 In this video we'll talk about the new Zion Smooth Q4 smartphone gimbal. If you don't own a mobile gimbal yet and are looking for a powerful stabilizer that will take your videos to the next level, make sure to stick around as the Smooth Q4 comes with some awesome features. What's up everyone, Bennett Grazer here with smartphonefilmmaking.com, the best online course where I teach you everything on creating high quality videos with your smartphone. And today we're going to talk about the Smooth Q4 by Zion. It's not always easy finding the right gimbal and there are so many out there on the market and each has their own unique features. It can be overwhelming, I too had to find a gimbal that works for me and choosing the right gimbal is important so that you can get the shots you need. I personally enjoy reviewing smartphone gimbals as I like to explore their new features and help you make the right purchase decision. Now there are six things I consider that are most important when it comes to buying a smartphone gimbal, that being the size, setup time, battery life, special features, performance and price. Now before you start I want to thank Zion for sponsoring this video and sending me over the Smooth Q4. So let's start off with the weight and the size. When choosing a smartphone gimbal I prefer having one that is compact and small. The Smooth Q4 feels lightweight not heavy at all at around 340 grams. There are lighter gimbals out there but I prefer a bit more weight on a smartphone gimbal as I can operate more smoothly and get more stable video results. It has about the size of my hand but it is a bit too large to fit it in my pocket. It would be possible but I prefer carrying it in my sling bag since it comes with a tripod as well. So let's look at the setup time to get this gimbal running. It's important for me to have a quick setup time as I want to be able to capture moments quickly. Unfolding the Smooth Q4 takes six steps which is a bit too long for me. First I would unfold this part that will be one then these two arms right here two and three and then I would unlock all three motors so four and then five and then six. Now there is a hack to it you can leave the arms unfolded and keep the roll and tilt motor unlocked this way you will only have two steps to unfold the gimbal. I can just simply put this up unlock it and I'm ready to go. So the startup time takes around seven seconds I can simply just press this button on the side and now it's turned on. So as you can see it does take a little bit of time but this isn't a big issue for me since I can set it into standby mode by press holding the mode button for long and now it will enter standby mode and when I'm ready to shoot I can just press the mode button again and start shooting. In terms of battery life the Smooth Q4 can operate up to 15 hours which is great to bring on trips this way you don't have to constantly charge the gimbal and can use it for multiple days. There is a fill light included which I will talk about later but if you use the light a lot it could decrease the operating time. I really wished you could charge your smartphone with the Smooth Q4 because shooting videos especially when using a professional app like Filmic Pro drains a lot of battery and I also wouldn't have to bring an extra power bank with me. Now to charge the gimbal fully it takes around 2.5 hours which is normal for most smartphone gimbals. So let's now move on to some of the special features the Smooth Q4 has. A special feature that the Smooth Q4 has is the portable fill light. This can be useful to increase the quality of your video when shooting in low-lit environments. The great part is that it uses magnets which you can mount on top of the gimbal or easily take it off and you can see it will produce a fill light. Now I can also choose the direction of the light by simply switching this and now I can use it to brighten myself when doing vlogs for example. Now you can also choose the level of intensity of the light by pressing on the wheel on the side and as you can see it can get really bright. Now it also comes with different magnet filters which you can use for creative use and I can simply just attach it to the front of the light which is really cool. Another great feature the Smooth Q4 has is the built-in extension rod. This is pretty awesome. This can be especially useful for vloggers that allows them to have the camera further away from them and have more in the frame not having to worry being cut out. Another reason why I enjoy the extension pole is because I can get more creative and use it easily to get low shots for example or even fake drone shots. This way I don't necessarily need to bring an extension pole with me keeping it as minimal as possible. Now if you want to unlock the Smooth Q4's full potential the ZY Kami app offers intelligent shooting modes that will help you get the shots you need. I generally don't use the app that come with the gimbal as I prefer creating the shots myself but maybe for your needs you might find some useful features. So let me quickly walk you through the ZY Kami app so that you can get started when using it. I'm gonna open it up and now click on this camera icon over here and I'm now inside the ZY Kami app. Let's now switch over to landscape mode by triple pressing the trigger button and we're gonna start by switching to the selfie camera right over here. So we're currently in video mode as you can see to your right and at the top left you can head back to the home menu and over here below this one we have it set to automatic mode but if you're a pro you would want to switch to manual mode and dial in your camera settings but basically you want to keep your ISO level low and if you're shooting 4k 25 frames per second you want to keep your shutter speed double your frame rate which is 1 over 50 and then we have the exposure value which we're going to leave and then we're going to head back and now the values are locked which is important to avoid exposure changes while recording. Then below we have our resolution and frame rate that we can choose we want to choose the highest resolution possible which is 4k and either shoot in 24 or 25 frames per second for normal speed and if you want to slow down your footage you can choose 60 frames per second right over here. So I'm going to leave it that way and then we're going to head back then you also have the glamour effect but this is not supported in 4k as it says here. So below we have additional settings we can choose which microphone we want to use currently it's using the built-in microphone we have grid lines which will help you compose your