At the Interbee show in Japan, Wenpod were showcasing a new action camera gimbal that used a very clever kinetic controller. The system uses a small hand controller that attached to your smartphone. As you move the phone around the gimbal mimics any movement you make – in a similar way to the way Freefly’s system works with the Mimic controller and their Movi gimbals. Control of the Wenpod gimbal is via bluetooth and in the case of a GoPro you can continue to use the regular iOS app to get a live view of what you are shooting.
While there did seem to be a very slight delay from when you moved the controller to when the action camera actually moved I did find it to be very usable. If you don’t want to use the kinetic controller you can press a button on the controller and use a regular joystick to move the camera around.
The gimbal itself is a compact unit with a flat mounting base which can be mounted onto a wide variety of handgrips, suction mounts, clamps and poles.
Like several other newer gimbals the Wenpod model has encoders that allow the gimbal to positioned at any angle by simply holding it in place for a few seconds. When you let go the orientation is maintained.
The Wenpod action camera gimbal is expected to be available by the end of the year for around $330US.
