Snoppa VMATE 4K Camera-Gimbal. Great Portability. Snoppa Vmate gimbal is a handheld compact high-performance 4k smart camera integrated with a micro 3-axis stabilizing system. weight as light.
Snoppa VMATE 4K Camera
the snopper v m8 if you ask me this is
the only palm-sized gimbal with a camera
which is worth comparing to the DJI Osmo pocket
so let’s see what this device is funded by
a crowdfunding project can do
despite the obviously tempting specs the
price and maybe the better user
experience
welcome tech for our channel my name is Abbas and it’s my
favorite part of the year getting warmer
so many colors
and fresh air and a wide variety of
awesome new tech which is shouting
come and get me this form factor in
particular is getting very interesting lately
and this year there have been a number
of devices of that kind to prove that
point and the snap of v-made is one of those
DJI Osmo pocket
which we knew about for quite some time
thanks to the IndieGoGo campaign
which again turned out to be little
disappointing for some of the backers
the device is priced at around (price maybe change when you buy)
dollars and is linked in the down below
and because that’s really close to the
DJI Osmo pocket
which started it all it needs to be
outstanding in order to make things work
if snapper really wants to make it mainstream at all
because it looks like they as a company
are very comfortable using crowdfunding campaigns it’s
definitely not cheap but consider the fact that it has
the functionality of a good action camera
and a good stabilizer packed into one single
a device we know now about the direct competition
and you’re going to see a lot of footage
shot with the snapper v-made
as well as a side-by-side comparison to
the GoPro hero8 Osmo pocket and so on
with the main idea you to be able to
make the right buying decision whether
Do you need that one or not
Microphone Tests Outdoors
time for the usual microphone tests outdoors
rather a quiet day no winds probably can
hear the birds singing if the microphone
is good enough
and uh maybe some cars would be passing
i really picked this place because i
know it’s a very challenging environment
and i think it’s going to expose one of
the weaknesses
that this camera has and that’s the way
it handles certain changes in the
environment when it’s
rather dark and when it switches to certainly very
bright environment i think this for
example works much
better in the DJI Osmo pocket uh
the good part is that all
although the field of view of the camera
is marked to be
i think it was 92 or 80 some fish degrees
it’s pretty good for vlogging pity that
at least for the moment
they say that the only supported
an external microphone is Bluetooth based
meaning that you can use your
Bluetooth wireless headphones but could be that
a wired microphone is also on its way
let’s begin with unboxing the vm8 it
arrives in this pack
while it’s not giving you the most
premium and wow feeling about what’s coming
No Buttons Except the Power
it’s rather acceptable and better than the average
keep in mind that unboxing the similar
sized dreamy palm was a little
disappointing
and the fiery pocket was kind of alright
the approach that snapper
show here is very different from every
other devices of that kind that you know
absolutely no buttons except the power
button everything is operated through
the touch screen
which is both the greatest strength and
weakness at the same time
greatness because the display gives you
better flexibility weakness because
there are people whose thumb is almost
as big as the 122-inch screen
luckily my fingers are not that large
and i seem to be coming along with it
pretty well now those of you that have
used the Osmo pockets know-how unreliable
the USB connection feels the vm8 has
a different and way better solution
one of these two plastic things is meant
to be a phone holder
and this is how it looks like in action honestly
seeing that kind of connection makes me
think the Osmo pocket solution is from
the ice age
Big Advantage of Snoppa VMATE 4K Camera
despite the better responsiveness via
USB and yes we just pointed to the other
there’s integrated 5g wifi which means that
if we compare the functionally
equivalent awesome
pocket combo the price difference is
close to (?) bucks already
in favor of the snopper v-made some
technical specs
in short, it provides very decently
hardware for its size
and in my opinion the only similarly
a sized device that truly challenges the
optics of the dji’s pocket cam gimbal
the sensor inside is 1 by 2 3 inches
with f by 2.0 aperture which is fixed
and sounds like the same specs as the
DJI Osmo pocket in fact
as for the processor likely the h2
this is my guess of course but it’s
definitely an umbrella processor
a company that used to supply GoPro with
their socs until recently
this is overall quite a good combo and
snapper claim up to 200 megabits bitrate in 4k at 60
frames per second which is the highest output you can
count on from all the existing similar devices
3-axis mechanical stabilization we
mentioned the wi-fi
Weight Smart Tracking Device
Bluetooth the beautiful 1.22-inch screen
160-minute battery life operation
no tripod mount screw no easy fit for
extended microphone
only 118 grams of weight smart tracking
and advanced focusing system
and while the autofocus was awesome i
never managed to make the tracking work
now let me speak about the unique
features the Bluetooth
lets you use any external Bluetooth
microphone and the idea is to be able to
record whatever you want through the airpods
or through a wireless Bluetooth headset
thing is that most of these microphones
are far from being great
an external microphone through the USB
the port should technically be possible
but practically doesn’t seem to be
planned I tried a few different types c
to microphone conversions
none of them worked for the gimbal
controls the panning is up to 400 degrees
more than any other pocket camera gimbal