shots better currently have the rule of thirds enabled. Next is wide balance important don't set it to auto make sure to either choose one of these presets or you can even create your own custom wide balance I will set it to 5600 this way you won't have any color shifts when filming. So let's move on to gimbal up here you can select different scene modes then we also have a follow mode you can either select the follow mode either by choosing the mode button over here or using the zycami app and currently it's set to pov mode but I use follow mode for most of the time on the smooth q4 I can simply press the mode button to switch between different shooting modes on the dji ohm 4 for example you'll have to use their app to switch shooting modes which can be time consuming being able to switch modes quickly on the smooth q4 allows me to operate faster I also like how I'm able to use the record button on the gimbal not only when using the zycami app but also filmic pro and the native camera app next we have the joystick speed I usually keep it at a medium and then we have the zoom speed I don't use zoom too much as it can degrade the quality you can also important auto calibrate your gimbal if you have any problems and then we have a general just some information about your gimbal now below you see three icons you can see the battery life of your phone the battery life of your gimbal and the current shooting mode you're in so on the top right you have your creative templates that you can use when recording your videos it will basically edit the video for you for example if you want to quickly post your videos on social media and you have different presets to choose from and below it you can switch between the front and selfie camera then you have the recording button over here but you can also use the record button on the joystick then you have gesture control where you can use your hands to start and stop recording and it will also track you as well if you drag a square around your face you will see that it follows you perfectly and this can also be very useful if you need to track either yourself or a subject that is maybe moving fast or you want to have them in the center of your frame and below you have your media where all your videos and photos are stored and then you also have different shooting modes such as you know photo go live and then we have the smart capture over here we also got the panorama slow motion even dolly zoom where it shows you exactly how to create one you also have the timelapse feature and even hyperlapse so that was a basic walkthrough and quick overview of the zy kami app let's now talk about the performance before you decide on a smartphone gimbal it's important to check the gimbal's maximum payload capacity as it won't perform at its best if you exceed those limits maximum payload of the smooth q4 is 280 grams the iphone 30 pro max is a heavy phone weighing at around 240 grams but it should be compatible with the smooth q4 so let's head out and put the gimbal to the test so that you can see how well this gimbal performs and how smooth the shots really are all right guys so we're here in the city of zirg and we're gonna shoot with the smooth q4 using the iphone 13 pro max and for today's model i invited meghan bush gonna help us out pull her on instagram she has some crazy pictures but don't watch too long and of course we also have george with us you probably know this guy from a previous video and today he's gonna shoot all of the behind the scenes and guys don't follow his instagram don't follow it's already too much but i'm still gonna put it in the description okay and when are you gonna start your youtube channel i don't know you promised us i don't have much time instagram is taking a lot all right so we're gonna get started we're gonna shoot some videos with the iphone 13 pro max let's go so message to the audience i think it came out pretty well the handling of the gimbal felt really good it followed my hand movement without any problems and the footage looked really smooth the smooth q4 starter kit starts at 119 dollars which includes the smooth q4 gimbal and the tripod there is also a combo kit available for 149 which not only includes the gimbal and the tripod but also a bag and the fill light for starters the standard kit is more than enough if you find yourself filming a lot at night or are a vlogger the combo kit would be the better option so here are my final thoughts on the smooth q4 gimbal we know that zion has been creating gimbals for quite a long time and they're good at it i think it's a great gimbal to have as it operates smoothly even with heavier phones such as the iphone 13 pro max i appreciate how they include the mode button this way i can see in what shooting mode i'm in and can quickly switch by simply pressing it i think the folding design can be improved it would be great unfolding the gimbal in just one step for a quicker setup time i also wish they included a built-in power bank as i do need to charge my iphone often when traveling the extension pole is certainly a helpful feature to get low or high angled shots i don't use it that often but when i need it it's there vloggers would certainly appreciate the extension pole as you can record yourself more smoothly and have the camera further away from you now the portable light takes it to the next level i've never seen this on any other smartphone gimbal and it's great how you can change the direction of the light as well to either film yourself or your subject for the price of $119 you get a quality gimbal that certainly fulfills its needs for creating stable looking footage and has all the basic features that other gimbals have but with some extra features like the built-in pole and portable light and if you're someone that works with the integrated app then the zycami app is certainly something you should look into an important step to creating smooth looking shots is getting a good mobile gimbal such as the smooth q4 but just having a smartphone gimbal doesn't mean your videos will automatically look cinematic it will take practice and you will need to learn how to use your camera with your gimbal to produce cinematic video results if you're looking to improving your mobile video skills i highly recommend you check out smartphone filmmaking.com where you can join other students in the full program learning everything there is to filming high quality videos with your smartphone fast so i hope you got a good understanding of what the smooth q4 can offer if you have any questions make sure to let me know in the comments thank you so much guys for watching and see you the next time