The Best Gimbal For Nikon D7000 Cameras!

Today we are going to be going over what we feel is the best gimbal for Nikon d7000 cameras currently available on the market. With the d7000 being a pretty beefy DSLR camera with its camera body alone coming in at around 1.73 pounds we see a fair amount of debate regarding what gimbal you should consider purchasing for the camera. This is to be expected as we always see people curious about the best path to take when it comes to the larger and heavier camera bodies as older gimbals can have issues with them.

Thankfully, we have selected three gimbals to feature in this article that all have their own niche for use with the Nikon d7000. Our hope is that we will be able to assist any of our readers are looking to add a gimbal stabilizer to their collection of d7000 camera accessories and remove the need to worry about being stuck with a gimbal that struggles to support your camera payload weight.

As we have had some positive feedback about the use of comparison tables in our large posts like this one, we have decided to stick to the same format as our last few posts. As we know many of our readers are short on time, we have the comparison table and a very short breakdown below that go over the main features of the three recommended gimbals. Below that, for anyone who has the time spare, we have a deep dive of all three of the featured gimbals going into why we feel they are a good choice for your Nikon d7000.

Comparison Table

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

As you can see from the data above, just like with most other DSLR cameras on the market, we feel that the DJI Ronin S is the best overall gimbal for Nikon d7000 by a fair margin. It is able to be used in a large number of situations and its load capacity can easily support the weight of your d7000, even if you mount a number of heavy camera accessories to it. The Ronin S has pretty much been king of the DSLR gimbals ever since it was released onto the market and it shows no signs of shifting any time soon.

Next up, we have the ultimate heavy lifting gimbal at the time of writing, the Zhiyun Crane 3 that has one of the largest load capacities of all handheld gimbals ever released at the time of writing. As your Nikon d7000 is a pretty heavy camera, if you intend to use a battery grip and/or a camera cage in addition to the more traditional videography accessories like a camera lens, external microphone, and video light, you may need the higher payload capacity of the Crane 3.

That said though, we would imagine that the vast majority of our readers would be fine using the DJI Ronin S as it has a great load capacity that should easily handle the majority of camera rigs anyway. The large price tag of the Crane 3 means that it should only be considered if you know for a fact that you will need its higher load capacity.

The final product and sort of our budget gimbal for Nikon d7000 cameras is the Moza Air 3. It really is a great bit of kit that can work well with the d7000 and if you are on a tight budget then it can be a great option. That said though, the lower price also means a lower level of performance and the image quality between using the Air 3 and the Ronin S is definatley noticeable at a professional level. If you have paying clients or are looking to get involved in professional-level videography then we would always recommend the Ronin S with its better level of performance.

The DJI Ronin S

Moving onto the deep dives of each of our featured gimbals for your Nikon d7000 and starting off with our primary recommendation, the DJI Ronin S. As we mentioned above, the Ronin S has pretty much been the undisputed king of the DSLR gimbal range since it was initially released. Its excellent performance, great design, solid build quality, and ease of use have earned it a well deserved reputation within the community and we doubt this will change any time soon.

The reputation of the Ronin S should be enough to give you confidence in the gimbal that it will serve your Nikon d7000 well and last you for many years to come without issue. The gimbal also has a great track record for supporting heavier DSLR cameras too so even though your d7000 is heavy, the Ronin S also helps to future proof yourself for any future heavier DSLR cameras that you may add to your collection too.

Performance And Functionality

The Ronin S comes with a maximum supported load capacity of 7.94 pounds leaving you with around 6.21 pounds of free load capacity to mount all of your camera accessories once you factor in the 1.73-pound weight of your d7000 camera body. For the vast majority of our readers, we would imagine that this is plenty and that you will be able to go about your videography sessions with your regular d7000 setup with having any problems of coming close to excessing the load capacity of the gimbal.

The Ronin S also has a pretty solid battery life and although the officially listed maximum battery life of the gimbal is twelve hours, you do have to factor in the amount of payload weight that your camera rig will be taking up. With a heavier camera like the d7000, we would imagine that most of the setups that you would be using will probably get you between eight and ten hours of battery life with each full charge of the gimbal.

This should be plenty for the majority of people but if you do want to charge your Ronin S while out and about, there are a few USB power banks that are powerful enough to charge the gimbal. When you do get to a regular wall power outlet, the Ronin S can be charged back to full from being totally empty in around two hours letting you get back out recording quickly if needed.

We always like to share some cinematic footage of all of the gimbals that we recommend to our readers and the video above does a great job of showing exactly what the DJI Ronin S can provide you. The smooth video footage that the clips show was recorded using the Ronin S and we feel it shows off exactly what the 3 axis gimbal stabilizer is able to offer you for your videography.

