When to use Gyroflow stabilization (guide)

Gyroflow software works by cropping into your video dynamically based on your chosen parameters, namely amount of crop (smoothness) and zoom duration (speed).

It only works with cameras that record gyroscopic data, mostly Sony but some other brands do support it and I would hope that more do but you know how these things are.

Most cameras with inbuilt stabilization offer a fixed crop, whilst keeping equal image quality and 4k resolution. The latest announced Sony a9iii (?) I think offers 4 levels of stabilization and hence 4 levels of crop.

The big problem with inbuilt stabilization crops however is that if you go over them, they don't dynamically adjust. They just give you jitter and shaky footage at that time. Gyroflow solves this by dynamically adjusting, cropping in more when needed, and less when not needed. It does this by zooming (cropping) more into the image when it detects that the boundaries of the crop are exceeded.

To mitigate the effects of the zoom, you need to specify in Gyroflow what your zoom speed will be. The default is 4 seconds. If you make a sudden jerky movement with your camera, it'll crop in to mitigate this over a period of 4 seconds to not make it like you just zoomed in a lot suddenly. Obviously, to mitigate this zooming effect, you need to increase the speed value so people don't notice the sudden zoom.

So, Gyroflow can produce absolutely smooth gimbal-like footage in post no matter how badly you held your camera! It's completely reliable.

Now the downsides.

1) it's really hard to frame your video if you don't know exactly how much Gyroflow is going to crop in post. If you use inbody stabilization, you can frame your shot perfectly and not have to give extra space.

2) Gyroflow crops in post, although it renders the video to whatever dimensions you type with zero quality loss, it is still cropping your 4k video then rendering it again at 4k, so technically there is loss in megapixals I believe, although I've never noticed it, it must be the case....

3) Gyroflow will zoom when it needs to maintain a stable image, so you may see slight zooming and de-zooming in your footage. Like I said you can mitigate this and make it unnoticeable if you reduce the zooming/cropping speed

4) you need to record your footage with inbuilt stabilization set to off, completely (currently), and then run the footage through Gyroflow when you get home. Gyroflow is extremely fast, but it's still an extra step. It also requires you to set a lens and camera profile for your footage, which only takes a second using their inbuilt selection, but some lenses may not yet be in the options menu. You can create your own lens profile or use a similar one, but it can be tricky to do.

In summary, here is a video I made using Gyroflow stabilization. You can see that inbuilt stabilization would never allow this. But a gimbal would. But then you have to use a gimbal. For newbs: people don't like to use heavy gear like gimbals because it detracts from the moment, restricts your movement, takes time to set up on site, and absolutely kills your arms. It's counterproductive to photoshoots where you want to move around a lot and communicate with the model. Video examples of Gyroflow: https://youtu.be/atfNI2tIOTY?si=Rj5ioP_9ebGMTJV6 https://youtu.be/M9n6HOjPAss?si=g833nk1L8wO2pC7L

Thanks for reading. No I'm not a Gyroflow shrill, in fact I forgot the second most important disadvantage to it which I'll now write:

5) Gyroflow needs a high frame rate eg 320+ or you will see a type of motion blur that is unacceptable, for example power lines overhead in the sky will jitter in and out of existence constantly as you move. This is just an affect of trying to stabilize footage with not enough frames to work with. I don't know if it happens with inbuilt stabilization or not honestly. I think it doesn't but please correct me.

6) as a result, with inbuilt body stabilization you can film at 100% 4k at low frame rates and not have to worry about framing or shutter speed (and consequently iso). But absolutely with inbuilt stabilization you will risk jitter when you exceed the bounds of your camera's stabilization crop.

My recommendation? Gyroflow for blogging and movement based video that isn't for TV. Professional tripod and body stab for music video work that you know you won't get jitter in. Tripod and Gyroflow when there is a risk of movement. And body stab when you're just messing around. As for low light situations, I think I will use camera stab for now because I don't need a high shutter speed for it to work as expected (I think lol...) . But it also means I can't relax as much and move around. So equally I think I will consider dropping down to f1.8 and using Gyroflow. It's the usual photographer's dilemma lol. A gimbal is a possibility also that fixes literally everything, but you need to have strong arms, and I can't understate the suffering you will have if you try to make a happy fun video while holding 3kg of gear.