This gimbal has some genuinely useful features, and the built-in light is one of the best additions. It is really helpful for low-light situations where you just need a quick boost without adding another piece of gear to the setup.As a gimbal, it is easy to use and does the main job well. Balancing and operating it felt straightforward, and I do like the overall design.That said, in this market, I think a new gimbal really needs to take cues from competitors and include things like auto-locking and resetting position when powering off. Those little convenience features matter a lot when you are using gear regularly.I am also disappointed that the briefcase feature is locked behind the combo pack. Having that built into all models would have made this stand out more. So just keep in mind that if you want the fuller feature set, including things like AI tracking, you will need to spend more.Overall, I still like it and think it is a solid gimbal, especially with the built-in light, but a few missing or paywalled features keep it from being a perfect option for me.

I've been shooting more video lately and kept running into the same problem: even with a lens that has built-in optical stabilization, walking shots and slow pans came out looking shaky or slightly jittery in a way that made footage feel amateur no matter how careful I was with my hands. Digital stabilization in editing software helps some, but it crops into the frame and can warp the image if there's too much movement to correct. A motorized gimbal solves that at the source instead of trying to fix it after the fact, using small motors on three separate axes, pan, tilt, and roll, to physically counteract hand movement in real time, so the camera stays level and smooth no matter what your body is doing underneath it. That's the appeal of something like the Weebill 5, and it's why I picked it through the Vine program in exchange for an honest review, rather than continuing to fight with handheld shots or investing in a cheaper stabilizer that couldn't handle a full-frame body with a standard lens attached.My first impression out of the box was that this is a noticeably more serious piece of gear than the lighter gimbals I'd looked at before landing on this one. It comes with a double-layer quick-release plate, a lens support bracket, a small tripod, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a wrench, an extra 1/4 inch screw, and a quick start guide, so there's clearly an expectation that you're mounting real camera bodies and lenses rather than a phone or a small action camera. The 1.8 inch touchscreen is responsive and the redesigned interface is easy to navigate without digging through nested menus, and the joystick and record button sit close enough to the center that one-handed operation feels natural rather than like a stretch. Balancing the camera on the plate the first time took some patience, mostly because getting a lens perfectly centered on any gimbal is a fiddly process no matter the brand, but the fore-aft micro-adjustment knob on this one made fine-tuning noticeably easier than eyeballing it by sliding a plate back and forth. At 1.08 kg for the gimbal itself, it has enough heft to feel sturdy without becoming a burden to carry around for a full day of shooting.Once it's balanced, the mechanics behind it are straightforward - the three motors continuously sense and correct for tilt and shake using internal sensors, which is the fundamental thing a gimbal does that your hands and arms can't: it isolates the camera from your body's micro-movements instead of just dampening them. The rated payload is 3 kg, or about 6.6 lbs, which is enough for a full-frame body paired with a standard lens, and Zhiyun rates the battery at roughly 9 hours of runtime, which should comfortably cover a long shoot day without a mid-session charge. There's a built-in LED fill light for low-light situations, which is a nice inclusion rather than something you'd need to rig separately - you can adjust the brightness and color temperature very preceisely, which is great, and new 1/4 inch mounting ports with locating holes on both sides let you attach a mic, a small monitor, or an additional light without it shifting around once it's screwed in. Native vertical shooting is a genuine convenience if you're producing anything for TikTok, Reels, or other vertical formats, since you can rotate into portrait orientation instantly rather than rebalancing the whole rig from scratch, and the 3-position physical mode switch lets you flick between assigned shooting modes without taking your eyes off the frame.Where this sits in the market is worth spelling out, because Zhiyun sells several tiers of the same basic idea. Their own Weebill 3E and 3S models are lighter and cheaper, generally aimed at creators who mostly shoot with mirrorless bodies and want something easy to carry, while the step up to something like the Crane 4 gets you a bigger, heavier rig built for larger cinema cameras at a noticeably higher price. The Weebill 5 lands in the middle of that lineup, and the payload capacity, touchscreen, and built-in fill light put it in the same conversation as other gimbals around this price point from competing brands, where you're generally paying for the combination of higher payload capacity, faster balancing hardware, and extra mounting options rather than any single standout feature. For someone who already owns a full-frame or similarly sized camera and wants smooth, professional-looking motion without hiring a second person to operate a stabilizer rig, this feels like the right tier to be shopping in. It's not the gimbal to buy if you're mounting a phone or a small mirrorless body with a light kit lens, since you'd be paying for payload capacity and weight you'll never use, and a lighter model in Zhiyun's own lineup would serve that use case better and cost less. I haven't had it long enough yet to speak to how it holds up after months of regular shoots, but the balancing system and build quality give me a reasonable amount of confidence that...

first thing I noticed: this has more heft than I expected.That isn't automatically bad. Once balanced, the weight makes the whole thing feel planted and the stabilization works nicely. There is also plenty of adjustment travel in the sliding plates, which made balancing my camera much less annoying than rigs where I run out of rail right when I'm almost there.Still, weight adds up fast once the camera and lens go on. After holding the whole setup for a while, I definitely know I'm carrying it.Battery life is the other part I wish were better. It gets through normal use, but I wouldn't head into a long shooting day without thinking about charging or having a power plan.The balancing system is probably my favorite part. Enough movement to actually find the center of gravity without performing tiny mechanical miracles, and once it's dialed in I can stop touching it and shoot.

