Favourite Camera Mount/Gimbal?

ctbon

Member
I wanted to start a thread here to talk about camera mounts. I'm curious to know what everyone has and what they think of them. Good value or???
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
I've tried most of the good ones and so far my favorite is the Photohigher AV 130. The best video I've gotten with a multirotor has been with the 130 and that with it hanging under a CineStar 6 frame. Not cheap but it works well. Now I'm waiting to see this uber mount that DJI will be releasing soon, supposed to be the ultimate in stability, only one problem, they say it will only work with the WKM controller. I take that to mean it will connect via the canbus the WKM uses which rules out hooking it up to normal servo ports, have to wait a few more weeks to get all the details as no one at DJI is talking about it yet.

I've found a lot of the less expensive mounts are not worth spending the $ on, at least not if you expect professional quality results, for hobby use they serve the purpose as long as you don't mind a bit of twitch and wobble here and there.

Ken
 

ctbon

Member
Any experience with the PhotoShip One mkTR, Ken? I like that the landing skids are integrated into the unit.
 


DennyR

Active Member
Alware seem to be making some good cheap small stuff. No idea how well it works but that is as much about the imu and set-up as anything.
 

iceman

Member
Any experience with the PhotoShip One mkTR, Ken? I like that the landing skids are integrated into the unit.

Photohigher AV130 & AV200 360 have skids integrated, I have only just started using AV200 and I'm still setting up my AD6 heavy lift so I can only tell you that it compensates well with my set up as it is, I think once I have my hexa set up the mount will be perfect. My only criticism would be that for the price you don't get any manual and there are some settings (mechanical) that can be made to set up but you need work this out on your own!
 

Bowley

Member
I often wonder how much a gimbals performance really depends on sense and response ie FC and servos, I would have thought you could get a cheap mount to perform well if it senses and responds quickly and precisely provided it doesnt have inherent slack or stiction.
I am going to fit some better servos to my XA mount to reduce the jitter, any suggestions?
I suppose there is a multutude of factors involved. One thing I am interested in is how well the PH AV100 works with its Cof G roll axis. I guess this would benefit from from a heavy camera or additional ballast weight and some damping.
 


RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Any experience with the PhotoShip One mkTR, Ken? I like that the landing skids are integrated into the unit.

Yes, my first "real" camera mount was an mkTR that I had attached to my MK hexa V1. My opinion of the PS1 mkTR series is this, they work really well for still photography, there are much better choices available if your main goal is doing video.

I sold my mkTR to Bartman (surprisingly he still talks to me! ;) ) and replaced it with a Photohigher AV130, now I have two AV130, that should tell you all you need to know.

Ken
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
I often wonder how much a gimbals performance really depends on sense and response ie FC and servos, I would have thought you could get a cheap mount to perform well if it senses and responds quickly and precisely provided it doesnt have inherent slack or stiction.
I am going to fit some better servos to my XA mount to reduce the jitter, any suggestions?
I suppose there is a multutude of factors involved. One thing I am interested in is how well the PH AV100 works with its Cof G roll axis. I guess this would benefit from from a heavy camera or additional ballast weight and some damping.

The flight controller gimbal stabilization ability and the resolution of the servos in use have a huge impact on the end result. The best gimbal in the world will only produce results as good as the control system that is stabilizing it along with the ability of the pilot to tune and fly the overall system.

The problem with a lot of the cheap mounts on the market is often that the geometry of the actuating mechanism is just wrong and short of major rework nothing is going to resolve that. Other times it's simply a matter of cheap low resolution servos causing the infamous stair stepping motion often seen on low end mounts. In some cases swapping to high resolution servos and doing a proper setup can go a long way to resolving the problem, other times additional remedies are needed to get it as smooth as possible, the Coptersky 2 axis GoPro mount I have is a good example of that. It's actually a decent design that is poorly executed from the builder. Disassembly and a careful rebuild addressing all of the initial build quallity problems and a swap to Savox high res, high speed, metal gear servos made a HUGE difference (and added over $100 to final cost). Still that did not completely eliminate the small twitches seen on both tilt and roll axis so additional compensation mechanisms were needed and those came in the form of a pair of Traxxas TMaxx shock absorbers repurposed to act as damping for each axis.

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So if it's a solution to jitter problems, start with an examination of the servos and replace if they're inadequate. If that still doesn't quite do the job, then consider adding a damping mechanism to get it as smooth as possible, and of course if the flight controller doesn't do a good job of controlling the servos on both axis then nothing you do is going to help short of replacing the F/C.

Ken
 

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