FREEFLY Movi Cinema Robot Gimbal Review
FREEFLY Movi Cinema Robot Gimbal Review
Young Chinese manufacturers dominate the hand-held gimbal
market, so it’s rare to ascertain an American brand put out one among their
very own—never mind an enormous name like Freefly.
Freefly Systems are a corporation based in Washington. They
pioneered drone camera stabilizers and produced a Steadicam alternative for
Hollywood film producers within the Movi M10 gimbal.
I was therefore incredibly excited to urge the prospect to
review the Freefly Movi Cinema Robot. Unlike most gimbals, this was designed by
filmmakers for filmmakers. It’s a couple of standout features and style choices
that basically make it stand out of the gang. Its high tag will shy away many
casual video shooters, but mobile cinematographers will little question be
excited by a gimbal just like the Movi Cinema Robot.
UPDATE: The Movi App which was previously only available to
iPhone users is now available for Android on the Play Store.
First Impressions
The Movi Cinema Robot comes during a hard shell case that
immediately felt more study than the semi-hard shell cases I’m wont to seeing
with most smartphone gimbals.
Upon taking it out of the box, the Movi Cinema Robot looked
very different from the other gimbal I’ve seen. Notably, the gimbal had a base
and therefore the handgrip was off to the side. It wasn’t the standard monopod
design that features the motors directly on top of the handgrip.
One of the large benefits of getting a base is that it
allows you to put the gimbal upright on any flat surface and have it act as its
own tripod. That’s a very neat feature that adds an additional layer of
convenience that other gimbals lack.
The adjustable spring loaded clamp made it very easy to
mount my iPhone X. The powerful motors of the Cinema Robot mean you won’t got
to twiddle any counterweights to perfectly balance your phone.
Phone and Accessory Compatibility
The Movi Cinema Robot is compatible with most smartphones
out there but you'll take a glance at the official compatibility list here.
The gimbal also features a USB-C port which is extremely
refreshing considering numerous gimbals cope with an older Micro USB port. This
makes compatibility with newer charging accessories and cables far better.
One of the Movi Cinema Robot’s unique features is its
compatibility with a huge range of accessories.
By placing the Movi Hoodie accessory mount (purchased
separately) on the handgrip you'll then connect accessories sort of a shotgun
mic or camera light.
Finally, the powerful motors of the Movi Cinema Robot mean
you'll attach lenses to your iPhone without issue. Note that you simply may
need to use a counterweight to properly balance your phone if it becomes tons
heavier.
Filming With The Movi Cinema Robot
Freefly did one thing especially well with the Movi Cinema
Robot. They made the filming experience more enjoyable than using the other
smartphone gimbal.
Owing to its unique form factor, using the Movi Cinema Robot
feels very ‘hands on’. It allows you to use both hands to carry up the gimbal and
cause you to desire you’re a part of a Hollywood film crew. Of course, the
extra hand also serves to further increase stability.
One of the interesting things is that the Movi Cinema Robot
would require you to manually pan and tilt. The D-Pad on the handgrip isn't
like the joystick found on many smartphone gimbals which electronically pan and
tilt. The D-Pad is instead controls various functions like exposure and showing
previews. It’s clear that Freefly designed a gimbal that desires the user to
physically control all the movements.
The Movi App
This review wouldn’t be a correct review unless we enter
some detail about the Movi app.
With most gimbals I’ve used the software is so bad that I
rarely record using their apps. Instead, I’ll use the stock iPhone or Android
apps. Not the power having the ability to record in 4K despite your phone
having the ability to, or simply an unsightly interface are common issues I’ve
encountered.
Not so with the Movi app. In fact, not using the Movi app
and recording would quite defeat the aim of getting the Movi Cinema Robot
within the first place. It’s awesome.
My favorite part was just how easy it had been to modify
settings like pan/tilt follow speeds on the fly. On other gimbal apps you’d
typically need to attend into settings, change it from there then return. On
the Movi app, you'll tap one among the ‘Response’ box at the highest and alter
it on the fly.
