PilotFly H2 Gimbal

[keylight]

Very helpful information Slavik!

Interesting thought about using an extension cable - you won't need to bother, as a bluetooth connected remote for the H2 is supposed to come out soon. The pan/tilt speed is a little fast, but I haven't plugged it in to change settings yet.

This is one of the things I emailed them about. They first announced that a wireless remote was coming soon about half a year ago but has yet to appear.

The pan is 360, and the tilt has a hard stop at 3/4 of the way around, so I guess that's 270 degrees?

SNIP

Also in one handed mode, you can flip the entire rig so that it scrapes the ground (and feels more natural to hold), or water, etc.

When you flip the rig so it's running upside down, that would be the roll motor that turns. I'm guessing that motor is also a 360 degree motor? My thinking is that if it's 270 degrees, the center of the roll motor would be when the gimbal is in the upright position, leaving a rotation of 135 degrees each way. But an upside down flip would require 180 degrees. Then again, it could be that it center of the roll motor isn't at 135 but something a lot less.

 

[slavikb]

Yeah who knows, only a real-life battery test with a particular camera will tell. I think Pilotfly is advertising 20+ hours with the single handle Lipo battery (not the two handle 4x18650 li-ion), which is about 26 watt hours I believe, so maybe that's where they got their number. I think for real production work it's much safer to rely on the two-handle accessory and bring an extra set of batteries (the two handle accessory have interchangeable batteries), rather than be stuck with a non-removeable dead battery inside the single handle and no other options.

I am curious about battery life considering the more powerful motors... On gimbal-heavy days I could see going through at least a couple battery changes on my DS1 which uses 3x18650 batteries. So how can the H2 claim 20+hrs of life on 4x18650 batteries running more powerful motors? Even if they are top of the line batteries with higher capacity it seems a bit suspect. That worries me if the batteries are built in and not interchangeable.

 

[slavikb]

They demonstrated the remote at NAB, so maybe it's coming sooner than later?

Their website says 360 degrees for both yaw and roll, and holding it in my hands right now, the roll does go all the way around, but there's a hard stop in there, whereas pan/yaw can go around and around.

Very helpful information Slavik!



This is one of the things I emailed them about. They first announced that a wireless remote was coming soon about half a year ago but has yet to appear.



When you flip the rig so it's running upside down, that would be the roll motor that turns. I'm guessing that motor is also a 360 degree motor? My thinking is that if it's 270 degrees, the center of the roll motor would be when the gimbal is in the upright position, leaving a rotation of 135 degrees each way. But an upside down flip would require 180 degrees. Then again, it could be that it center of the roll motor isn't at 135 but something a lot less.

 

[TheDingo]

I am curious about battery life considering the more powerful motors... So how can the H2 claim 20+hrs of life on 4x18650 batteries running more powerful motors?

Apparently it's having encoded motors that makes the big difference with battery life. Dave Dougdale mentions in his Pilotfly H2 review that he had been running his rig for a few days on a single charge that was still good to go.

 

[puredrifting]

I just bought an Osmo a few months ago and just received the Z-Axis arm for it yesterday from DJI in China. I like the setup, it is quick, it's small and unobtrusive, which for my work is important. In daylight exteriors, the picture looks pretty decent, it falls apart on interiors without good lighting. I think the H2 with a Mirrorless or DSLR would look better but bigger, heavier, more expensive, as always. It seems that for my needs, the Canon 70d or 80d would work pretty well. I can pick up a used, like new 70d for $700.00 and the H2 is $1k. So for $1,700.00, it's tempting. For me, face tracking and the DPAF on the 70d would be excellent and I have a lot of EOS lenses that could work well on the setup. But at this point, even the Osmo is only broken out for certain sequences, it's a "value add-on" that I can charge $50.00 per day for, same as my Go Pros. One of my clients is a producer and shoots some too so while I am on A camera, I can hand it off to her and she has actually used it for some cool shots that made the final cut so she loves it too. If I land a project where the gimbal needs to become more of an A camera, then the H2 and a 70d could fit the bill for very little money. Like everything else in my business now, I have stopped buying gear for fun and only buy now for what will make me a good profit. The Osmo has already paid for itself so on an upcoming shoot in Africa, any days we shoot with it become pure profit. Same with the Go Pros, they are cheap but I end up buying about $200.00 worth of batteries, mounts, accessories, charger, SD cards, cases, etc. for each so they end up costing about $600.00 ea. I charge $50.00 per day per Go Pro and clients are happy to pay. Wonder if I could charge $150.00 per day for the H2 and a 70d? I think I could.

