With smartphones becoming the primary cameras of this generation, it makes sense for camera makers to diversify into the smartphone accessories market. Kodak is doing that with the XD1 smartphone gimbal. It may seem odd to have a stabilizer for a smartphone, but vloggers are definitely a big market for such an accessory.
The three-axis XD1 gimbal arrives in a tall box and much of it is used up by the flexible carrying case for the gimbal. Within the box, you get a bunch of accessories. Here’s a look at everything you get:
If you have ever seen a gimbal for an action camera or any other handheld camera, the design of the XD1 would not come as a surprise. There’s a robust grip at the tail end of the gimbal with a tilting and rotating arm curving at the top like a sickle, but with another curved connection, which ends in a smartphone holder. You have to wedge your phone in between two clamps. I hate this system as it always leaves me fearing for my phone.
The XD1 supports a Pitch Angle range of 325-degrees, Roll Angle up to 180-degrees and Pan Angle of up to 330-degrees. The battery is rated for 10-12 hours of recording, when the camera is mounted on the holder and when the gimbal is perfectly balanced. Depending on your arm movement, the battery life will drop as the motors kick into action. All of this sounds good, but there’s one huge, deal-breaker of a problem.
That ruined my first impression of the performance of the gimbal. Once you set your phone in and turn on the unit, you will notice that there’s definitely a lot of lag when switching the modes. Sometimes, the gimbal would drop its Bluetooth connection and we would be stuck with a phone just dangling off the holder, with no stabilization whatsoever.
The app also crashed a bunch of times, when we used the remote shutter button, and showed as an error toast in Chinese. It can be scary knowing what apps are capable of doing these days, especially with the sensitive data on your phone.
When it does work – after much trial and error – the gimbal does a fine job, but it’s not something unexpected or extraordinary. In fact, the controls are rather basic and you are stuck with an unfamiliar looking UI for the Kodak Gimbal app’s viewfinder, which is a pain to navigate. The app has a lot of controls and settings, which are different from the default settings you are used to in your camera. Plus the UI elements are sometimes too small to tap with ease, especially as you are shooting.
Stabilized video:
We really wish Kodak had chosen a better app to go along with the XD1 gimbal as it would have been a huge improvement in the performance.
