 In today's video, we will talk about Insta360 AI-powered phone stabilizer called the Insta360 Flow. And this has become one of my favorite go-to gimbals, and I don't change gimbals that often, but this gimbal right here has allowed me to be more efficient when it comes to shooting with my phone. Insta360 is well-known for creating 360 action cameras, and they're really good at it. And with mobile content creation rising, they have now tapped into the market of mobile gimbals, which makes sense considering their expertise in AI image processing. So let's see how it will stack up against the competition such as the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 and how you can use it to master your gimbal shots easily. Before we get into the content, I wanna thank Insta360 for sponsoring this video and providing me with the Insta360 Flow. However, I wasn't told to say anything specific, so everything I say in this video will be my honest opinion. Now, why would you need a gimbal for your phone? As a mobile content creator, I always bring a gimbal with me when I'm on the go. Even though the iPhone 14 Pro has great image stabilization, I 100% still prefer using a gimbal as it makes capturing moments so much easier. Not only do I have steadier shots, but the gimbal also comes with features that extend the functionality to be more creative with my shots. Now, the market is huge and deciding which smartphone gimbal to get can be overwhelming. That's why in this video, I want to help you make an informed decision so that you can see if the Insta360 Flow suits your shooting needs. Before we start, let me show you what I will cover in this video. First, I'm going to give you a quick overview of the gimbal. Then talk about the build and design. Look at how to mount and balance the gimbal. Look at the basic button functions as well as the gimbal modes. Walk you through the Insta360 app as well as talk about the performance. I'll also quickly compare the Insta360 Flow with the DJI Osmo Mobile 6. Talk about the price and give you my final thoughts. Hopefully that sounds good to you and if so, let's get started. So I want to start off with a quick overview of the gimbal. The Insta360 Flow offers a three-axis stabilization. You have the pan, tilt, and roll motor. You also have a magnetic clamp, which you might have seen from the DJI Osmo 5 and 6 gimbal. At the top, you have a USB-C out to charge your phone, which can be used as a power bank. The USB-C in is close to the smart wheel to charge the gimbal. Then you have the foldable arm and a built-in selfie stick that extends 215 millimeters. Looking at the smart wheel, you have all the important buttons you need. You have a joystick, a power-on-off button, a switch button, a record button, and an indicator showing you what gimbal modes you're currently in. What's special about the smart wheel is that you can use the touch panel to change gimbal modes. You can also turn the wheel to adjust zoom. This is a pretty new design, which I haven't seen on any other gimbal. On the foldable arm, you have a built-in cold shoe mount, which you can use to mount accessories, such as the Rode Wireless GO. It also comes with a light that can be attached to the gimbal for shooting in low-light environments. Then you also have a trigger button on the back. Below is a hidden built-in mini tripod for placing the gimbal on flat surfaces and a one-quarter screw at the bottom for additional mounting options. So let's look at the built-in design of the Insta360 Flow Stabilizer. The gimbal feels really solid in my hand and has a very good built quality. The overall size and shape feel ergonomic and fit nicely in my hands. And you can extend the bottom for a better grip if you have larger hands. Now it also comes with this grip cover, making shooting even more comfortable. The stabilizer weighs around 400 grams, making it light and easy to carry. Its foldable design makes it great to fit in your pocket easily. It also has a nice futuristic look to it. The buttons are conveniently placed, making it easy for my thumb to reach them. Now the operating time of the gimbal is 12 hours, which will last you a full day of shooting. Now the maximum payload of the Insta360 Flow Stabilizer is 300 grams. And I had no issues using it with the iPhone 14 Pro, as well as the iPhone 13 Pro Max. And I can even use it with the case. Now be sure to check the weight of your phone so that it doesn't exceed the maximum payload of the gimbal, otherwise it won't operate properly. Now I like how they included the built-in extension pole, like also seen on the DJI Osmo Mobile 6, as you can use it to get higher and lower shots and have a better way of recording yourself when vlogging. You can also adjust the angle of the selfie stick for different shooting purposes. Now we're all probably familiar with the magnetic clamp system. It is something they definitely looked up from DJI. And I do like how they included it because it really improves the setup time. Now I also like that you have the option to also get a spotlight if you're filming in low light conditions. I can simply attach the light to the clamp and power it via USB-C. There are three brightness levels to choose from and you can change the color temperature between daylight, tungsten, or mixed. You can also turn the light, which is really important to brighten up your face or turn it the other way around to brighten up your subject. Now for my shooting needs, I highly value gimbals that have a quick setup time because I want to be able to capture moments quickly. Let's look at how efficient the Insta360 Flow is when it comes to mounting and balancing your phone. Now, as I mentioned, the Insta360 Flow is a beginner-friendly gimbal and unlike other more traditional gimbals, it doesn't require much balancing and is pretty straight forward. So the way to