The Best Gimbal For Fuji XT20 Cameras!
Although the Fujifilm camera range may not be as popular as some of the cameras from other brands, Fuji cameras still maintain a large user base with a very loyal following. We have noticed a fair few XT20 owners reaching out over the last few months about the best gimbal for Fuji XT20 cameras. We have decided to publish this article in an attempt to help any of our readers who own the XT20 and are looking to add a gimbal to their collection of camera accessories.
Now, thankfully, the Fuji XT20 is a pretty lightweight mirrorless camera that is only around 0.85 pounds of weight with no accessories mounted to it. This ensures that you have a large number of gimbal stabilizers that you can choose from for your camera. That said though, we have settled on what we feel are the three best gimbals currently available on the market that would suit your Fuji XT20 the best.
All three of the gimbals that we have decided to feature are less than twelve months old at the time of writing and have the latest technology available. That means that any one of them can make an excellent addition to your collection of XT20 camera accessories.
We have compared each of the key features of all three gimbals against each other in the table below followed by a short explanation of why we have decided to feature each gimbal. After the comparison table section of the article, we have our deep dive section for each recommended gimbal where we will be going into great detail about why we feel it is an ideal option for your XT20.
Comparison Table
Last update on 2023-09-01 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
At the time of writing, the undisputed king of mirrorless camera gimbals and what we would class as the absolute best gimbal for Fuji XT20 cameras is the Zhiyun Weebill Lab. It is one of the newest gimbals to the market, it is very budget-friendly considering what you actually get for your money, its small size and weight make it ideal for travel, and its performance and build quality are excellent.
Next up we have the Zhiyun Crane Plus that until the Weebill Lab was released, used to be the dominant gimbal in the mirrorless camera weight class. That said, it is a close second to the Weebill lab and suits a slightly different type of photographer. Both of the featured Zhiyun gimbals on our list have very similar tech meaning performance-wise, they offer a very similar image quality for your camera.
The final gimbal that we are featuring is the DJI Ronin SC as we know a fair few videographers prefer to use DJI products if there is one available. DJI has an excellent brand with a proven track history in the gimbal space but so does Zhiyun. We don’t feel that it is worth paying an additional $100 for the Ronin SC that has the same performance as the two Zhiyun gimbals and a lower load capacity when you can take wither of the Zhiyun products instead. That said, as we mentioned, there are people who will always choose the DJI option and there is no denying that the Ronin SC is an excellent gimbal that can serve your Fuji XT20 well.
The Zhiyun Weebill Lab
In our opinion, the Zhiyun Weebill Lab is definatley the best gimbal for Fuji XT20 cameras currently available on the market at the time of writing. Although it is new to the market, this compact travel gimbal has quickly established itself as the go-to mirrorless camera gimbal of choice winning over a large portion of the videography and vlogging community.
As with most Zhiyun product, there was a large amount of hype around the launch of the Weebill Lab and we are pleased to say that in our opinion at least, Zhiyun has definatley lived up to what the community expected. In the few short months since the gimbal has been available on the market, the Weebill Lab has managed to earn itself a great reputation amongst videographers and vloggers and it is only becoming more and more popular as time goes on.
Performance And Functionality
When it comes to battery life, the Weebill Lab just keeps scoring points for itself with it being able to provide you with up to ten hours of maximum battery life for each full charge. Now, with gimbals, you usually get two of the three main features when it comes to gimbal size, load capacity, and battery life but the Weebill Lab scores well on all three fronts.
The Weebill Lab also comes with the Zhiyun rapid charge technology to ensure that once it does run dry, you are able to quickly and easily recharge the gimbal back to full in around three hours too. Although we would imagine the majority of our readers would be recharging their Weebill Lab via a wall base power outlet, we have seen a number of travel vloggers mention how they carry a power bank with them in their bags and they top up the power of their gimbal while they are out and about in their downtime too.
Additionally, you can see how effortless it is for the 3 axis gimbal to provide the image stabilization required to ensure that you are able to get the best image quality possible. All in all, when it comes to performance, we feel that the Weebill Lab handheld gimbal is ahead of the pack and only the Zhiyun Crane Plus covered below can even come close to matching what it can provide your Fuji XT20.
