Holiday Gift Guide – The best new tripods, sliders and gimbals of 2023
Nov 30, 2023
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Another lap around the sun means another winter holiday season! Black Friday may be over, but here are some more gift ideas this giving season, even if you’re giving to yourself. In this guide, we’re looking at some of our favourite gear of 2023.
Day four is sliders, tripods and gimbals! So, these are some of our favourite new camera support products released over the last year. We’ve already posted our cameras, lenses and lighting gift guides, but visit back tomorrow for our final guide covering accessories and gadgets.
DJI RS3 Mini – $369
Over the last couple of years, gimbals for mirrorless cameras have started to become smaller and lighter. They manage to do this without sacrificing much in terms of weight capacity, too. DJI is one of the leaders in handheld mirrorless gimbals, and the DJI RS3 Mini follows this trend. It’s small and comes with a very compact price tag, too. Yet, it can still handle cameras as large as the Sony FX3 and A7 III.
Insta360 Flow – $159
A newcomer to the world of gimbals in 2023 is Insta360. While it doesn’t hold mirrorless cameras, the Insta360 Flow is the company’s attempt at making a smartphone gimbal. And in my experiences using it, it’s pretty good, too. It’s designed more for social media content creators rather than filmmakers, but it offers some excellent features. Combined with the Insta360 App, its active tracking features to follow your subjects are extremely good.
Accsoon TopRig S40 – $349
There are a plethora of small motorised camera sliders on the market today. Most of them aren’t that great. But there are a few that are pretty good. The Accsoon TopRig S40 is an example of one that looks pretty good. It’s a recent release, but if it’s as reliable as Accsoon’s other products, this one may be a winner. It offers 8.9″ of travel, with controls on the slider as well as from a smartphone app. For content creators who want to stay compact and mobile, it’s worth checking out.
ProMaster Chronicle – $319
The ProMaster Chronicle is a All-in-1 tripod offering a range of functionality that most tripods don’t. Many of them may allow you to unscrew a leg to turn it into a monopod, but the ProMaster Chronicle goes much further than that, providing a number of different tripod and monopod configurations to best suit the task at hand. Ideal for those who often find themselves not knowing which type of tripod or monopod they’ll need beforehand.
Benro CyanBird – $189
Carbon fibre tripods are great. They’re generally lightweight and offer great stability. Traditionally, though, they’re pretty expensive. Benro’s trying to bust that trend with the Benro CyanBird. Designed primarily for vloggers, this lightweight and compact tripod costs less than $200. Bringing the price down this low is no mean feat, especially if you still want to deliver a useful product. It’s a great option if you want versatility on a budget.
Zhiyun Crane 4 – $669
The Zhiyun Crane 4 is the latest in Zhiyun’s Crane lineup. It offers a similar form factor to the Zhiyun Weebill 3, but beefier. The Crane 4 is designed for use with heavier rigs, like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera series and large mirrorless cameras. It’s available in several packages with various accessories, such as a sling handle, depending on your needs.
YC Onion Pineta – $339
The YC Onion Pineta carbon fibre monopod was long overdue when it was finally released. It’d been teased for quite a while before they actually hit the market. It was hotly anticipated due to its promise of speedy use on location – a lack thereof being the downfall of many monopods. The Pineta offers simple and easy one-touch height adjustment, allowing you to adapt quickly and easily to any situation out in the wild.
Marbl Orbit – $1,799
The Marbl Orbit is a unique product in the photography and filmmaking market. It’s an overhead camera rig designed for filming orbital shots spinning around a subject. However, it’s not just for shooting small products. It’s big enough to capture full humans, including those fancy Michael Bay hero shots. But that’s not all. It can also move as slowly as 1 rotation per 48 hours, offering some excellent timelapse opportunities.
Benro Theta – $599
Every now and then, a new piece of gear comes along with the potential to redefine a genre. The Benro Theta is one such piece of gear. This carbon fibre tripod is also the world’s first self-levelling tripod. Just set it down, press a button and it does its own thing. Levelling tripods is why I usually go with video tripods when shooting landscapes. The Benro Theta is much lighter than most video tripods and solves one of the biggest complaints about regular tripods – especially if you shoot panoramics!
YC Onion Stability Arms Pro – $109
When mounting a slider to a single tripod, one of the biggest issues you get is stability. Gravity works against you as you get closer towards each end of your slide. This is where YC Onion’s Stability Arms Pro come into play. They attach at one end to your tripod’s legs and at the other end to your slider. These create a strong triangular structure to provide maximum support and prevent wobble and horizon shifts as your camera moves along the slider.
Overview
Sliders, tripods and gimbals are staples of photography, filmmaking and timelapse. And this is our list of new favourites for this year. What’s been your favourite camera support product of 2023?
Were this year’s sliders, tripods and gimbals all that you hoped they’d be? Will you be treating yourself or a loved one to something from this list? What are you hoping for in 2024?
We’ve already posted our cameras, lenses and lighting gift guides, but visit again tomorrow as we release our final guide covering accessories and gadgets.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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