Zhiyun Weebill 5 review

The Weebill 5 is Zhiyun’s latest small gimbal for mirrorless cameras, and the headline claim is that it is the world’s first AI-tracking gimbal with a built-in handgrip. While every gimbal in this class has traditionally needed a separate handle for low-angle or overhead shots, the Weebill 5 folds that handle into the body itself, switching between handheld and handgrip modes internally rather than bolting on an accessory.

It arrives in a small gimbal market that now really has three serious players, with the likes of Moza and Manfrotto, and others seemingly having disappeared at least. Zhiyun, DJI, and Hohem are the names worth comparing here, and each has its own recent AI-tracking model, including the DJI RS 4 Mini and the Hohem iSteady MT3 Pro. The Weebill 5 has to hold its own against both, and that’s tough, as both systems are excellent.

Interested in picking up the WeeBill 5 for an introdutory offer price then visit https://geni.us/Weebill5-Camerajabber

Early-bird offer: Sep 7–21
Standard Version: £20 off with code zywb520@
Combo Version: £25 off with code zywb5c25@
Amazon available from Sep 28

Dimensions: 210 x 65 x 317mm
Weight: 1,080g, about the same as two 550ml water bottles
Payload: Up to 3kg per Zhiyun’s Q&A; a separate footnote in Zhiyun’s materials states a 4kg maximum safe payload in both handgrip and extension pole mode [ADD HERE: confirm which figure is correct]
Handgrip: Built-in, all-in-one design, doubles as an extension pole.
Shooting modes: Low-angle, overhead and static, switchable with one control
AI tracking range: Up to 10m
AI tracking response time: 0.2 seconds or less
Occlusion recovery: Re-locks onto subject after occlusions of up to 10 seconds
Tracking subjects: People, pets and vehicles
Tracking controls: Quick-trigger button, touchscreen box selection, palm-raise gesture recognition
Touchscreen: 1.8 in, doubles as a monitor during low-angle shooting
Portrait mode: Native, switches without re-levelling
Fill light: 2700K-9000K colour temperature, CRI above 95, up to 2150 lux at 0.3m
Battery: Two 2600mAh cells, internal, not user-replaceable
Battery life: Up to 9 hours
Charging time: 2 hours for a full charge
Quick-release plate: Dual-layer, upper plate is Arca-Swiss standard
Expansion ports: 1/4in threaded ports on both sides of the handle’s pan axis
Connectivity: Bluetooth for camera shutter control from the handle
Kit, Standard: Weebill 5, double-layer quick-release plate, lens support bracket, tripod, USB-C to USB-C camera cable, USB-C cables, wrench, quick start guide
Kit, Combo: Standard, plus AI Module, handgrip wrist rest and a storage bag

The Weebill 5 weighs in at is 1,080 g and measures 210 x 65 x 317mm; it’s built with smaller mirrorless bodies in mind, though my Sony A7 IV with a 35mm lens fit absolutely fine, the box shoes one of the Sony compact FX Cine cameras on the box art which should give you an impression about the intended audience. The standout feature here should be the built-in handgrip, and sure enough it works exactly as advertised: no separate handle to carry, attach or lose, and switching between handheld and handgrip modes happens internally rather than by bolting anything on.

But, to me, the big feature is the build quality. This isn’t just an improvement on the Zhiyun gimbals of the past, which have always been good; this feels in another league. It’s solid, exceptionally well made, and one of the nicest pieces of kit that I’ve seen in a while, both build and aesthetics-wise.

Another thing that has changed is that when these compact gimbals first appeared, they came in hard foam cases that were cheap to make and, within a year, tended to fall apart. Zhiyun was no exception, and neither were any of my three DJI Ronin-S, still going, unlike the case they arrived in.

Those cheap cases have gone, but not from people’s memories. Now, gimbals arrive in some of the nicest semi-hard cases available, giving you an easy way to store and carry everything together with genuine protection, and the case supplied with the Weebill 5 is especially good.

The one part of the build that has actually got more complicated rather than less is the release mechanism. There is a dual quick-release system, one quick and one not so quick, depending on whether you are moving between mounts. In the heat of filming, that is a decision I do not want to be making, and it’s fiddly enough that I ended up putting tape around the levers on my review unit so I knew which one to use for adjustment and which for release.

Switching between landscape and portrait, a feature now common across small gimbals, involves turning the bracket round, and it takes a little practice before it becomes second nature. It’s easy enough once you have done it a couple of times, but it is not as instant as Zhiyun’s marketing suggests.

The battery is my other real reservation. It’s internal, which is fine when it works, but I could not find a quick or easy way to replace it once it eventually degrades. I now have several gimbals whose batteries have failed this summer. Because the cell is built into the grip rather than user-replaceable, that is a real problem, especially for anything stored for more than three months without use. My Moza Slypod Pro, one of my favourite accessories, currently sits unused for exactly this reason: a dead internal battery with no way in.

A run-through of the features shows how feature-packed Zhiyun has made this gimbal, especially with the fold-away handle and AI tracking. Low-angle, overhead, and static shots are all easy enough to control from the panel, and the gimbal’s stabilisation and tracking behaviour optimises the motion automatically for whichever you pick.

Zhiyun rates tracking at up to 10m with a response time of 0.2 seconds or less, and built-in occlusion recovery that re-locks onto a subject after being blocked for up to 10 seconds. You can start tracking three ways: a quick-trigger button for an instant lock, drawing a box on the touchscreen, or raising an open palm in frame for gesture-based tracking, which is particularly useful when shooting solo.

