5 Of The Best Gimbals For Mirrorless Cameras!
Mirrorless camera rigs are the most common setup for the majority of our readers as they offer an excellent level of performance while also being smaller and lighter weight so they are easier to hold on a gimbal for longer periods of time when compared to the weight of a DSLR camera. Due to this, we are constantly seeing people reaching out and asking questions based on what we feel is the best gimbal for mirrorless cameras on the market right now.
Due to this, we have decided to publish this epic post to cover the five main gimbals on the market right now that are targeted towards use with mirrorless cameras. Although all five of the gimbals are still popular choices today and maintain an excellent reputation within the community, some of them are starting to show their age as the latest generation of gimbals has just it the market.
That said, we will be showing the key features of each of the gimbals in our comparison table below that serves as a quick and easy way for our readers to compare our chosen gimbals to each other. We know that many of our readers are busy and short on time so a simple comparison table is a quick way to get our thoughts across. For those of you who have the time to spare and prefer an explanation of the gimbals, we will be covered each of our recommendations in full throughout the article.
Comparison Table
Last update on 2023-12-10 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
As you can see in our comparison table above, you are able to easily see the key features for each of the featured gimbals for your mirrorless camera but two of the gimbals definatley stand out amongst the competition as being the clear winners. The Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC are from the latest generation of gimbal stabilizer and are definatley a cut above the competition making them the obvious choice. In our opinion, the Crane Plus is ahead of the Ronin SC due to its lower price tag, higher maximum load capacity, and better battery life.
The three remaining gimbals are all pretty equal in our opinion and even though the Feiyutech AK2000 is also from the latest generation of gimbals, It has a few issues that we will cover below that are holding it back. Both the Moza Aircross 3 and the Evo Rage 2 are from the previous generation of gimbals but still have a great reputation within the community and are still popular products although they are starting to show their age.
The Zhiyun Crane Plus
At the time of writing, the Zhiyun Crane Plus is one of the most recent additions to the line up of gimbals that have been designed for use with mirrorless cameras. Coming from the world-renowned Zhiyun brand that has a reputation of dominating the gimbal market place, it should be no surprise that the Crane Plus got off to a solid start amongst the community and was an instant hit.
The Crane Plus has all of the latest tech from Zhiyun ensuring that it has the ability to dominate the competition while also having an excellent build quality and a low price tag. This has ensured the gimbal quickly managed to establish itself as the leading gimbal for mirrorless cameras an earn a well deserved excellent reputation within the community that we don’t expect to change any time soon. In fact, we only expect the reputation of the Crane Plus to keep growing as its popularity increases and more and more people start to use it as their go-to gimbal stabilizer of choice.
Performance And Functionality
The gimbal can provide you with a maximum load capacity of 5.5 pounds ensuring that it is able to easily support the weight of all of the popular mirrorless camera on the market without issue. Additionally, the 5.5-pound payload capacity also ensures that once your mirrorless camera body has been mounted to the gimbal, there is plenty of spare payload available to support the weight of your lens, external microphone, lighting unit, and any other camera accessories you may need.
Once fully rigged up, the Zhiyun Crane Plus can also provide you with up to 18 hours of battery life although this does depend on how much of the payload of the gimbal you are using. With most mirrorless camera setups being so lightweight, we would expect you to get around the 16-18 hour battery life market per full charge without issue.
That said, once you have used up your available battery life, Zhiyun’s quick charge technology lets you quickly charge the gimbal stabilizer back to full in only 3 hours! At the time of writing, this is the best combination of payload, battery life, and charge time available on the market of all of the handheld gimbals and helps it stay ahead of the competition.
Although the Zhiyun Crane Plus is the second cheapest gimbal that we are featuring that we would recommend for use with a mirrorless camera, the performance that it provides you is well worth the extra $50 or so dollars. The sample footage above should speak for itself and explain why we feel that this is the best cheap gimbal for mirrorless cameras on the market right now while also beating the higher price point gimbals that we are featuring at the same time.
If you have been using gimbals for a while now, you probably know that Zhiyun has a reputation for innovating with each new generation of gimbals that they release onto the market and the Crane Plus is no different. Zhiyun have totally overhauled both the algorithm that gimbal uses to work out what is required from it for the best possible image quality while also having totally new gimbal motors that provide you with the best image stabilization possible during use.
