That's good to know thx, there are some other large local retailers in Belgium and the Netherlands that sell your blackbird and I start seeing them offering 3 axis stabilizers so it's probably just a matter of time before they take the Nebula into their assortment as well. I was planning to buy later this year and maybe by then I"m able to buy closer to where i live.

I was searching for exactly this kind of product for literally months. I can't express how excited I was to discover it. I was an early adopter ordering on 27th November long before I saw all this online interest. There is nothing else similar available out there. When I had mine working i was really happy. I cannot express how disappointed I am to not have a working one of these in my gear kit.

A summary of my (hellish) experience.

A) First Nebula 4000 Lite failed after two days. When connecting to software it said sensor was not connected.

B) Trying to get customer service was difficult due to time zones. Have way through my inital contact with Angelica she suddenly replied saying "hi，dear : what is wrong with you?" on response to a detailed email about my experiences. I also received emails from two different email addresses (Both Angelica).

C) Angelica agreed to send a replacement, but refused to pay my $114 postage loss.

D) When replacement came it went dead within an hour of use. I sought advice on what may have happened. No technical feedback or questioning - straight away an offer of full refund and postage paid.

E) I asked if we could try and get to the bottom of what went wrong and explained my circumstances/experiences/issues in detail.

F) At this point, Filmpower replied to me with details of the first returned product. They said the wire twisted and broke.

G) A similar summary of my first faulty Nebula with pictures was posted on DVXusers (by Filmpower staff Jacksmith) and on facebook (By Filmpower) in order to imply that it was user fault rather than product. You will have to take my word for it, but I was aware and very careful not to allow parts to rotate.

H) The feedback also said the second product had "circuit board to bear too much voltage,another is against the power,and under a lot of voltage". Which I have unsuccessfully sought clarification of numerous times.

I) Angelica at this point offered me the original free refund plus postage, and also said she would "when we have new product will send to you review by free" and also asked "can you put the bad comments deleted or modified".

J) I responding by saying "If I receive a fully working model with no problems I will change my comments to very positive ones and I will provide YouTube footage which will show the internet how well it works."

K) Next I get Filmpower on facebook and A Filmpower rep by the username Windboyz (DVXusers) seemingly accusing me (and others) of being in collusion with DJI and simply trying to tell everyone that the product is no good to protect DJI from a rival company. WTF???? Some quotes - "he ROTATE DELIBERATLY to make the wire die" "Hi! DJI guys from CHINA, Don't make ROMOURS for Nebula again......" "The second circuit broken clearly human make it die in special way"

L) I continued to seek clarification on what may have happened with my second Nebula, and expressed a desire to receive another replacement numerous times.

M) When pressed, Angelica would only reply repeating the same offer of refund and ignore my queries and requests for a replacement.

N) Angelica at one point suddenly asked me "are you in china now ? why you send email from china ?" I've no idea what this was about, I live in Ireland as I told them before.

O) Suddenly all moneys and postage costs were transferred back to my paypal along with an email request to return my faulty Nebula.

P) I have also now just noticed that I have been blocked/banned from the Nebula 4000 Lite Usergroup on Facebook where I was talking about my experiences.

If anyone is dubious about my authenticity, i am a wedding videographer from Northern Ireland (see website below), and if anybody doubt my account or the truth of what I say, I will happily post screenshots of the emails etc...

PIGMINTFILM Wedding Video Coleraine Northern Ireland - Wedding video service for Northern Ireland specialising in cinematography giving more creativity and drama than traditional videography. (http://pigmintfilm.com)

Hi Clive

I feel for you. Customer service or a product that fails miserably at home is bad enough but imagine if this unit just died in the middle of a wedding shoot? We are dealing with events where we cannot say "Oops my gimbal has stopped working, can we do the wedding vows again?"

I had much the same experience with my handheld GoPro gimbal ... in the middle of a shoot on the beach it decided to act up and started shimmering as I walked ... the bridal party are on tight schedules and cannot wait while you go back to the venue and try to fix or replace. I didn't even fight with my supplier, if I did I think I would have had the same experience as you! I simply put it on eBay as "used only once" and bought myself a really nice stedicam to replace my much heavier old one ... it's reliable and does the job perfectly without worrying about failures of software/firmware or tiny wires and motors that might fail.

