Innovative auto-folding portable gimbal than DJI｜Snoppa ATOM2 Cell Phone Gimbal Experience

Introduction: Since we have more babies at home, we have been using our cell phones more often than our DSLRs. Whether we are at home or out and about, we can capture and record videos to record our babies' growth. But this extends a new problem, cell phone video image stability, especially some of the moving images. In the first two years, there are a few cell phone head, but not portable enough, the clip relative to today's large screen phone also seems too tight. This time the reason why the eyes back to the cell phone head, because I found a portable head can be automatically folded, can become my cell phone to shoot the baby partner?

From the hands of the packaging volume has surprised me, may not have used some of the head of the volume of the advantages do not know, I used to use the two cell phone head, the light packaging is a full 4 times larger than it. The degree of compactness and portability, visible from the packaging. The entire package design is also simple and generous enough, after all, is also a gimbal veteran, giving the first impression of the design is mature.

In order to give you an intuitive understanding, before the official start, directly put on the relevant parameters I organized for reference.

The whole family is not on, except the machine, but also the manual, C to C power cord. The world's first auto-folding 3-axis gimbal. By default, it is fully folded and can fit in a loose pants pocket. This Snoppa ATOM2 did not come standard with a protective bag, but it is only about 1/4 of the price of the two heads I got a few years ago, considering the cost of the standard is also completely understandable, and more importantly, it is fully folded design, the body is also made of ABS + PC material, you can directly bare put into the bag, and do not need to be afraid of scratching yourself and other items in the bag like the previous aluminum alloy shell.

Snoppa has always admired Snoppa's innovativeness. Thinking back to the first generation of ATOM, its innovative structure and folding design has been borrowed by a number of gimbal manufacturers, led by DJI. But Snoppa's innovation doesn't stop there. The ATOM2 adopts a new three-axis structural design, which cleverly links the tilt axis with the switch, and opens up the folded gimbal by 30 degrees or so, which activates the motor to complete the unfolding of the gimbal, and puts the gimbal into standby mode.

When you press and hold the power button on the handle, the gimbal automatically folds up and closes, which is almost fully automatic, making this gimbal very tech-savvy, and, in a Shanghainese phrase, "quite smart".

Why it is the most portable cell phone head, comparison to know, put the previous hands on the traditional three-axis cell phone head (the first few years of the cell phone head is basically this basic structure design) and this Snoppa ATOM2 head comparison, you can see that the folding characteristics of it compared to the traditional head is also more portable. In addition, this ATOM2 head made of ABS + PC material, although the handle is fat, but the overall compared to the traditional thin tube aluminum alloy cell phone head to be much lighter, measured only 310g (the left side of the discontinued head measured weight of 450g). Should also be the highest degree of collapsibility on the market, the most lightweight and portable three-axis cell phone head. At least at present there is no one. （

Due to the redesign of the three-axis structure, the tilt axis has been placed at the bottom and combined with the folding point. Although the phone bracket is made tighter and smaller, as long as the thickness of the phone is not more than 1cm, basically can be stuck into the phone bracket (some of the phone is thicker, don't bring a phone case, anyway, there is no metal on the outside of the gimbal, not afraid of bumps and scratches). Then long press the red power button on the handle again to start the gimbal.

In addition, there is a point to note, we use the process as much as possible to put the phone left and right balanced into the phone bracket, although many full-screen phones now due to the power button and volume button position occupied, resulting in the assembly to the phone bracket can not be completely centered, but also to let the phone in the keys do not squeeze as close as possible to the center of the clamping. The better the leveling in the standby state of the gimbal, the more stable the gimbal will be when activated, and the longer the range will be. In particular, the horizontal roller motor behind the cell phone holder is also a little less loaded. Although it is compatible with most cell phones, the Snoppa ATOM2 gimbal is more suitable for small-sized iPhones and other relatively small Android or sports cameras. It is also recommended to optimize the gripping area of the phone so that more phones can be gripped and leveled more easily.

Some people may wonder how the gimbal can distinguish between a cell phone in the bracket or not, when the power button is long pressed to start running and automatically retract after powering on the device. Although it is theoretically possible to judge through the motor load algorithm, in order to more accurately determine whether the phone is clamped on the gimbal, Snoppa put an infrared sensor inside the ATOM2's phone mount. When no object is in the way, long-pressing the power button will automatically fold and retract the gimbal, and when there is an object in the way, the gimbal will be fully activated and running. In addition, in order to facilitate the subsequent use of the horizontal and vertical screen switching, it is recommended to follow the phone bracket printed on the phone to the direction of the clamp.