On top of this, Zhiyun has also overhauled some of their most popular gimbal modes to improve the performance that they offer and ensure that you are always getting the best possible image stabilization available. The updated modes on the Crane Plus are the point of view mode, the night lapse mode, the motion memory mode, and the intelligent object tracking mode.
We really can’t fault this gimbal and would highly recommend it as your primary choice for any mirrorless camera as its performance really is excellent and the price tag is around $100 lower than the next best gimbal available right now.
User Interface And Control System
Zhiyun has decided to stick with a control system that is very similar to what they have used on most of their previous gimbals. Although we would have loved to see something based around a touchscreen like some other brands are starting to release, Zhiyun tends to ensure that their customers are getting the absolute best quality possible so are probably waiting until they have ironed all the issues out before adding it to their gimbals.
That said, the control system on the Crane Plus is shown in the image above and it works flawlessly. It allows you to quickly and easily control or tweak the gimbal as required during use to ensure that you are always getting the footage you want. The system has also been specifically designed to ensure that you are easily able to control everything using nothing but your thumb. This leaves your fingers free to secure the grip of the gimbal to ensure your footage does not suffer if tweaking settings while recording.
Although a mirrorless camera is more of an intermediate camera, many entry-level users have started to pick up the Canon m50 so some people reading this article may be entry-level videographers. Thankfully, the Zhiyun control system for their gimbals is very user-friendly and even if the Crane Plus will be your first ever gimbal, we are confident that you will be able to get to grips with it quickly.
The Smartphone App
Although there are multiple rumors about a massive overhaul just around the corner for the Zhiyun smartphone app shown in the image above, at the time of writing, it is the only real let down for the Zhiyun gimbal range. Although it can provide your gimbal with some wireless remote control via your smartphone allowing you to position your mirrorless camera rig away from you and aim it remotely, it is a bit of a pain to use right now.
If the overhaul rumors are true however and Zhiyun can iron out the bugs with their smartphone app then we are sure that it will be an asset to your camera accessories.
Build Quality And Design
Zhiyun have been the dominant brand in the camera gimbal market for over a decade now and throughout this time they have been constantly innovating and improving their products as they go. In addition to this, it has provided them with a wealth of experience and plenty of constructive feedback from the community that the build on for each generation of gimbal.
They have definitely used all of this to their advantage when it comes to the Zhiyun Crane Plus as both the build quality and design of the gimbal are flawless in our opinion. The gimbal looks and feels as professional as ever and the build quality ensures that it is as robust as possible ensuring that if it does take a knock during use or while in transit, the gimbal will be able to take it without issue.
The Crane Plus is one of the heavier gimbals on our list coming in at around 6.5 pounds without having your mirrorless camera mounted on it but the gimbals handle is very comfortable to hold even with this heavier weight. That said, even with a heavy mirrorless camera rig mounted on the gimbal, we would imagine that most of our readers would be able to hold it for long periods of time when recording without issue.
Our Verdict
We honestly do feel that the Zhiyun Crane Plus is the best gimbal for mirrorless cameras available at the time of writing. The high-quality image stabilization that it can provide you to ensure that you are getting the best possible image quality when recording your video footage. We feel that adding the gimbal to your collection of camera accessories will be a great investment and we feel that its low price tag also makes it the best budget gimbal for mirrorless cameras even though its lower price tag is more of a side benefit than an intended feature.
If you would like to know more about the gimbal, we have a full in-depth Zhiyun Crane Plus review online where we deep dive the Gimbal and go over it in much more detail.
The DJI Ronin SC
At the time of writing, the DJI Ronin SC has just been released onto the market and as you can probably expect, there is a whole bunch of hype around this new offering from DJI. With the original DJI Ronin S being one of the dominant gimbals in the DSLR market, DJI decided that they wanted something that would be able to compete in the mirrorless camera market and the Ronin SC was the final result.
As you would expect from a DJI product, the Ronin SC holds true to the DJI reputation of offering you some excellent, professional-level image stabilization while having a solid build quality that can easily take punishment during use without breaking. As you would expect from a gimbal that had as much hype around its launch as the SC, it has quickly managed to earn an excellent reputation for itself and as the months go on, this only seems to be getting stronger.