Surely these units should be tough enough to suit our work and environment ... if I had to use another gimbal I would expect it to work 100% in any conditions and not have to be wrapped in cotton wool !

If you do keep using a gimbal I would give it a really tough test before using it at weddings ...they just seemed to flimsy for my liking

Chris

If anyone is dubious about my authenticity

I don't think anyone here Clive doubts you not being authentic, I got a simple 3 axis stabilizer for my gopro but had to return it after a few weeks because the startup button got stuck but also because it made some unwanted panning movements while tilting. They also will send me a replacement unit but postal costs are for me as well.

My unit came from Hongkong and while I don't like buying electronic equipment directly at the supplier I decided to try it as it was not that expensive and because I couldn't find any local dealers in my country offering it yet. Now if it would have worked as advertised I certainly would have found a use for it for my weddings during photoshoots or to grab some quick stabilized shots at the church, I used it once at a wedding end last year and with some after effects stabilization I was able to get some awesome shots that would not have been possible with my blackbird. It was also small enough to fit in my backpack so could be used on the move while now my blackbird stays in my car until I reach the reception. The blackbird is too large to have with me all the time, especially when I have to quickly move from location to location.

The reason why a nebula interested me was because eventhough it's larger then that feiyu gimbal I had it still would be able to attach to the outside of my backpack and use it on occasions that would be difficult or not possible with my blackbird, for any other controlled and none repeatable shots I still would prefer my blackbird though. I also could attach a camera like the panasonic lx100 so I would have more control over the image then with my gopro.

A second reason why I was interested was because CMR is selling it under their name, their blackbird is of exceptional build and material quality and their customerservice is one of the best I have encountered so far but since the Nebula is not a mechanical but sophisticated electronical device I prefer to buy from one of our local re-sellers if they would take the product in stock. If the thing would malfunction I could just bring it in and let them deal with it further.

But I have to say when reading your experiences Clive I certainly will wait longer to buy to see how this evolves further, CMR does make some very minor changes to the unit as it seems but if I understand right the engineering and building of the unit is still handled by the same company that is causing all the problems with the unit's you have received so far. If CMR would have build the unit themselves from scratch I'd buy without giving it much thought.

N) Angelica at one point suddenly asked me "are you in china now ? why you send email from china ?"

This part made me laugh and had me think about a certain phrase out of a movie, it would have been a perfect opportunity to scare the hell out of them and get a instant solution with a reply like :

"I have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you send me a working Nebula now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

If admin finds this too inappropriate to post pls feel free to delete but I thought that eventhough with all the problems we often might have with our gear some humor can ease the pain a bit :)

My experience was virtually the same as Clive's, except that so far they have not accused me of anything, and they have not offered a refund after repeated requests. Here is what mine does on startup:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ohZNzYEtk&feature=youtu.be

That's not good at all, I take it you got it directly from the supplier in China?

Wow, so sorry to hear about the issues with FilmPower customer service. I can tolerate miscommunication due to language barriers, to a point, but this seems like FilmPower lack credibility. I have been seriously considering this unit, but issues like give me pause.

The Nebula looks like a potentially good, if not great, product. FilmPower just needs to iron out some design/manufacturing bugs, and develop genuine customer service. Until then I will look elsewhere for a gimbal.

Dave, you may want to consider this, these motors are getting stronger and better firmware to handle bigger cameras, pretty small and convenient.

https://www.facebook.com/pilotflytech

Leon - Thanks for the link. I like the design as it looks like it doesn't obstruct the camera's live view screen as much as the Nebula does. Like the Nebula, the video footage shows a bit of vertical bounce when walking. I'm wondering if this is an attribute of the single hand gimbals. At any rate, I'm going to wait to see what appears at NAB before buying.

The vertical bounce when you walk is not being filtered by the 3 axis gimbals, they only smooth out motion on the pitch, roll and pan axis. The up and down movement is something you as user have to prevent by taking smaller steps and bending your knees a bit while you walk. If you are working with a real steadicam, the arm that's attached to your vest takes out that bounce for the most part and you don't have that on this mini stabilisers.

Noa - Thanks for the clarification. I thought the Nebula was a 3 axis gimbal, but apparently not.

It is a 3 axis gimbal, it works on the pitch, roll and pan axis.

It is a 3 axis gimbal, it works on the pitch, roll and pan axis.
I have the new Sony A7II with 5 axis stabilization, and it does such a good job with hand held video that I've wondered what it would take to add X and Y stabilization to my Nebula 4000. It would probably take an inch or two of X and Y to smooth out walking (my walking anyway), but it could make for spectacular video.

