it these Little movements are gone and even if You are shooting with something like the Original a6000 this sure beats handheld Footage every day of the week and twice On Sundays other things I noticed the Little glowing M3 logo on the gimbal arm Is gone it's been replaced with simple Black letters I like the glowing letters But I think that they were hard to see At times so it makes sense as to why They were removed battery life is rated At seven and a half hours this gimbal Supports fast charging so two hours of Charge gets you about seven and a half Hours of stabilization there are also Battery indicator bars now on the screen I think there are five of them so you Can tell just how much charge is left
But the old M3 seemed to have no battery Bars at all it just showed a level on a Pixel by pixel scale there are no Electronic connections at the base of This gimbal so you won't be able to use It with the M3s extended base and the Big microphone All Things Considered This is still the best small gimbal that I've ever tested on this channel and I Do like it more than the crane m2s just Because of that quick release plate this Is pretty much the best thing that has Come on the top of a gimbal it just Makes battery changes and SD card swaps Super duper easy this new gimbal Released just a few days ago and prices Are 299 for the standard kit and 359 for The one that I got with everything so It's not bad it's still just about a Hundred dollars more than the m2s this New crane M3s is ideal if you have one Of the Sony zv cameras they are light And this gimbal would create some smooth Results with them and because you get or Can buy extra accessories this is a Gimbal that you can use with an action Camera or a cell phone just as easily so It's versatile for heavier setups However I would still recommend going With the new we build 3s especially Because the 3s starts at 319 us which is Only twenty dollars more than this Gimbal yes it's bigger but it's also Smoother and it can handle at least six
Pounds of payload speaking of which I do Have an extra Weeble 3s that Gwen sent To me I'm doing a giveaway on my Instagram so follow me there if you are Interested so that is going to be it for This review of the new crane M3s I hope You guys enjoyed it and you learned Something from it let me know what your Thoughts are down in the comments Section below is this enough to justify An upgrade over the original M3 or is it Not curious to what your thoughts are Stay tuned for more guys thank you so Much for watching have a great day bye
