The Best Gimbal For Canon 7D Cameras!

Each month we are seeing more and more Canon 7d owners reaching out on social media asking for advice on what gimbal they should be using for their camera rig. Due to seeing some terrible answers with some people even suggesting gimbals that don’t have load capacity to even support the weight of even the most basic 7d rig we have decided to publish this article going over what we feel is the best gimbal for Canon 7d cameras.

Now, the Canon 7d is a very heavy bit of kit that is one of the heavier DSLR cameras on the market right now and its camera body alone comes in at around 2.08 pounds of payload weight. In addition to this, we would also imagine that the majority of our readers who own a 7d are also mounting some pretty heavy camera accessories to their camera during use too.

Due to this, we have selected three different gimbal stabilizers to feature in our article. We have our general-purpose gimbal, our heavy lifting gimbal, and our budget-friendly gimbal that we have compared to each other in our comparison table below. Additionally, just below the comparison table, we have a very short breakdown of each gimbal for our readers who are short on time then below that, we have a deep dive for each gimbal where we go into as much detail as possible.

Comparison Table

Last update on 2022-05-29 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Now, we have made no secret of the fact that we feel that the DJI Ronin S is the best DSLR camera gimbal currently available on the market right now and it is an excellent gimbal that will make a great addition to your collection of camera accessories. It has the load capacity to support the vast majority of Canon 7d rigs while also ensuring that it has the battery life available to ensure you can capture all the video footage you require.

Our recommendation for a heavy lifting gimbal for your Canon 7d is the Zhiyun Crane 3 but take note, we would only recommend that you spend the additional money on the Crane 3 if you know for a fact that you need the additional load capacity that the gimbal is able to provide for you. When it comes to performance, the DJI Ronin S offers almost identical image stabilization while also having a much better battery life and a lower price tag.

Our final recommendation and our budget gimbal for Canon 7d cameras is the Moza Air 3 and although the Air 3 is a solid little gimbal, we doubt there are many hobbyist videographers or vloggers using the 7d so we would recommend either of the gimbals above for any intermediate or professional level videographer who is doing paid client work.

The DJI Ronin S

 

Kicking off our gimbal deep dives, we will be starting with our primary gimbal recommendation for the Canon 7d, the DJI Ronin S that has one of the best reputations within the videography community due to its excellent performance, easy of use, and great build quality. It has been the dominant DSLR gimbal since its initial release onto the market and there are no signs of any competing gimbal being able to knock it off the top spot anytime soon.

Additionally, the great load capacity of the Ronin S ensures that it is easily able to support the vast majority of Canon 7d setups that most videographers are using at the time of writing while also having plenty of load capacity spare. All in all, DJI have done a great job of producing one of the best gimbals going and it is really hard to find any weak points with the Ronin S.

Performance And Functionality

The gimbal is able to support a load capacity up to 7.94 pounds and with your Canon 7d taking up around 2.09 pounds of this, you have around 5.85 pounds of free load capacity remaining for your camera accessories. This ensures that you are able to use some of the heavier lenses on the market along with things like battery grips or camera cages with your 7d when recording and not have to worry about overloading the handheld gimbal.

As we mentioned above, the Ronin S also has a great maximum battery life with the gimbal being able to provide you with around twelve hours with each full charge of its batteries. That said, just like with every other gimbal on the market, the available battery life of the gimbal is going to depend on how much load capacity you are using up. Although the 7d is a heavy DSLR, we would still expect between ten and twelve hours of battery life per charge without issue.

Once your DJI has ran out of battery, the DJI quick recharge system allows you to charge it back to full in around two hours when using a regular wall socket ensuring that you can get back out and record more footage as quickly as possible if needed. Although it can be hit and miss, there are also a few power banks that you are able to us to recharge your Ronin S while you are away from a power outlet. If you do intend to do this though, we would recommend that you try to ensure that you always use a power bank that has been primarily designed for use with laptops so it has the higher capacity to charge gimbal batteries.

The cinematic video clips in the embedded video above are some of our favorites that have been captured using the DJI Ronin S and shows you exactly what you are able to expect from the gimbal. Now, the video was actually recorded using the Sony A7II rather than the Canon 7d but the Sony A7II is a very heavy mirrorless camera so we feel that the video offers some great sample footage of higher load capacity cameras and what the gimbal provides.

As you can see, the 3 axis gimbal performs flawlessly and effortlessly stabilizes heavy camera payload to get the user the absolute best image quality possible for the clips. The Ronin S also has all of the modern gimbal modes as standard to helping you avoid that old school robotic gimbal footage feel and get a more natural feel to your clips with ease.

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User Interface And Control System

Now, although many electronic motorized gimbal stabilizers use a very similar system to the one that DJI and Zhiyun have worked to perfect over the years, we still think that DJI leads the way when it comes to their control interface for their gimbals. They have developed this very simple to use system that is as easy to use as possible to ensure that anyone purchasing their very first gimbal is able to quickly and easily get used to it and get the most out of the product.