Charles -- I doubt the A7II will do much to reduce vertical bobbing from walking.

Well designed steadicam stabilizers, like the venerable dual arm systems invented by Garret Brown, do that quite well. But with handheld stabilizers, you might be surprised at how effective just bending your knees while walking, can help to reduce the vertical bobbing.

We put up a short video demonstration of this on our Nebula web page (near the bottom, just above the Youtube sample videos) Nebula 4000 (http://www.camotionllc.com/nebula-4000-a-111.html) .

The clip is from the original Blackbird Instructional Video we did years ago, but the technique applies to any handheld stabilizer.

Rich Greb
CMR

Charles -- I doubt the A7II will do much to reduce vertical bobbing from walking.

Well designed steadicam stabilizers, like the venerable dual arm systems invented by Garret Brown, do that quite well. But with handheld stabilizers, you might be surprised at how effective just bending your knees while walking, can help to reduce the vertical bobbing.

We put up a short video demonstration of this on our Nebula web page (near the bottom, just above the Youtube sample videos) Nebula 4000 (http://www.camotionllc.com/nebula-4000-a-111.html) .

The clip is from the original Blackbird Instructional Video we did years ago, but the technique applies to any handheld stabilizer.

Rich Greb
CMR
Rich, I agree, the A7II only stabilizes when you're not walking, plus it isn't an especially good video camera; it has quite a bit of aliasing, and reminds me of the original 5DII. But it does show that a 5 axis stabilizer with enough correction in X and Y could do wonders, and could help us who are bending knee challenged. I don't know if it's technically possible, but probably could be with the right counterbalancing. I've met Garret; maybe I should challenge him with handheld 5 axis stabilization.

The vertical bounce when you walk is not being filtered by the 3 axis gimbals, they only smooth out motion on the pitch, roll and pan axis. The up and down movement is something you as user have to prevent by taking smaller steps and bending your knees a bit while you walk. If you are working with a real steadicam, the arm that's attached to your vest takes out that bounce for the most part and you don't have that on this mini stabilisers.

I agree with you, a lot of people think a gimbal is a shock absorber. Actually it is just through three axis of rotation to keep the direction of the lens. A gimbal couldn't offset the vertical vibration when you walk.

The footage on the ground was shot by Nebula 4000.

https://youtu.be/NWXcxFad5w0

That's very smooth footage, I wonder how he manages to keep it that fluid since there is virtually no bounce to see that you usually get while walking.

a lot of people think a gimbal is a shock absorber. Actually it is just through three axis of rotation to keep the direction of the lens. A gimbal couldn't offset the vertical vibration when you walk.

One trick I learned to get walking motion out of my footage was to ride a bicycle while holding a 3 axis gimbal. :) Another advantage of these little 3 axis gimbals, don't see myself doing that with a vest/arm/steadycam combo.

One trick I learned to get walking motion out of my footage was to ride a bicycle while holding a 3 axis gimbal. :) Another advantage of these little 3 axis gimbals, don't see myself doing that with a vest/arm/steadycam combo.

Yes, riding a bicycle is a method by which to keep the 3 axis gimbal smooth. Step practice is also very important. You could see this vidio.
Nebula 4000 Lite real shooting_Downtown - YouTube

That's very smooth footage, I wonder how he manages to keep it that fluid since there is virtually no bounce to see that you usually get while walking.

The video was shot by Pano Verino. He said in some scenes he did some post stabilization because the ground was not flat.

I just received one of these today. Switched it on straight away to test it and nothing. Gave it a complete charge and still nothing. I'm I doing something stupid?

Normally it should work after the batteries have been charged, I would contact the supplier. Not saying that your version is like that but I have read a few stories lately about where such a Gimbal arrived DOA, it did not concern a Nebula only, other Gimbals can suffer the same problem, maybe the electronics suffer too much from rough handling during transport?

Cheers Noa

Yeah, it appears dead to me. Not overly upset. More of an inconvenience than anything else as I'm sure the return and refund process will set me back a few weeks.

I just received one of these today. Switched it on straight away to test it and nothing. Gave it a complete charge and still nothing. I'm I doing something stupid?

Where did you buy? Could you offer the SN of gimbal?