do it is first mount the magnetic clamp to the back of your phone and center it. Ensure the clamp's camera sign is pointing towards your phone's camera, then attach the clamp to the gimbal by aligning them. The magnets will hold your phone in place securely. Even if I try to shake it off the phone, you can see it will stay firmly in place. With a single motion, you can unfold the gimbal, which then auto balances and auto powers on. The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 has this function but unfolding it takes a few more steps. And if you have auto app connection enabled, a pop-up notification will appear to start shooting with the Insta360 app. So now that you've learned how to balance your gimbal correctly, let's quickly review the basic button functions. By learning what each button does, you'll better understand how to use the gimbal and be more efficient when shooting. What's great about the Insta360 Flow is that it only has a few buttons laid out, making it not too overwhelming when using it for the first time. Now be sure to connect the gimbal via Bluetooth to your phone to take advantage of the additional functions. So looking at the smart wheel, pressing the record button will start and stop recording. This also works with the default camera app. It doesn't work with Filmic Pro yet, but I'm sure they will support it in the future. By pressing the power on-off button long, you can turn on and off the gimbal. Double pressing it will set the gimbal to standby mode. Then double pressing the switch button will rotate your phone vertically for shooting reels or story posts. The joystick allows you to control the direction of your camera. Then with the touch panel, you can quickly switch gimbal modes by swiping clockwise or counterclockwise. If you don't prefer to switch that way, you can also double tap, not pressing it though on the record or switch button to change gimbal modes left or right. Moving away from the smart wheel, you have the trigger button on the back. Pressing it once will activate deep track 3.0 when using the Insta360 app. Pressing it two times will re-center your phone and pressing it three times will flip your phone around to record yourself with the rear camera. Now these basic button functions work similar across all the gimbals I've used. So if you have used another gimbal in the past, these functions should be familiar. So we looked at how to switch modes, but what do these gimbal modes actually do? Knowing the different gimbal modes can be useful for certain camera movements. The Insta360 flow offers four different types of gimbal modes, auto, follow, pan, follow and FPV. In auto mode, the gimbal will automatically adjust gimbal settings based on your movement. This is where the roll axis is locked and the tilt and pan axis follow the gimbal movement. This is the mode I use most often. In follow mode, similar to auto mode, the gimbal responds closely to your movements where only the tilt and pan axis are unlocked. I don't see much of a difference between auto and this mode. I guess in auto mode, it can just better detect whether you're walking or running and will adjust its motors accordingly. Now in pan follow mode, the tilt and roll axis are locked. This is great for shooting horizontally or around a subject with a locked horizon. FPV shot is perfect for simulating FPV drone-like movements and POV shots. What's cool is that you can use the zoom wheel to control the movement of the roll axis, which allows the smartphone to spin. So let's look at some of the other additional gimbal modes. Then you have the lock mode, which can be accessed by holding the trigger button. All three axes are locked so your phone won't follow the gimbal movements. This is recommended for follow shots and hyperlapses. Then there's the active plus. Double pressing the trigger button and holding it will enable active plus. This is recommended if you shoot fast moving subjects where you want the gimbal to respond quicker. And this mode can be used in any of the four available gimbal modes. Now it might be overwhelming at first to remember all of these gimbal modes. It does take some time to get familiar with the different gimbal modes. However, I encourage you to take the time to experiment and see what works best for the type of shooting you're doing. So I wanted to dive into the Insta360 app so that you can get the most out of your gimbal. I will walk you through some of the most important features and show you how to use the smart wheel to be more efficient when shooting because I think this is one of the best minimalistic designs that control many useful functions. So with that said, let's get started. I've already connected my iPhone 14 Pro to the Flow and when I head to the Insta360 app you can see that I'm already inside. And it will also automatically adjust the aspect ratio that I used the last time I opened the Insta360 app. So this is the interface we're at. It looks kind of similar to the default camera app on the iPhone. Over here to the top left we have the home button which brings us back. And again, you will see that it adjusts the aspect ratio. Let's head back, select camera. And over here we have our camera settings which is set to 4K 60 frames per second. That is what I typically use when I shoot my travel videos. 