User Interface And Control System
The actual interface system on the gimbal handle is very simple and straight forward to use and ensures that you are able quickly get to grips with the Weebill Lab and get the most out of it without having to invest much time. If this is your first gimbal and you have no prior gimbal experience then this is ideal as it is one of the easiest gimbals on the market to operate so you will be able to get used to it quickly and everything is pretty straight forward.
If you are an advanced videographer or vlogger then you are able to integrate the free Zhiyun smartphone app into your system and get all the advanced gimbal customization that you may need too. All in all, Zhiyun have ensured that the Weebill Lab has a solid control system that can serve both entry-level and advanced videographers well.
The Smartphone App
In addition to that, the app also provides you with some wireless remote control performance as well as a way to quickly and easily tweak important settings on the gimbal to ensure that you are getting the best out of it. Although the majority of this can be done via the control system on the gimbal handle, using the app is much quicker and can save you a surprising amount of time.
Build Quality And Design
As we mentioned earlier, the Weebill Lab is extremely small and lightweight making it the ideal travel gimbal for your Fuji XT20. It is much smaller than the majority of competing mirrorless camera gimbals on the market at the time of writing, especially when you factor in the battery life and load capacity that it is able to support. The design of the gimbal has also been made to ensure it is as easy to balance as possible to make your life as easy as possible when using the gimbal for your videography or vlogging sessions.
Now, the build quality of the gimbal really is outstanding. It has a professional finish, the materials used have been specifically chosen to support the needs of the gimbal, be as lightweight as possible, while also being as robust as can be. In our opinion, Zhiyun has ticked all boxed with the Weebill Lab and any competing gimbal from a rival brand is going to have its work cut out for it if it wants to take the throne from the Weebill Lab.
Our Verdict
When you take all of what we have explained above in, it is no surprise that the Weebill Lab is as popular as it is and was able to cement itself as the king of the mirrorless camera gimbals so quickly after its launch onto the market. Additionally, many of its exponentially increasing customer bases have chosen to post their own review of the gimbal online to share their experiences.
We feel that the low price tag of the gimbal also makes the Weebill Lab the best budget gimbal for Fuji XT20 too, it just keeps scoring points for itself and pushing the competition further and further behind. Adding the Weebill Lab to your XT20 camera accessories is a great investment in your videography kit and can help to improve the image quality you can capture and help to keep your clients happy.
The Zhiyun Crane Plus
Next up on our list, we have the Zhiyun Crane Plus that is another very popular gimbal from the Zhiyun line up that has proven to be a solid hit within the community. In fact, the Crane Plus is the previous dominant gimbal in the mirrorless camera gimbal weight class before the release of the Zhiyun Weebill Lab that we covered above that took the crown.
Although technically from a different generation of gimbal to the Weebill lab, the main differences are in the design with slight updates to the gimbal motors. The actual technology on the two gimbals is very similar along with all of the available gimbal modes that you are able to use on the two products. Since its release onto the market, the Crane Plus has earned a solid reputation within the community and it keeps going from strength to strength even though the Weebill Lab is not available that is a better overall gimbal in our opinion.
Performance And Functionality
When it comes to battery life, the Crane Plus boasts the longest maximum battery life of any handheld gimbal on the market right now coming in at around the eighteen-hour mark. Additionally, due to your Fuji XT20 being such a lightweight camera with most of the popular camera accessories used being lightweight too, we would expect you to get close to the eighteen-hour mark with each full charge.
If you are a travel vlogger or are involved in a videography niche where you know that you are going to be away from a power source for a day or two, this super long battery life can be great. It ensures that you have as much juice as possible while you are out and about and allows you to capture footage for as long as possible.
Now, there are a few high yield power banks on the market these days that you are able to use with your Crane Plus as a way to top the gimbal’s power up while you are away from a power outlet too. Just make sure that the power bank that you purchase is not designed for use with smartphones and is build for devices like laptops to ensure it is able to charge the gimbal batteries. When you do get back to a power outlet, the Crane Plus has the same rapid charging technology as the Weebill Lab allowing you to charge it back to full in around three hours.
