The Vimble 3 from FeiyuTech is awash with features to turn your cellphone into a creator’s dream tool.  It’s compact and light enough to carry anywhere but comes with a tripod base that doubles as a grip extension as well as a built-in selfie stick – that simply pulls out of the handle for an 8” extension.

The gimbal is set to record videos and stills in either horizontal or vertical alignment. One button press switches from one to the other. Most of the physical controls are located on the front of the gimbal, but more controls can be found on each of the four sides..

On the left side are A/B buttons for preset focus or position settings, along with a slider for zoom control. On the back, comfortably placed, are two trigger buttons. The top button can be customized in the app, while the bottom button locks the gimbal while held and releases it when released.

On the right side are the power button and your USB-C charging port.  The power button also serves as a way to test your battery level with just a quick press.

While I’ve only started trying to learn to use a gimbal correctly, and I’ve got some practicing to do to master “the Ninja walk”, I was nevertheless happy with my early results as I assessed the Cleveland Script Sign.

 Using the Feiyu ON app, the gimbal is connected to your phone via Bluetooth and offers many more options for the filmmaker. While the manual in the box that comes with the Vimble 3 does a decent job of explaining the hardware controls (like seen above), I couldn’t find anything that described all the functions available in the software, and for days I was wondering how to control different functions. 

[Update – only as I was ready to publish this review, did I find that Feiyu Tech finally published v1.1 of their manual that does explain more about the Feiyu ON application. Would have been nice to have sooner 🙂 ]

With that in mind, here is my version of Where to go for What you need.  To follow along, I’ve labeled all the icons on the operating screen with letters from A to J.  You can reference them below:

A  Photo or Video

Upper icon switches from photo stills to video – denoted by the camera icon or the video icon

B  Shooting modes

The second icon down on the left is where you’ll find all the choices depending on still or video you chose above.

Still choices include:

360 panorama  which is a bit misleading as it is really closer to 270 degrees

180 panorama which is accurate

One thing that fascinated me was what would happen if I took a 360-degree image with moving subjects in it. Unlike the Theta 360-degree cameras that have both front and back fisheye lenses, so their exposures are simultaneous, the Vimble spins around at a medium speed, taking seconds to make its 180-degree image. Look closely at the following image and you’ll see the same two trucks on the bridge twice in the image, but the software aligned everything perfectly for an image that you’d never expect was stitched together.

Ultra wide-angle which takes nine shots around the image you have framed when you press the shutter.  (see note below about using professional mode)

Free form panorama which lets you pick up the gimbal and turn around yourself to get 360-degree panos.

Quick panorama which does four shots composited into one image

Light rail mode allows you to create light streaks based on your image.

Overlapping image does a double exposure where you press the shutter twice for two images superimposed over each other

Normal photo is the last choice – taking you back to what you’d expect a standard still shot to be.

On the video side,

Dolly zoom allows you to zoom expand vs shrink (in or out)

Timelapse lets you set multiple points and time durations

Static timelapse shoots the same scene capturing multiple frames every .5s to 300s with a time duration of from 1 minute to 5 hours

Kuaishou Live which I believe is live streaming in China. 

Light rail video is best explained here.

Normal video takes you back to standard video

C Shutter button

The third button down is an alternate shutter button if you want to press the screen instead of the physical shutter button on the Vimble 3.

D  Selfie mode

The fourth icon selects front or rear-facing cameras for selfies or standard picture taking.

E  Shooting options

Selecting the lower-left icon on the main screen gives you the following options:

Photo timer choices are off, 2s, 5s, or 10s

Beauty setting which smooths skin tones.

Flash which turns on the light of your camera.

Auxiliary lines which place on your screen guidelines for the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, center point, or none. I always prefer the rule of thirds for good composition.

HDR tries to balance between your brightest brights and darkest dark tones for a full range of contrast.

The next row has two icons for Peak assist and Overexposure tips.  Neither could be selected, so I suppose they are for a future release.

Filter allows you to apply a color cast to all your shots – if you are into that.  I’ve never seen the attraction.

AI is maybe the coolest function I’d never had the occasion to try before. By tracing a box around your subject, the gimbal will automatically track that person or object without you ever needing to touch the controls. By setting the app to use the front-facing camera, you can track yourself as you move either closer or distant and left or right.  Works really well.