4K has a four times higher resolution than 1080p and allows me to reframe my shot without losing much quality. And 60 frames per second allows me to slow down the footage to create a slow motion effect. Next up when we go down here, currently it's set to auto but if you want you can also set it to manual mode and dial in your preferred settings. And this is really great because this gives us more control over our camera but usually on run and gun shoots I set it to auto. The only thing I adjust is the white balance which I either use one of these presets. Important is that you lock your white balance so no color changes occur while you're filming because that will be hard to fix in the edit. So if it's sunny outside you would choose sunny or you can head over to custom what I like to do and dial in the Kelvin temperature. So I'm gonna leave it at 5,000 then I'm gonna head back and now we're gonna choose the gimbal icon below it which reveals more settings. So I've currently set the flow mode to auto that is what I use most often but you can also change it but I prefer to change the gimbal mode using the smart wheel. Over here you can adjust the joystick speed. I leave that in medium. The zoom speed is also set to medium tracking sensitivity. I leave it to normal. And then you have the ability to enable front cam auto tracking. So when I enable this and for example I want to switch to the selfie camera to shoot a vlog it will automatically track my face. Then you have reverse joystick which I don't use. Then you have flow sound and vibration but I'm actually not sure what it does. I haven't researched that yet. Then you have auto calibration. So in case your gimbal is having issues you can do an auto calibration. And what's also cool is that you have the adjust horizon axis. So in here you can manually adjust your horizon if for some reason it's off. You can select start. And then right now it's at a 0.0 degree. And then I can select the plus. And you can see that it turns green and that tells me that my horizon is leveled. And then I can confirm it. But before you use that setting make sure to balance your phone correctly first. Now to the bottom left over here you have these three dots which I will select. And in here you have your general settings. So I leave grids enabled. This allows me to set my composition. Then I also have histogram enabled which is this one over here that tells me if my image is overexposed or underexposed. Then you have the automatic pop up connection which I leave enabled. This means once I've connected my phone to the gimbal and powered it on a pop up will appear which I can tap on that will lead me directly to the Insta360 app. Then you have scene recognition which I think is really cool. So once enabled the current scene will be analyzed and matched to a shot genie shooting template which we will get into later. Then you have voice control which enables you to use the voice commands in the shot genie app. Like I said we will get into that later. I highly recommend you check out the tutorial and go through it. This way you will get a good start on how to use it. Then you also have the flow button operating guide which you can go through and study. And then at the bottom you have the option to reset all of your settings. So next up we have the battery life of the gimbal and the battery life of the phone. And over here you can switch between the front and selfie camera. And over here is the record button. And then I can press on it to stop recording. And then below over here you have your playback. So I can select it and rewatch the video. And then below here you have your parameters. So currently it's set to auto at a shutter speed of one over 60 with an ISO of 100. And then you have your exposure value which is set to zero. So over here you have your shooting modes. So starting at the very bottom you have panel photo which creates a panoramic photo for you. Then you have the normal photo function, video, slow motion. Then you have this widescreen mode which creates that cinematic aspect ratio. You have time lapse, time shift and live mode. But for now we're just gonna focus on video. Now when I go out and do run and gun shooting I like to tap hold to lock my exposure and focus because I don't want my exposure to change while I record. So this works similar to the native camera app. Now this up here is the shot genie feature where you can get inspiration on filming a scene with many available shooting templates. And when I press on it you can see that I can also give voice commands and the AI will recommend a shooting technique tailored to the scene. So I can say I'm at the park. Then it will give me a scene that was shot in the park and I can use this as a template and follow through it in case I need some ideas. So this is a really great feature and also for beginners this is a great way to practice. So let's look at the smart wheel. I can press hold the switch button and it will show me the last shot that I've taken which is really great. And then I can cycle between the clips that I've shot by pressing the switch button to cycle right or the record button to cycle left. What you can also do is swipe the wheel clockwise or counterclockwise to move your play head in the video. And something else you can do with the smart wheel is that when I turn it I can actually zoom into the video to maybe check if my face is in focus or not. So really cool. And then if you wanna end the playback I can just press the power button. This is a really powerful function to quickly check my shot and then get back to shooting again. Now another powerful tool is turning this wheel over here to switch lenses quickly. And this is really great because I do switch lenses a lot to get a variety of shots. And if I turn and hold the wheel it will start zooming in. And if I turn the wheel to the left it will start zooming out. Now to the very top you also have the flash function and you also have filters that you can choose from in case you want to save time color grading. But I usually like to do that in the edit. To enable deep tracking you can just tap the trigger button once and you will see that it will detect my face and start tracking me. You can also use your finger to select a subject and track it. And what's cool is that you can select a moving person, child, animal or object. Now once deep track is enabled the gimbal