That’s one among many belongings you can do with the app.
The app has many neat functions that warrant a separate writeup. So for now,
just remember that the Movi app may be a very powerful piece of software for
filmmakers.
Since there’s numerous features, Freefly have a fanatical
tutorials page. These tutorials will run you thru everything you would like to understand.
Shooting Modes
The Freefly Movi Cinema Robot has more shooting modes than
most gimbals on the market. That’s precisely why users are prompted to settle
on between Basic and Ninja modes when getting started.
Basic gives you access to the Majestic shooting mode, which
is that the standard operating mode and doubtless what you’ll want to use most
of the time. If you select Ninja mode, all the shooting modes are going to be
unlocked.
As with any gimbal, the Movi Cinema Robot will allow has all
the essential gimbal modes:
Pan Following: The gimbal will lock the lean (up and down)
axis, keeping the camera’s position relative to the horizon steady, but
allowing freedom to pan.
Pan and Tilt Following: The gimbal will only lock the roll
axis.
All axes locked: The gimbal will lock the pan (side to side)
tilt (up and down) and roll (iPhone tilting left or right) axes. You’ll do that
by pressing the trigger at the rear of the handgrip.
Stabilization Performance
As you’d perhaps expect from an upscale 3-axis gimbal with a
reputation like Freefly behind it, the Movi Cinema Robot’s stabilization is superb.
While the likes of the similarly priced handheld gimbal just like the GoPro
Karma Grip (which can’t be used with smartphones) stabilize even as well,
having the ability to carry the gimbal up with two hands reduces human error.
The motors were also quiet, with no noticeable noise being
picked up by my iPhone’s mic.
However, as is usually a drag with pairing gimbals with an
iPhone, sometimes the iPhone’s Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) can conflict
with the gimbal and produce strange results. This is often not the gimbals
fault, but rather an iPhone specific problem that's caused by an inability to
disable the OIS.
There are ways to urge around this, but I won’t enter detail
for that during this review. Just remember that because it stands iPhones
sometimes don’t play well with gimbals and you would possibly need to adjust
some settings to urge everything running well. Despite that, I still believe
shooting with a high end iPhone will ultimately produce the simplest results,
because their new cameras are just that good.
Battery Life
The Movie Cinema Robot takes two 2600mAh Lithium Ion 18650
cells. A full charge takes roughly 3 hours and consistent with Freefly you'll
expect around 8 hours of usage.
I never filmed long enough to completely run through the
batteries. As long as I still had 3 out of 5 bars remaining after 2 or 3 hours
of use, their stated battery life seems to be about right.
It’s also worth noting that the Movi can work plugged in to
an influence supply. This is often useful if you’re filming things from a
static position.
Final Thoughts
Overall I actually desire Firefly have created something
special within the Movi Cinema Robot. It had been extremely refreshing to
review a gimbal which was doing things very differently.
This is definitely the simplest smartphone gimbal for
wannabe cinematographers out there. No questions on it. An entire raft of
shooting modes, settings and therefore the very ‘hands on’ feel using the Movi
gives you causes you to desire you’re on a movie set.
At an equivalent time i'm not convinced it's the simplest
option for those simply trying to find something to stabilize video. Not least
due to its high tag and therefore the incontrovertible fact that you’ll feel a
touch ridiculous using it, but also because it’s a rather bigger piece of kit
and features a bunch of features tailored for the filmmaker.
Those simply looking to film some awesome holiday shots or
just improve production quality for his or her vlog might won’t get much out of
paying more for the Movi Cinema Robot. Except for the new generation of smartphone
filmmakers, the Movi Cinema Robot may be a very fitting gimbal with only a few
downsides.
Pros
- Great Stabilization Performance
- Movi App is extremely well-designed
- Can stand upright on flat surfaces by itself
- Can hold with two hands
Cons
- Significantly costlier than other smartphone gimbals
- Bulky
Rating: 4/5
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