I bought a hand-held steadicam for a DSLR camera a few years ago. Considering it was manually operated, expensive, took quite some time to set up and balance, was heavy and, for me at least, was tricky to use, I eventually decided it had to go - which left me 'unstabilised' for several years.
These days one great solution is to use a motorised gimbal - an electrically-powered device designed to reduce and even remove, camera movement. To start with these were quite expensive but, after a couple of years development, you can now pick one up for less than $200. Plus, you can get gimbals for almost any kind of video device - from smartphones, action cameras, even for heavier DSLR cameras.
I eventually bit the proverbial bullet and bought a FeiyuTech G5 - a model designed for a range of action cameras including the Hero 3/5/6. I paid around $250 for this electronic marvel, which ironically is 60% less than what I paid for the (expensive) heavy hand-held version I sold on Gumtree several years ago.
The G5 is compact, lightweight (270g), easy to hold, and works like a dream. Its three tiny brushless motors provide complete stability in all directions so it can be held vertically, sideways or upside down for low angle shots, with absolute stability. It runs relatively silently - although you do have to take care that the camera is not actually touching the body as this picks up a bit of noise form the motors. Some critics say that fixing the camera onto the gimbal is also a bit of a hassle - it is simply because it's designed to take a range of different cameras that have slightly different external dimensions. But then, once it is in place, there's no need to take it off unless being used with a different device, like a tripod. To attach the camera, simply loosen the two stainless steel screws sufficiently to slide the camera into the cradle, then tighten to hold it in place. It is fiddley, plus there's a danger of losing the screws if you try doing this in a speeding safari jeep, as I did recently in Sri Lanka, but in a static environment, it's easy enough.
The G5 is also IP67 splashproof - OK, I didn't know what that meant ti I researched it online - it has the same water resistance characteristics of many smartphones. I believe that IP67 means it'll remain waterproof to a depth of one metre for up to 30mins. Hopefully I'm never going to put this to the test but it's good to know it's resilient to water and dust ingress.
The unit is powered by one large lithium battery stored in the handle. This is charged using a supplied micro-USB cable. Feiyu Tech claims this lasts up to eight hours - I've yet to run it for that length of time but, having said that, it has never run out on me either.
Interestingly the kit also includes a short micro-USB cable which can be used to power the camera using power from the much larger lithium battery in the G5. It's fiddley to install but a nice failsafe if you find your GoPro battery dying prematurely as the G5's battery just goes and goes...
With the Hero 6 Black, I first attach the camera, then I turn the camera on by physically pressing the camera's power button, and then, using voice commands turn it Off and On when required (the Hero 6 can remain in its sleep, or its Off mode, for up to 6 hours).
Then I start the G5, it auto balances, and is ready to go.
The handle has a four-way toggle allowing you to move the camera manually left/right, up and down. And it also has four shooting modes that can be programmed using the Feiyu Tech On app, including a selfie mode (don't laugh, it's actually really useful!),a panning and tilting mode, a 180 degree rotating mode and a reset mode.
Build quality is exceptional for the price (last time I looked, you can pick this up for less than $200) everything is beautifully machined and the unit fits in the hand perfectly.
It's easy to use - and as a nod to our different shooting requirements, it also has not one, but two tripod sockets - one on the base and one just under the top of the handle/battery compartment so it can be tripod-mounted or attached to clamps, brackets, etc.
As a final comment, you'll find the website and FeiyuTech app reasonably functional but in places, some of its programmable functions are hard to understand, and therefore hard to set. Apparently you can program the gimbal to rotate from set point to set point, over a (set) period of time.
This is used for continuous video or time-lapse sequences with an action camera - but getting this to work referencing the hard-to-understand instructions defeated me several times but I'm happy to stick with its excellent hand-held performance (see some of my included stability videos in this article).
With the app loaded, you can operate the gimbal remotely using a smartphone - it's easy and intuitive - you can also change the specifications - panning faster or slower, etc. Nice to use.
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