The Ultimate Feiyu SPG Review!

So for today’s article, we are going to be going over our ultimate Feiyu SPG review that we have seen a steady stream of people reaching out about for some time now. We have been so busy that we have had to put our Feiyu SPG review on the back burner until we had more spare time but today is the day.

Now, the latest version of the Feiyu SPG has been out for around a year now and in that time it has managed to earn itself a pretty solid reputation within the community in all fairness to the gimbal. The Feiyu SPG does offer you some solid performance with a decent build quality and it can help to provide your smartphone or action camera some much-needed image stabilization to help improve your image quality.

Now, that said though, in our opinion the Zhiyun Smooth 4 is a much better handheld gimbal stabilizer for smartphones and should seriously be considered over the Feiyu SPG. Not only is it cheaper but it also offers better performance and functionality too. We just wanted to point this out early in the article rather than let you read the full review only for us to turn around and recommend you pick up the Zhiyun Smooth 4 instead of the Feiyu SPG.

With that out of the way though, we will still be going over our full Feiyu SPG to go into the strengths and weaknesses of the gimbal for any of our readers who are still interested in adding the Feiyu SPG to their smartphone or action camera accessories. As we mentioned, the gimbal is a solid option that has a large user base it’s just that we feel that we feel there are better and cheaper options like the Smooth 4 on the market.

Performance And Functionality

The Feiyu SPG has a pretty solid maximum load capacity with it being able to support a maximum payload of up to 0.66 pounds meaning that it is able to easily mount the vast majority of smartphones or action cameras on the market. In addition to this, there is also plenty of spare load capacity available to ensure that you are also able to mount a decent smartphone lens or another camera accessory to your device while using the gimbal without issue.

In our opinion, this is why the Feiyu SPG is a top-three smartphone gimbal at the time of writing with the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 being ahead of it. So much of the competition on the market right now provide a load capacity designed just to support your device and leave nothing spare for any accessories.

With the latest developments in the cameras on both action cameras and smartphones, more and more people are starting to use them as their go-to camera of choice and this has lead to a massive increase in people using smartphone and action camera lenses to improve their image quality. We only predict that this trend is going to continue to increase as the months go by so we see no reason in going with a gimbal that has no spare load capacity to support your device with these accessories mounted to them.

Moving onto the battery life of the Feiyu SPG, the officially listed battery life of the gimbal is fourteen hours but you have to keep in mind that the more load capacity your smartphone or action camera takes up, the less battery life you will be able to get per full charge. That said, even with the larger and heavier smartphone rigs on the market right now, battery life seems to range from around eight hours to twelve hours meaning you should be able to get plenty of juice per charge.

Additionally, the Feiyu SPG can be recharged back to full in only three hours when dry via a regular wall power outlet. Although we have not tried this next recharging method ourselves, it is definatley becoming more and more popular as power banks become better and better. We have seen a number of people report that they were able to top up their Feiyu SPG battery while out and about when not using their gimbal via their power bank to extend the gimbals battery life as required.

Depending on what you are doing, this could be a great way to easily extend your battery life without having to spend much money. For example, say you are a travel vlogger and you know for a fact that you will be backpacking away from civilization for an extended period of time. Investing in a decent power bank can help to keep your gimbal and smartphone or action camera charged until you make it back to a power outlet.

The video footage embedded above has been recorded using the Feiyu SPG as the gimbal of choice for all of the clips. As you can see, it offers you some solid image stabilization and we have no doubt that it can help to improve the level of image quality that you are able to capture when using the gimbal. You can see that even with rapid movement changes, the Feiyu SPG is pretty quick to adjust your smartphone to ensure that you are able to get the smoothest video footage possible.

The Feiyu SPG also has some increased functionality for popular smartphone apps such as Tik Tok due to its dual-mode BlueTooth technology. On top of this, depending on what you are wanting to use the gimbal for, you are also able to use the same functionality for apps such as YouTube Live and Instagram TV too.

Our favorite thing about the latest Feiyu SPG is the upgraded algorithm that has been specifically designed by Feiyutech to offer the best image stabilization possible while needing as little power as possible. This ensures that even heavy camera loads can be stabilized without draining too much battery. Additionally, the new and upgraded high torque gimbal motors ensure that these high load capacity smartphone rigs can be stabilized silently. This means that the sound of the gimbal motors adjusting during use doesn’t contaminate your audio track while recording video with your smartphone.

