ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S Review

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S is a compact yet powerful gimbal stabiliser designed to bring professional-grade stability and control to your video shooting experiences. Despite its relatively small size and low price point, the WEEBILL 3S is robust and capable of handling a wide range of camera and lens combinations, from mirrorless setups to heavier DSLRs.

Part of the reason for this is that it comes equipped with an advanced motor system, allowing for precise and smooth camera movements. This has enabled ZHIYUN to rapidly reduce the size of their gimbals over the last couple of years into these lighter-weight models.

This gimbal offers various features, including a built-in fill light, Bluetooth shutter control, and various shooting modes like timelapse and panoramic, all easily managed via the intuitive ZY Play app. It sports a unique ergonomic design, featuring a sling grip for comfortable use over extended periods, and its 11.5 hours of battery life ensures it’s ready for long shooting sessions.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S is designed for the mirrorless and midlevel video market. The features as standard give you plenty of options and potential to capture stunning professional footage, but what separates this gimbal from the competition is the compatibility with a large range of advanced accessories such as focus motors and transmission options.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S is extremely well made and has a design that blends utility with user comfort with its solid mix of metal, rubber, and high-quality plastic materials.

The gimbal’s ergonomic design is one of its key strengths. The sling grip, which allows for under-slung use, greatly enhances its handling and comfort, especially during extended periods of use. Coupled with the small wrist rest, it’s all surprisingly versatile and comfortable.

The control layout is also easy to use, with a user-friendly interface that even beginners can easily navigate. Notably, the dual-function control wheel for adjusting the brightness and colour temperature of the fill light is conveniently placed next to the power and menu buttons.

One slight drawback is the need to re-clamp the base plate when switching between portrait and landscape modes. Although not a difficult process, it does require you to switch off the gimbal and re-balance it, which could be inconvenient in fast-paced shooting scenarios.

A major part of the gimbal for the advanced features is the App which gives you access to more advanced settings such as timelapse and panorama.

One of the features that is becoming more normal is the locking axis. This helps protect the gimbal when transported and is good to see here. When it comes to transporting and keeping everything together, the gimbal comes in a pull-string sport-style bag, perfect for secure storage and hassle-free transport.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S packs in the features that help to distinguish it from the competition, and provids a very tempting solution for anyone looking for a lightweight gimbal stabaliser.

One of the standout features of the WEEBILL 3S is its built-in fill light, located at the front of the stabiliser. This light can be adjusted using the dual-function control wheel on the side of the gimbal, enabling you to easily modify the brightness and colour temperature as needed. This feature and the way that it is easily controlled through the dual access dial sets a trend of the usability of the rest of the gimbals features.

Everything to do with the opertation of the gimbal and camera for that matter is easily accessable. Anoyther great example of this is with the Bluetooth shutter control, a useful feature that enables you to remotely control the camera’s shutter using the button next to the motion joystick. This eliminates the need to manually trigger the camera manually, or have wires linking the camera and gimbal.

If you’re looking to explore more advanced shooting techniques, the WEEBILL 3S offers a range of additional modes that can be accessed through the ZY Play app. These include timelapse and panoramic modes, which are both handy additions.

The WEEBILL 3S also features outstanding battery life. With a quoted time of around 11.5-hours, this gimbal can keep going for extended shooting sessions as long as you have everything correctly balanced.

While the gimbal packs in the features it also maintains an intuitive and user-friendly approach. The small onboard interface is easy to use and the app backs it up with a clear UI.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S shows its capability in use with a solid performance in various shooting conditions. Through the test, I balanced several cameras including the Fujifilm X-T4, and Sony A7 III and attempted the Canon EOS R5 C. The R5 C was a weight too far, while the others balanced beautifully.

Overall the gimbal’s stabilisation is impressive and as you switch through the modes the motors spring into life re-acting efficiently to the motion as you move. The speed of the motors is the most impressive feature, removing the shake that you would usually associate with handheld footage. When walking there is the operator’s skill to contend with to avoid any natural bob as you walk, but the general three-axis stabilisation is fast and faultless.

While the stabilisation is automatic the ability to correct with the joystick is a major advantage. Having the mode, record and joystick all in reach of your thumb makes it’s use incredibly easy.

In some instances when heavier lenses were used there were slight wobbles as the focal length was adjusted, most were easily balanced by the gimbal, but on the occasions where the balance wasn’t quite right a quick rebalance always rectified any issues.

The in-built fill light is a great feature, especially in low-light conditions. Its adjustability through the control wheel is simple, enabling you to alter the brightness and colour temperature easily. While it can’t replace an external light source in more demanding scenarios, it works well as a supplementary light source.

Battery performance is another area where the WEEBILL 3S shines. It sustains power remarkably well, with no discernible degradation noticed over time. Its 11.5-hour battery life allows for extended shooting sessions, a feature that will be appreciated by professionals and enthusiasts. I will point out that the most I used the gimbal in one session was around six hours and even then it wasn’t in constant use.

The gimbal’s silent operation is a major advantage, eliminating any potential noise interference with video recording. Its performance inside and out was equally good with the only issue coming from the operator and forgetting to adopt the gimbal walk and therefore introducing some bob in the footage.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S offers several special modes, such as motion timelapse or follow focus, which can be set up through the ZY Play app. The app integration is seamless and adds another layer of versatility to the gimbal’s already impressive performance.

Really the ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S performs exceptionally well, ticking all the boxes for what you would expect from a professional gimbal, albeit at the entry level of the market. It is reliable, versatile, and delivers a solid performance, making it a worthy investment for anyone looking to enhance their videography.

The ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S is a great gimbal, especially when you consider the value it offers. It may not be essential to all videographers, but it enhances the quality of footage by providing professional-grade stabilisation in a compact and user-friendly design. This feature alone makes it a worthwhile addition to your kit.

The gimbal’s advanced feature set, including the built-in fill light, versatile shooting modes, and long battery life, will significantly improve your filming experience, offering greater creative freedom.

In a market filled with various gimbals, the ZHIYUN WEEBILL 3S stands out due to its robust construction, easy-to-access performance, and designed features.

This gimbal hits the mark between professional features, value and ease of use. For a beginner, it’s completely accessible and easy to use, while for professional videographers it’s well built, provides solid performance for smaller cameras, is lightweight and easy to use and maintain and best of all it’s cheap! Then there are the accessories which once added launch this from an excellent entry-level professional gimbal into another league.