Joby is a brand that puts its focus on products that allow its users to create either audio content or visual content. We have reviewed several products from Joby including Joby Wavo Pod, Joby Wavo Air, Joby Podzilla & Joby Standpoint.
In this review, we are focusing on the Joby Swing that is designed for smartphone filmmakers. The purpose of this product is to add some movement to your recordings. The Joby swing enables you to make your smartphone track smoothly from right to left. You pair this with the Joby Motion app to plan the Joby swing movement for precise composition and add a worthwhile creative panning option that makes this accessory very useful for content creators.
The Joby Swing has an electronic slider and included in the box is the Joby GripTight One phone mount and ball head 1K. You may also purchase the Joby Swing complete kit that comes with the GorillaPod 3K for £188 compared to just the Joby Swing on its own for £128.95.
In this review, we were just sent the Joby Swing without the GorillaPod as I already have a GorillaPod from a previous review.
Design/Build
The Joby Swing when unused looks very much like a swiss army knife due to its colour and shape. When attached to the GorillaPod 3K stand it springs into life by pivoting. The Joby swing’s red and grey arms scissor apart using the electronic motor allowing the smartphone attached to travel from left to right while continuously facing the same direction.
I would highly recommend you purchase the complete kit due to having useful the GorillaPod 3K can be with the Joby Swing.
The Joby Swing is 17cm in length and when not in use will fit in your bag with ease. The Joby swing comes with a female tripod mount so you can attach the male thread from the GorillaPod 3K stand that comes with the Joby Swing. (Please note – You need to remove the adaptor off the thread to connect the Joby Swing to the GorillaPod)
The Joby Swing comes with a GripTight One phone mount tripod bracket which is used to hold the phone in place. We found if you were to use an iPhone 13 Pro Max or an iPhone 12 the Joby Swing and GripTighOne can accommodate. Also included is the BallHead 1K which is a bracket that attaches to allow complete control meaning it can be used in either Portait or landscape orientation.
Last but not least the battery life will give you up to 3 hours of use and can be charged up using a USB-C charge cable perfect if you carry a portable charging device you can charge up on the move.
Features
Once set up you will need to download the Joby Motion app which is available on both iOS & Android. The app allows you to quickly and easily control the swing via the phone that was attached to the provided GripTight One mount. It’s the sole method of controlling the swing as the device has no controls other than a lock and power button.
The First time you download the app expect to have to update the system firmware and Joby also provides a useful tutorial if it’s your first time using the swing. You will notice that the device connects to your phone via Bluetooth and we never had any connection issues.
The app has two modes:
- Video
- Timelapse
When you start either mode you need to tap and hold the + and – icons to enable you to position the swing at the start and end of its move. The app also allows you to summon a settings control wheel to reduce the tracking speed or add a recording delay.
Image Credit: Amazon
When using the timelapse mode the settings control wheel offers several one-tap presets so you can choose a timelapse interval speed which is ideal when filming people or passing traffic.
Performance
The Joby swing allows your smartphone to track smoothly to a max of 42cm. When recording video footage it tracks at a max speed of 1cm per second. This allows a max video clip length of 42 seconds. This is ideal for capturing short clips of someone walking and talking in short sequences.
The Joby swing tracking move is barely noticeable when filming distant objects due to the slow speed and short travel span. Where this product underperforms is by placing the Joby swing with an object in the foreground the tracking move is more noticeable as these objects move quicker compared to the distance the swing covers.
Image Credit: Joby
When using the swing in the right conditions it tracks at a consistent speed and this will allow you to create a montage of shots where that camera tracks at the same speed which is something really hard to do with a phone simply in your hand. If you were to set the swing to repeat, the tracking move in a single clip is a motion-control camera.
If you decide to mount this to the GorillaPod the fact it has flexible legs can cause a slight vibration. As long as the GorillaPod’s legs are well-positioned it will enable a more stable tracking shot or simply use some post-editing to reduce the vibration.
We used an iPhone 13 Pro with the ultra-wide-angle lens and the footage we gained was very smooth regardless of using the video or time-lapse option. The time-lapse option benefits from a focal perspective when used outside.
Could it be improved?
Yes If you could further adjust the speed settings as the fastest speed does not compare to a typical camera slider. It would have been nice to have been able to gain a faster pan. Now, this is possible in editing but the negative is you will gain a large file size and it takes time.
Verdict
The Joby Swing is a nice product if you are a vlogger who wants to add a little movement to an otherwise static selfie clip it’s an excellent idea. The Joby swing has a limited tracking span and moves very slowly resulting in the video sequence being very subtle.
Would I buy this?
I would buy this device as it is versatile and flexible when it comes to adding motion and perspective to timelapse shots. You can also change the recording interval to create faster or slower moving sequences.
The Joby Swing does deliver as a well-made electronic slider and if you go for the option with the included Gorilla tripod you have a setup for creating steady videos and movement-driven time-lapses via your smartphone. This could capture the perfect sunset and the Joby swing makes these things possible with relative ease due to the Joby Motion app. It’s not perfect as the swing does cause some vibration and this is more noticeable when used outdoors.
Overall what Joby has done is added another product to their ecosystem that does benefit Vloggers and those looking to create content. The Joby Swing allows the user to do things they would not normally do and create unique content that will grab your attention and ultimately provides professional content creation. At £128 for just the swing or £188 for the swing plus the Gorillapod 3K, it’s well worth the purchase to take your content creation up a level.
Product Rating:
Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Features : 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Performance: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value For Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars – 4.5 Stars
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