The Best Gimbal For Akaso V50 Cameras!
We have published a few articles over the last few months going over various questions that we often see asked about the Akaso v50 camera range. As Akaso have just rebooted their v50 range and released three new action cameras all targeted at slightly different price points in the market, we have noticed more and more people reaching out for advice on action camera accessories for the Akaso v50.
The main question that we are seeing people asking is usually based around what we feel the best gimbal for Akaso v50 action cameras is. Thankfully, even though there are a number of different variants for the action camera range, they all come in at around 0.17 pounds of total payload weight. This means that the vast majority of the 3 axis gimbal stabilizers on the market right now can easily support the weight of the v50 action camera range.
That said though, the problem is that Akaso has used their own form factor for the v50 rather than matching the GoPro action camera dimensions. As the vast majority of action camera handheld gimbals on the market have been designed for use with the GoPro action camera range, this presents a problem as most action camera gimbals will struggle to grip any of the three v50 action cameras.
Thankfully though, there is a solution, the Snoppa Atom. Although the Atom is actually a handheld gimbal that has been designed for use with smartphones, its clip grip is one of the best that has been designed to date and its fully adjustable nature allows you to grip your Akaso v50 camera with it with ease. It does not matter what variant of the v50 you have, the Snoppa Atom can easily get a firm grip and hold it in place for you even in action sports where you are getting thrown around with tons of vibration.
On top of this, the Snoppa Atom has quickly managed to rightfully earn an excellent reputation amongst the community that just keeps on getting better and better as time goes on. Due to this, we are confident in saying that adding the Snoppa Atom to your Akaso v50 camera accessories will be a good investment and that it will be able to provide you with all the image stabilization you need for the best possible image quality.S
Performance And Functionality
As we mentioned earlier in the article, all three of the new Akaso v50 action camera variants come in at around the 0.17-pound mark meaning that the Snoppa Atoms 0.68 pound maximum load capacity ensures that you can easily mount your action camera without issue. On top of this, there is plenty of free load capacity available to ensure that you will be able to get optimal image stabilization out of the gimbal during use too as well as ensure you get the best possible battery life.
On top of this, with the vast majority of people owning a smartphone these days, you can also hot-swap between your Akaso v50 and your smartphone of choice when required. The load capacity of the gimbal is easily enough to support the vast majority of popular smartphones on the market right now with ease. This allows you to switch up the type of video footage that you are able to capture and potentially improve your overall vlog footage.
On top of this, at the time of writing the Snoppa Atom actually has the longest battery life available for a gimbal stabilizer of this size coming in at twenty-four hours per charge of the gimbals battery. As we mentioned, due to the lightweight of the Akaso v50, it is highly likley that you will be able to get as close to the maximum battery life of the gimbal with each full charge too.
On top of this, the Atom also supports two-way charging allowing you to charge your v50 or smartphone while in use and mounted to the gimbal. If you are a big fan of capturing your content in those higher resolutions like 4k with the quicker frame rates like sixty frames per second then this can be a godsend. We all know how quickly these footage types can drain the battery of your device so being able to siphon some juice directly from your gimbal helps keep you going while out and about.
You are also able to quickly and easily top up your gimbal if needed too by adding a decent USB power bank to your collection of camera accessories too. This is an ideal solution for anyone who is using their Akaso v50 for something like hiking or any other activity where you will be away from a regular power outlet from a wall for a long period of time. This, in theory at least allows you to stay out and about taking part in your activity of choice for as long as needed without running out of power and missing out on capturing content.
When your Snoppa Atom does run out of juice, it can be charged back to full in as little as four hours! This is six hours of usable four for each hour spend charging and at the time of writing is the best ration available of all gimbals. Not only does this minimize the downtime allowing you to get out and about quicker but if you are a travel vlogger and in an airport for an hour or so it lets you get some decent hours out of your charging opportunity even if you can only charge for half an hour.
In our opinion, one of the main reasons that the Snoppa Atom has proven to be such a big hit with the videography communities who use either smartphones or action cameras to produce their content is that it has one of the best detection and correction systems going right now. It easily stands out from the compeating gimbals and even puts the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 in its place.
The gimbal sensors on the Snoppa Atom are second to none and are probably the best available for this type of gimbal. Although the gimbal was primarily designed for use with a smartphone, the rapid detection of movement from the gimbals sensors also make it an ideal option for any action sports where you will be thrown around or taking a bunch of small knocks or vibrations.
This movement data is then thrown into the Snoppa balancing algorithm that is lightning fast and extremely accurate at working out how best to compensate for the detected movement without having to waste energy. This information is then packaged up and sent to the Snoppa motors in the Atom that actually implement the required counter-movement to ensure that your Akaso v50 stays stable and captures the best image quality possible.
