How to Use Zhiyun Smooth 4 Smartphone Gimbal

4 min readMay 3, 2021

How to balance the phone on the Zhiyun Smooth 4? How to use the Follow and Lock modes? How to shoot in vertical mode?

The QuickStart guide tells me to download and read the complete user manual.

There are lithium-ion batteries inside the Smooth 4 and they cannot be removed

The user manual says to use the USB Type-C cable provided in the package to fully charge and activate the batteries on the first use.

The blue power indicators will start to blink.

Install the tripod by tightening it to the quarter-inch threaded hole at the bottom.

Then unfold the tripod on a flat surface.

The Smooth 4 comes with the tilt axis locked up.

All you have to do is gently push the tilt axis towards one side to unlatch it.

Do not turn on the Smooth 4 before inserting the phone.

Open up the phone clamp.

Gently slide the phone in and push it towards the tilt axis motor.

You can turn it on as it is but you can save more battery power and
put less stress on the motor if you were to balance the phone first.

How to balance the phone on Zhiyun Smooth 4

If the phone keeps tilting to one side, loosen this thumb screw and extend the horizontal arm.

Adjust the length of the arm till the phone stays roughly horizontal then tighten the screw.

If your phone is too small or too light, then shift it slightly away from the tilt motor till you get a good balance.

To turn on the Smooth 4, press and hold the power button for two seconds.

Let’s talk about the four modes of operation.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Pan Following Mode

By default, it’s set to the PF mode or pan follow mode.

It means the tilt axis and roll axis motors are locked and the phone follows the handle to move in the horizontal direction.

Now let’s switch the mode to L or lock mode.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Lock Mode

In the lock mode, all three axes are locked and the phone does not follow the handle to move.

Now let’s turn to the trigger buttons at the back.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Full Follow Mode

The trigger bottom button is the full follow mode button.

To use this full follow mode, press and hold it.

In the full follow mode, the roll axis is locked and the phone follows the handle to move in a tilt and horizontal direction

We use the full follow mode when we want to tilt the camera down towards the subject.

See what happens when we don’t use the full follow mode.

Do you see how the camera still points to the front?

Now, the top trigger button at the back.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Phone Go Mode

When we want to use the Phone Go Mode, press and hold the top trigger button.

This is similar to the full follow mode except that it’s on steroids.

We use phone go mode to pan and tilt quickly to catch the action before it’s gone.

Stabilizing iPhones and Android Phones

With these four modes, you can stabilize videos with any camera app on the iPhone or the Android phone.

The rest of the buttons and the knob require the ZhiYun app to operate

With its own app, you can do more powerful stuff.

I would like to add two more modes, the standby mode and the vertical mode.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Standby Mode

To put it on standby mode, instead of turning it off, all you have to do is to push the horizontal arm and latch it.

This is what I will do when I want to conserve battery when resting between two shooting sessions.

When I need to shoot again I’ll just flick it outwards and it goes back to the stabilization mode.

By the way, the standby mode is not the vertical mode.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Vertical Mode

To shoot in vertical mode especially for IGTV or Tiktok, turn it off first and then go to the back.

You’ll see a screw right behind the phone.

Unscrew it until it’s loose enough and then mechanically rotate the phone holder until it’s vertical.

Tighten the screw once more.

Once that’s done turn it back on again.

And now we can shoot in vertical mode.

Zhiyun Smooth 4 Operation

In the next video, I’ll go through all the buttons here and show you what they can do.

I will also be going to do some outdoor shoots.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or anything you like me to test with the Smooth 4, let me know in the comment section.

So remember to like, share and subscribe.

Check out the link below for the full review.

▶︎ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZG92KEzLZfP4B6cZyhSx1i_OaTu4sPV7

This is Adrian Lee from VIDEOLANE.COM, see ya!