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This is a real shame as everything else is incredibly well designed, and it’s not even as if the bag feels cheap. When it comes to the actual materials and quality, they’re excellent. The Crane M3 Pro Kit Performance-wise the power of the motors is impressive, smoothing out the usual handshake and wobble associated with handheld footage. It’s also incredibly easy to use with the direct controls on the handgrip. Build quality for the M3 is also excellent; you can see and feel that Zhiyun has worked on the product design of this model. It feels like a real step up and is starting to depart from the raw engineered feel of previous Cranes.
Zhiyun Crane M3 - Review 2022 - PCMag UK
While this concept might seem alien to many of us, if you’re starting, this is a gimbal that will grow with you by using your phone to a mirrorless system. Modelling light On the subject of long shoots, the M3 supports the 'PD Fast Charge' protocol, with two hours of charge giving you up to eight hours of runtime from the 1150mAh battery, depending of course on how many features you're using and how hard you're torquing those axis motors. Neatly, there's also a USB-C slot in the body, so the gimbal can be charged with a power bank whilst continuing to operate. Unlike other gimbals that have a minimum and maximum payload, the Zhiyun Crane M3 is designed to work with camera phones, action cameras and mirrorless cameras. It comes with an adjustable phone mount that could fit a phone in as big as the new iPhone 13 Pro Max. USB control works with only select Sony models: the a7 II, a7 III, a7R II, a7R III, a7R IV, a7S II, a7S III, a6100, a6300, a6400, a6500, a6600, HX90, RX100 V, RX100 VI, RX100 VII, and ZV-1. The compatibility list with the Bluetooth adapter is longer, but not entirely comprehensive. It doesn't include cameras from Olympus OM System at all, for example.
The two cameras look rather small in a gimbal of this size, but compatibility is welcome. It means that you can easily switch between mirrorless, phone and action camera as needed.
Crane M3 - the Best Designed Gimbal for Vlogging - ZHIYUN Crane M3 - the Best Designed Gimbal for Vlogging - ZHIYUN
It also benefits from a built-in light capable of 800-lumen output, which is perfect for those moments where you need just a little more light and don't want to add extra weight by using an external LED panel. You can turn it on by holding down the wheel on the side and then change the brightness by rolling it up or down. On-the-hoof, live interviews couldn’t get easier with the CRANE M3’s TransMount Expansion Base to which professional microphones can be directly connected. The base bypasses connecting the microphone via the camera, thus removing the need for: additional cables, extra weight on the camera, and further adjustments to the gimbal. The M3 comes with a TransMount Shotgun Microphone as standard, however, the 6.5mm connecting audio port can also support a range of wired professional microphones for clear audio performance with cardioid/hypercardioid patterns. The expansion base for the gimbal (included with the Pro Kit option) has a receiver built-in, which can be paired with the transmitter module for wireless control of cameras via Bluetooth where supported, e.g. to trigger your camera's shutter button. While this approach has its pros and cons - you don't always need a light source and it's sometimes creatively beneficial to have the light source separate from the camera point of view - most of the time having the M3's small (2cm) but deceptively bright 800-lumen (average) lighting available on demand is undeniably a good thing.If you have a very heavy DSLR, or use specific long lenses, you might consider moving up to a more heavy-duty gimbal, such as Zhiyun's Weebill 2. The Crane M3's sweet spot - noting its stated maximum payload of around 2.2kg - is with smaller-body DSLRs and mirrorless compact cameras, as well as smartphones.
Zhiyun Crane M3 review | Digital Camera World
Like it's smartphone-specific sibling, the Smooth 5 ( which we reviewed previously), the Crane M3 is also a Red Dot Award 2022 winner for its product design. There are a few quirks at the time of writing, direct camera control from the grip doesn’t work for the Sony cameras, and the mic input also has a few noise issues. I’m assured that these factors will be sorted out with firmware. If the size of the gimbal handle was kept the same, but the space between the sliding axis was slightly bigger, we would rate the gimbal a lot higher. The fact we couldn't get it to balance as instructed without the rubber viewfinder hitting the gimbal put it down a peg or two. The Crane M3 is great looking gimbal; its small size and power make it a formidable filmmaking tool that will suit all sorts of videographers and photographers. I paired the Crane M3 with the Sony ZV-E10 and an iPhone 13 for testing. The stabilizer is the perfect size for smaller swappable lens cameras like the ZV-E10 and a good fit for upmarket compacts like the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III. Zhiyun lists some full-frame models in the camera compatibility list, but they balance only if you attach lightweight prime lenses. Zhiyun does not publish a maximum payload for the gimbal, but most of the compatible kits it lists come in under two pounds. The Crane M3 is a perfect match for small ILCs like the Sony ZV-E10
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The screen, while small, gives you direct access to options and settings and is fast and easy to navigate. It’s just really well thought out and boosts the use and workflow of the Gimbal. Using the Crane M3 with a mirrorless camera was the port of call, and after a few lens experiments, I found that the 35mm f/1.4 was the way to go when it camera to stabilisation. Anything larger pushed the limits of the motors, which for a gimbal of this size was not surprising. Gimbals help remove undesirable shake or wobble from your videos, which has made them popular with YouTubers and vloggers who are looking to step up their video production quality. And while Zhiyun isn't quite as big a name as DJI in the field, the Chinese manufacturer certainly isn't far off –particularly with offerings like the Crane-M2S. It’s not just the style of the bag that doesn’t feel right for the Pro Kit. While it is nicely made, it doesn’t fit all the kits. The microphone is longer than the height of the bag, so it doesn’t fit in.
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