The Zhiyun Crane 3S is the lastest gimbal from Zhiyun in 2020. I was able to get a first look at the new Crane 3S and play around with it in Joshua Tree. The Zhiyun Crane 3S can hold cinema cameras like the RED Raven, Canon C200, Sony FS7, and DSLRs like the Canon 1DX Mark III. Super excited to be using this gimbal going into 2020!
All right, so this is the Zhiyun Crane 3 Lab,
and this, ugh, this is a Zhiyun Crane 3S.
Wait, hold on, something is, where did it go?
Oh, aha, okay.
Ooh, oh, you didn't know about this thing?
Yeah, it's a thing now.
I hope you guys liked that test footage.
We were out in Joshua Tree for like a day or two,
so we were just out there for a quick little bit
to get some test footage of the 3S,
and yes, that is a Red Raven mounted to the gimbal.
Before we begin, I just want to say
that this is a super duper pre-production unit
of the Crane 3S.
Nothing has been finalized yet.
I don't have any specs, no paperwork,
no instruction manual.
Zhiyun just said, hey, we got a new gimbal.
Would you wanna play around with it?
And I was like, I just gave my feedback back to them
so that they can finalize everything up
before it gets released.
So this is your super duper special first look
at the latest and greatest from Zhiyun.
Right off the bat, like I showed you before,
yes, the handle does come off now,
and once you take it off,
it really looks like the Weeble or the Weeble S,
and if that's what you were thinking,
that's exactly what they were going for.
In order to attach the handle,
all you need to do is slide off this little cover thing
that comes with it the first time you get the gimbal,
and what you need to do is just simply slide it right in
and then lock it right at the bottom,
and this thing is not going anywhere.
Now the 3S can hold cinema cameras
like the one that I have on right now.
This is the C200, and yes, this is fully balanced.
As you can tell, this is completely balanced,
perfectly all the way, even with the monitor,
and as you guys saw in the test footage,
I had the Red Raven with the LCD screen on top,
and it was working just fine.
And now because of the new beefy motors,
you're able to attach cinema cameras
with a follow focus and a zoom control
using a 15 millimeter rod
that screws straight on to the base plate.
The Crane 3S has a detachable arm
that allows you to use these big cinema cameras
in underslung mode.
That extra little length allows you
to clear the backside of the camera
so that you don't bump into the eyepiece or an LCD screen.
Again, I don't have any of the specs.
I don't have an instruction manual or anything like that,
so I don't know what the official payload is on the 3S,
but I would imagine that it's closer to 12 to 14 pounds
since you are gonna be carrying really heavy cameras
with, I guess, zoom lenses,
and if you wanna attach a follow focus,
so I'm imagining that the 3S is able to handle all of that.
The three axis locking mechanisms
are also just a little bit different now.
You have three different lock positions,
and since I don't have any of the specs
or any of the official names,
I'm gonna name them myself.
The first position is what I call the unlocked position.
This is when you are using the gimbal,
you want it completely unlocked on all three axes
so that you can smoothly operate the gimbal.
The second position is what I call the half lock.
This is the position that you wanna set each lock to
so that you can individually balance each arm
without having the whole thing wobbling around.
Now, when I have it on half lock position,
you see when I try to wiggle the cinema camera,
it sort of gives just a little bit,
so the third position is what I call full lock.
Once you twist it all the way tight,
you will now see that the camera is not moving at all,
and this is amazing,
especially when you're traveling around with the camera
still attached to the gimbal,
and you just don't want the camera to have that wiggle room
when you're moving around.
There's a new button layout on the body of the 3S.
Sometimes when you don't have the handle attached,
you'll still need a way to operate
and change the mode on the gimbal,
and this is their solution.
They moved the power button
from the left side to the right side.
You'll now be able to tell what mode you're in
based on the position of the blue light.
You have three new buttons,
the photo, video, and mode button,
and that's pretty self-explanatory.
The photo mode takes a picture,
the video mode starts recording,
and the mode button lets you switch different modes.
The button on the front of the gimbal
has gone from pan followed and follow to just follow,
and now when you hold down the follow button,
it activates go mode,
which is their action and sports mode.
Now on the other side
where they've replaced the power button,
you now have a DC-in port
that allows you to, I guess, power the gimbal?
I don't know.
I don't have the instructions,
so I'm guessing that's what it's for.
So that's been it on the first look
of the brand new pre-production unit
of the Zhiyun Crane 3S.
I hope you guys liked this video
as much as I liked making it,
and if you did, please hit that like button,
make sure to subscribe,
hit the bell to get notified of every video that I post.
I will be making more brand new videos on the 3S,
so make sure you stay up to date on everything.
Until then, my name is Alex Chung,
and I'll see you later.
Bye.