This whole process happens so quickly that it is difficult to work out how Snoppa, a relative newcomer to the gimbal gave have managed to not only match, but actually beat the more established brands such as DJI, Moza, and Zhiyun. When you factor in what the compeating brands on the market are offering, it really is easy to see why the Atom has taken so much of the market share from the compeating brands while also earning all of the glowing reviews that the community have posted for it.
User Interface And Control System
One of our favorite features of the Snoppa Atom is that its user control system is absolutely outstanding in our opinion. As shown in the image above, everything has been ergonomically designed to ensure that you are able to control the gimbal with just one hand without running into any issues. Everything is placed perfectly to allow you to quickly and easily locate everything and tweak the performance of the gimbal as required during your activities.
All of the buttons are responsive with the gimbal processing the button press instantly and the multifunctional, omnidirectional joystick on the Atom offers some of the best manual control that we have seen. It doesn’t matter if you are wanting to actually capture your adventures in action sports with your Akaso v50, use the v50 for vlogging, or just to capture some content for your social media profiles, the control system for the Snoppa Atom ensures that you are able to do whatever you need with ease.
As the Akaso v50 is more of an entry-level action camera, there is a high chance that many of the people reading this are new to using a handheld gimbal stabilizer. If this is the case for you then there really is no need to worry, the whole system is extremely user-friendly and easy to learn. On the flip side of this though, Snoppa has also done a great job of ensuring that the Atom also offers some greatly advanced customization for an advanced gimbal user from the exact same control interface too.
All in all, considering Snoppa are such a new brand to the market, we feel they have done an outstanding job with the design and implementation of their interface for the Atom. We see a number of entry-level gimbals being released that are either too user-friendly that the advanced users don’t need it or too advanced that the entry-level users can’t use it. In our opinion, Snoppa has found the middle ground and has a rapidly growing customer base to show for it.
Smartphone App
Another area where Snoppa has impressed us is with their smartphone app due to the fact that it actually works and syncs with the Atom. Around half of the apps from the more established brands at the time of writing are not fit for purpose and are essentially in major need of a total rework. Even the Zhiyun smartphone app was in this state until its overhaul about a year back so we are pleased to see that the Snoppa app connects to your gimbal quickly and doesn’t randomly disconnect.
On top of this, the actual layout of the app is solid too making it very easy to find your way around as required and get to the app features that you need. Some of the key features from the app is its wireless remote control setting that can be handy if you are looking to vlog but our favorite setting is definatley the access to your gimbal settings.
Now, the default gimbal config that comes shipped with the Atom is fit for purpose and should be able to meet the needs of most of our readers. We know that we do have some tinkers amongst our readers though who enjoy trying to tweak settings to see how far they can push their gadget. The Snoppa smartphone app makes this quick and easy and it’s easy to understand layout allows you to tweak various settings to your heart’s content.
Build Quality And Design
As you can see in the image above, the Snoppa Atom has a very small and compact design for a gimbal that can provide you with the level of image stabilization that it does. You can quickly and easily store it away and its lightweight also makes it an ideal travel gimbal for your Akaso v50 allowing you to travel as light as possible without taking up much space.
On top of this, Snoppa has also managed to make the Atom pretty tough and robust without having to hike its price tag up or make it heavy too. Even in this day and age, this is rare, even from the more established brands on the market but Snoppa are up their with DJI with their Osmo Mobile 3 when it comes to how robust and tough the gimbal is. If you do travel around a whole bunch or take part in action sports then it is nice to know the gimbal can take plenty of bumps without breaking.
The handle on the Atom is also ergonomically designed to try and ensure that you can hold it for hours at a time if needed to capture your video footage. If you are into something like snowboarding then this lets you capture your whole route without getting aches and pains in your hand without having to take any breaks.
Our Verdict
That brings our article going over what we feel is the best gimbal for Akaso v50 action cameras on the market to an end. We are massive fans of the Snoppa Atom and feel that it is one of the better action camera/smartphone handheld gimbal stabilizers made to date. We have no doubt in our mind that purchasing it can make a great addition to your Akaso v50 camera accessories and that the gimbal should easily help improve the image quality that you can capture with its great image stabilization.
The Atom has a ton of great reviews from videographers who use the gimbal in a number of different niches too. You can skim over some of them if you like to see how people are reporting on the performance of the gimbal for what you have planned for it if you wish. Additionally, although we have covered most of the information in this post already, we have our own Snoppa Atom review online too.