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User Interface And Control System

Now, we are fully aware that the vast majority of people who are looking to purchase a gimbal like the Feiyu SPG for their smartphone or action camera are not professional level videographers and don’t have the free time to learn a professional level gimbal system. Thankfully, the Feiyu SPG has an extremely easy to use control interface as shown in the image above.

Not only are we confident that you will be able to get to grips with the system with minimal time invested on your part but we are also pretty confident that it will more than meet the needs of most of our readers. The system allows you to get all of the basics out of the gimbal to help ensure you are getting the best image quality for your videos while also offering some decent intermediate features too.

If you are wanting more than just a basic gimbal, the magic wheel on the left of the main control panel in the image above can be set up to do a range of functions to get more out of the control system. In reality, though, we would imagine that the vast majority of our readers will just be using the Feiyu SPG as a basic gimbal via the regular control interface.

The LCD panel is clear and ideal for any low light locations you may be recorded in, the joystick is responsive, even if your thumb is cold or wet, and the whole system lets you control it using just your thumb while your focus the rest of your hand on supporting the weight of your gimbal and smartphone.

Smartphone App

Although the Feiyutech app offers some limited functionality for the Feiyu SPG, the Vicool smartphone app is the better option. It offers you increased functionality directly from your phone including zooming, manual focus, ISO adjustments, white balance tweaking, exposure value, zooming speed tweaks, motor strength adjustments, follow speed tweaks, and a few other features. Additionally, the virtual joystick also offers you some wireless remote control functionality for the Feiyu SPG too.

Now, you may be wondering what is the point of having all of this in a smartphone app if your smartphone is going to be mounted to the gimbal anyway? Well, many people use the Feiyu SPG for their GoPro or another action camera. Additionally, many people will often have their partner or be part of a group where someone else can have the app on their smartphone or you mount someone elses smartphone in the gimbal while you use the app on your smartphone.

Depending on what you are planning to do with the Feiyu SPG, the smartphone app can be a pretty solid gimbal accessory to download. Even if it is just for the quick and easy tweaking of gimbal settings to meet the needs of your session. Once downloaded, it can be surprising how much use you actually end up having for the app that you previously never thought of.

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Build Quality And Design

The Feiyu SPG is based around the standard 3 axis gimbal design that the vast majority of modern handheld gimbal stabilizers use these days. This offers some great performance while also allowing Feiyutech to keep the weight and size of the gimbal as small and light as possible without sacrificing image stabilization. The Feiyu SPG also has a great fully foldable design that allows you to quickly and easily store the gimbal when not in use.

The tilt arm and fully adjustable clamp ensure that you can also tweak the Feiyu SPG to meet the needs of your specific smartphone or action camera to ensure that it will fit when mounted without issue. The handle on the gimbal has also been ergonomically designed to ensure that it is as comfortable to hold as possible too. We know that smartphone and action camera rigs are usually lightweight but having that additional comfort while using the gimbal is always nice.

The based of the Feiyu SPG also has a standard quarter-inch mounting thread for anyone who wants to mount their gimbal to a regular tripod too. Now, the usefulness of this is going to depend on what you are doing with the gimbal but it is a nice, small feature that many competing gimbals lack.

The design of the gimbal head also allows you to quickly and easily switch the gimbal head between landscape and portrait orientation within seconds too. If you are looking to capture footage for both YouTube and Instagram this is a great feature. Usually, video footage in landscape works better on sites like YouTube whereas video footage in portrait works better on Instagram so you can quickly switch between the two on the Feiyu SPG.

Balancing

Now, the balancing procedure on the Feiyu SPG is very easy but if this is your first ever gimbal, you may want a little assistance. We have previously tried to type up the balancing procedures for various gimbals but the feedback is usually that it is hard to follow. Due to this, we have just started to embed the official balancing video tutorial for all of the gimbals that we feature. If you are having any problems with the initial balancing of your Feiyu SPG then the video above can show you exactly what you should be doing.

Our Verdict

That brings us to the end of our Feiyu SPG review and we hope that our readers considering purchasing the gimbal have found it helpful. We have no doubt that the SPG will be able to help improve the image quality that you are able to capture using your phone or action camera and that it will be able to provide you with some excellent image stabilization. The Feiyu SPG also has a number of independent, third-party reviews online that offer an external opinion if you want to read them.

That said though, just like we mentioned back at the start of the article, in our opinion, the Zhiyun Smooth 4 is a better gimbal that offers better performance and functionality than the Feiyu SPG for a lower price tag. We feel it would make a much better addition to your smartphone or action camera accessories and would recommend it to our readers over the Feiyu SPG any day.

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