will remember the target the person throughout the recording and continue to track them which is really powerful even re-identifying them when other objects block them. It also zooms out to the wide angle lens when the subject moves out of the frame to find it and zooms in to continue to track it. You can also use the deep track for live streams to ensure that you're always in the frame. And like I mentioned when you enable front cam auto tracking once you switch to the selfie camera it will automatically track you which can be great for vloggers. Now something I noticed that the Insta360 doesn't have which the DJI Osmo Model 6 has is gesture control. So if you want to use hand gestures to start and stop recording from a distance you won't have that feature. But I can imagine that they could include that in the future update. So let's now put this gimbal to the test and see how it performs. I took this gimbal with me to Panama as I was there on vacation with my brother and here are some of the clips I've shot using the Insta360 flow so that you can see how smooth the results are. You can see that the shots are very smooth and the flow can really handle a wide range of dynamic movements and at no point did I notice the gimbal struggling or having issues. I also tested it with a heavier setup using a telephoto lens by Sandmark which is quite heavy at around 84 grams. That was absolutely blown away at how well it handled it even without counterweights. There were no jitters, no vibrations and the shots were very stable. Now the roll motor did get hot and it will use more power. However, it will work for quick, simple shots. It will be great if it had the possibility to add counterweights so the motor wouldn't have to work as hard when using heavier setups. Something to mention is that the tilt range is limited on the flow. So for creating low to high shots, for example, you would have to position the gimbal sideways whereas with the Zion Smooth 5S, you can point it forward and then move it up which is more of a natural way of doing it. A great feature is the extension pull that allows you to get low to the ground for a more unique perspective without having to be in an uncomfortable position. Now I have been using the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 for quite a long time and it has been my go-to gimbal but here are some of the reasons why I switched to the Insta360 Flow. Regarding the setup time, the flow is faster requiring only a single motion to start the shooting. The fact that I can attach the phone before turning on the gimbal makes it more convenient and faster. The DJI Osmo Mobile 4 had that. I don't know why they changed that. The flow has also twice as much battery life and I can charge it while shooting or even use it as a power bank. So now I don't have to carry an extra power bank with me and use the flow for it. The flow also comes with a cold shoe mount that allows you to attach a microphone such as the Rode Wireless Go or any other microphone that has one of these cold shoe mounts which on the OM6 requires a workaround. I'm testing out this new vlogging setup so I have the Insta360 Flow paired with the Rode Wireless Go 2 and I think it works really great. And with the extension pole I can be further away from the camera so that you guys can see me and I can also keep myself centered using the tracking feature as well which I really like. And yeah, so this morning we just arrived in Saboga Island. You can see it's super beautiful. We took the ferry from Panama City. It's around a one and a half hour drive but yeah, we're gonna stay here for one night and then tomorrow we are gonna head back again. Furthermore, the built-in tripod is another plus point with the DJI OM6, I have to unscrew it to make it fit in my pocket. So as you can see, these advantages make the Insta360 Flow a great choice for me. Now considering all you get when purchasing the flow the Insta360 Flow standalone is priced at $159 and the Insta360 Flow Creator Kit comes with the light at $209. So with that said, here are my final thoughts on the Insta360 Flow. It is probably the most advanced smartphone gimbal on the market today. There's not much negative to say about it. I've reviewed many gimbals on my channel in the past but Insta360 has really taken it to the next level especially with their deep track technology which they are well known for gives you a very accurate tracking result. It is compact and convenient. You can unfold it in just one motion. It has several integrated features like the built-in tripod, selfie stick and cold shoe mount eliminating the need for additional accessories. It has an impressive battery life that can even be used as a power bank which for me is another huge plus because filming all day with a smartphone can drain the battery so quickly and I don't always have access to an outlet and that is also what I really missed on the DJI OM6. Now I love the smart wheel design which makes controlling the gimbal more intuitive and convenient and lastly the Insta360 Flow offers access to the AI powered mobile app making using the gimbal easier and more fun and because this gimbal has so many features it can be used in various ways. If you're a traveler, a vlogger, mobile content creator, live streamer or family member wanting to document their holidays the Insta360 Flow is a great option. Now I want to know what you think of the Insta360 Flow or what other gimbals you use. Let me know in the comments below. Now a gimbal is just one aspect of creating nice and cinematic footage. There's so much more that goes into a video so be sure to check out smartphonefilmmaking.com to learn how to get professional video results with your phone. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you so much for watching guys, I appreciate all of you and I'll see you guys the next time.