At 1.8 in, this is one of the best small gimbal touchscreens I have come across, clear and genuinely responsive, and switching between tracked subjects with a quick tap is quick. During low-angle shooting, it doubles as a monitor too, which removes the blind-shooting guesswork that used to come with this kind of low rig position. What’s good here is that because it uses the onboard camera system, there’s no complexity with trying to wire it into your camera.

Another useful feature is the built-in fill light, which covers 2700K to 9000K with a CRI above 95 and up to 2150 lux at 0.3m, all adjustable. The light is small and a little harsh as a source of illumination, but it does the job for lower-light conditions. In brighter conditions, if you are hoping to use it as an actual fill light, it doesn’t have the power for that. It’s a nice addition, not a replacement for proper lighting.

The dual-layer quick-release plate, Arca-Swiss standard on the upper plate, is fast once you know which lever does what, and native portrait mode switches without needing to re-level the gimbal from scratch. Two 1/4in expansion ports on the handle’s pan axis mean fill lights, microphones and monitors all have somewhere to bolt into/

Connected over Bluetooth to the Sony A7 IV, the Weebill 5 let me start and stop recording directly from the handle, and the response time was pretty decent. It feels intuitive and properly integrated, and unlike older systems, there is no cable involved at all.

Alongside the gimbal itself, Zhiyun offers a good range of accessories, including a video transmission unit I have used before on other kits and found genuinely impressive. Even if you never buy it, knowing the option exists can help you plan more ambitious filming projects in the future.

As I got started with the WeeBill 5, the first thing that impressed me was the build quality; it’s just exceptionally good and solid. In this review, I’m looking at the combo kit, which comes with the AI module, and it clicks firmly into place. Once attached and everything is switched on, after balancing the camera, it’s easy to see the enhancements since the WeeBill 3.

I would say the biggest change is that this is ground-up new, but even then, aside from the standard gimbal, the addition of AI tracking is the most relevant feature to what we now expect from these small devices.

Sure enough, as I started using the tracking, it was easy to compare it with the abilities of DJI and Hohem’s current small gimbals. What stood out in use was that the Weebill 5 could hold a comfortable distance between camera and subject while still locking on and tracking reliably, even when trees and other subjects obstructed the view.

One feature that really needed to be highlighted was the quick mode switch; when you switch from low-angle to overhead shots, tracking is most likely to be lost, and the Weebill 5’s automatic optimisation for whichever mode you are in helped keep the subject in frame.

For context, the Hohem iSteady MT3 Pro remains, in my view from testing, the one to beat specifically on tracking accuracy, and the DJI RS 4 Mini’s gesture-based tracking was a step up from its own predecessor. The Weebill 5 does not need to beat either outright; it needs to be competitive, and it is.

I used a Weebill 2 Pro until recently, largely because of its robust build, and the Weebill 5 is another step up in build quality. Against the Weebill 3 and 3S I reviewed in 2022 and 2023, the built-in handgrip and AI tracking are the real generational changes. Everything else; the touchscreen, the fill light, the quick-release system, feels like a refinement of a formula Zhiyun already had working well.

One issue I have with this and every small gimbal at the moment is that complexity keeps increasing rather than decreasing. The dual quick-release system is the clearest example on the Weebill 5 itself, useful once learned, unwelcome as a decision mid-shoot. It is a trade-off rather than a flaw, but it is worth going in with your eyes open.

The Weebill 5 is Zhiyun’s most complete small gimbal yet, and the built-in handgrip is exactly the kind of change that sounds minor on a spec sheet but matters every time you pick it up. AI tracking that genuinely competes with DJI and Hohem, one of the best touchscreens in this class, and a proper protective case round out a package that feels considered rather than iterated.

The dual quick-release system and the non-replaceable internal battery are my main issues and these are not nitpicks; they’re just worth knowing about before you buy rather than after. Neither stops this being an excellent gimbal. Both are worth Zhiyun addressing next time round.

Buy it if you want AI tracking and a built-in handgrip without carrying a separate handle attachment, and you’re seriously comparing it against the DJI RS 4 Mini or Hohem iSteady MT3 Pro. The tracking, touchscreen, and included case all justify the asking price.

Look elsewhere, or budget for spares, if a non-replaceable internal battery is a dealbreaker for a kit you plan to keep for years, and expect a short learning curve on the dual-release system rather than an instant, intuitive setup.

You want AI tracking without an external handle
You shoot solo and want gesture and box-selection tracking
You already use Zhiyun accessories like the video transmission unit
You want a genuinely good case included in the box

A user-replaceable battery matters to you long-term
You want the absolute simplest quick-release system
You need daylight-strength fill lighting built in

DJI RS 4 Mini: 890g, up to 2kg payload, and up to 13 hours of battery life, with gesture-based tracking that doesn’t need the app. Lighter and longer-lasting, but with a smaller payload ceiling than the Weebill 5.

Hohem iSteady MT3 Pro: from £329.99, 1,070g, 2.5kg payload, and to my mind still the one to beat specifically on tracking accuracy, though the build feels less premium than Zhiyun’s or DJI’s.

Zhiyun Weebill 3S: the previous Zhiyun generation, 1.21kg, 4.5kg payload and up to 11.5 hours of battery life, without the built-in handgrip or AI tracking.

I tested the Zhiyun Weebill 5 over four weeks, fitted with a Sony A7 IV, comparing tracking, handling and build directly against the Weebill 3, Weebill 3S and Weebill 2 Pro I have previously reviewed, and against the DJI RS 4 Mini and Hohem iSteady MT3 Pro. Testing covered all three shooting modes, AI tracking by trigger button, touchscreen box selection and gesture control, the built-in fill light, native portrait switching, Bluetooth camera control, and the quick-release and battery systems.