Who owns a Z-Axis? Is it a big difference, or can you make it with gentle walks and warp stabilizer in after effects/premiere pro?

I have a z-axis, sometimes it's great, other times it's a pain in the butt. It's good when you're moving, but if you stop it bounces a bit. Someone very good at the ninja walk will do better without it, for most I think it does a good job.

I hate warp stabiliser, I can spot it a mile away, distorted images, wavy lines through it, reduced resolution.

Here is me walking around a meadow with the z-axis, not trying very hard to keep it steady

Looking good! Even the turns look quite subtle. Thanks for sharing

Hello, The Z-Axis did not work well for me, I returned it.  Too much of a contraption for my tastes.  Others seem to like it

early Posted at 2017-2-2 07:56
Hello, The Z-Axis did not work well for me, I returned it.  Too much of a contraption for my tastes.  Others seem to like it

shot the opening of this video with my osmo+ w/ z-axis & rhode video micro.  other shots were with a pair of lumix GX85's and Mavic Pro

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2017-2-1 03:21
I have a z-axis, sometimes it's great, other times it's a pain in the butt. It's good when you're moving, but if you stop it bounces a bit. Someone very good at the ninja walk will do better without it, for most I think it does a good job.

I hate warp stabiliser, I can spot it a mile away, distorted images, wavy lines through it, reduced resolution.

Actually with these inertial stabilizers, it is better to take shorter higher cadence steps, because that oscillation will be  absorbed easier than very slow (the system will follow that), or single impulse (the  camera will fly and without shock absorber (like on the DJI bike attachment) it will bounce for a while. Your video is plenty good, if there was any other object, e.g. person or animal walking, you'd mot notice the ever so slight bobbing. It's impossible to get it 100% perfect anyway.

The video is not keeping with the image detail, the resolution is set up too high or the stream too low, or the camera can't keep up.

Warp stabilizer cannot get rid of the 'bob' when walking, as this video I made shows. To eliminate the bob you need the z-axis.

1:08 in I am walking near a fence. This is with warp stablizer applied...

ComPH Posted at 2017-2-13 14:44
Actually with these inertial stabilizers, it is better to take shorter higher cadence steps, because that oscillation will be  absorbed easier than very slow (the system will follow that), or single impulse (the  camera will fly and without shock absorber (like on the DJI bike attachment) it will bounce for a while. Your video is plenty good, if there was any other object, e.g. person or animal walking, you'd mot notice the ever so slight bobbing. It's impossible to get it 100% perfect anyway.

The video is not keeping with the image detail, the resolution is set up too high or the stream too low, or the camera can't keep up.

Thanks, good tips. Video wasn't the best, struggles with that much green I think.

frypan Posted at 2017-2-14 03:03
Warp stabilizer cannot get rid of the 'bob' when walking, as this video I made shows. To eliminate the bob you need the z-axis.

1:08 in I am walking near a fence. This is with warp stablizer applied...

Wow , you've got some great shots in there, are they all Osmo ?

Fences must be everyones nemesis, got a shot just like that one

Vertical.Creati Posted at 2017-2-5 08:30
shot the opening of this video with my osmo+ w/ z-axis & rhode video micro.  other shots were with a pair of lumix GX85's and Mavic Pro

https://vimeo.com/201691580

Nice, I think like ComPH said having something moving in frame helps to smooth it all out, something I'll be keeping in mind now.

I just finished my z-axis stabilizer prototype, and concluded, that unless you somehow get six axis stabilizer, there will always be some motion artifacts, some even caused by the stabilizers. To be fair, the existent gimbals (mainly 3 axis), solve the most annoying problems. This is followed by the z-axis, which is predominant if you walk or run. However, as you are holding the stabilizer, your arm moves as an arc, so as the z-axis is a tangent to the arc, the camera actually moves back and forth in x-axis (and inadvertently in y-axis as well) which can be seen in certain frames. If you look at this video: ,  at about 1:31 you will see that when he is moving his arm up/down, there is actually "zooming" x-axis movement going on, due to the arc movement of both his arm as well as the stabilizer itself (it moves up and down in arc motion). This could be minimized by making the arm long, but then the rig gets very heavy on the arm and hand holding it. Zooming in will make the problems even worse, best to stay as wide angle as possible. Either way, without doing five or six axis stabilizer, there will be visible artifacts under certain conditions even with the z-axis stabilizer. Even uneven speed, like walking up the steps or over terrain will show as sort of "bobbing" at the frame edges. Even though z-axis stabilizer solves most of the issues, it is not smoothing everything precisely. I have video that shows it even better, but it is not ready for release yet. Maybe in the future.

frypan Posted at 2017-2-14 03:03
Warp stabilizer cannot get rid of the 'bob' when walking, as this video I made shows. To eliminate the bob you need the z-axis.

1:08 in I am walking near a fence. This is with warp stablizer applied...

This looks quite good doesn't it?

Wottt Posted at 2017-2-18 03:09
This looks quite good doesn't it?

Yes, warp stabilizer will improve the stability of normal Osmo footage. I was happy with the footage I shot. If you can be bothered applying it in post, it may give you results, but also it can be a bit painful to apply.

The z-axis is better because it eliminates head-bob, which warp stabilizer cannot.

Sometimes you want as little equipment on the shoot as possible. Z-axis  is one more thing to attach. So you need to figure out what you prefer. For improving stability when walking - Osmo with Z-axis, or Osmo + warp stabilizer. My vote is the z-axis. I need to buy one, but have not been shooting much video lately.

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2017-2-1 03:21
I have a z-axis, sometimes it's great, other times it's a pain in the butt. It's good when you're moving, but if you stop it bounces a bit. Someone very good at the ninja walk will do better without it, for most I think it does a good job.

I hate warp stabiliser, I can spot it a mile away, distorted images, wavy lines through it, reduced resolution.

very buttery walk, thanks !