On the flip side of this, especially when accompanied by the smartphone app, the system also offers any professional level videographer everything that they could ever need out of the gimbal. This ensures that no matter what, as a professional videographer, you should be able to tweak the required settings or use the required preprogrammed gimbal mode to get exactly what you need out of the Ronin S.

The DJI Smartphone App

Bringing us nicely onto the official DJI smartphone app, it is no secret that some competing brands have had total nightmares when it comes to their smartphone apps over the years but DJI is one of the only brands who have remained consistent and had a great app from the very start. At the time of writing, the app is without a doubt the best gimbal app on the market and it makes your life much easier allowing you to quickly and easily tweak settings to meet the needs of your videography session.

Additionally, if you are brand new to using a gimbal, the DJI app is probably the most user-friendly gimbal app out there right now too. The sync process is very straight forward and the actual navigation menu on the app is easy to follow and quick to learn. All in all, a really great smartphone app and other brands in the space could take a page out of DJIs book and get their apps in order.

Build Quality And Design

If you have been involved in either the drone or gimbal space for more than a few months, you will probably know that DJI has one of the best reputations out there when it comes to their design and build quality for their products. The Ronin S is no different and it has one of the best designs going right now.

Although the gimbal is pretty big, its weight is not over the top when you factor in the maximum load capacity and battery life that the Ronin S is able to support for you. Additionally, the gimbal can be de-built into two different main parts to make it easier and more compact to pack for traveling. The materials used are also tough ensuring that the gimbal can take bumps or knocks when in transit or during use without you having to worry.

Our Verdict

We really do feel that the DJI Ronin S is the best gimbal for Canon 7d cameras on the market right now and it also has a bunch of independent reviews that you can read for additional insight into its performance too. It offers some of the best image stabilization for a DSLR camera out there and we have no doubt it can help to improve the image quality of your videos. All in all, the Ronin S can make a great addition to your collection of camera accessories.

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The Zhiyun Crane 3

Next up is the Zhiyun Crane 3 that has one of the highest maximum load capacities of all handheld gimbals on the market at the time of writing. That said though, it also has the massive price tag to match the load capacity too so unless you know for a fact that the DJI Ronin S will not be able to support the weight of your Canon 7d setup then we would recommend that you take the Ronin S over the Crane 3 and just save yourself the money as performance is almost identical.

That said though, if you do use something like a camera cage on your Canon 7d with a battery grip, a heavy lens, a large external microphone, and a heavy video lighting unit and need the large load capacity, the Crane 3 is definatley the gimbal for you. Although there are a few other gimbals that say they are able to support over ten pounds of load capacity on the market, they don’t even come close to the performance of the Crane 3.

Additionally, since its release onto the market a while back, more and more people have been purchasing the Crane 3 for their super heavy DSLR camera setups and it is building a great reputation within the community that just keeps increasing month to month and shows no sign of slowing down.

Performance And Functionality

As we said, the Crane 3 can support a maximum load capacity of 10.14 pounds while providing its excellent levels of image stabilization. Now, although Zhiyun recommends that you try to keep your Canon 7d payload weight at around the nine and a half pounds mark for optimal performance, we have seen the Crane 3 perform very well all the way up to the ten pounds of payload weight mark.

This ensures that no matter what you choose to mount on your Canon 7d, the Zhiyun Crane 3 should easily be able to support your payload weight and ensure that you are able to capture the best image quality possible. This can help keep your client’s happy no matter what they ask you to capture for them and ensures that you are always building on your reputation as a videographer too.

Now, other than the high price tag that is pretty much unavoidable due to the tech and gimbal motors required for such a high payload, the main downside of the Crane 3 is its battery life. It only offers a maximum battery life of seven and a half hours and this is around half of what we would expect from a modern gimbal stabilizer, especially at this price point.

That said, seven and a half hours could be plenty for you and your needs and you are also able to recharge the gimbal back to full in around four hours from a regular power outlet. Additionally, you can also charge the gimbal via a high capacity power bank to top it up on the go while out and about too.

The video clips above show exactly what the Zhiyun Crane 3 is able to provide for professional-level videography sessions and as you can see, its image stabilization is excellent and the footage is very clean and smooth. On top of this, the 3 axis gimbal design ensures that your Canon 7d has a full range of movement during use and can capture everything you need it to.

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User Interface And Control System

The Zhiyun Crane 3 actually breaks with tradition and has a totally new design that is based around using two gimbal handles rather than one. To maximize efficiency, Zhiyun has chosen to split the main control interface between the two handles with the main interface shown in the image above being on the gimbals top handle.

The top handle control system in the image offers all the customization for the gimbal that you could ever need during use and allows you to quickly and easily tweak it to meet the needs of your client and capture exactly what they want. The system on the bottom handle is based around the basic joystick controller to allow you to control the gimbal head when in manual mode.

