Single Handle Gimbal: Pilot Fly H2 Review
THE PILOT FLY H2
I absolutely loved the Ronin-m and still use it on commercial shoots with my FS5 and Shogun. But after 10 days in South Africa, 14 days in rural Kenya, and multiple weddings the Pilot Fly is now my go to for documentary, weddings, and travel filmmaking.
PROS
SIZE This thing is incredibly small making it easy to pack and easier to fly over long periods of time.
BATTERY They boast 26 hours! I haven't put it to the test but we've used it multiple days during a shoot in South Africa without ever running out.
TRAVEL CASE It comes with a nice travel case with a really small footprint in your luggage and total weight.
HOLDING IT VERTICAL The nice thing about a single handle is the camera ends up being closer to eye level like a steady cam. With larger gimbals, the camera ends up being much lower requiring you to use a monitor to see anything.
MANEUVERABILITY Thanks to the light weight and shooting modes you can pull off movements that would be impossible for a steady came or traditional gimbal. For example, you can start with the camera on the ground (handle pointing down) then bring it all the way above your head handle pointing up.
SET IT DOWN WITHOUT A STAND Not so easy with a larger rig and really convenient if you need to through it in the back seat of your car.
CONS
BALANCING Because of its small size, balancing can be tricky and take over 5 min the first time. After a while, you get used to it and if you stick to the same camera/lens it only takes a few seconds.
RANDOM FREAK OUT Not sure why but it'll occasional just spin out of control. Just turn it off and on and your good to go. It's infrequent enough to not concern me.
OFF BALANCE HORIZON Pretty often the camera drifts off balance. Fortunately, it's continuously "reencoding". Which means all you need to do is grab the camera and hold it straight for 1 sec and now it's rebalanced.
MY KIT
The Pilot Fly can only handle mirrorless camera and lenses. I'm running this with an A7sII and an A6300 with the Sony 10-18mm. With a stabilized sensor and lens, shots come out amazingly smooth. Plus the continuous video autofocus is almost a requirement.
CONCLUSION
We've put it through its paces in several countries and situations and have come to love it more than any other rigging equipment.
Here is a 10 day trip to South Africa. We used the Sony RX10MII with a camera strap and the A7s w/Sony 10-18 on the Pilotfly H2. That was it for the whole trip. Not even a tripod.
