What’s not to Like About the Manfrotto MVG300XM Gimbal Stabilizer?
DJI seems to be the gimbal of choice for the majority of people these days, but there are some intriguing alternatives out there in camera stabilizer land, including the Manfrotto MVG300XM - the subject of today's review. What I found interesting about this gimbal in particular was its modularity, with the ability to use the handle as a wireless remote controller. I thought this, in and of itself, made the MVG300XM camera stabilizer a worthwhile purchase, but adding to the mix a decent payload, timelapse, and Track Video, made it a must-have in my book.
Real-World Use
Over the last few months I've made a habit of taking my Manfrotto MVG300XM gimbal and FUJIFILM X-T5 camera combo with me whenever I've had the opportunity - sometimes with the Manfrotto GimBoom, sometimes without. All-in-all, this has been a great setup, providing me with some amazing footage that should fit well into my documentary work. Some footage shot with the MVG300XM gimbal can be seen below, in the sample footage used for our review of the Manfrotto GimBoom.
Functionality
The gimbal head on the MVG300XM offers smooth camera movement using a joystick on the handle, or a dial (Multifunction Knob) on the left side. Whilst the joystick allows for movement on the pan & tilt axes, the dial offers single axis movement on the pan, tilt and roll axes individually, utilizing a nearby button to switch between them. Speed settings for the joystick can be adjusted between 1 and 100 for the pan and tilt axes individually, and, like the scroll wheel on a computer mouse, the directions can be reversed to suit your preference. Dial settings are also available through the Knob Settings menu, and offer not only speed, but also smoothness and dampening settings. For the most part, I prefer to use the joystick with speed settings on both axes set to around 33 - this provided for some smooth and steady camera moves, which I found quite impressive.
Next to the dial on the handle are A & B buttons, allowing for simple, repeatable movement between two points. Essentially, one only has to navigate to their desired starting point, press and hold the A button, then proceed to the end point and do the same with the B button. The start and end points are then saved, and the gimbal will move between them each time you hit the A or B button. I find this to be helpful when repeatable movements are needed, although sometimes there's a slight bump in the movement initially, making the first few frames unusable. The movement is smooth and stable though, even on the roll axis. Settings for this function allow the user to adjust the travel time between start and end points from 1 to 25 seconds. 10 seconds worked for much of what I shot, but 25 seconds makes for a nice slow move.
Follow Modes
Like most gimbals, the Manfrotto MVG300XM offers several Follow Mode options. The default mode is Pan Follow (PF), in which only the pan axis follows the movement of the user's hand. Pan and Tilt (PTF) Follow, and Pan, Tilt and Roll Follow (FPV) are the next two obvious choices, but there is also a Lock Mode, which keeps the camera direction fixed, not following the movement of the user's hand at all. The user can cycle between PF and Lock Mode using the M Button on the handle - a double tap on the M Button will take you to PTF Mode and a triple tap will move to FPV Mode. Any of the four modes can be selected by going into the menu as well, and pushing and holding the Trigger Button will push the gimbal into PTF Mode until the trigger is released.
Scenarios
The 300XM also offers multiple user options under the Scenario menu, including Timelapse, Inception Mode, Panorama, Portrait Mode, Selfie Mode, and Track Video. Inception Mode literally puts an interesting spin on things, by pointing the camera vertically on the tilt axis and rotating it around the axis. The menu options for Inception Mode are clockwise/counterclockwise motion, and single/infinite rotation. Although I played around with this mode a couple of times, for this review I stuck to the Timelapse and Track Video scenarios, as they are the most relevant to motion pictures.
The Timelapse scenario offers Motionlapse, Static Timelapse, and Hyperlapse as options. When selected, the user has the ability to set the desired Time, FPS and Interval, however, with Motionlapse additional settings are offered, giving the user the ability to add up to 10 waypoints and a Smoothness setting. Although I haven't put Hyperlapse to the test as of yet, I have used Static Timelapse and Motionlapse regularly and find them very useful, although I have run into some problems… which I'll discuss below.
