MINI TESTS
compatible cameras, but sadly the Sony A1 II we used for the test is too new to be included. We tried a Sony A7S III and it worked perfectly too. Setting the gimbal up is as pain free as it could possibly be. Teflon-coated rails make movement far smoother than on many other gimbals, which really makes a difference. There’s also a nice micro-adjustment knob on the camera plate, and once you have done the manual balancing, auto-calibration mode makes sure everything is spot on and ready to go. It has all the regular controls of most DJI gimbals, such as the trigger button at the front that can do several things. But the most useful function is that, if you hold it down, it locks the camera in its current position despite moving the gimbal around. Just tap the trigger twice and it resets to the starting point, while three taps turns it around for selfie mode. Unsurprisingly, the Mini has all the most-used modes, including pan- follow, pan-and-tilt follow, FPV and 3D roll 360 for those Inception -style barrel rolls. The OLED touchscreen displays icons more clearly than on older models. When using the touchscreen auto-lock feature, the screen will display the current gimbal and joystick modes at low brightness to help conserve battery power. The menus are where you can set how smooth or responsive you want the movement to be, and responsive mode lets you use hand gestures to start and stop filming for fast orbit shots. Like many professionals, we’re more interested in how smooth and controlled the movements are for
cinematic shots, rather than flashy, vlogger-style TikTok moves. DJI says the upgraded fourth-generation stabilisation algorithm strikes a balance between strength and the tactile feel of camera movement, and we have to agree. It feels like a more modern, controlled movement. If you are using an older-generation gimbal, it might be time to upgrade. The RS 4 Mini also offers improved stability when shooting in vertical orientation, and is optimised for compatibility with various cameras, automatically calibrating motor strength to adapt. We found it worked just as well with the supported A7S III as the officially unsupported A1 II, though. No complaints at all, it’s just a smooth, yet controllable device. Compared to the older RS Mini, the battery life has been upped by 30%, giving up to 13 hours of filming. If you’re strong enough to hold on to a gimbal for 13 hours of shooting, then you’re made of tough stuff. Suffice to say, we never ran out of battery power on any shoot. If you do run the battery down, a 30-minute charge via USB-C gives around five hours of use. Overall, this is a great-value kit that has serious tech like the intelligent tracking, and does what most people want a gimbal to do. But why haven’t they offered a black- coloured version yet? PRO MOVIEMAKER RATING: 9/10 A feature-packed and powerful gimbal, which is compact and light Pros: Lots of high-end spec in a lighter-weight model Cons: Not for heavyweight payloads
Handle is smaller than previous DJI handles, and fixes on with a Nato port. Using a second hand to hold the gimbal really takes away some of the strain and makes it so much easier to use for low-angle shots. Like on the Pro, there are more powerful motors and faster swaps to vertical camera positioning, ideal for social media videos. Тhе Міnі’ѕ ѕесоnd-gеnеrаtіоn аutоmаtеd ахіѕ lосkѕ еnаblе truly speedy sеt-uр, unlосkіng аll thrее ахеѕ іn just оnе ѕесоnd. It takes only a few more seconds to ѕwіtсh to vertical shooting by unfastening a clamp and repositioning the camera plate. There’s also Вluеtооth ѕhuttеr соntrоl, which еlіmіnаtеѕ thе nееd fоr саblеѕ, аllоwіng for wіrеlеѕѕ rесоrdіng аnd zооm аdјuѕtmеntѕ dіrесtlу frоm thе gіmbаl’ѕ соntrоlѕ. DJI lists all the
FOLLOW ME The tracking module clips on and a red light indicates that it’s ready for use
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