The Ultimate Flycam Nano Review!

Thankfully, more and more videographers are starting to realize that there is more than just the slightly overpriced Glidecam manual stabilizer range available when looking to add a Steadicam style stabilizer to your collection of camera accessories. We have noticed more and more people reaching out for advice on stabilizers from a bunch of brands that are quickly managing to earn a solid reputation for themselves amongst the community while growing their core customer bases.

Our regular readers will probably know that we have been pushing a ton of content out based around these newer manual stabilizer brands to try and help as many of our readers as possible too. On top of that, our regular readers will also likley know that we are massive fans of the Flycam Redking and that we feel it is probably the best intermediate price point manual stabilizer available on the market by far at the time of writing.

Since covering the Redking, we have noticed more and more people reaching out about the Flycam range with a number of questions and queries about the various stabilizers that Flycam has on the market these days. One stabilizer that we have seen more and more videographers and vloggers reaching out about is the Flycam Nano that is the entry-level, budget-friendly stabilizer from the Flycam range.

As we always try to provide our readers with the content that they want, we have decided to feature the stabilizer as the focal point of today’s article and publish our full Flycam Nano review. We are hoping that our article is going to be able to help any of our readers who are looking to add a cheap manual stabilizer to their camera accessories and are considering the Flycam Nano.

Now, that said though, before going any further we just want to point out that, in our opinion at least, the Neewer Manual Stabilizer is a better entry-level Steadicam style stabilizer than the Flycam Nano. It’s not that the Nano is a bad stabilizer, we just feel that as the Neewer unit is at such a similar price tag and offers a slightly better build quality with some great performance that it is just a better addition to your camera accessories. Additionally, the Neewer stabilizer also has a much larger customer base with a better reputation amongst videographers too.

That said though, we are big fans of the Flycam range and know that some people are not fans of the Neewer range due to having poor experiences with Neewer products in some of their other ranges. Due to this, we will still be going over our full review of the Flycam Nano to help any of our readers who are wanting to purchase the Nano as a cheap source of image stabilization.

Performance And Functionality

In our opinion, one of the main reasons that the Flycam Nano has proven to be such a controversial manual stabilizer amongst the community is that it has such a low maximum load capacity of only 3.3 pounds of total payload weight. Although this will allow you to mount some mirrorless camera and lightweight DSLR rigs, in this day and age, people are using more and more camera accessories that increase their total payload weight.

As we touched on earlier, the Neewer Manual Stabilizer has proven to be a much more popular option amongst the videography community and offers a 6.6-pound maximum load capacity. This massively increases the number of niches that you can use the stabilizer in while getting super smooth video footage to get the best image quality possible. This allows you to use pretty much any entry-level camera rig that you want with the stabilizer and it is also a very similar price point to the Flycam Nano.

Another area where the Neewer stabilizer beats the Flycam Nano is for use with a long, heavy camera lens mounted to your camera body. The Nano can really struggle to maintain its center of gravity with camera setups using the longer lenses and can have issued with vibration when trying to stabilize. On the flip side of this, the Neewer unit performs much better when being used with a longer and heavier lens making it the obvious option for anyone using this type of camera rig.

The cinematic style YouTube video above has been captured using the Flycam Nano with a lightweight camera rig with a small lens mounted to the user’s camera. As you can see for yourself, the Flycam Nano can still provide you with some solid image stabilization and hold its own against the competition when it comes to the cameras within its load capacity, it’s just a shame that its load capacity is so low.

As you can see in the sample footage that we have shared above, you are able to use the Flycam Nano in a number of common videography situations without issue. If you are an entry-level videographer or vlogger with a light camera rig then chances are that the Flycam Nano will be able to meet your needs. If you are a more advanced videographer though or doing any type of paid videography work then the Flycam Redking is a much better option that will last you for years to come.

The Flycam Nano has a fully telescopic central column that allows you to adjust it between 38cm at its shortest all the way up to 56cm at its maximum length. Additionally, unlike a few of the other compeating entry-level tools, the Flycam system can be done totally by hand without having to use an Allen key making it quick and easy to adjust your stabilizer length as required. This ensures that you can not only quickly adjust your stabilizer for capturing video at different heights but also for optimal use between videographers of different heights.

User Interface And Control System

Now, just like all of the other Steadicam style manual stabilizers on the market right now, there really is no need for the device to have much in the way of a control system. The Flycam Nano has been designed from the very start to try and provide the videographer operating it the best possible natural-looking image stabilization possible without having to break the bank. The lack of a real user interface is definatley the norm with manual style stabilizers, even with the professional level units as they are not like a motorized gimbal stabilizer that has been designed to do a bunch of different tasks at once.