The Track Video Scenario is an interesting capability as well, with the ability to move the camera between 10 different waypoints, and set the travel time between each, as well as the time the camera should be at rest at each waypoint. I've used this Scenario on several occasions for timelapse as well.
Summary
Overall, I found the setup and use of the MVG300XM modular gimbal to be relatively painless. Balancing the camera was quite straightforward, with the ability to calibrate the stabilizer with an Auto Tune function, or by adjusting the motor power for each axis separately. New users should note that adjusting the motor power is a must when mounting a new camera. Additionally, the gimbal has Horizon Calibration, which should be done in the following situations:
- The camera is not balanced.
- Following prolonged disuse.
- In case of extreme temperature variations.
The Quirks
As one would expect, the Manfrotto MVG300XM gimbal is not without flaws, and this wouldn't be much of a review without pointing them out... so, here are a few things that stood out:
The Static Timelapse is quite straightforward and produces some great results, however Motionlapse seems to have a bit of a ghost in the machine when using more than 2 waypoints. On several occasions, I attempted to use more than just a start and end point for a Motionlapse, and each time the gimbal took on a life of its own and ended up moving toward a random point in the sky, or on the ground below. I'm not sure if I'm making a mistake somewhere, or if it's an anomaly with my stabilizer, but I couldn't get it to work with anything more than 2 waypoints. With 2 however, everything worked well.
One thing I found that's also worth mentioning is that when shooting timelapse, the gimbal always began to capture images before the camera had reached its start point. Perhaps user error? I tried everything I could think of though, and each time I began the timelapse after setting the end point, or adjusting the smoothness, the camera would move to its start position, but actually start firing off frames before reaching it, making the first picture or two useless. I therefore suggest moving the camera into its first position before beginning the timelapse.
A final quirk occurred when I pushed the load capacity limit with my first MVG300XM setup. I mounted a BMPCC 6K Pro and Sigma 18-35mm lens, knowing this would be close to capacity, but still technically under. Once mounted, I balanced it and ran Auto Tune, then made a few moves - everything played nicely together... However, the next time I mounted this gimbal/camera combo it was a different story. For a moment it worked, but shortly thereafter the gimbal would start to buffet uncontrollably until I turned it off. Auto Tune had no effect, so I tried setting the motor power for each individual axis, re-balancing the camera, using different lenses, adjusting the calibration settings... nothing worked. Again, perhaps it was my lack of familiarity with the gimbal, but I could only surmise that, out of the box, the motors had more juice, but lost their oomph after some use.
I've used an MVG300XM / Fujifilm X-T5 / Sigma 18-50mm combo since then with no problems whatsoever, although I do find it necessary to use Auto Tune regularly.
Conclusions
I find the MVG300XM modular gimbal from Manfrotto to be a very useful addition to my kit, and decided to keep it for personal use after this review. I use it often for timelapse photography, smooth tracking shots, and as a jib replacement, when time and location make setting up a jib difficult. I've even used it to cheat slider shots by adding a Manfrotto GimBoom, tucking it under my arm, and doing a slow slide left and right.
So, what's not to like about the Manfrotto MVG300XM gimbal stabilizer? Not much really. Yes, there are a few quirks. Perhaps these are user error, or malfunctions with my unit specifically? I'm not entirely sure, but the problems I've run into aren't insurmountable, and certainly aren't deal-breakers for me. In fact, the only thing that bothers me about this gimbal is the touch screen, which I find to be unresponsive at times. I don't enjoy downloading an app for every piece of gear I own, so I'm not sure if that's the answer to the touch screen?
There are also a few features that I haven't tested out yet, which might add even more value to this stabilizer. I do enjoy separating the handle from the gimbal and using it remotely whenever the need arises. That's definitely one of the most interesting, and perhaps overlooked, functions of the MVG300XM. Is it the best gimbal out there? Perhaps not in some ways, but it likely has more functionality than many of its competitors. I certainly hope that Manfrotto follows it up with an even better successor to the MVG300XM gimbal in the very near future - one that I'll be sure to review!