With this being the dominant handheld gimbal for DSLR cameras, you probably have a good idea of how well the various gimbal modes on the Ronin S perform. The object tracking feature is excellent and can make your job much easier depending on what you are trying to get done with the gimbal. Also, the manual mode ensures that you are able to capture some natural-looking panning footage with the gimbal that competing stabilizers may struggle to capture with their footage looking a little mechanical compared to what the Ronin S can provide for you.

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User Interface And Control System

DJI are pretty much the masters of creating control systems for their gimbals that are both highly functional while also being extremely easy to use for anyone who is new to using a gimbal as well as offering the level of control that a professional level videographer will need from their gimbal. This best of both worlds system has served DJI very well over the years as the system allows you to get everything you need out of it no matter your requirements.

The DJI Smartphone App

DJI seem to view their smartphone app as an extension of the main control system of their gimbal range rather than a free gimbal accessory that they provide. In our opinion, it is the best gimbal app available right now and allows you to do a whole bunch of stuff with your DJI gimbal that other apps struggle to compete with.

Additionally, the app is much easier to pair with your gimbal than the apps of other brands and once it has paired up, the tends not to be any sync issues the to app randomly dropping connectivity to the gimbal either. The actual navigation menu on the app is also clean and easy to use making it a great little accessory, especially considering that it is free.

Build Quality And Design

Now, one thing that we always see when it comes to the Ronin S is that people comment on it size and although it is quite large, it is surprisingly lightweight for its size. Our regular readers will know that we love our lightweight gimbals as it makes your life as a videographer so much easier if you are on a long session with a light gimbal. You can hold your camera rig for longer periods of time without getting cramp or aches. Additionally, the grip on the handle of the Ronin S is very comfortable to hold too.

Our Verdict

We have no doubt in our mind that the DJI Ronin S will be an excellent gimbal for your Nikon d7000 and be able to provide all of the image stabilization that you could need with an average setup. The higher load capacity also ensures that you are able to use some heavy d7000 rigs with the gimbal without issue too. All in all, a highly recommended gimbal that we feel will make an excellent addition to your camera accessories.

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The Zhiyun Crane 3

Next up, we are going to be going over what we consider to be out heavy lifing recommendation for use with a Nikon d7000, the Zhiyun Crane 3. As we mentioned at the start of the article, the Crane 3 has a massive load capacity and can easily support the haviest d7000 setups but in exchance for this, it also has a massive price tag. That is why we specifically recommend this to people who know for a fact that the DJI Ronin S load capacity will not be enough for them.

For example, in addition to the regular camera accessories like your lens, a video light, and an external microphone, some people may want to use a battery grip and a camera cage too that can really hike the payload of your rig up. This is where the Crane 3 comes in and where it shines. Since its release onto the market, the Crane 3 has managed to earn itself a well deserved reputation within the community due to its excellent performance, reliability, and build quality.

Performance And Functionality

Now, when push comes to shove, the Crane 3 is able to support a maximum load capacity of around 10.14 pounds without issue. This leaves you with a massive 8.41 pounds of payload capacity free to play with when you account for your 1.73-pound camera body. This free payload is actually more than the total load capacity of the other two featured gimbals on our list and off the top of our head we are unable to think of any d7000 setup that would be able to use it all.

During use, the Crane 3 is able to provide you with around seven and a half hours of battery life and although this is the shortest battery life of all three featured gimbals, we would imagine that it should be enough to capture all the footage that you need to when working. Although the Crane 3 3 axis gimbal stabilizer does have Zhiyun quick charge technology, it can still take around three hours to recharge only seven and a half hours of battery life.

Now, as you would expect from a handheld gimbal from the Zhiyun range, the Crane 3 can provide some excellent image stabilization for your camera and the video above does a great job of showing off exactly what you can expect from the Crane 3. The footage is as smooth as ever and in our opinion, this really does help to increase the overall image quality of the video and help ensure that the user is able to capture that professional level feel for their footage.

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User Interface And Control System

Due to the new design of the Crane 3, Zhiyun has actually tried a new control system compared to what they have gone within pretty much every other Zhiyun Crane gimbal that they have released over the years. Although this is a little harder to use initially in our opinion, once you are used to it, the control system on the Crane 3 does allow you to get a whole bunch of stuff done with minimal effort required.

Now, that said, we would NOT recommend the Crane 3 for your Nikon d7000 if you are brand new to using gimbals. If you have no prior experience using a handheld gimbal, the control system can be a little confusing and you have to operate it with both of your hands with one hand on each gimbal handle to get the best performance.

