It lets your smartphone record ultra-smooth video without the shaking or jittering you'd normally see when you hold it with your hands. (That's Didrik running, by the way.)
We tried a prototype of the FlowMotion One, and the results were very similar to the GIF above.
It also comes with app that lets you tap on the main subject of your shoot, which makes the FlowMotion One follow your subject automatically without having to adjust the way or direction the One is pointing in.
The app also lets you take better panorama shots. There's a motion time-lapse feature, too, which can slowly and smoothly pan across a scene for a professional-looking time-lapse video.
The FlowMotion One connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, and you can control the app's camera functions with buttons on the handle.
Here's how it works: There are three joints, each with their own electric motors, for vertical, horizontal, and rotational axis stabilization. The motors are powered by a removable battery that lasts up to three hours, and charges via USB-C in two hours.
It's not the first hand-held smartphone stabilizer out there, but the FlowMotion One has a few features that sets it apart.
FlowMotion's main competion comes from DJI's Osmo Mobile, and Evo Gimbals, as well as other crowdfunded competition from Smove and Vimbal.
For one, you can remove the handle and use the gimbal on its own with GoPro mounts, which means you can mount it on pretty much anything, like bike handlebars, helmets, your head, chest, and even your pet.
The DJI Osmo Mobile, FlowMotion's main competition in the smartphone stabilizer space, can also be mounted on your gear, but the Osmo's handle isn't removable. That's largely because the One's battery is in the smartphone enclosure rather than the handle.
The removable handle also makes the FlowMotion incredibly portable.
At one point, Didrik was holding the One prototype in his hands. I looked away for a brief moment, and when I looked back at Didrik, the FlowMotion One was gone. In that brief moment, Didrik was able to dismantle the One's handle, gimbal, and smartphone enclosure, and put all three parts in his jeans and small leather jacket pockets. It was truly impressive that he was able to do so in such a short amount of time, and with regular pockets.
At just over half a pound, it's lightweight, but you'd also need to consider your phone's weight, too. Still, the FlowMotion gimbal and smartphone combo won't strain your neck or add much weight to whatever you mount it to.
FlowMotion's stabilization also takes into account your smartphone's own built-in optical image stabilization (OIS), which can actually add micro-shakes when used with a regular gimbal. The video below shows how a smartphone's OIS affects video recorded with a gimbal that doesn't take a phone's OIS into consideration.
FlowMotion claims other smartphone stabilizers that don't work with a smartphone's OIS experience micro-shakes.
