Review on the ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3 stabilizer

While DJI has recently launched its new RS 3 stabilizer, another Chinese stabilizer manufacture ZHIYUN also announced its new WEEBILL 3 stabilizer and FR100C light stick in the nick of time.

To provide better mobile photography practices, ZHIYUN has proved to be radically rethink how to improve its products concerning details, with the addition of the built-in microphone and fill light. As an old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Now, let’s bear it out.

ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3 stabilizer

Design
The new WB3 stabilizer has a major change in its appearance, discarding the horizontal expansion structure, and the flip screen design of its predecessors, adding an integrated base, wrist rest and sling grip for extended shooting time; at the same time it weighs 2.4 lb / 1.1 kg, making it very compact.

On the top of the Weebill 3 is a series of three rotating joints and arms. Each joint handles the mounted camera's roll, tilt, and pan axis when in use. The tilt axis with oblique upward 45-degree angle can avoid an obstacle to the screen viewing; the quick release plate has a precision of 0.1cm scale, with the help of which three axes can be fine-tuned, thus quickly leveling the stabilizer.

On the right side of the tilt axis, the ZHIYUN logo is engraved inside the circle, circled with the tilt motor mark, the product name and the design brand name.

Looking down there are three ports, the two ports facing the operator are a Type-C port and a microphone port. The Type-C port can charge up to 5V 1A, basically meeting the needs of using while charging cameras; the 2.5mm microphone port can be changed to the 3.5mm one with a complimentary 2.5mm-to-3.5mm audio adapter cable.

In addition to another Type-C interface with camera control functions on the back of the camera, there are two marked highlights, namely the integrated fill light and the microphone, making it more of an all-rounder.

Then, look at the lower part of the stabilizer. There is a newly added base, a wrist rest and a repositioned sling grip to achieve a more labor-saving effect.

On the left, controllable by the thumb, is a joystick for shifting where the camera is pointed at, a record button and a mode button. Instead of placing on the same side as the display screen, the controllable combination is now more convenient in use.

The Weebill 3 equips with a compact OLED touchscreen which provides essential information to the user, such as the mode they're using and the remaining battery life. When viewed from the front, the considerably-designed left-side operating panel is more pronounced, an indication of ZHIYUN’s detailed consideration.

On the right side, a menu and a wheel are arranged. The menu manages the motor settings, movement speeds, dead banding, wheel and trigger controls, and other options and features.
And the wheel is used to control and adjust the fill light.

Padded with a thick rubberized cushion, the wrist rest can be adjusted to any angle, and more convenient for storage. More importantly, this change means you'll be able to use it for far longer before needing to rest your arm. But it also blocks the switch button on the bottom of the base completely, hence a little bit inconvenience in that you must unfold the wrist rest first and then proceed switch operation.

Labor-saving design
The COMBO kit we received is a bucket bag, which is comprised of two layers, the upper layer used for the stabilizer and other larger equipment, while the lower part designed for cameras and other small equipment and parts; it also has two straps which make it comfortable to carry out.

There are two mounts with 1/4″-20 threads on the base of the stabilizer connecting a wrist rest and a sling grip, both of which are available for a magic arm to connect an external monitor and other accessories.

The wrist rest can be seen as a newly added assistant. To illustrate it, you can regard it as the fulcrum of a lever, with the help of which part of resistance can be offset, so as to save efforts.

Through the base the sling grip can achieve multi-angle adjustment; together with the wrist rest, the base and sling grip are what the SLING 2.0 design offer.

The sling grip also offers a few options regarding angles, depending on how you want to grip it. It's also extendable, fixed in place by a tension ring, so it can be quickly lengthened and shortened depending on what you need for a shot. When the center of gravity down at the same time, the sling grip increases 600 percent of the additional force. In short, it’s more customizable and portable.

Stable Performance
It is self-evident that stability is the most important metric for a stabilizer. With the 10th generation algorithm and a stronger motor, ZHIYUN seems ready to show its prowess. The 10th generation algorithm, ZHIYUN said can improve the computing power by 30% precisely removes subtle shakes in footage by re-tuning the running curves based on practical data, delivering a revolutionary stable performance.

001 Three-axis stability
As a matter of practice, we had conducted three-axis stability tests. By repeatedly applying external force to each axis, we analyze its speed and accuracy when it returns to position.

Firstly, the tilt axis could steadily return to its original position at a relatively fast speed, showing the strong power of the tilt axis motor.

So do the roll axis and the pan axis.

We also conducted an outdoor test. In addition to the Z-axis jiggling, the overall image is more stable; so in practice as long as you pay attention to the pace of movement, you can gain a good result.

002 Battery life
Compared to the previous version, the WEEBILL 3 utilizes a large internal battery charging up to 12V 1.6A, which now provides up to 20-hours of use. Charging occurs via the USB-C port in the base, which supports PD fast charging to 100% within two hours.

003 Compatibility
Many users in the selection of stabilizer will be entangled in the load and control compatibility of this stabilizer. While ZHIYUN has listed all compatible cameras on its official website, including compatible lens and tips for leveling, very thoughtful.