In all honesty, we would have put the Ronin RC top of our list if its price tag wasn’t so high. At the time of writing, it is only around $100 more than the Crane Plus but the Zhiyun gimbal also provides you with a longer battery life as well as a larger maximum load capacity making it the obvious choice for any mirrorless camera owner looking to pick up a gimbal.
Performance And Functionality
When it comes to performance, the DJI Ronin SC offers a maximum load capacity of 4.4 pounds that can easily support even the heavier mirrorless cameras with all the accessories that you could ever need and ensure it provides you with the image stabilization that you need. The battery life of the Ronin SC comes in at 11 hours being the lowest battery life of all the featured gimbals on our list.
That said though, we would imagine the vast majority of our readers would be able to get all the video footage they required within 11 hours anyway. If not, then you are able pick up a powerbank designed for laptops to help extend the battery life while allowing you to charge your batteries while out and about.
Everything just works perfectly togeather from the actual gimbal motors to the balancing algorithm to the motion detection resulting in an excellent final product. The gimbal motors on the SC are almost silent too so if you are using an on-camera microphone for your audio track, there is no chance of the sound of the motors adjusting causing you problems like some of the gimbals from competing brands.
User Interface And Control System
DJI has gone with a simplistic approach to the control system for the SC and in our opinion, it works pretty well. Just like the Crane Plus, you are able to get the majority of things done using nothing but your thumb allowing you to easily tweak the performance of the gimbal to meet your needs during use without your image quality suffering. The backlit LCD panel does a solid job of displaying any relevant information that you may require about the gimbal too ensuring and gives a clear indication of the remaining battery life.
Just like the Zhiyun covered above, if you are looking to pick the Ronin SC up as your very first gimbal, we have no doubt that you will quickly and easily get to grips with it and not run into any issues. Just like the rest of the DJI range, it has been designed to be as easy as use for anyone new to their products while offering plenty of customization to keep the professional level users happy too.
The Smartphone App
The DJI smartphone app is definatley one area where they leapfrog Zhiyun as it has always been very reliable and to our knowledge, has never had any major bugs. It provides you with some quick and easy wireless remote control functionality and as you almost always have your smartphone on you in this day and age, you can quickly open the app and do what you need to do.
Build Quality And Design
As we mentioned earlier, DJI has a reputation when it comes to the design of their products to ensure that they look sleek and professional while also performing flawlessly. This remains true for their Ronin SC and all of the moving parts of the gimbal move independently of each other without any risk of friction of heat building up during use.
Coming in at just 4.87 pounds of weight, the gimbal is also surprisingly lightweight considering how robust it is as well as the amount of technology it has inside of it to provide you with the level of performance it does and its flawless image stabilization.
Our Verdict
Like we mentioned at the start of this section, the DJI Ronin SC would have been top of our list if its price tag was a little lower as it really is an excellent bit of kit and will make a great gimbal for any mirrorless camera owner. That said though, with the Crane Plus not only being cheaper but also offering a higher maximum load capacity and a longer battery life it had to be our number one recommendation for a gimbal for mirrorless camera owners. That said, the DJI Ronin SC is definatley a close second and would make a great addition to your collection of camera accessories.
The Feiyutech AK2000
Moving on to the Feiyutech AK2000 that we initially had so much hope for but unfortunately, there are a few issues with the gimbal as we mentioned at the start of the article that just holds it back that we will cover in this section. That said though, the AK2000 has still managed to earn a decent reputation within the community for itself and has a large number of mirrorless camera owners who use it as their go-to gimbal stabilizer of choice.
This is the main reason that we decided to feature the gimbal on our list as well as the work that Feiyutech seem to be putting in to correct the issues the gimbal has. On top of this, the Feiyutech G series gimbals designed for point and shoot cameras are absolutely outstanding in our opinion so it’s not like they are some random brand trying to scam people, their AK range just has a few issues that they are working on and we hope they correct them as soon as possible.
Performance And Functionality
The Feiyutech AK2000 is able to support a maximum load capacity of 6.17 pounds while offering you a battery life of 8-12 hours depending on how much of the available payload weight that your camera rig uses. Due to most popular mirrorless camera rigs on the market right now being pretty light, even with a bunch of heavy accessories on them, we doubt you will come close to maxing out 6.17 pounds and should easily get around the 12 hours of battery mark.