 

[nyvz]

Anyone know where to buy an H2? BH and copter-rc only have them as pre-orders probably with weeks of wait time.

 

[keylight]

B&H site now says they expected availability on May 31st. A week ago the site simply said something like 'Coming Soon' so that's... progress?

 

[SuperMachoAlpha]

B&H site now says they expected availability on May 31st. A week ago the site simply said something like 'Coming Soon' so that's... progress?

I'm also wondering about that. Are those "expected days" accurate? The other website (Copter-rc) where they also sell it says it will be in stock in about 3-4 weeks.

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

Good news--I was at B&H yesterday and they confirmed with their warehouse that Pilotfly H2 preorders would be going out in two business days. Also, I see the two handle accessory is currently in stock, which tells me that they've received at least something.

 

[keylight]

B&H doesn't seem to indicate the handles are in stock anymore.

But thanks for the update on the shipping. I wonder, if I order today, technically that's a pre-order so....

And.... I see that was your first post. Welcome to DVXUser!

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

Thanks. They were in stock just earlier today...I know because I bought one on the website.

Anyone know of a good tutorial for lightweight gimbals?

 

[keylight]

I thought I'd give the H2 a try but now I see that B&H has pushed the expected "May 31st" delivery back to "June". Blah. Could be tomorrow, could be another month.

 

[SuperMachoAlpha]

I noticed the same thing too. They'll probably just keep pushing it back.

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

Mine's arriving tomorrow, but I've had it on pre-order since April. In the meantime...I've got just the handles.

 

[SuperMachoAlpha]

Mine's arriving tomorrow, but I've had it on pre-order since April. In the meantime...I've got just the handles.
View attachment 114237

Cool. Did you order the H2 from B&H?

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

Yes. And I saw the handles in stock at B&H a couple of days ago and bought them then, although they're once again out of stock. It appears that progress is being made, although not as fast as we'd like.

 

[SuperMachoAlpha]

Yes. And I saw the handles in stock at B&H a couple of days ago and bought them then, although they're once again out of stock. It appears that progress is being made, although not as fast as we'd like.

True. I preordered mine on May 20. Hopefully they can ship it soon. Once you get yours let us know how it works.

 

[keylight]

Mine's arriving tomorrow, but I've had it on pre-order since April. In the meantime...I've got just the handles.

Sweet! Would you mind sharing a few detail pics of how the plug and connections work? I'm wondering if it might be possible to customize the 2 handle remote with a long extension wire to use it on the operator end of a jib, and put the gimbal mount on the camera end.

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

Sure, hope these are helpful. For the two-handle accessory I currently have on: the handles and center mount are attached to a gray striped (carbon fiber?) rod with clamps that can be loosened and rotated a bit. However, both the handle with the joystick and the center mount are wired to the rod and can only rotate a bit. The non-joystick handle isn't wired and can go any which way.

So far I'm loving this thing, but my one beef is that on the two-handle accessory, there's an exposed wire near the joystick connecting to the rod (see photo). It doesn't look very secure, and it keeps popping out of the jack, forcing me to power down the unit and reconnect it. But the two handles make it very comfortable, a definite improvement over the pistol grip.

Keylight--if you are okay with doing some rewiring to the exposed plug, I'll bet you could customize it.

 

[Flapjack Mountain]

First impressions: I've not used a gimbal before and I'm certainly aware that there's a learning curve. That said, out of the box it took about ten minutes to get an okay balance and go shoot some test footage. With the two handles it feels like I can hold it up for a while without getting tired. It got some jitters when I put my Tokina 11-16mm on, but I only took a minute to rebalance between lenses and I probably could have done a better job. So far I'm very happy with it.

Here's a little test video: https://vimeo.com/168993441 pw:h2 -- please excuse the horrendous exposure.