New Hohem gimbal perfect for travel videos with remote AI tracking
A new smartphone device promises to turn shaky holiday videos into professional looking works of art, with its AI tracking and remote control.
If you’re looking to take the videos of your dream holiday or special family occasion to the next level, sometimes a great camera or phone is not enough.
Even with the stabilisation offered on the latest smartphones, your video can be shaky, uneven and poorly framed.
That’s where a good gimbal can help capture the magic moments from your trip and take your video-making to a whole new level.
Unlike a selfie stick or tripod, a good gimbal works by detecting movements on three axes - pan, tilt and roll, and uses brushless motors to make real-time adjustments.
It takes a while to get used to using one - most have different modes for different shooting scenarios, so it pays to watch some good video guides on the basics before you start out.
We’ve given the latest gimbal, the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra, a solid workout on a 10-day family holiday in New Zealand. Fortunately it came with some great tutorials to get us underway.
The gimbal allows you to easily change from video to photos, rotate the orientation of your phone from horizontal to vertical, zoom in and out, pan across scenes smoothly as well as create a whole range of ‘moments’ within the Hohem Joy app.
KEY FEATURES
• AI Smart Tracking – Automatically recognises and follows subjects
• Detachable touch remote – Enables remote control up to 10 metres away
• 360° Infinite rotation + 3-axis stabilisation
• 205mm extension rod for high/low-angle shots
• RGB & CCT Adjustable Lighting
• 1.22” touchscreen with real-time remote view
The app also offers a range of story templates to create little videos which are perfect for social media.
If you have used a GoPro, the app has a similar approach to offer quick editing options to select your best photos or video, add music and create a good looking little video.
During our New Zealand trip, it was great for some scenarios, while not useful at all for others.
We flew into Christchurch and hired a van to stop at stunning Airbnb locations along the way until finishing up in a condominium overlooking snow-capped mountains in Queenstown.
For someone who loves photography and making videos, the trip was superb with locations including a farm stay on a massive sheep property at Mungati, about 25 kilometres from Timaru and a home overlooking Lake Tekapo.
Our trip also included a boat ride from Queenstown to Walter Peak High Country Farm where we saw a sheep shearing demonstration and a working dog rounding up sheep from the top of the hills.
The gimbal, which features AI-powered subject tracking, worked brilliantly as we filmed family members walking down the hill of the farm property as well as our farm guide giving insights into the life of a working dog.
But as I expected, it was no match for the speed of the dog as it flew up the hill.
In the boat, with the built in 205mm extension rod, I was able to capture stunning video of the vistas above the heads of lots of tourists.
The extension is also useful for capturing wider group shots, or interesting overhead or low-angle shots. I used it to capture interesting vision of the top of flowers at a local botanical garden.
The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra, which is foldable and can easily fit in a jacket pocket, offers 360 degree rotation which was just perfect to New Zealand’s incredible scenery.
Its biggest point of difference though it is that it has a detachable wireless remote with a 1.22 inch full colour touchscreen.
The remote has a joystick which you can use to tilt and pan your phone up to 10 metres away.
We found that really handy while trying to record timelapses of the clouds moving over the mountains as the sun was rising, without having to be freezing on the balcony ourselves.
The multimodal AI tracking will not only keep people at the centre of the action but also other objects such as pets, vehicles or even your hands, which would be useful for close-ups if you are making something.
With more people doing their own content creation to promote new online businesses, this sort of gimbal is perfect for people want to create better looking videos without the need for someone else to film it.
The 1.22 inch remote offers a HD live feed display which is enough to show you if you have framed the shot well. It also has its own light to improve shooting in darker conditions.
There are also a range of gesture controls you can use.
You can use an OK sign to start AI tracking, indicated by a solid green light.
A palm-out gesture stops tracking, turning the light red.
You can switch between portrait and landscape by pointing two thumbs left/right or up.
A specific shutter gesture starts/stops photo/video recording.
For custom framing, a quick flashing green light indicates the gimbal is ready to accept a new position, and performing the gesture again confirms the customised position.
With a battery life of about 9 hours, and the ability to hold a payload of up to 400 grams, the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra also has a wide smartphone capability of 58mm to 98mm width.
It is available online and will retail at JB HiFI in Australia for under $300.
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Originally published as New Hohem gimbal perfect for travel videos with remote AI tracking
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