The media could not be loaded.
I'm glad I picked up the ZY Smooth 4 about a couple of months prior to my first commercial production with it, which was purely unintentional.
My local client, who's a speaker, who's also a very active person, felt uncomfortable/nervous sitting in front of a camera. To give her peace of mind, I suggested a walk on the river, while we talked and I would shoot the video on the gimbal. She loved the idea and settled on a date and early morning meetup at the river so we would have less foot traffic at that time.
Both of us preferred this "walk and talk" video style. For her, it was natural to do this as an active person, much like speaking to a girlfriend while out for a walk. For me, I knew this would get her blood flow moving, reduce nerves, and the natural morning light (vs afternoon harsh light) was good for the shoot.
Believe it or not, we shot 2 videos (one was a Welcome video, and the other was an About video), both only required 1 take each! LOL! We produced the first video walking the river one way, then turned back and shot the 2nd video going the other way 😁
Here's some insights on the Smooth 4:
- The ZY Smooth 4 build is impressive. Has weight in your hands, but not so heavy to strain your hands/arms on a longer shoot.
- The ZY company is consistently working on upgrades to the ZY App, which is good to see
- ZY does provide information in the booklet on setup and usage, however, I found most value in YT videos from other users showcasing functionality and use cases
- Key Tip: Balance your iPhone in the bracket BEFORE powering on the Smooth 4 unit.
- Recent News: Filmic Pro app now works well with the Smooth 4. Check out YT for how to use it with Smooth 4.
- Battery life is solid and long-lasting. Since my first charge of the Smooth 4 unit, the battery has held strong. In fact, my iPhone battery dies much faster, naturally due to shooting video. If you can, get the lightning cable to connect your iPhone to the Smooth 4, so you can keep your iPhone charged while shooting video.
- I appreciate the screw on tripod legs that come with the Smooth 4, for laying on a flat surface. I'm about to get an Insta360 ONE panoramic camera, and I can envision sitting my iPhone in the Smooth 4 phone bracket, and setting the Smooth 4 on a taller tripod, so I can shoot the 360 away and out of sight. This way, I have both my Pano camera, and my ZY for video shooting if the client calls for that added service.
Here's some insights on the videoshoot with the Smooth 4:
- Until I started playing with the Smooth 4 video quality settings, I didn't clue in that my iPhone 6S could shoot in 4K.
- Tried shooting in 4K, but its a storage hog. Will shoot 1080p next time.
- The video footage will store in the ZY app, and you'll need to then transfer it from ZY app to your iPhone's media library. As such, I highly recommend dumping as much "stuff" off your iPhone prior to the shoot for more storage room.
- In shooting with 4K, I only had room for 2-3 videos before I ran out of room and phone battery. Hence no B-roll in the above videos.
- Had troubles exporting from ZY app library to iPhone Photo Library due to space shortage. After dumping more media and apps, I could transfer 1 x 4K video, import to Macbook Air, delete it off ZY & Photo Library, then transfer/import the next 4K video. May also try shooting 1080p next time. Or a bigger capacity iPhone. 😜
- Highly recommend you get the lightning charge cable to continually charge your iPhone while shooting.
- Bring along your laptop or external drive to dump footage off your iPhone, so you can continue shooting more footage. Unless you only care about a short shooting window.
- My Zoom audio with Sennheisser wireless lav was unusable due to fabric shifting sounds from walking. So what you hear is my iPhone audio, not too shabby.
Hope this helps you in your decision whether to grab your own unit of the Smooth 4 :-)
