The New Zhiyun WEEBILL 3 is the latest product in the company’s WEEBILL range. Zhiyun says it’s designed for DSLR cameras but naturally would support mirrorless cameras too. It has three main upgrades over the previous model: an interesting-sounding SLING 2.0 design, built in microphone and fill-light, and a powerful all-day battery.
The ‘sling’ is not some kind of strap or harness, but a new design for handling DSLR and mirrorless camera rigs with less fatigue. It includes a restructured L-shape handle that’s more stable when self-standing, a new wrist rest, and a repositioned, extendable sling grip, which Zhiyun says will shift weight on to your arm and give over 40% more support to your wrist. The idea is that moving the sling grip to the bottom of the gimbal provides better stability when shooting at low-angles.
The grip has thumb buttons, a mini control stick, a finger trigger and a customisable control wheel.
Interestingly, the WEEBILL 3 has its own built in 1,000 lumen ‘fill light’ (with color temperature adjustment) and microphone, two accessories videographers would normally have to mount separately. The ‘Hi-Fi’ microphone offers forward focused cardioid recording, with a noise-cancelling feature.
The WEEBILL 3 also has a new 7,800mAh internal battery offering a claimed 21-hour battery life. It also supports PD fast charging with just two hours needed for a full charge. The gimbal can also provide pass-through 5V/1A charging for cameras.
There’s also a new ‘next-gen’ quick release system with a dual quick-release plate and an embedded magnetic wrench. Once the camera is balanced, Zhiyun says it can be detached and re-attached without the need for re-balancing.
The Zhiyun WEEBILL 3 is available now at a price of $499 (about £413/AU$720), or $529 (about £438/AU$763) for a combo kit that includes a backpack, wrist rest and extendable sling grip.
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Zhiyun launches FIVERAY FR100C Light Stick
Video lights come in many forms, from smartphone-sized blocks like the LumeCube through to Rotolight's powerful NEO 3. Zhiyun's solution is the FIVERAY FR100C, its first light stick accessory.
It's more than just a pretend light saber or novelty gadget, however. Zhiyun is claiming 5x the luminosity of rival products, generating up to 21195 lux at 0.3m. It's controllable too, with 100 dimming steps and a fully adjustable color temperature range from 2700K-6300K – and with an HIS full color mode with hue, saturation and brightness adjustment.
The FIVERAY FR100C has internal fans for cooling, which could be especially useful in high-temperature environments, has a 6-cell battery for 'hours' of illumination, and fast 120W PD charging via USB-C.
The FIVERAY FR100C is available now in white or black and costs $199 (about £165/AU$287)) on its own, or $249 (about £206/AU$359) with a 120W power adapter.
Read more:
• Best camera gimbals
• Zhiyun WEEBILL 2 review
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