Welcome to our article where we will be going over what we feel is the best gimbal for Canon G5X cameras on the market right now. We have seen a steady number of G5X owners reaching out each month asking about gimbals and image stabilization for their camera so we decided to publish this article.
We are hoping that our article will help any of our readers who have the G5X and are looking to pick up a gimbal. Although there are an absolute ton of gimbals on the market these days, we have to recommend the tried and trusted Zhiyun Crane V2 (Click here to check for product prices and availability) to our Canon G5X as their gimbal of choice.
It offers some excellent performance, has a great build quality, has an easy user interface system, a very fair price tag for what you are getting while also having earned one of the best reputations when it comes to gimbals amongst the community. In addition to all this, the Zhiyun Crane V2 supports a maximum upper load capacity of 3.96 pounds while the Canon G5X camera body only comes in at 0.83 pounds.
This means that there is plenty of spare payload capacity left over for the Zhiyun Crane V2 to support any camera accessories like a lens in addition to your Canon G5X to help improve the image quality it can provide you. The spare 3.13 pounds can support a full range of accessories and meet pretty much any camera rig combo you can dream up for your G5X.
Click Here To Check For The Latest Prices On The Zhiyun Crane V2 Gimbal!
User Interface And Control System
The control system on the Zhiyun Crane V2 is extremely easy to use and we are confident that even the most untechnical of our readers will be able to use it without issue. If this is going to be your first gimbal this works in your favor but even if you are an experienced videographer the ease of use and speed of setting the gimbal up definatley works in your favor.
The image above at the start of this section of the article shows the main handle of the Zhiyun Crane V2 that houses all of the control buttons. the positioning of the buttons allows you to quickly and easily tweak the performance of the gimbal as required within seconds. Additionally, all it takes to press a button is the press of your thumb allowing you to use the rest of your hand to support the weight of the gimbal with your Canon G5X mounted on it and ensure everything remains in the frame.
The photograph above shows the Zhiyun smartphone app that allows you to wirelessly control your gimbal from a distance too. Now, depending on what videography niche you are working in, this may be totally pointless to you but on the flipside, it could end up being something that you use multiple times a week. A number of people have posted on various photography or videography forums commenting on how they underestimated how useful the app would be.
One of our favorite things about the full Zhiyun gimbal range is that they have actually licensed the Manfrotto quick release plate design. This means that once you are set up and recording, you can literally unmount your Canon G5X from the gimbal at the press of a button and then mount it on a tripod that also uses the Manfrotto quick release plate design. Again though, this is something that may be useful or totally useless depending on the niche that you are working in.
Click Here To Check For The Latest Prices On The Zhiyun Crane V2 Gimbal!
Performance And Functionality
One of the main reasons that we feel that the Zhiyun Crane V2 has been so successful and managed to build the reputation that it has amongst the community is the excellent performance that it provides. In our opinion, the Zhiyun Crane V2 was ahead of its time back when it was initially released and this is allowing it to still compete with the modern gimbals while coming with a much lower price tag.
As we touched on earlier in the article, the gimbal has a load capacity of 3.96 pounds giving you plenty of payload to play with. As your Canon G5X only comes in at 0.83 pounds you can pretty much mount anything you like to your camera body and then mount it to your gimbal without issue.
Due to the Canon G5X being such a light camera, we feel it will also work to our advantage when it comes to the battery life of the gimbal too. Although the Zhiyun Crane V2 is listed as having a 12 hour battery life per set of fully charged batteries, this a guideline and is derived from expecting much heavier DSLR rigs with heavy lenses too. With a lighter rig, less power is required meaning that your battery can last longer.
Although it is commonplace these days, the Zhiyun Crane V2 was also one of the first handheld gimbals to prioritize the comfort of the user when holding the gimbal. The handle is very easy to grip and the 3-axis gimbal design also helps to offset the weight of your camera rig allowing you to hold the gimbal with your Canon G5X mounted on it for long periods of time without your hand cramping up.
The gimbals motors have been designed and encoded to be able to detect so much as a 0.02-degree change in movement and then accurately adjust for this to keep your Canon G5X levels. As you can imagine with a sensitivity down to 0.02 degrees, the Zhiyun Crane V2 provides some excellent image stabilization when in use.
The gimbal motors on the Zhiyun Crane V2 are also very quiet even when being used to balance your Zhiyun Crane V2 with a bunch of accessories on it taking up most of its payload. This works into your favor, especially if you are using the onboard mic on your camera as your primary audio source as the gimbals motors will not contaminate your audio track when adjusting as some competing gimbals can.
The final point that we want to make for the Zhiyun Crane V2 when it comes to its performance is that its 3-axis gimbal design ensures that it can always provide you with full 360 degree rotation no matter how you are holding the gimbal. The usefulness of this will depend more on what type of videography niche you are working on and some people may never need it whereas others may use it every time they use the gimbal so we just wanted to make our readers aware that the Zhiyun Crane V2 supports it.
Click Here To Check For The Latest Prices On The Zhiyun Crane V2 Gimbal!
Build Quality And Design
As you would expect coming from Zhiyun, the Crane V2 has an excellent build quality and is really built to last. The robust nature of the gimbal ensures that it can take a bunch of knocks without them having any effect on its performance ensuring it always provides excellent image stabilization for your Zhiyun Crane V2.
The design of the gimbal is also excellent too and you are able to quickly and easily de-build the gimbal for regular maintenance and cleaning if you choose. The initial balancing system on the gimbal has also been designed really well too and in our opinion, it outperforms the systems that some of the more modern gimbals use too.
You can literally take the Zhiyun Crane V2 out of its case, mount your Canon G5X to it, start its initial balancing system and be ready to go in around thirty seconds without having to waste your time faffing around. Although you would think that a balancing process as quick and easy as this would be commonplace in this day and age, it is not and some brands still require you to manually adjust parts of the gimbal for the initial balancing procedure.
Click Here To Check For The Latest Prices On The Zhiyun Crane V2 Gimbal!
FAQs
Question – Are additional sets of batteries available for the Zhiyun Crane V2 gimbal?
Answer – Yes, many local photography stores will carry spare batteries for the system but you can also order them on the official Zhiyun website as well as sites like Amazon.
Question – It the mini tripod attachment included with the Zhiyun Crane V2?
Answer – Yes.
Question – Can I use the Zhiyun Crane V2 with other cameras if I upgrade from my Canon G5X?
Answer – Yes, the Zhiyun Crane V2 is without a doubt one of the most popular gimbal systems on the market at the time of writing and is used with almost any camera rig you can think of. Just keep in mind that the gimbal does have a load capacity of just under Four pounds so your rig has to come in under that weight.
Third Party Reports
You are also able to click here if you want to read some additional reviews of the gimbal from people who either currently are or recently have used the Zhiyun Crane V2 as their primary gimbal for their image stabilization needs.
Our Verdict
That brings our article on why we feel that the Zhiyun Crane V2 is the best gimbal for Canon G5X cameras on the market to a close. It really is an excellent little handheld gimbal that provides some of the best image stabilization available for its price point and it can easily support the weight of your G5X. In our opinion, it will make an excellent addition to anyone’s camera accessories who is looking to get involved in videography and is planning on needing a gimbal.
Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!