iPhone 11 Video Handheld VS Zhiyun Smooth Q2 Gimbal

What's up everybody my name is Alex Chung and today we're going to go over how the iPhone 11 stabilization stacks up against the Zhiyun Smooth Q2. All right so you've probably heard by now how great the stabilization on the iPhone 11 is when you're shooting video but I gotta say I'm a little bit skeptical as to how great it actually is when you're comparing it to professional grade smartphone gimbals like the Smooth Q2. So today we're going to see if the iPhone 11 video quality is actually all hype or is it actually super good. And I just want to note that this is not a scientific test by any means I'm just out at a park getting some footage and comparing some normal gimbal shots that I would be doing if I were shooting on a professional gimbal. Okay so here's how we're going to do this I'm going to put up two shots on the screen they're both shot the same way 1080p 60 frames per second on the iPhone 11 ultra wide angle and one of them is shot on a gimbal while the other one is shot handheld and you guys are going to guess which one is which. And in this video I'm doing some very basic gimbal movements the push or pull in shot, the follow shot, the orbit shot, and the low angle shot. These are very common gimbal moves that I execute when I'm shooting for weddings or commercials and I use these movements very often so at the end of the video we'll figure out whether or not the iPhone 11 can keep up. First up we have the push in or pull out shot and this one is one of the most common and basic gimbal movements that you can do. You simply have a subject that is standing stationary and you're walking up towards them or you're walking away from them in a straight line. So I'm going to put up two shots on the screen you're going to guess which one is gimbal and which one is handheld. Feel free to rewind the clips as many times as you need. All right here we go. Okay so what do you think it's kind of hard to tell actually it's actually kind of crazy how good the iPhone stabilization is. All right and so the answers are... Was it hard? Was it easy? For me it was kind of it was kind of difficult actually to tell even though I was the one who shot it because they both look the same almost. I guess like you can kind of tell it's like a little bit wobbly like it kind of like jitters on the sides a little bit but I think if you put some warp stabilization I honestly think that you can't tell which one was shot on the gimbal and which one was shot handheld. Okay so moving on to number two this one is called the follow shot and this one is basically where you have your subject moving in a straight line walking or something like that and you're following them as they're walking. So this one requires you to be you know you have the arms to the side and you have your ninja walk going on you're basically trying to minimize the up and down movements of your body as you're walking. All right so again I'm gonna throw up two shots on the screen you're gonna guess which one is gimbal which one is handheld and ready go. Oh this one is actually pretty hard I did wow the follow shot okay all right here are the answers I'm gonna give you the answers ready and boom. Did you get it right? This one is actually really hard to guess so basically like I'm gonna tell you the secret right now is you're looking at the edges of the frame to see if it goes up and down if it's wobbling I mean it's on an ultra wide angle which you know makes a little bit harder to tell in these two clips like there's no sign of like any sort of like distortion or up and down movements on the edges of the screen. So dang that's actually holding up pretty well so far. Okay so the next shot is going to be called the orbit shot and this one basically you have your subject that's stationary and you and the camera are moving around in a circle around your subject and this way for us when we especially when we do weddings we like to show off the venue the location all the beautiful landscape the scenery as well as the subject the bride and groom in one sweeping shot and you show the audience the entire landscape and these shots when you're shooting them can be a little bit tricky because you want to maintain the same distance between you and the subject because you don't want it to go in and then come back out as you're circling around them. So hopefully I didn't do that bad of a job at shooting this. You guys decide handheld or gimbal the two shots up on the screen here we go. All right what do you think again it's super hard to tell you have to really really have to look at the footage closely in order to figure out which one is which but here are the answers. Did you get it right? How many are you? Three for three, two for three, one for three, zero for three. For this one the orbit shot I'm actually looking at the horizon line in the footage when I'm shooting handheld most of the time the horizon might get a little skewed left or right and it kind of shows if you look very closely you can kind of see how in the handheld shot the horizon looks a little bit wobbly because I'm actually holding the phone a little bit like sideways or something it happens when you're shooting handheld versus on the gimbal the device actually helps you stabilize the horizon line but I think with again a little bit of stabilization in Premiere Pro I'm pretty sure that the handheld shot is going to come out looking very clean. Okay so the last shot that we're going to go over is the low angle shot and these ones are kind of tricky because you have to kind of get low obviously to the ground and your body's sort of like hunched over and you have to get your arm like in this like weird awkward position in order to get a good angle shot so you might actually see the most differences in the gimbal in the handheld shot for this test. Alright and here's our last pair of shots handheld or gimbal you decide and go. Oh okay so yeah again I like I said this one is a little bit easier to tell because physically it's harder to get the shot and if you don't have a gimbal all these physical imperfections these little wiggling in the footage is going to show up so what do you think? Here are the answers. What do you think? Did you get it right? Was it very obvious for this one for you? For me when I'm looking at this comparison again I'm looking at the horizon line in one part of the handheld shot I actually have the camera kind of slightly tilted towards the right side and you can kind of tell that the horizon is a little bit off. Another thing that I'm looking for is the ground. Is it wobbling a lot? Is it shaking too much as I'm walking towards my subject or is it actually kind of smooth? Now obviously when I'm that low hunched over on the ground it's very difficult to control the up and down movement of my arm so it's going to be a little bit hard to tell but honestly I think overall the iPhone 11 did a very good job in stabilizing the low angle shots even though it's physically one of the hardest shots to get. But that's it for this video let me know down in the comments below whether you think the iPhone 11 stabilization is good enough. Thanks for watching, like this video, subscribe and my name is Alex Chung and I'll see you later. Bye!