feiyuTech A1000

An affordable option for smooth handheld video with your DSLR or mirrorless camera

feiyu-tech.com The FeiyuTech A1000 is an attractively priced, single-grip stabilisation gimbal with the ability to upgrade to two handles/ grips if you prefer. It can accommodate camera and lens combinations up to 1.7kg in weight. However, the weight distribution is important because the camera should be balanced in the cradle before the

A1000 is powered up. There are four balance adjustments available and that need to be trimmed one at a time with the camera set up as you will use it – screen out, lens hood on etc. The trickiest part is getting the camera and mounting plate correctly positioned, because the plate screw can foul on the locking pin and the mount thumbscrew is also hard to tighten sufficiently by hand.

If you don’t get the balance exactly right the A1000 will compensate, but this puts extra strain on the motors. We found we could get the Sony a7 III and the Zeiss 24-70mm f4 nicely balanced, but swapping to the lighter Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens caused problems. Similarly, it was impossible to get the balance right when the Panasonic Lumix G9’s screen was flipped out to the side. Nevertheless, when the A1000 was powered up the cameras were held level.

Motionless handheld footage is extremely good, and the A1000 takes out all the usual shake and wobble. The results when walking with the camera are also good but you can expect to see some recoil when you take a step. If you are following a moving subject, it can be harder to detect.

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ROTATE AND TILT

A joystick on the grip lets you pan and tilt the camera with smooth movements. There are also a few cables supplied to enable control via a dedicated button

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APP CONTROL

The A1000 can be controlled remotely via the free Feiyu ON app. This also lets you save settings for some programmable movements but oddly the app won’t let you trigger them