That said, this is when the gimbal is free from the relatively common vibration issues it can have that may affect up to 30% of the AK2000’s on the market. Thankfully, Feiyutech were quick to discover a fix for the problem but due to it being hardware related rather than software related you have to manually put the gimbal through the process and even then, you may have to do the process multiple times.
Even then, there is also a small chance that the fix for the vibration issues will not actually fix it meaning that you have to return the gimbal for a new one. At this price point in the market, we feel that this is just too much of a fuss around when the Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC have similar price tags, similar or better performance but do not have this problem.
Additionally, there is also an issue with when using the AK2000 in smooth mode that causes it to slowly pan to the left meaning it is a nightmare to capture time-lapse footage with. Again, the Zhiyun and DJI gimbals do not have these issues and jump further ahead of the AK2000.
User Interface And Control System
The Feiyutech AK2000 has one of the best control systems on the market right now in our opinion and as you can see in the image above, it is based around a touchscreen and a magic wheel that allow you to get the gimbal to do what you need. We really think that more gimbal brands are going to start basing their control systems around a touchscreen in the future and in all honesty, Feiyutech has done a great job implementing it.
The navigation menu on the AK2000 is also very easy to pick up meaning that you should be able to gt to grips within very quickly. This means that first-time gimbal owners and people moving over from gimbals with traditional control systems will be able to learn the AK2000 system quickly.
The Feiyutech Smartphone App
Just like Zhiyun, Feiyutech has a few issues with their smartphone app shown in the image above. Although we have not heard any rumors about an overhaul for the app, we do hope that a few key fixes are around the corner as it wouldn’t take much to get the app working optimally.
Build Quality And Design
The third and final issue that the AK2000 has is shown in the image above and its a problem with build quality. The rubber grip on the handle of the gimbal is not fitted meaning it can slowly move up during use if your camera rigs payload is heavy enough to cause this to happen. eventually, the grip ends up sliding so far up the handle of the gimbal that it reaches the control panel and triggers the tilt function.
Considering that the gimbal has other issues, this is the last thing it needs as you don’t want your gimbal to be randomly tilting during a job as it potentially ruins the video footage that you are recording and looks unprofessional. Additionally, the grip can take a surprising amount of effort to slide it back down the handle too.
As most mirrorless camera setups are pretty lightweight, this may not be an issue for you as your camera rig may not be heavy enough for the problem to occur but we just wanted to make our readers aware of the issue. Again, the Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC don’t have this issue either pushing the AK2000 even further behind the other two modern gimbals that we would consider for mirrorless camera use.
Our Verdict
We have mentioned the issues the Feiyutech AK2000 has multiple times on our blog and although we personally don’t see the point in risking having problems when paying this much for a gimbal when there are perfectly good alternatives available, some people are still purchasing the AK2000. We don’t know if they are simply unaware of the issues or if they are die-hard Feiyutech fans but many people do like the AK2000 and use it as their go-to gimbal of choice, especially for mirrorless camera set ups.
We also have a dedicated Feiyutech AK2000 review online that covers the gimbal in more depth than we did in this article. We also have a Feiyutech AK2000 vs Zhiyun Crane Plus comparison article online due to seeing so many people asking what one of the two gimbals was the better option.
The Moza Aircross
The next gimbal that we will be covering is also the first gimbal on our list for use with mirrorless cameras that is not from the latest generation of gimbals and its the Moza Aircross 3. Although the Aircross 3 is starting to show its again against the newer Zhiyun and DJI gimbals covered above, it easily holds its own agains the AK2000 and it is also the cheapest gimbal features on our list.
The Aircross 3 has an excellent reputation within the community and we really hope that Moza releases a new version of the Aircross soon to prevent Zhiyun and DJI pulling away from them in the mirrorless camera market. That said, the Aircross range has a loyal fanbase and the Aircross 3 still sells well today although we would expect it is due to it being one of the cheapest gimbals for mirrorless cameras on the market right now.
Performance And Functionality
The Moza Aircross 3 can support a maximum load capacity of 3.9 pounds and although it is cutting it a little close for some of the heavier mirrorless camera setups, this should be plenty for the vast majority of our readers even with a large number of accessories mount to their camera. The image stabilization that the gimbal is also solid and it has a lightning-fast response time to any movement its detectors pick up.