User Interface And Control System
Zhiyun has done a great job of ensuring that you are able to control everything on the gimbal using nothing more than just your thumb. This ensures that you are able to use the rest of your hand to support your camera and gimbal to get the best possible support available.
As this is another Zhiyun gimbal, it uses the exact same smartphone app as the Weebill Lab covered above so we won’t have a dedicated section for it. As we said in the section for the Weebill Lab, Zhiyun has upped their game over the last year or so when it comes to their smartphone app and it is now a solid bit of kit.
Build Quality And Design
The same thing goes for the build quality, over the years Zhiyun has tweaked the way they build their gimbals as well as the materials that they use when building their gimbals to get to the level that they are at today. The Crane Plus has essentially been the result of ten years of constant development in the handheld gimbal market resulting in it having one of the best build qualities available.
Our Verdict
Although we feel that the Zhiyun Weebill Lab is a better gimbal, we know that a few people don’t like the L share design of it due to the new battery housing and underslung location. This is where the Zhiyun Crane Plus comes in and why it is still growing in popularity at a steady pace.
It offers a more traditional handheld gimbal design that some people prefer. It also has a large customer base with many videographers and vloggers who use the gimbal posting thir own review of the gimbal online for you to read if you wish.
We have no doubt that the Crane Plus can make a great addition to your collection of Fuji XT20 camera accessores and help to improve the image quality that you are able to capture using the gimbal. It is a solid bit of kit available for a very budget friendly price tag that offers some excellent image stabilization.
The DJI Ronin SC
The final gimbal that we have decided to feature for the Fuji XT20 is the DJI Ronin SC and although the Ronin SC is an excellent handheld gimbal that can offer some excellent image stabilization for your XT20, you have to factor in the price of the gimbal. In our opinion, the Ronin SC does have its advantages over the Zhiyun range but they are not good enough to warrant the additional $100 on its price tag at the time of writing.
The Zhiyun gimbals are not only cheaper but they also offer larger load capacities as well as very similar performance to what the DJI gimbal can provide you. That said, we know a number of videographers will always take the DJI option no matter what so we decided to feature the Ronin S in our article.
Although it is one of the newest mirrorless camera gimbals on the market right now, it has quickly gained a solid following of both videographers and vloggers and we would highly suspect that its user base will continue to grow. Since its release onto the market, the SC has gone from strength to strength and earned an excellent reputation for itself.
Performance And Functionality
The gimbal is able able to provide you with around eleven hours of battery life when in use and even if you use up the majority of the load capacity on the gimbal, you will still usually get around the eleven hours of battery life. DJI also has some of the best recharging technology available right now and the gimbal can be taken back to full in just over two hours when plugged into a mains power outlet.
User Interface And Control System
The Smartphone App
The app also quickly and easily pairs up to your gimbal and once a connection is established, it is pretty rare for it to randomly drop as some other apps can. When you tweak a setting for your Ronin SC via the app and push it to the live gimbal config the whole process is seamless and easy to do too. Some other brands can be a nightmare to navigate and then randomly disconnect from your gimbal when you finally get everything set up the way you want.
Build Quality And Design
The build quality of the gimbal is great and it is lightweight, tough and comfortable too. We know that the Fuji XT20 is a pretty lightweight camera but if you are planning on having to record for hours at a time then it is nice to know that the gimbal handle is comfortable and easy to hold.
Our Verdict
The Ronin SC is a very popular gimbal with a great reputation and available for you to read if you wish. That said though, just like we have mentioned a few times in our article, we would just save the additional $100 for other camera accessories and go with either the Zhiyun Weebill Lab or the Zhiyun Crane Plus for the Fuji XT20.
They both offer very similar levels of image stabilization allowing your Fuji XT20 to capture the same image quality but they are cheaper, have larger load capacities, and in the case of the Crane Plus have a much longer battery life too.