Any thoughts on using a "Handheld Gimbal Bracket Stabilizer"?

tbw · Mar 17, 2023

I recently saw a gentleman on YouTube using his Mini 3 Pro attached to a handheld tripod. Looked around and found a "Handheld Gimbal Bracket Stabilizer". Here's a link for the item I'm speaking of: Amazon.com
Would like to hear any pros or cons about this item. Thanks to everyone for taking time to read and perhaps respond to this post.

MAvic_South_Oz · Mar 17, 2023

Most drone models in recent years have had an aftermarket hand held bracket that allows the drone to be used as a stabilised gimbal cam.

That design in your link (shows as unavailable to me, but could be a location thing) should be fairly easy to hold the controller, and has a low COG / drone weight low to keep it very stable, on top of the gimbal stability.
The only thing you have to work on the controller is the gimbal up / down wheel when needed, the rest is done by you with other camera movements.

I don't really see any cons in this, if you have the need to get shots like this on the ground.
Obviously you probably wouldn't do this if you had another type of handheld stabilised / gimbal / action type camera, but the mini is so light it'd make sense to actually make the single piece of equipment have a double use.

I've used mine to take a quick handheld sunset snaps a couple of times, but have a DJI Pocket camera I can use to take ground video footage (or photos).

slup · Mar 17, 2023

tbw said:
... would like to hear any pros or cons...

MAvic_South_Oz said:
I don't really see any cons in this...

None of the sub 250g drones have a internal fan... using the drone powered without anything cooling it will quickly overheat it.

SethB · Mar 17, 2023

slup said:
None of the sub 250g drones have a internal fan... using the drone powered without anything cooling it will quickly overheat it.

Wouldn’t this depend on the ambient temperature? I see comments online about overheating during firmware updates & such that I have never experienced in the US Pacific Northwest. I don’t doubt it happens in warmer climates, but I do wonder if that’s become an internet truth with a life of its own. I don’t feel it applies to my location.

tbw said:
I recently saw a gentleman on YouTube using his Mini 3 Pro attached to a handheld tripod. Looked around and found a "Handheld Gimbal Bracket Stabilizer". Here's a link for the item I'm speaking of…
Would like to hear any pros or cons about this item. Thanks to everyone for taking time to read and perhaps respond to this post.

I’ve tried this just handheld, it works! I’ve only done so when the drone was the most convenient camera, or I needed to quickly match a drone shot.

It seems to me that a handgrip below the drone would be more convenient, but you don’t even need that to try this!

As part of the initial promo for the Inspire 2 DJI commissioned this film:
shot entirely on the drone.

They also made this behind the scenes:

MAvic_South_Oz said:
…The only thing you have to work on the controller is the gimbal up / down wheel when needed, the rest is done by you with other camera movements…

That’s my experience too.

MAvic_South_Oz · Mar 17, 2023

slup said:
None of the sub 250g drones have a internal fan... using the drone powered without anything cooling it will quickly overheat it.

Always something to stuff ideas up

I guess if it was quite warm where the op is it could well be an issue.
Or keep those land shots shortish.

slup · Mar 18, 2023

MAvic_South_Oz said:
Always something to stuff ideas up
I guess if it was quite warm where the op is it could well be an issue.
Or keep those land shots shortish.

Not having anything against "good" ideas... but this with putting in our drones in some sort of gadget transforming a drone into a handheld gimbal camera isn't one of the "good" ones.

The usable time you can have them filming or even powered up is in general very short due to the overheating risk, I bet it will take longer to get this arrangement set up than it takes for the drone to overheat.

It's fully possible to get some minutes handheld with a drone, but for that no extra "Amazon" thingy is needed, just grab it & shoot (in that way you will also feel the heat generation & can call it a day before it gets critical hot).

With the small size, high res & high frame rate cameras we use today... comes a lot of heat. All new iterations of small action cameras have problems with it now adays, no matter if it's a GoPro, a DJI Action 2, a DJI O3/Vista Air unit or a camera in a Mini drone. They all get blistering hot very quickly. All of them try to use heat sinks but that require some airflow to work... take that flow away & even build the heat producing components into something & you have a over heating problem.

Most electronics usually shut off when overheating occurs to save it from a total melt down... but considering how hot the VTX'es get (if you touch them you get severely burned) & how they are built in together with other electronic components & batteries... every over heating with following shut off will for sure wear on it all.

SethB said:
Wouldn’t this depend on the ambient temperature? ...I don’t doubt it happens in warmer climates, but I do wonder if that’s become an internet truth with a life of its own. I don’t feel it applies to my location.

Yeah... ambient temps matters, but a DJI Action 2 for instance, even overheats in cold British autumn weather. In general & for most ambient temps where you feel it's OK to fly drones you most probably will face over heating problems sooner or later with a rather stationary powered drone if it lacks a cooling fan.

And unfortunately the over heating problem for smaller action like cameras isn't a internet myth...

It's not strange that you can find other "good" ideas on Amazon...

Dave Maine · Mar 18, 2023

I have used one quite extensively with my P34K successfully. If you do very much of it you will find that it is pretty awkward to use. DJI makes a hand held stabilized gimbal camera with the same image characteristics of the other DJI drones that is far easier to use. They also make hand held stabilized gimbals that hold iPhones which record much higher image quality.

Wild Drone Pilot · Mar 18, 2023

tbw said:
I recently saw a gentleman on YouTube using his Mini 3 Pro attached to a handheld tripod. Looked around and found a "Handheld Gimbal Bracket Stabilizer". Here's a link for the item I'm speaking of: Amazon.com
Would like to hear any pros or cons about this item. Thanks to everyone for taking time to read and perhaps respond to this post.

You may want to read that one star review 1st

MavicAir2Marc · Mar 18, 2023

I have the DJI OM-5 for handheld or if you have a mirrorless camera, the new RS 3 mini camera gimbal works well, or Zhiyun Crane.

Droning on and on... · Mar 18, 2023

@SethB, that Inspire video, especially the behind-the-scenes, was... inspiring! Especially this part:

Designing and printing some handles for the M3P – with an integrated fan – goes on my to-do list. With a thousand other things. However, The priority sorting of that list is quite dynamic...