The battery life on the Aircross 3 comes in at around 12 hours pretty consistently no matter how much of the available payload weight you take up meaning it should more than cover the length of any work you have to get done. The recharging time for the gimbal is also pretty decent for an older gimbal coming in at around 4 hours from empty to full.
User Interface And Control System
The control system for the Moza Aircross 3 is shown in the image above and as you can see, it is a pretty basic setup but it does get the job done. It is very easy to use and we doubt anyone will struggle to get the hang of how to use it due to it being so basic. In the next generation of Aircross gimbal, we would love to see a touchscreen similar to the Feiyutech but time will tell what we end up getting.
The Smartphone App
Similar to DJI, Moza has a pretty solid history when it comes to their smartphone app and it has been in a good place pretty consistently since its release. It offers you some remote functionality for your gimbal that will reliably pair up with your gimbal when needed.
Build Quality And Design
The build quality of the Aircross 3 is great and we really can’t fault Moza in any way, the design of the gimbal is solid and it ensures that it is able to provide all the image stabilization that you need during use. It has been designed well and there are no friction hotspots that may rub together during use resulting in any potential overheating issues with the gimbal either.
Our Verdict
Although the Aircross 3 is a great gimbal that is still popular within the community today and will perform well for your mirrorless camera, we had to put it in joint third place. The Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC are newer with modern technology and are a much better addition to your camera accessories in our opinion. That said though, we are excited to see what the Aircross 4 delivers when it is released and hope Moza start to release details on it soon!
The Evo Rage Gen 2
The final gimbal that we will be covering is the Evo Rage Gen 2 another older gimbal stabilizer that has maintained its reputation within the community so we though it was only right to include it as a fair few people use the Rage gen 2 with their mirrorless cameras.
That said, we know that the Evo Rage 3 is now available but it has been designed to be more of a DSLR level gimbal stabilizer rather than a mirrorless camera gimbal. We say no point in featuring the Rage 3 in our list as its price tag alone would mean that the other gimbals on the list would blow it out the water as you simply don’t need the massive payload the Rage 3 offers when using a mirrorless camera.
Performance And Functionality
So, the Evo Rage Gen 2 can support a maximum load capacity of 5.5 pounds ensuring that it can easily support any mirrorless camera rig on the market right now with ease. The gimbal also provides you with a pretty consistent 12 hours of battery life similar to the other featured gimbals on our list ensuring that you will be able to use it without issue and get all the video footage that you require while out and about on your sessions.
User Interface And Control System
The interface of the Rage gen 2 is shown in the image above and it is very similar to the system used on the Zhiyun gimbals. If you have previously used any of the Zhiyun range then you will see many similarities if you move over to the Rage gen 2. If you are brand new to gimbals then the system is easy to pick up and does a good job of letting you control the gimbal as needed.
The Smartphone App
We love the design of the Evo smartphone app shown in the image above and in our opinion, it is the best looking and easiest to use smartphone app for any gimbal available right now. We feel that Zhiyun and Feiyutech could do well to take a leaf out of Evos book and aim to turn their smartphone apps into something similar. Anyway, the app does a great job of letting you control the gimbal wirelessly and offers some decent functionality too.
Build Quality And Design
The Evo gimbal range has an awesome build quality that ensures a robust and versatile gimbal stabilizer that can take its fair share of punishment during use or transit without issue. The design of the gimbal is solid and ensures a full range of motion when your camera is mounted and performs as expected without any of the axis having problems or causing friction points.
Our Verdict
Just like the Moza Aircross 3, the Evo Rage Gen 2 is a solid gimbal that has held up well but it is simply starting to show its again against the Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC. Although it can provide you with the image stabilization to ensure you get a great level of image quality on your video footage, we see no reason to choose this over the Zhiyun or DJI gimbals. We hope to see an updated Evo gimbal targeted towards the mirrorless camera market soon and will publish a full review upon release.
Wrapping It Up
That brings us to the end of our post covering what we feel are the best gimbals for mirrorless cameras currently available on the market now. We hope that you have found this article helpful and that you can clearly see why we have chosen the Zhiyun Crane Plus and the DJI Ronin SC as our two top gimbal choices for your mirrorless camera.
As we explained in the DJI section of this article, we feel that the Crane Plus does take the lead over the DJI gimbal but the Ronin SC is still a solid and very close runner up. We feel either of them will be a great investment and make a great addition to your collection of camera accessories.
