The sta­bi­li­zer for GoPro came­ras is a gre­at solu­tion for smo­oth and sta­ble fil­ming. Real­ly? What we are put­ting to test is a two-axes Gene­sis ESOX sta­bi­li­zer.

GoPro action came­ras bring many advan­ta­ges, but they do not featu­re any ima­ge sta­bi­li­za­tion sys­tem. So what if we wan­ted to obta­in a touch of this film effect bro­ught by smo­oth came­ra moves and sli­des? Spe­cial­ly desi­gned sta­bi­li­zers will come in han­dy here. We have put to test one of the­se devi­ces, Gene­sis ESOX model distri­bu­ted by Next 77 com­pa­ny on the Polish mar­ket.

First impression

The kit comes with eve­ry­thing that is needed to use the sta­bi­li­zer, asi­de for a GoPro action came­ra, obvio­usly. So the box con­ta­in a sta­bi­li­zer, bat­te­ries, char­ger,user manu­al and  a cord to char­ge the bat­te­ries thro­ugh an elec­tric soc­ket or USB com­pu­ter port. Inte­re­stin­gly eno­ugh, Gene­sis ESOX is power sup­plied by three Li-ion bat­te­ries, whi­le the kit con­ta­ins four pie­ces, so you can save one for later use.

When first unpac­ked, Gene­sis ESOX sta­bi­li­zer looks sophi­sti­ca­ted, yet quite “soft”.  The enti­re con­struc­tion is made of very light, dura­ble alu­mi­num, so the equ­ip­ment weighs only 300 grams — witho­ut a bat­te­ry and befo­re a came­ra instal­la­tion, obvio­usly.

The grip to hold the came­ra when fil­ming is rather short. For­tu­na­te­ly, the manu­fac­tu­rer have tho­ught abo­ut a firm hold that is ensu­red by distinct and rough gro­oves on the cen­ter column. The grip is top­ped with a but­ton to turn the sta­bi­li­zer on and off. The­re are also two small but­tons under­ne­ath a thumb used for ver­ti­cal came­ra move­ment con­trol.

With gyro­sco­pes, sen­sors and nume­ro­us cal­cu­la­tions, the com­mon­ly known GoPro action came­ra acqu­ires a com­ple­te­ly new face.

Atta­ching a came­ra to the sta­bi­li­zer is quite sim­ple, but requ­ires more skill than, let’s say, lens repla­ce­ment in a came­ra. GoPro is pla­ced in a spe­cial basket, and then faste­ned with two long screws. A came­ra may be moun­ted in one posi­tion only, so you won’t make a mista­ke. This brings some pros and cons at the same time, as the moun­ting posi­tion selec­ted by the manu­fac­tu­rer hin­ders the access to a came­ra­’s Wi-Fi but­ton which is cove­red by one of the gyro­sco­pes.

How to use stabilizer?

Once you unpack the sta­bi­li­zer, put the bat­te­ries insi­de and mount a came­ra, it is ready to use. We just press the but­ton under­ne­ath the grip and wait approx. ten seconds. Later the gyro­sco­pes start doing the­ir job and suc­cess­ful­ly sta­bi­li­ze you GoPro action came­ra. No cali­bra­tion or con­fi­gu­ra­tion is requ­ired — we turn the devi­ce on and it works.

Gene­sis ESOX is a two-axes sta­bi­li­zer, which means that it per­fec­tly sta­bi­li­zes came­ra­’s ver­ti­cal move­ments. Whi­le we move our hand up and down, our came­ra main­ta­ins its posi­tion and cre­ates smo­oth and sta­ble shot. Pan­ning to side­ways requ­ires a bit more atten­tion and pre­ci­sion, sin­ce we don’t have any gyro­sco­pes sup­port here.

Addi­tio­nal but­tons under­ne­ath a thumb allow for ver­ti­cal came­ra con­trol. So the­re is no need to move the sta­bi­li­zer to tilt our GoPro devi­ce up and down, pres­sing but­tons will suf­fi­ce. Unfor­tu­na­te­ly, we can­not adjust the ver­ti­cal move­ment spe­ed, and this would make came­ra move­ments even swi­fter. 

Verdict

Is Gene­sis ESOX sta­bi­li­zer worth our atten­tion? Yes, defi­ni­te­ly, but not for eve­ry­one. Here are the reasons.

Fir­stly, the devi­ce is che­ap. The sta­bi­li­ze­r’s pri­ce is aro­und PLN 950, which is a com­pa­ra­ble sum that we would spend for an older video came­ra or a lower GoPro model.  Quid pro quo, howe­ver —  Gene­sis ESOX gives sta­ble ver­ti­cal shots that we would­n’t obta­in with a tra­di­tio­nal GoPro “stick” or with a han­dheld came­ra.  Gene­sis Esox ensu­res much bet­ter effects than Ste­adi­cam Smo­othee, a renow­ned brand sta­bi­li­zer witho­ut gyro­sco­pes, that we used for the last seve­ral mon­ths.

The devi­ce­’s signi­fi­cant disa­dvan­ta­ge is the fact that a GoPro came­ra is atta­ched to the sta­bi­li­zer witho­ut its pla­stic casing. As a result the came­ra loses its water­pro­of quali­ties. This means that you can­not record with sta­bi­li­zer during rainy days, and espe­cial­ly when prac­ti­cing water sports. Snow­bo­ar­ding or a tra­di­tio­nal desk board can be risky as well. GoPro may be easi­ly dama­ged witho­ut its dura­ble casing. So care­ful­ly think thro­ugh in what con­di­tions you want to use a sta­bi­li­zer befo­re pur­cha­sing the devi­ce.

Gne­sis ESOX is per­fect for sta­bi­li­zing ver­ti­cal came­ra move­ments, e.g. the move­ment seen on the movie during wal­king. If you wish to redu­ce came­ra sha­kes to zero, prac­ti­cal­ly spe­aking, the sta­bi­li­zer will be just an ide­al tool. This is what we achie­ved:

Spe­cy­fi­ka­cja:

Model:	Gene­sis ESOX
Pro­duct Type:	Sta­bi­li­zer for GoPro HERO3 and HERO4 action came­ras.
Com­pa­ti­ble with the fol­lo­wing came­ra models:	GoPro HERO3 Whi­te GoPro HERO3+ Silver GoPro HERO4 Black GoPro HERO4 Silver
Power Sup­ply:	3x 16340 3.7V bat­te­ries
Maxi­mum wor­king time:	approx. 2 hours
Tem­pe­ra­tu­res Ran­ge:	10 – 50°C
Dimen­sions:	220x80x80mm
Mate­rial:	alu­mi­nium
Weight (with batteries/camera):	300/395g

We would like to express our gra­ti­tu­de to Next77 com­pa­ny for pro­vi­ding us with Gene­sis ESOX equ­ip­ment for testing.

 

---

Join us!
Face­bo­ok Insta­gram YouTu­be[wysija_form id=“4”]

↓ LIKE! ↓