Moza Air 2: A Professional Tool for Professional Results. Learn How To Setup & Balance.

(If you already have the device and want to skip directly to setup, go straight to the Balance Section)

When I first started looking for a gimbal, I had a list of things I needed given the type of work I do:

• It had to support heavy equipment since the most basic camera we use are Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k up to a Cannon C200 or even a RED Cameras.
• It had to have a follow focus system since we don’t do auto focus, so we needed to have the ability to focus on the movement. We even needed the ability to have a second focus motor to control aperture since we use Cine Prime Lenses.
• It had to provide a long power runtime and a power option for external devices, for example a field monitor or even powering the camera.
• Easy to tune and balance since we needed to change lenses on the go.
• Different functionality for several shooting styles and connectivity with the camera and via bluetooth with the gimbal for a camera assistant.
• It shouldn’t break the bank!

Now clearly this is a set of professional requests but without breaking the bank, that is quite complicated, isn’t?

Well, during my investigation I found out about this professional gimbal: The Moza Air 2.

Gudsen, the company behind the Moza Air 2, is well known by their pro equipment and when I saw the specs of this gimbal, IT WAS A PERFECT MATCH. My intention here is not to compare it with other gimbals, but definitely this gimbal meet all my requirements.

So let’s go back to the list I mentioned:

• It had to support heavy equipment: ✅DONE . It has 9.25lb weight capacity😱
• It had to have a follow focus system: ✅DONE. iFOCUS Intelligent Wireless Lens Control System😱
• It had to provide a long power runtime and a power option for external devices: ✅DONE. 16-hour runtime off four included 18650 Li-Po batteries and a 12v DC Output 😱😱
• Easy to tune and balance: ✅DONE. Intelligent auto-tuning system 😱.
• Different functionality for several shooting styles and connectivity with the camera: ✅DONE Joystick, smart wheel, and customizable smart trigger controls, MOZA Multi-CAN, PPM, S-BUS, USB-C and a Bluetooth mobile app 😱.
• It shouldn’t break the bank!: ✅DONE. $599 PRICE 😱😱😱😱😱😱. I were able to get the gimbal + iFocus for that price on November 2018(now is $599 the gimbal and $199 the iFocus, but be aware since Gudsen sometimes trows that offer again!)

Setup & Balance

All right, so you have the unit, click here to see what should come on the box so you can validate you have everything correctly. I loved the box, it comes with a foam where things fit perfectly (I actually still use the box to store the gimbal).

First thing you have to do is charge the batteries, they are very special high-rate 18650 Li-ion 2500mAh, and they take up to 5 hours to charge. It’s important to charge them fully before turning on the gimbal.

After they are fully charged, open the battery hatch cover by pushing it downward and pulling it out, insert the batteries in the direction showed and close up the cover by the pointed tip into the hole, then the back will snap in.

Put the MOZA Air 2 in the tripod legs and make sure the legs are tight. Open the legs so that the gimbal can stand and put it on a flat surface, now we are ready to balance!

What’s the whole deal with balancing?

The main idea is that, with the gimbal turned off we are going to adjust each motor axis position in order to make the camera stay steady, That way, when on, the gimbal’s motors won’t behave strange as we walk, run, rotate the camera, etc.

1st Step: Put the release plate in your Camera

Put the quick release place that comes in the box on your camera. If you are going to use big lenses, try to put the plate as close to the edge of your camera as possible, so you can balance the lens weight easily. See this video:

2nd Step: Mount the Camera on the Gimbal

Put the gimbal back facing you (that means the LCD screen in front of you). Always leave the side motor on the right side of the gimbal (from your own point of view). Put the camera into the gimbal slot and pull the bar back to lock it into place. Any lens, hard drive, cage, microphone or whatever you put on your camera has to be there already since after balancing, any weight difference will affect and the motors might behave incorrectly. See this video:

3rd Step: Balance the Tilt Axis

First thing we are going to balance is the Tilt Motor. That one is in charge of making the camera look up and down when you use the joystick.

There is a small lock that you can use to secure the roll axis so it doesn’t move.

Facing you camera and release it, if it drops forward, you need to pull the camera up; if it drops backwards, you need to push it up. Make adjustments until it stays, then secure it. The tilt axis is now balanced! See this video:

4th Step: Balance the Roll Axis

This motor is the one in front of you and it takes care of the horizontal part of the job. If you previously used the lock, make sure to remove it.

If the camera falls to one side, move bar to the opposite side until it stays horizontal and lock the knob into place! This one is for me the easiest axis to balance!

5th Step: Balance the Pitch of the Camera

In order to balance the pitch of the camera you will have to move the camera forward and backward to adjust the balance until it stays, secure the knob!

I like to make this step 5th and not first since you get a better sense of balance since you got the other 2 axis balanced, if you make this first, you might have to come back and re-balance again. See this video:

6th Step: Balance the Pan Axis

Last part is to balance the Pan Axis. This one is for me the most complex one and most people don’t make it correctly, so the motor tend to vibrate while using the gimbal.

The manual suggests holding is horizontally which is great for cameras that are not that heavy. However, if the gimbal and camera are too heavy for you, there is a better way to do it.

Put the gimbal on the flat surface and tilt it to one side. If the gimbal rolls or moves, then it is unbalanced, that’s easy to try right??!. Ok so, adjust the bar to balance until the gimbal stays when you tilt it to one side, then it is balanced.
Test with both left and right tilting, since you might think you got it with just tilting one side, but the other one moves as well.

See this video on how it should behave when you tilt the gimbal:

Last Step: We are done!

Ok so we are done! your gimbal should stay steady AND WE HAVEN’T EVEN TURNED IT ON! That means you won’t make the motors work extra hard which could mean overheat or even damage the unit.

Now you can go and turn the gimbal on by pressing the red button for about 4 seconds, and you will feel the motors powering and the LCD screen will show the “MOZA” word.

Now, you should make usage of the autotune feature, which will help the gimbal automatically understand how much power it should put on each motor now that you balanced it correctly before turning it on.

Put it on the flat surface and activate it by holding in the Fn button, You will see the gimbal move by itself on each motor, wait until its done and BOOM! YOU ARE READY TO SHOOT!

You can also get to AutoTune on the menu by pressing the Menu button, tap down on the Smartwheel to highlight Gimbal Set, click right, hightlight Motor, click right, hightlight Power, click right to select, highlight Autotune, and click right to start

I truly hope this tutorial guide helped you getting up to speed with this professional tool, start creating your own amazing footage with it!

If you have any question you can find me on Instagram, Twitter or shoot me an email at films@77cine.com