Gesture allows you to snap a still photo by holding up your fingers in a V-sign, and in three seconds it snaps your photo.  In video mode, you can activate the shutter by holding up the palm of your hand with all five fingers spread apart.  You need to shut the video off manually.

Selecting “More settings” lets you go even more granular.  (To get there press the three dots icon for “more settings”.) 

Professional mode allows you to set white balance, ISO, EV, and exposure manually.  That is what you’ll want to do if you shoot panoramas.  I didn’t realize that until I got back and discovered that the camera phone made changes to the exposure as it was taking the nine shots for this image, creating a change in the sky as seen here.

Manual mode would have prevented that. With my cellphone, I see in the Feiyu On app, I can adjust the exposure from ½ second all the way up to 1/12000^th of a second.  Your cameraphone could be different.

Water marker adds “Feiyu Tech Vimble 3” along with the date and time shot in the lower-left corner of your image. 

Panorama save original image is a bit confusing, as it saves many of the original shots used to composite the panorama but not all of them.

Shutter sound can be turned on or off.  I’d suggest unless you need silence, that you keep this turned on.

Audio input mode allows you to record audio from the cellphone mic or via an external Bluetooth microphone.

Picture resolution should match the resolution offered by your particular cellphone.  The one I was using during this test shoots 3840 x 2160 pixels.

Video resolution is a bit misleading.  It shows options for 1080p 30fps,  4K 30fps, 1280×720 120fps, and 720×480 120fps.   Wanting the best video, I selected 4K, only to discover I shot 4 clips with totally black images. Upon checking, I discovered that this cellphone only records 1080p, so don’t think the app will upgrade your phone – it won’t. Set it for the correct resolution your phone offers.

Panoramic picture quality – set it to high unless you really need to save hard drive space or want a low res pic to send via email.

F  AF icon

Press this AF icon and you can manually focus with a slider on the screen or press it again to return to autofocus

G  WT icon

Pres this to zoom via a screen slider from Wide to Telephoto

H  Playback

Press this picture icon to be taken to your album where you can watch the videos and stills you’ve shot.

I  Advanced Settings and Remote control 

Why there is a remote control screen is beyond me, since you can’t detach it from the Vimble, but by touching the gear icon on this page, you’ll arrive at the advanced settings.

Under Advanced settings, you’ll find even more options:

Out of the box, the joystick is set for “slow” tilting speed and panning speed.  I found that setting both to medium speed worked much better for me.

Dial function can control focus, zoom, or the roll axis.  In the settings menu, you can select whichever will help the most given the shot you want to take.

The customizable upper trigger on the rear can also be set depending on your needs.  With a short tap, it can be set to either turn on smart face tracking, smart object tracking or switching between front and rear cameras.  A long press of the same trigger can switch to an alternate one of the four different follow modes.

A/B Settings lets you adjust the timing of both the auto focus time, from .5s to 2.5s, and the attitude change time from 1s to 25s.

J  Reboot (sort of)

If you ever have your connection between the phone and Vimble become disconnected, press this symbol to refind the Vimble 3 and reconnect.

Specs

• Lightweight and Foldable
• With Tripod and Built-in 198 mm/7.8 inches Extension Rod
• One Button Switch Landscape/Portrait Mode
• A/B Point Trajectory Memory: one button to achieve movements or automatic focus/zoom between two marked points
• Various Functions on APP: Gesture Control, Panorama and Trajectory Time-lapse Shooting, Overlap Image, etc.
• Compatible with Magnetic Fill Light and AI Tracking Module (not included – extra cost)
• Long Battery Life: runtime up to 10 hours
• Weight: 387 g/0.85 lbs
• Smartphone Width Range: 49-88 mm/1.93-3.46 inches
• Maximum Phone Thickness: 12.5 mm/0.49 inches
• Maximum Payload: 260 g/0.57 lbs

Whats-in-the-box

Conclusion

The Vimble 3 is quite nimble, and although it may not do everything you want it to do, it does so much that it easily justifies its price.  Just testing it for the past month, I’ve found dozens of things I want to try with it, now that I think I’ve found most of the controls. 

Hopefully, this simplifies your life getting up to speed with the Vimble 3.  If you’d like a PDF of this guide, drop me a note at dougbardwell@gmail.com and I’ll send you one.

Disclosure: Feiyu Tech did provide us with a Vimble 3 so we could do this review. No financial compensation was received, and opinions expressed are and always will be strictly our own.