Smartphone App

Until recently, the Zhiyun app was a waste of time and had so many problems that you would struggle just to get it to pair with your gimbal. Thankfully, due to developing the intelligent object tracking system for their latest gimbals, they totally overhauled their smartphone app and have fixed the majority of the problems that it used to have.

It is a decent gimbal accessory now that can provide you with some quick and easy wireless remote control functionality as well as let you tweak the settings on your gimbal quickly as required. That said though, the interface can be a little confusing but the app is in a much better state than it was a few months ago.

Build Quality And Design

As we mentioned, the Crane 3 uses a totally new two-handed design that we feel is excellent for gimbals designed for heavy DSLR camera setups. In all honesty, we feel that the completing gimbal brands will probably move over to this type of system in the near future for their next-generation gimbals with over nine pounds of load capacity.

The design allows you to support the weight of the Crane 3 with your Canon 7d rig mounted on it across your body and between both arms to keep heavy setups as comfortable as possible. If you are on a long videography job where you are rigged up and recording for hours at a time this is a great help and stops those aches and pains that you can often get.

The build quality of the Crane 3 is outstanding as it has all of the latest tech and alloys to keep its weight as low as possible while ensuring that it is robust. Now, keep in mind, we said keep its weight as low as possible, this is not a lightweight gimbal by any means but it could have been a fair bit heavier so we are happy with what Zhiyun produced.

Our Verdict

There is no doubt in our mind that the Zhiyun Crane 3 would make a great addition to your camera accessories and help improve the image quality that you can capture with your Canon 7d. There are a fair few independent reviews online that share some third-party insights into the gimbals performance and they offer some great infomation on the gimbal.

That said though, the DJI Ronin S offers a very similar level of image stabilization and is almost half the price of the Crane 3. If the Ronin S is able to support the weight of your camera rig then we would recommend that you take the Ronin S and put the saved cash towards other camera accessories.

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The Moza Air 3

 

The final recommendation is our budget gimbal for Canon 7d cameras, the Moza Air 3. Now, in our opinion, we doubt that many of our readers who own the Canon 7d will opt for this gimbal due to there being a high chance that that Canon 7d owners are professional level with paying clients. That said, we know many of our readers are vloggers and this can be a great gimbal for vlogging but if you are a professional level videographer with clients paying you for your services then the DJI Ronin S is the gimbal for you.

That said, if you are a hobbyist videographer and you just capture footage for free then the Air 3 is a pretty solid bit of kit. It has earned itself a sound reputation within the community and is steadily growing in popularity as the months go by. Now, due to the fact that we doubt many of our readers will be choosing the Air 3, we will just be breezing over the gimbal to save our readers time.

Performance And Functionality

Considering the price tag of the Air 3, it has a pretty respectable maximum load capacity being able to support camera payloads of up to 7.1 pounds although it is not recommended that you exceed 5.68 pounds to get the best image stabilization possible out of the gimbal. Now, if you are wanting the best performance possible, the 5.68-pound load capacity is not very much when you factor in the 2.08-pound camera bodyweight of your Canon 7d.

The battery life on the Air 3 is great for the price point of the gimbal and offers you up to twelve hours of power with each charge and the Air 3 does a pretty solid job of getting you to around the twelve-hour mark no matter what payload you mount to it too. The gimbal can also be charged from totally empty to full in around four hours too.

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User Interface And Control System

The control system on the Moza Air 3 is very similar to the one used on the DJI Ronin S covered first in our article. Although it gets the job done, we preferred the control interface on the Moza Air 2 as we preferred its joystick controller more than the one on the Air 3. That said though, we have seen a number of people say the exact opposite saying that they prefer the Air 3 over the Air 2 so it just comes down to personal preference.

Smartphone App

One of the strong points of the Moza gimbal range is that their smartphone app is great and works perfectly. Although we feel the DJI app is better with a better interface and increased customization, the Moza app definatley comes in at second place with all other gimbal apps being a fair bit behind. The app is a great free gimbal accessory that lets you easily change key gimbal settings on the fly to get what you need out of it without having to waste time doing it manually on the actual gimbal.

Build Quality And Design

The design of the Moza 3 is the same basic concept that the vast majority of 3 axis handheld gimbals use these days but it has been implemented very well and the gimbal offers even larger cameras a full range of movement when mounted. The build quality of the gimbal is also great although it is heavy so if you are planning on maxing out the load capacity, it could be a pain to hold the rig for long periods without having a break.

Our Verdict

There are a bunch of third party reviews online for the Moza Air 3 that go into more detail if you are interested in picking this gimbal up and adding it to your Canon 7d camera accessories. As we mentioned though, the DJI Ronin S is the better option in our opinion and offers better performance that can result in a better overall image quality to help keep your clients happy.

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