EVO Shift Gimbal Review: Ultimate Smartphone Gimbal?
| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
This post is a full review of the EVO Shift, a gimbal made for smartphone videography.
It’s easy to feel like you’re getting great footage when taking video on your phone only to realize later that it’s almost unwatchable.
Most footage from smartphone cameras and even from action cameras like GoPros is just too jerky or shaky to enjoyably watch.
The solution to this problem is a gimbal. These tools offer smooth stabilization, letting you take professional-quality videos. The EVO Shift is one such gimbal, offering great stabilization and some extra features for an affordable price.
Stabilization
A gimbal like the EVO Shift offers something that you’ll typically only see with much more expensive camera equipment: smooth, stabilized video. Even as you walk, run, or move all around, the gimbal keeps the camera in a stable position. It operates on a full 3-axis plane.
It features three different stabilization modes. In the Pan Follow Mode, the tilt and roll axes are locked.
As your wrist turns, the pan axis will rotate smoothly along with it.
You can use the joystick controls to adjust the tilt angle. In Lock Mode, all three axes are locked.
You can use the joystick to manually adjust the pan & tilt. In Full Follow Mode, the roll access is locked while the pan and tilt axes will smoothly follow you.
You can use the joystick to adjust the angle of the horizon. In each of these modes, you will get stable footage with a professional quality. That means there won’t be any of that annoying jerking or shaking or bouncing that you typically see with phone-shot videos.
The EVO Shift offers Smart-Track Technology, letting you track a particular person or object on the move. The gimbal will automatically pan and tilt the camera to keep the chosen person or object in the frame.
Other great features of the EVO Shift are the Perfect Panoramas and Time-Lapse modes. You can take 180° or 330° panoramic shots. For the Time-Lapse mode, you select 10 sweep points and select a time range from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. This results in a professional-quality motion timelapse.
Compatibility
The EVO Shift gimbal works with all iPhone and Android smartphones, both regular and plus size.
The maximum weight it can support is 220g, so as long as your phone is under that weight, it should work. In addition to smartphones, the EVO Shift can work with action cameras like GoPros and 360° cameras.
Again, it will be necessary for the cameras to be under the 220g weight limit. To use the EVO Shift with a GoPro or similar camera, you will need to purchase an adapter plate separately.
Some special features are accessed through the EVO Remote App. This is available in both the iTunes App Store and the Google Play App store. The App isn’t necessary for using the gimbal but it can help improve the experience by giving you some additional control, at least in theory. The app gets mixed reviews with many people reporting significant problems with it.
Customer Reviews & Scores
This gimbal comes out pretty well in customer reviews.
At the time of publishing this very review, It had a 4.1-star average on Amazon, with a number of reviewers praising it as a great value.
As mentioned, several reviewers do complain about having big problems with the app.
Some people also report having problems with the Bluetooth connectivity. A few reviewers do stress the importance of learning how to really use the gimbal to get the most out of it, suggesting that YouTube videos are particularly helpful.
As one Amazon reviewer points out, learning how to properly balance your phone on the gimbal can lead to huge savings in battery life. On YouTube, Amy Chou praises the EVO Shift for being easy to use and for offering a “cinematic” film quality. Moroni Mafi shot some action footage with the EVO Shift and described it as “pretty great to shoot with” though he did describe having some issues with the app.
Is it worth your money?
As far as smartphone gimbals go, the EVO Shift offers a great value.
You get professional-quality stabilization along with some great extra features like the panoramic and time-lapse modes for a pretty affordable price.
This is not the very best smartphone gimbal on the market, but it does offer one of the best values out there. If you take a lot of footage on your phone or GoPro and find yourself frustrated with the jerky and shaky footage, investing in the EVO Shift gimbal makes sense.
If you need footage for a more professional reason like for a vlog or YouTube channel, then buying some kind of gimbal is a must have.
The EVO Shift can get you to a basic level of professional quality footage without totally breaking the bank. Finally, this gimbal is also a solid purchase for anyone who just wants a new toy to play with. The EVO Shift gimbal definitely makes playing with your phone’s camera fun again.
Great explanation. As a journalist I’m looking for a gimbal to make shooting with selfie mode like this one but another point is tracking. So what about that function? Is that working well like Oslo mobile 2 or not too much like Smooth Q?