Handheld gimbals are not new anymore, and the release of the DJI Osmo moves the handheld gimbal into the next generation. Ever since we grabbed our small phantom drone, turned it on, and held on to it, moving around the location to get that “steadicam” effect, it was clear a new market (or call it a new tool for the videographer) was opening up. Several years ago, we here at SFilms in Dallas purchased a relatively cheap powered gimbal (sold by a US distributor, but clearly made in China). It required a GoPro, but we used the device constantly in our corporate videos. It was taken on road tours for a corporate retail client of ours, for internal communications, and we used it on construction sites and other places as well. And it fell apart. We had to take screws…
I use DJI products. About 7 or 8 years ago, they saw the future and jumped. Now they’re the Coca-cola of the consumer drone world. Congrats. So why am I hating on DJI? It all started with an Octo. This particular octocopter was a custom-build. Of course 3-4 years and further back, everything big like that was a custom build. For the custom builders, the best “brain” for running these builds, was the wookong, made by DJI. This was the technology that told the drone what to do. You inputted a command in the controller, it was received by the wookong and orders went out from it to the motors. One beautiful twilight evening at a park in North Carolina, I was flying this octo with a $4,000 camera/lens on it. I had just finished the run and was bringing…