Integrated Design
Two changes to the WEEBILL3 have seemingly been borrowed from the Crane M3 to solve two elements the previous model couldn't handle: light and sound.

001 Fill light test
There is a built-in light on the right-hand side of the camera, which the user can turn on and off via a long press of the clickable wheel on the right-hand side of the handle.

At a distance of 0.5m(19.6in), the fill light can provide 250lux (just for reference, and the actual effect will prevail), which is sufficient for lighting face or products. It may not necessarily replace a full professional lighting setup, but it will do in a pinch. Later, we will introduce the newly launched and professional FR100C light stick.

002 Microphone test
Sound is always a problem for gimbal users, as you must rely on wireless audio systems or separate audio recordings to capture speech and environmental sounds.

In response, ZHIYUN has first introduced a built-in mic with a noise-cancellation function. We recorded the same sound through an in-body microphone of the camera and the stabilizer microphone in the same scene (1 meter away from the sound source) to test it.

As a result, the quality of the mic is better than that of the camera's built-in microphone, making it a worthwhile addition. It should be noted that closer distance means better effects. Even so, this isn't an ideal solution, and a wireless mic setup would still offer higher audio quality.

FR100C light stick

The ZHIYUN FIVERAY FR100C comes with white appearance and rounded edges; the overall length is 50cm(7.6in), the upper part consisting of the light beads, and the bottom part is designed to hold.

The front of the grip is made of woven snowflake fabric, which is sweat-free and slip-resistant. The ZHIYUN logo is also obvious, but the feeling to hold still needs to be improved.

On the rear is the control panel, the upper LCD panel is very intuitive, you can monitor the color temperature, brightness and battery power. If in color mode, HSI data can also be indicated. If the remaining time to use can be shown, it would be better; the wheel is very familiar to that of Smooth 4.

This stick light can reach five times the power of the common stick light, up to 100W of lightness. The secret behind it lies in six cooling fans on the back to effectively dissipate heat.

001 lightness test
The ZHIYUN LED light stick supports a temperature range from 2700K to 6300, plus RGB hue. At a distance of 0.5m(7.6in), the Max 4000K and non-Max Mode under three color temperatures were tested respectively.

At Max 4000K, the FR100C can offer a stunning brightness of 3490lux. Please be careful and don’t stare light beads in the Max mode.

In the adjustable color temperature mode, the stick light can offer a brightness of 1500 to 2000lux, enough to light characters or environment; the only shortcoming is that it does not yet have the corresponding light control accessories, hence harder lighting effect.

002 RGB hue
In addition, the light stick also supports RGB hue, which applies the HSI mode, with an adjustable color gamut of 0-360 degrees. By the way, HSI model refers to present the color with hue (Hue), color saturation (Saturation) and brightness (Intensity).

003 Cooling performance
Setting the light stick to Max, after about half an hour of power on, we tested the temperature of light-emitting panel. The result shows 46 degrees Celsius, which is still mainly thanks to the six cooling fans.

At the same time we also tested the grip part in which no fan is available, its temperature reached 68 degrees Celsius, a little hot for us. But this was tested with an engineering prototype, the current marketing version has optimized further.

004 Battery life
This light stick supports 120W power adapter as well as 25W PD fast charging. The Type-C charging port on the left and the round hole port on the right can both be used for charging.

In the following real-world test, you can see that the charging power is around 20 watts, and it can be fully charged in two and a half hours in the fast-charging state. All but the battery life is not much satisfactory. In the Max state, it enters the shutdown state in about 30 minutes; in the non-Max state, it can be used for more than one hour.

The Zhiyun FIVERAY FR100C price tag is $199 for both the black or white options. The FIVERAY FR100C price tag rises to $249 for a kit that includes the light stick and a 120W power adapter.

Mobile Photography Cosmos

In those old days, it’s hard to operate cameras in that the moving pace, breathing frequency must be strictly controlled to achieve stable effects. While the emergence of three-axis electronic stabilizer greatly lowers this threshold, ZHIYUN is one of those manufactures. The company is pursuing simpler operation processes, while continues to introduce many user-friendly designs.

In Smooth Q3, ZHIYUN embedded the fill light on the stabilizer for the first time. Such a subtle design was loved by its users, and then it launched Smooth Q4 which again pays attention to the fill light with a removable design.

In addition to the fill light, ZHIYUN has also made an attempt in sound. ZHIYUN for the first time added a microphone on Crane M3, as long as a 6.5mm microphone port, to facilitate internal audio signal transmission.

ZHIYUN seems to build a complete mobile photography cosmos: with the combination of the main stabilizer, light and sound accessories, users can achieve better results while using less efforts. The FR100C light stick is also in the service of building mobile photography cosmos, for some special shooting scenes.

Verdict
The WEEBILL 3 is a very compact and integrated stabilizer featured the detailed fill light and microphone design. Details matter, indeed, and ZHIYUN stays committed to the ideology of the devil is in the details.