First shown off at NAB 2019, Gudsen has now announced availability and pricing for the Moza AirCross 2. It weighs in at only 950g with a 3.2kg (7lb load capacity), contains a 3,000mAh battery offering 12 hours of runtime, it fits the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (and 6K) natively without weird offset brackets and it’s only $429.
The Moza AirCross 2 follows the familiar single handle 3-axis motorised gimbal form factor we’ve become familiar with over the last few years and features the now-ubiquitous wheel. But what makes this one particularly impressive is that they’ve managed to shave the weight down below 1kg (including the battery!) and still maintain a whopping 3.2kg (7lb) load capacity allowing for larger than average camera rigs.
And that includes cameras like the Pocket 4K, which is a little too wide to fit on most gimbals without an offset plate adapter. All three motors rotate a complete 360° in general use, but this also allows you to mount a camera with the arm on either side of the camera, letting you fit awkward cameras that have mounts even more off-centre than the Pocket 4K. The 3,000mAh battery offers up to 12 hours of use and can be quick-charged in only 1.5 hours. The Moza AirCross 2 also features a new “Spark” feature, providing three 7.8v Multi-CAN outputs for powering your camera and other devices, too. Naturally, if you take advantage of this, your battery probably won’t last 12 hours anymore. When it comes to shooting modes, Inception Mode 3.0 (shown above) offers automatic rotation, speed adjustment and angle control, and FPV Mode allows for full-range 360° synchronous movement. You also get Sport Gear mode for following fast action, and if you hook the gimbal up to your phone on top of your camera, you also get object tracking.
The Moza AirCross 2 also offers Mimic Motion Control, allowing you to move the head of the gimbal remotely with your phone. But you’re not just moving dials and sliders around a screen. No, you’re actually rotating your phone and the gimbal is matching the moves you make. This should very handy for when you need to move the camera but can’t get physically access it while filming. You also get the usual timelapse, motion timelapse, motion control and panoramic modes seen on previous Moza gimbals. When it comes to keeping your axes level and stable, the AirCross 2 offers quick auto-tuning and balance checks to make sure that it knows which way is up and to help you more easily guarantee that your camera is balanced on the gimbal when you set it up. And, you can lock each axis individually while you’re balancing to ensure things don’t go flying all over the place and get in the way.
The “Smart Wheel” on the side, as one would expect, allows you to focus the camera, either directly with compatible cameras and lenses or using a separate focus motor; the Moza iFocus-M. The Moza AirCross 2 actually supports a pair of motors for both focusing and zooming. And when you’re not using the wheel for focusing, it can also be used to control each individual axis (pan, roll and tilt) manually for precision movements. One feature that some people will love and will annoy the hell out of others is that it can take mounting your camera mounted vertically. Yes, that’s right, now you can shoot your Instagram story selfie videos on something a little more upmarket than your phone while still keeping everything steady.
As you might have noticed by the image right at the top of this post, the Moza AirCross 2 is available in two colours; Black or white. And as well as the three 7.8v Multi-CAN power outputs mentioned earlier, it offers 10-pin Mini USB for camera connectivity, Type-C USB, 2.4Ghz WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy. It’s also compatible with Gudsen’s recently released Moza Slypod. Overall, it looks pretty impressive and only costs $429 for the base package, significantly less than some of the competition. A Professional Kit is coming for $499 which also includes an Arca-Swiss Quick release plate, phone holder and iFocus-M focus motor. They should start shipping any day.