Smartphone App

Apparently, the Zhiyun smartphone app reword is just around the corner and it is supposed to be going to fix the connectivity issues that the app currently suggest from. We really hope that this is true as the Zhiyun app is in a sorry state at the time of writing so let’s hope that by the time you read this, it has been reworked and is in a better position.

In addition to fixing the connectivity issues with the smartphone app, we think that Zhiyun should also try to make it a little more user-friendly and ensure that the navigation menus are easier to understand. This could help push it up to the level of the DJI app and make it an actual asset for your gimbal that is worth downloading.

Build Quality And Design

As we mentioned, the Crane 3 has a totally new design to what Zhiyun have gone with for their previous gimbals and in all honesty, we are big fans of it. We hope that they keep their traditional design for their lighter load capacity gimbals but for their heavy lifting unit, the two-handed support approach is perfect and really makes the difference in our opinion.

Being able to comfortably hold the Crane 3 with each hand allows you to split the weight of the rig across your body during use. As the gimbal has been designed for use with super heavy camera setups, this can really make the difference when recording for long periods of time as spreading the weight of your rig makes your job so much easier.

Our Verdict

Like we said, the Crane 3 can make a great addition to your d7000 camera accessories and will definatley help tp improve the image quality that you can capture when recording. That said, the price tag is based around its load capacity and although the Nikon d7000 is a heavy DSLR, we feel that you can save money by going with the DJI Ronin S that will provide you with the same level of image stabilization just with a lower load capacity that you are unlikely to exceed anyway.

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The Moza Air 3

The final gimbal that we will be covering in our article for Nikon d7000 gimbals is the Moza Air 3 that is essentially our more budget friendly gimbal recommendation for your d7000. It is very similar to the DJI Ronin S with a lower price tag, less features as well as a lower level of performance.

That said, the Air 3 still has to provide you with some solid image stabilization if you are a student videographer or an entry-level videographer but we would recommend that you just save a little while longer for the DJI Ronin S. We see no reason to really purchase the Air 3 unless you never plan to do paid work or if you are a vlogger as you will eventually have to upgrade to the Ronin S anyway to ensure that the video footage that you produce is competitive.

Due to this, we will just be quickly skimming over the Moza Air 3 as it is not our primary d7000 gimbal recommendation and we want to try save our readers time. There are plenty of independent reviews of the Air 3 online from the community that you can read if you want a more detailed look.

Performance And Functionality

The Moza Air 3 can support a 7.1 pound maximum load capacity and although your d7000 is a pretty heavy DSLR camera, we are confident that the Air 3 should be able to support the majority of camera setups that the average user will be using. Additionally, the Air 3 also offers users around twelve hours of battery life per full charge of the gimbals battery and we feel that this should be enough for most people.

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User Interface And Control System

Moza decided to totally overhaul the control system on the Air 3 from what they had previously used on the Air 2. Although we can see why they did it, we do feel that it is a shame as we were big fans of the control system on the Air 2 the joystick gave you the confidence that your movements were being inputted to the gimbal correctly. All three of the gimbals featured in this article have the smaller, more modern joysticks that most people seem to prefer but sometimes you can press them and you are not sure if your command is being processed or not.

Anyway, the Moza Air 3 has a solid control system that is easy to use and easy to learn. It gets the job done and ensures that you are able to quickly and easily control your gimbal as required during use.

Smartphone App

At the time of writing, we feel that Moza are the only other gimbal brand who actually put time and effort into their smartphone app to ensure that it is actually useful and reliable to their users. Although the DJI one is much better than this Moza app, we feel that the Moza app is better than the one offered by Zhiyun, Feiyutech or Hohem by a long shot.

Build Quality And Design

The Air 3 is based around the standard 3 axis gimbal stabilizer design just like the other two gimbals featured above. That said though, the Air 3 does slightly lack the more professional feel as the other two gimbals but this is to be expected from a more budget-friendly option as Moza have to reduce their costs somewhere.

The Air 3 is still robust, lightweight, and comfortable to use ensuring that you are able to comfortably hold it during use without issue. The design of the Air 3 also provides you d7000 with a full range of motion just like the two higher price point gimbals above. With the cheaper DSLR gimbal products on this market, this can sometimes be an issue, especially when you use a longer lens but thankfully, this is not a problem with the Air 3.

Our Verdict

Well, like we said, if you can afford the DJI Ronin S we would recommend that you take it over the Moza Air 3 if possible. That said, if you are on a strict budget, a vlogger, or not planning to do professional paid videography work the Moza Air 3 can be a great addition to your Nikon d7000 camera accessories.

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