The Best Gimbal For Canon 60D Cameras!
With the Canon 60d being such a popular entry-level, budget-friendly DSLR camera, it has a pretty large user base in both the photography and videography communities. Due to this, it is common for us to see people reaching out asking about what the best gimbal for Canon 60d cameras is so we have decided to publish this dedicated article to share our opinion.
We are hoping that our article can help any of our readers who own the Canon 60d and are in the market for a gimbal. Additionally, we keep seeing some very expensive gimbal suggestions for the Canon 60d due to it being a pretty heavy DSLR coming in with a camera body that is 1.66 pound without any accessories on it.
Now, this can be an issue as although the 60d is an entry-level camera, its weight kind of rules it out for general purpose use with an entry-level DSLR camera gimbal. That said though, we have selected three different gimbals that each serve the 60d in their own specific niche that we have decided to feature for our article.
We have our primary recommendation that we feel is the best overall, our budget gimbal recommendation, and our heavy lifting gimbal recommendation. Each of the gimbals is compared to each other in the comparison table below with a short explanation of each gimbal below it. Then the rest of the article is based around going into as much detail as possible for the three featured gimbals and explaining why we feel they are a good choice.
Comparison Table
Last update on 2022-05-29 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Although it is a pretty pricey gimbal to add to your collection of camera accessories, we would be mad not to make the DJI Ronin S our primary gimbal recommendation for the Canon 60d. It is an excellent bit of kit that is extremely versatile and does a great job of providing DSLR camera setups with some excellent image stabilization to ensure you get the best image quality possible.
Next up, we have our budget gimbal for Canon 60d cameras, the Zhiyun Crane Plus and in all honesty, we feel that this should probably be the best option for the Canon 60d for most of our readers. It should be able to meet your needs without having to break the bank but keep in mind that it can be restrictive when it comes to its maximum load capacity so it may not support heavy 60d setups very well.
The final gimbal is the Moza Air 2 and we have chosen it as our heavy lifting gimbal stabilizer for any super heavy Canon 60d setups. In all honesty, we doubt that this will really be needed for the 60d as most people who do use heavy setups will be professional level videographers and be using a professional level camera but we wanted to try and cover all possible bases for our readers.
The DJI Ronin S
Like we said, although it is pretty pricey for the Canon 60d, in our opinion, the DJI Ronin S is the best gimbal out there and you will have no problems with load capacity with it either. DJI really have smashed the ball out of the park when they made the Ronin S and it has no real weak spots other than its price tag.
Everything from performance, to build quality, to ease of use, to design are all spot on in our opinion. Additionally, since its release, the gimbals reputation keeps going from strength to strength and its growth shows no signs of slowing down. Additionally, the Ronin S has a number of 60d owners who use it as their go-to handheld gimbal stabilizer of choice and report good things too.
Performance And Functionality
When it comes to battery life, the Ronin S is able to provide you with up to twelve hours of power with each full charge of its batteries. The gimbal motors are also very power efficient too so even though your 60d is a heavy camera, even if you use heavy camera accessories with it, we would imagine that you would still get between ten and twelve hours of battery per charge.
When the gimbal does eventually run out of juice, you are able to plug it into a regular power outlet and recharge it back to full in as little as only two hours! To our knowledge, this is one of the quickest gimbal charge times on the market right now and ensures that you minimize your downtime between sessions. Additionally, if you are out and about away from a regular power outlet, you can also use some high capacity power banks to top your gimbal up on the go.
User Interface And Control System
The DJI Smartphone App
Build Quality And Design
The build quality of the gimbal is second to none and it is as robust as you can expect for a gimbal while being able to take any bumps coming its way during use or in transit. Although the Ronin S is pretty big, it can be de-built into two different main sections to make it as easy as possible to store the gimbal in your videography bag. Additionally, although it is large, it is not as heavy as you would expect, especially when you consider the load capacity and battery life the gimbal can provide for you.
Our Verdict
Now, with the DJI Ronin S being such a popular gimbal within the community, there are a number of independent reviews online that offer a great insight into what other videographers think of the gimbal.
If you have the budget available, we are confident that the Ronin S will make a great addition to your Canon 60d camera accessories and help you improve the image quality that you are able to capture. On top of this, the Ronin S is a great gimbal to help future proof yourself against future camera purchases as it is highly likley that it can support the weight of any heavier cameras that you may purchase.
