Need equipment help for videoing my SWGE walkthrough w. my cell phone

TigerLaw

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 17, 2000
Hey everyone hope you can help me out with some basic info.

Have an upcoming trip to WDW specifically to go see the opening of Galaxy's Edge. I have seen several videos of people at the Disneyland version where they are using their cell phones and videotaping as they walk through the land with what looks like closed in selfie stick holders. I would like to use something similar but I thought the whole thing was that those sticks were banned from the parks.

Can any of you experts out there help me understand what is being used in these situations and/or provide any product recommendations? (I know I could just get a GoPro for this I just really don't want to spend the money on that.)

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Google gimbal for smartphone. You'll get lots of stuff. They aren't selfie sticks.

Gopros are garbage for this type of thing by the way. The video is awful. Gopro is used when you have to use it, think action. Snowboarding, etc. Something you can't hold a camera.

What's your goal here? I have to say you are likely going to be disappointed just jumping into this with a smartphone, the footage is not going to be great. You really need to pracitice first.
 
Google gimbal for smartphone. You'll get lots of stuff. They aren't selfie sticks.

Gopros are garbage for this type of thing by the way. The video is awful. Gopro is used when you have to use it, think action. Snowboarding, etc. Something you can't hold a camera.

What's your goal here? I have to say you are likely going to be disappointed just jumping into this with a smartphone, the footage is not going to be great. You really need to pracitice first.

Nothing fancy. Just want something decent to watch in the future from the first time I walk into SWGE. Nothing like professional vlogger use or anything like that.
 
Fair enough, seems like you have realistic expectations. A gimbal will help you get a steady shot. That's what vloggers use generally. If you watch vloggers over a period of time though you'll notice that many of the good ones started out really badly. Tim tracker is a great example. His camera work to start with was horrible. Now it's great. Most of that is his skill, not his far better cameras. Which, last I looked at his camera set ups he had easily over 5k in gear now. That helps with the picture, but a poor picture is much easier to deal with than bad composition.
 


Look up either the DJI Osmo Mobile Gimbal (around $150-170 USD) or the Zhiyun- Smooth-Q (around $100 USD). They'll work great with your smartphone, to stabilize footage.

Depending on the phone you have, you'll also be able to record in 4K (definitely 1080p), so it'll work fine for your purposes.
 
Also, take a look at the DJI Osmo Pocket, which is a hand sized 4K camera on its own 3-axis gimbal. It's incredibly small and light (166 grams or 4 ounces) and much easier to carry than a regular gimbal. The lens angle is similar to a phone and narrower than a Go Pro, so the video doesn't look distorted. It's $350, so more expensive than a phone gimbal.

You can bring a small tripod like a Gorilla pod into the park and mount your phone or camera on it. Security will ask you if extends and you're OK if the answer is no. I think issue with selfie sticks is a) they're annoying and b) I suspect someone used one on a ride, the phone hit something and then the phone hit another person on the ride.

I've also seen the Joby GripTight, which looks interesting.
 
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