The only real thing that you have to interface with on the Flycam Nano is its base plate when initially balancing the stabilizer for use with your camera rig. Now, we will fully admit that Flycam could have done a much better job with the balancing process on the Nano and used something similar to what they have on the Redking. Although we have seen some videographers report that they found the balancing system on the Nano difficult, we would imagine that most people should be able to get the job done with ease and be good to go. If you do run into issues the user manual for the Nano offers some excellent guidance for you during the balancing system.

Again, this is another area where in our opinion, the Neewer Manual Stabilizer beats the Flycam Nano as in our opinion, the Neewer system is not only much easier but also very straight forward and easy to understand. If you are looking to purchase your very first manual stabilizer then this can definatley score Neewer points over Flycam. We would imagine that most of our readers will be able to work out the Neewer balancing system and get the stabilizer balanced without ever having to look at the manual as it is much easier to use.

Both of the stabilizers come with sixteen counter-weight disks to allow you to balance your camera set-up as required. Each individual disk comes in at 0.2 pounds of weight allowing you to easily work out roughly what you will need to balance your stabilizer. Now, as all of the disks add up to a combined weight of 3.2 pounds of weight, if you are traveling around, especially via air, we would highly recommend you only take the disks required to balance your rig a few spares to reduce the weight of your stabilizer gear. This can make it easier to ensure your camera accessories don’t go over your luggage limit for your airline by taking disks you likley won’t require.

The actual 3 axis gimbal joint on the handle is pretty solid for this price point in the market and works very well in all fairness to Flycam. It offers decent quality image stabilization relative to the stabilizer price point in the market while also keeping everything as simple to use as possible due to being targeted towards the entry-level markets who may never have used a stabilizer previously.

Build Quality And Design

Just like most of the modern Steadicam style stabilizers on the market right now, the Flycam Nano follows the same standard design that has been used by the vast majority of brands who build manual stabilizers over the last decade or so. From what we can tell, no brand really wants to take the risk of trying their own new design when the current one so well knows and performs so well so little really changes in regards to the design from stabilizer to stabilizer.

Flycam has used a pretty decent aluminum alloy for the majority of the construction of the Flycam Nano to try and do the best they possibly can to keep it as small, tough, and lightweight as possible without having to hike the price tag up. Although there is absolutely no denying that the Flycam Nano is tough and very robust, especially for its price point, it can be considered to be on the heavy side for its size coming in at around 3.19 pounds without any counter-weight plates.

This is why we can’t stress that you should only be taking the counterweight disks that you know that you will need when traveling via air as taking all sixteen of the disks can bring the total weight of the stabilizer alone up to 6.39 pounds! Although more and more entry-level camera users are starting to use heavier DSLR rigs, DSLR sales, in general, are becoming lower and lower as the lighter mirrorless cameras are becoming better and better. If you are a mirrorless camera user who uses a short and light camera lens in their setup, you likley won’t need even half of the counter-weight disks to balance your rig.

The Flycam Nano also comes with a standard quarter-inch mounting thread to allow you to mount the stabilizer as required. As the majority of entry-level camera accessories use the standard quarter-inch mounting thread, we feel that the lack of a three eights mounting thread on the Nano can be forgiven. The handle on the Nano is also very comfortable too, although the handle on the Neewer manual stabilizer is also comfortable, some of the other cheap, budget-friendly manual stabilizers have very uncomfortable handles that can cause cramps in your hand when held for long periods of time.

Our Verdict

That brings our review of the Flycam Nano to an end and although the Flycam Nano is a pretty solid Steadicam stabilizer that is very cheap, we would highly recommend that our readers consider the Neewer Manual Stabilizer as we feel it is a better overall addition to your camera accessories collection. You can read more about the Neewer stabilizer in the many third-party reviews that videographers have posted about the unit.

Now, if you are on a very tight budget or just looking for an entry-level manual stabilizer, the Neewer unit should easily be able to meet your needs. That said though if you are doing any type of paid videography work with clients then the Flycam Redking is the absolute minimum that we would be recommending to our readers. It offers some excellent professional-level performance while having an intermediate price tag making the Redking an absolute bargain in our opinion.

Just like the other stabilizers that we have mentioned in our article, the Flycam Redking also has a whole bunch of reviews for it online that have been posted by the videography and vlogging communities. We also have our own dedicated review of the Flycam Redking online too if you do want to know more about it and how it can ensure you get the best image quality possible for your clients via its excellent, cheap image stabilization.