As a lightweight entry position, it has done a lot of simplification. For example, the operating area of this grip is by far the simplest I've ever seen, with just the joystick on the left and the power button on the right. When connected to Snoppa's app, this joystick can be pressed to quickly call up menu actions.

The power button on the right side of the joystick, in addition to the regular startup and shutdown of the gimbal, can also be double-clicked to quickly switch between horizontal and vertical screen modes, to record the type of video you need, part of the phone is larger, switching to the vertical screen mode may touch the bottom of the block, you can beforehand horizontal mounting, install your phone on the left side of some of them can be. And the power button is also compatible with controlling the native camera of most cell phones, by tapping it you can take a picture and start or pause the video. Even if you don't use the proprietary app, you can still quickly take stabilized shots with the native camera.

Charging follows the trend with a Type-C port and a power indicator below. Perhaps in consideration of its lightweight and compact positioning, a lanyard hole is rarely found above the charging port. PTZ comes standard with a C to C cable, in addition to the standard 5V charging, or support for 12V/9V/5V fast charging head as well as D fast charging protocol. Regular fast charging only takes 40 minutes to charge to 80%. This fast charging efficiency to a certain extent to make up for the built-in this 2500mAh 18650 lithium battery is not replaceable small regret.

Think the handle is not long enough by default, which may affect the viewfinder perspective? Don't worry, the handle has a 60mm stretchable distance, and the total length of the handle after stretching even exceeds that of some traditional 3-axis gimbals.

In addition to the innovative 3-axis design and auto-folding highlights of this gimbal, there is another design that caught my eye, which is the non-slip grip area at the bottom of the handle in the stretched state, which can be opened up to become a tripod support, eliminating the need to carry a small tripod for some fixed scenes.

In fact, for my daily shooting needs, using the phone's own camera is basically enough, but occasionally I still need to combine with the APP to do some extended setup operation.

Usually gimbals support head-lock, full-follow, and half-follow modes, and this side is no exception. By connecting to the APP, you can switch between the modes you need, and the APP provides 6 modes of horizontal follow, full follow, head lock, fast horizontal follow, fast full follow, and FPV. The picture above shows the 3 modes I use most often, and for mainstream users, these 3 modes are enough for daily multi-scene shooting.

Without further ado, I'll give you a direct comparison of the two phones in the same scene, with the right one clamped on the Snoppa ATOM2 gimbal (in horizontal follow mode). Through comparison it is obvious to see the right side in the trotting state can still maintain a good stable state, but also completely eliminate the picture jelly state. The advantage of a gimbal is obvious.

Sometimes we may need some unconventional perspective to shoot video, such as a low perspective like a cat, just to take a picture, you can squat or even lie down to shoot, but you can't do squatting smoothly forward to shoot, this time you need to use the phone gimbal to assist.

Earlier I said that personally I'm more used to taking photos and videos directly from my phone's native camera. But one of the only features that would make me use Snoppa's app to take photos is the AI recognition feature in it, which allows you to track intelligently by zoning in on specific content, whether it's people, animals, objects, etc. But another similar agile tracking function did not experience, my side of the prompt can not call the system wide-angle camera, changed 3 phones are the same, may be adapted to continue to optimize.

Although the overall design of this app is still relatively simple, the content has been put in place as much as possible, with the average user wanting to beautify their face, the professional user wanting to adjust the ISO and shutter, and even the shooting target gesture operation function has been arranged. However, some of the software features still have room for continued optimization, which is a direction that many gimbal manufacturers need to work on.

Any product is not perfect, it is no exception, there is no 1/4 screw expansion, the clip is too small and too tight, the whole machine texture slightly to be improved and other defects. But the flaws do not cover up, this excellent breakthrough to auto-folding design and simple operation method, so that it is more suitable for the daily use of ordinary consumers, the function is not like the past me those professional gimbal of the raw and difficult to understand. And also have to take care of professional users, the advanced features to do in the APP secondary catalog design, the design is also more portable. As we all know, put aside the price to talk about experience is a hooligan, based on its selling price and innovation, it is still worth it.

Postscript: also lamented the current cell phone gimbal market, because a few years ago DJI put the entry-level handheld gimbal price down to three digits, so that the original rich and diverse domestic cell phone gimbal brand less than half. Professional high-priced sales have plummeted, the low price is not as attractive as DJI, I got my hands on 2 old gimbals in the first two years of the manufacturer has not done cell phone gimbal. To be able to break the game, in addition to price advantage, there must be core innovation. In my opinion, the new three-axis design and auto-folding ATOM2 mobile gimbal, which is the first of its kind, may be able to bring a breakthrough to the lackluster mobile gimbal market today, and I am looking forward to the Snoppa advanced model of the new three-axis structure of the ATOM2, which is expected to further enrich the mobile gimbal market.