Aerial photographers may frequently see the word “gimbal” and know that it is a component used to mount the aerial cameras. Well, do you know the development history of gimbals and why a camera on a gimbal is often called as a “gimbal camera”? We will answer your questions in this article.
Fixed Gimbal—Fixed Suspension
The word “gimbal” is originally defined as an equipment to mount and fix a camera. Before the rise of aerial photograph, a gimbal mainly refers to the mechanical component connecting the tripod and DSLR camera, mainly used to fix the camera and enable multi-angle (normally 3-axis) adjustment.
In order to meet aerial photography requirements, military fixed wing aircrafts mostly use fixed aerial gimbal to shoot the ground from a vertical view without motion compensation or other equipment to ensure stability.
Before consumer drone appear on the market, most drones are also equipped with fixed gimbals. For example, DJI Phantom Series adopt fixed gimbal design to fasten the camera with the aircraft so as to alter the aerial view by adjusting the aircraft’s angle.
Electrical Gimbal—Remote Control
In security industry, the monitoring cameras are often mounted on electrical gimbals which perform similar functions to the fixed gimbals. The only difference is that the electrical gimbal has a motor on its axis that can receive remote control signal to adjust the cameras’ direction or scan the monitoring areas.
Stabilization Gimbal—Maintain Stability
The gradual development of motion photography and aerial photography endows gimbals with new definition and demands. When the camera moves, the gimbal needs to ensure stable footage and eliminate low-frequency shake. In this case, the fixed gimbals can no longer meet the demands, so the electrical stabilization gimbals are invented, which can also be called as stabilization gimbals.
The stabilization gimbal works on the principle where the upward motors create appropriate downward force so as to neutralize the relative motion on the flight platform. Taking the popular brushless motor gimbal as an example, normally the attitude sensor will read the attitude data first, then the correction angles for each axis can be obtained through the IMU at the gimbal bottom or by directly comparing with the attitude angles of the gimbal’s main sensor. Then the brushless motor will quickly make correction actions after receiving the PWM signal to keep the camera stable all the time.
The most commonly used gimbals include 2-axis and 3-axis gimbals. The 3-axis gimbal supports stabilization compensation in yaw, tilt and roll axis. Without yaw stabilization compensation, the 2-axis gimbal has poorer stabilization effects than the 3-axis one. So the 2-axis gimbal is mainly used in low-end drones (the Zenmuse H3-2D on the earliest DJI Phantom used the 2-axis gimbal).
Gimbal Camera—Imaging System
The separation of gimbals and cameras make players have to purchase and assemble them on their own. Considering the usability, especially for non-DIY lovers, it’s not convenient. Thus the gimbal camera emerges in this situation. The most commonly used models on the market are DJI’s Inspire Series dismountable gimbal cameras, including Zenmuse X3, X5, X5R, zoom Z3 as well as thermal imaging cameras (applicable to Inspire 1) XT, X4S and X5S (applicable to Inspire 2). With mature technology, these gimbal cameras are now fully equipped with encoders and 3-axis brushless motor gimbals. However, it is a pity that these gimbals are only applicable to DJI cameras due to port limit.
All-in-one Gimbal Camera—Entirely All-in-one
As the market for gimbal cameras expands, some users have higher requirements for the usability. Under such circumstances, the all-in-one “package” products start to make inroads into the market. Now most products on the market, from Zero Zero Robotics’ Hover Camera to DJI’s Phantom 4 Pro, the gimbals, cameras and aircraft are designed all in one. It will undoubtedly be more convenient for non-professionals.
At the same time, the handheld gimbal products also appear. As the handheld gimbals can better meet the demands of most users, the convenient all-in-one design is undoubtedly an important orientation for the handheld gimbals.
Not long before, the all-in-one gimbal camera may be the users’ expectation—especially those who are not enthusiastic about DIY. Yet after the all-in-one design is realized, there comes the problem of changing the cameras due to actual demands alternation. As a result, the handheld gimbal camera starts to have an independent handheld gimbal to mount the camera in order to meet the actual needs.
For the aircraft, if you want to change cameras freely, you will need a large gimbal such as DJI Matrice 600 which can mount Ronin-mx.
Let’s wait and see where the gimbal technology will take us in the future.
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