I will be comparing these to the DJI Ronin series as I use those exclusively for work and have quite a bit of time with them.The Zhiyun felt like a mixture between the Ronin 5 and 4 for me. Setup on the Zhiyun was actually friendlier than the Ronin sense it doesn't give you that annoying "You can only use this 5 times before you have to register it prompt" the Ronin does. Phyiscally setting up the Weebill feels close to the Ronin except some of the adjustment areas are in a different location. Balancing the gimbal is super easy and doesn't time at all.Something the Ronin 5 has which the Zhiyun doesn't have is the one touch expanding tripod feet. It's really hard to go back to the three movement feet that the Zhiyun still has once that features used. It's incredible. Falcam does have a version of that that works very well called the treeroot.The gimbal is very smooth and easy to use. I like the feel of the grip, and the slight angle forward grip wise is noticeable and appreciated though the screen feels like it should be angled also.I like that a lot of same button presses on the Weebill match the Ronin, like double tap to center, etc.Something that the Weebill has that the Ronin doesn't is that neat fill light. Odd it's off on the side, but it is useful in some situations.Something very different is the built in battery on the Weebill reminds me more of the Ronin Mini. Battery life hasn't been an issue with the weebill, but I don't think it would be easy for work as the Rronin has where the batteries can be swapped whenever needed.This probably wouldn't matter for a lot of people, but it's huge for my company is the Smallrig Vmount mount for where the Raveneye unit on the Ronin goes is incredible. Gives our gimbals 6~7 hours of shooting rather than 90 minutes normal. There isn't an option like that on the Weebill. Yes there are side mounts, but we use those for extra handles. The Weebill feels like it would be great for small gigs and stuff, but for long productions like my company does, the weebill might not work as well.For the price, I enjoyed the Weebill and think it's a good alternative to the Ronin for a majority of users. I've talked to other weebill users and I they tend to love the product also and I can see why. While I still will use my Ronin's for work, this Gimbal will be great for some projects.

There are camera accessories that technically improve your setup, and then there are pieces of gear that fundamentally change how willing you are to actually use the setup.The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 5 falls into the second category for me.I've been around gimbals long enough to remember when getting a stabilized camera rig balanced correctly felt like preparing a small spacecraft for launch. My previous serious gimbal was a ZHIYUN Crane V.2, which I bought roughly seven years ago. The WEEBILL 5 feels like several generations of camera technology arrived at once.And yes, the footage is beautifully smooth, but that's almost the least interesting part.The biggest upgrade for my workflow is the mounting system. ZHIYUN's dual-layer quick-release Arca-Swiss design makes moving the camera between different support systems dramatically faster. I can go from gimbal to tripod to my other camera support gear without turning the whole process into a balancing ritual.That matters enormously when you're shooting something fast-paced.A gimbal that takes too long to set up eventually becomes the piece of equipment you leave in the bag because you can't be bothered. This one actually encourages me to bring it along.The balancing system also inspires confidence. Once I've properly balanced the camera, I feel much less concerned about having to rebuild the setup constantly throughout the day.Then there's the built-in fill light.This is one of those features that sounds like a gimmick until you actually shoot with it. For evening footage, particularly dancing and reception footage, having a light integrated directly into the gimbal is incredibly useful. It gives you another way to keep your ISO under control without having to introduce another piece of equipment into an already crowded shooting environment.It's not a replacement for a serious lighting setup, but that's not what it's trying to be. It's a compact, immediately available source that can rescue a shot when ambient light gets ugly.The WEEBILL 5 also has a built-in touchscreen, multiple operating modes, vertical shooting capability, and enough payload capacity for serious mirrorless setups. The controls and axis locks are straightforward, and setup isn't nearly as intimidating as a gimbal of this capability might suggest.Most importantly, the footage looks good.I'm increasingly obsessed with building a compact, high-quality mirrorless production setup, and this fits beautifully into that direction. I'm currently very much in the "someone please give me a Sony α7 V and let me make irresponsible cinematography decisions" phase of my life, and a gimbal like this makes that particular temptation significantly worse.For wedding videography, studio work, YouTube production, events, and general run-and-gun shooting, the WEEBILL 5 makes a strong case for itself.I've gone from thinking a gimbal was becoming an inconvenience to actively wanting one in my kit again.That's probably the strongest endorsement I can give it.