and now the good question is
how to take advantage of all that since
there is no physical joystick
and the smartphone app seems to be the
only good option to use it
which turns it into something with
questionable usefulness
the bitrate of the videos clearly
Footage Really Sharp
surpasses the competition by far
and i can say a lot of good things about
the footage really sharp maybe too sharp even
colors are good there’s no d cine-like or flat color mode
but you can still do a lot of colors
grading in post-production
however, looks like between the different
firmware versions there are significant
differences between the color science applied
and this makes me think snoppa is still
in search of the best color balance
let’s hope they really have the flat
a mode in mind from the nice and practical
features the tripod thread
is missing and this is such a shame yes you can get such
through an additional accessory but
that’s not cool at all
i consider this a very serious
drawback if you want to be the leader
you need to be better in many ways, not just the price
and yeah i think you get the point now
with mixed feelings, we’re moving on to
the software side
it’s very touch screen oriented call me
old-fashioned
The Display Touch Performance
i prefer having more buttons and so far
the gimbal that i like the most about the controls
is the femi palm or alternatively the
Osmo pockets with the control wheel
the display touch performance does not
offer the right level of precision although
this is the best kind of implementation
I’ve seen so far
thanks to this small green bar which is
showing the acceleration level
and you may be able to create some
really smooth panning or rolling
transitions
but you need to be very patient swiping
actions control most of it
swipe right and you can access the modes
video photo panoramas in slow motion
the usual suspects are here in fact very
easy to switch between them
swipe up and you can control the
resolution frames per second and so on
nice to see 24 and 25 respectively 48
and 50 frames per second besides the standard
30-60 fps meaning that paul
and cinematic choices are here well partially
you have some manual controls like iso
exposure and white balance
but no shadow control which immediately
will make most professionals dismiss it
as a hobby grader only
Another nice feature of Snoppa VMATE 4K Camera
swipe down to choose the gimbal mode and
we have all the options you may really need
took me a while how to enable the selfie
mode it happens with
swiping quickly to the left and then to the right
somewhat acceptable another nice feature
is that the lens tilts at 90 degrees
not sure how useful those guesses if you
need to shoot for tik-tok
it’s gonna count now let’s comment on
the stabilization and the footage quality
clearly better than the feiyu text
pockets where we are all waiting for a
decent firmware update to improve the
operation
the vm8 is almost as good as the femi
palm and the DJI Osmo pocket
so it’s really good but my gimbal had
weird vibration and i can still feel it under certain
angles look like that with this
specific specific.04 firmware update
a lot of people are affected which is a
disgrace for a device that is mostly
popular for its gimbal features
most of the issues go away after i
updated to a newer version
but now the colors are not that good and in fact
Clean Interface of Snoppa VMATE 4K Camera
while troubleshooting and calibrating it
for the fifth consecutive time
because the horizon was a little twisted
i realized that I’ve never ever had to calibrate
the DJI Osmo pocket ever since I have it
and that’s how good it is at least i can highly recommend the app
simple to use clean interface very functional you
can’t go wrong with it
and as mentioned earlier significantly
enhances your shooting experience
the video quality is really good and
that’s the only device that truly
compares to its more expensive DJI cousin
not only because of the similar field
view which is 81 degrees
but also due to the possibility of autofocus
and I’m actually impressed with the
autofocus performance
it feels better if we compare it to the
Osmo pocket in similar conditions
and also tends to blur the background a little nicer
at least in my opinion and if you’re a bulky freak
you might actually like that some weird
things may be happening sometimes though
i had a freeze condition once and couldn’t shut it down
also, some app features are not ready and enabled yet
after such a long time of development
so in the end, i can say that I’m with
quite mixed feelings about the snapper v8
Option for Bluetooth Microphone
don’t get me wrong it’s a device with
huge potential to be one of the best out there
very high bitrate footage but no flat color mode
option for Bluetooth microphone however
no wired external option
yet good autofocus and also iso and
exposure manual control
however no option to adjust the shutter
speed and properly follow the 180-degree filming rule
good stabilization but some vibrations
in certain angles 400 degrees
panning ability however no joystick you see
so many controversial contrasts that it
makes it hard to give it a clearly
positive verdict
or maybe we better keep things simple a
budget-oriented device
with a lot of potential and some pro
limitations very suitable for vlogging on
youtube and TikTok both the snap of
v-mate is here for you
if you need more pro-grade features i
think the master
even a whole year after being released still is
the DJI Osmo pocket that’s it for
today’s episode
I hope you find it useful and look
around in the following weeks for
detailed comparison between
all these pocket–sized camera gimbals
it’s been a great chance to see you
around and looking forward to meeting you again in
the comments below and
in the next episode and before jumping
to the next article hit that like
and subscribe for more cool tech articles Abbas
and wish you a wonderful day cheers.
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