The Zhiyun Crane Plus
Next up we have the Zhiyun Crane Plus that is really going to be the most popular gimbal option for any of our readers who own the Canon 60d. Although the DJI Ronin S does outperform it with ease, it is much more budget-friendly and kind of serves as the budget gimbal for Canon 60d cameras.
As the 60d is an entry-level DSLR, we would imagine that many of our readers who own it are either entry-level videographers, hobbyist videographers, or vloggers. If this is the case, then there is a good chance that the Crane Plus is able to meet your needs and provide you with everything you need. Although the gimbal does have the lowest load capacity out of the three featured gimbals, provided you use a light 60d accessory setup, you should be fine.
Although the Crane Plus was designed to dominate the mirrorless camera gimbal niche, it can do very well with some light DSLR setups and its performance is excellent for its price. Additionally, since its release, it has only continued to go from strength to strength and earn one of the best reputations going with the community .
Performance And Functionality
When it comes to battery life, the Crane Plus is a total beast in all fairness to it and it can pretty easily provide you with up to eighteen hours of battery life per full charge. This is massive and is the longest battery life of all handheld gimbals at the time of writing. The gimbal is also rapid when recharging too and can be recharged back to full from being totally empty in around three hours.
User Interface And Control System
The Zhiyun Smartphone App
Since these updates, the app is much easier to pair with your gimbal and once synced, it rarely drops its connection randomly like it used to. In addition to this, the actual config pushing is easier and it allows you to tweak the live config in the gimbal to get it to perform exactly how you require with ease.
One thing that we would like to see in a future update would be an overhaul of the actual design of the app to make it easier to navigate. At the moment it can be a little confusing and take some time to get used to where all of the key settings are features are but we are confident that you will be able to quickly pick it up.
Build Quality And Design
With the Crane Plus being one of their newest gimbals at the time of writing, it offers the user some of the absolute best performance via its design that has evolved over the last decade. Although older gimbals used to have overheating issues due to friction build-up on the moving parts, Zhiyun managed to over come the issue by tweaking their design a few generations back so this is not an issue on the Crane Plus.
Our Verdict
Just like the other gimbals, the Crane Plus has a bunch of reviews from independent videographers online that you can read to get some third-party insights into how the gimbal performs. Like we said, if your Canon 60d camera setup is light and falls within the load capacity limits of the Crane Plus, there is a good chance it will be a great, budget-friendly addition to your 60d camera accessories. If you like to use a camera set up that is too heavy for the Crane Plus then the DJI Ronin S is the way to go but it does have the higher price tag to go with its higher load capacity and level of performance.
The Moza Air 2
The final gimbal that we will be recommending is the Moza Air 2 that is our recommendation for anyone who uses a very heavy Canon 60d setup that comes in too high for the DJI Ronin S to support. Now, very few entry level videographers actually use camera cages, battery grips, or heavy lenses in combinations that will make the total payload of their 60d be too heavy for the Ronin S to support.
Due to this, we will only be quickly covering the Air 2 as in reality, not many of our users will picking it up as the Ronin S or even the Zhiyun Crane Plus will be able to meet the payload weights of the cameras. That said, the Air 2 is a solid gimbal that can do a decent job if you are one of the few who do use a super heavy setup and the gimbal has a well deserved reputation within the community too.
Performance And Functionality
The battery life of the gimbal is decent too and it can provide you with between twelve hours of battery life per charge of its batteries. That said, the more payload you use upon the gimbal, the closer to the twelve-hour mark you will be getting. Once dry, you are able to recharge the Air 2 in around four hours.
User Interface And Control System
The Moza Smartphone App
Build Quality And Design
That said though, the actual build quality of the Air 2 is excellent in our opinion. Moza has absolutely nailed it when it comes to providing a reliably tough gimbal that can withstand surprising amounts of punishment while not being phased. Although it is heavy, you have to keep in mind that this offers a monstrous load capacity and a long battery life too so the weight is to be expected.
Our Verdict
As we said earlier, we doubt many of our readers who own the Canon 60d will actually need a load capacity larger than what the DJI Ronin S is able to provide for them. Due to this, we feel that the Air 2 will only be needed by a very small number of our readers and that the Ronin S would make a much better choice for most of our readers.
