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Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X review: a DJI Pocket 3 rival at half the price?
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Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X review: two-minute review
DJI practically invented the idea of the gimbal camera, but other makers including FeiyuTech, Benro (for a while) and now Agfaphoto have joined in with their own designs. They’re all based on a small camera unit mounted permanently on a compact 3-axis gimbal, with the screen, controls, battery and other electronics built into the handle.
Gimbal cameras provide both stabilization for handheld video and the kind of smoothed-out camera movements you see in movies. They work on the same principle as gimbal stabilizers for regular cameras, but are a fraction of the size and weight. I’ve used a DJI Pocket 2 for a long time, and I love the way you can create professional-looking camera movements without a lot of heavy and expensive gear.
The latest DJI Osmo Pocket 3 leads the field in the gimbal camera market, but it’s pretty expensive, coming in at around the same price as an entry-level mirrorless camera, and the Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X undercuts it considerably. It does sacrifice a few features compared to the more expensive Pocket 3, but not everyone will need DJI’s fancy features, and would rather spend a good deal less on a more basic option.
The main compromise with the Realimove MC3X is the sensor size. The 1/2.5-inch 8MP sensor is pretty small, and while its 4K video looks very good when you’re filming outdoors in good light, I did find it got noticeably softer in low light at higher ISO settings.
The MC3X also has a fairly limiting 0.3m-infinity focus range. That sounds like it should be fine, but it’s equipped with a wide-angle lens, so sometimes I had to move in really close to fill the frame with an object, and then found it went out of focus.
The Realimove MC3X can’t match the DJI Pocket 3’s frame rates, either. Its maximum frame rate for 4K video is 30p, which effectively means you can’t shoot slow-motion 4K and have to drop the resolution to 2.7K for 60p recording and full HD for 120p slow motion. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s an example of where costs have been cut. It did mean that if I planned to combine regular and slow-motion video in a project, I’d probably have to film the whole thing at a lower resolution to avoid upscaling compromises when splicing together different resolutions later in my video editor.
I also found the MC3X’s face-tracking a little unreliable, and while the digital zoom is easy to operate with a rocker lever on the side, zooming in looked a bit jerky, so I think I’d probably set the zoom before filming rather than while I was recording.
It’s good to get all the criticisms out of the way early, though, because the Realimove MC3X also has some really good features. The biggest is the rotating 3.5-inch display, which is way bigger than the thumbnail-sized screen on my Pocket 2, and bigger even than the screen on the Pocket 3.
What this means is that you can still see clearly what you’re filming, even with the camera at arm’s length, and also if you’re filming yourself with the camera reversed. It’s hard to overstate how useful this is.
You leave the screen in its vertical position for vertical video, or rotate it 90 degrees for horizontal video. It switches orientation automatically, and I found this really intuitive. Rotating the screen horizontally reveals physical buttons for adjusting the gimbal direction, and using these is much more effective than using the virtual on-screen controls, which I found a bit unresponsive.
The other thing I really like is that you can set all the important controls directly on the camera, so while there is a free companion app, I never felt the need to use it. You can swap between pan-follow, pan-tilt-follow and free-follow modes in the menus with just a few taps.
Here’s a sample movie I shot with the Realimove MC3X to show its video quality, panning smoothness and audio.
I found the gimbal movement smooth and progressive – and you can change the speed in the menus if you need to. Occasionally the gimbal did get confused if I dropped my hand between bits of filming and the gimbal ran out of movement, but it only takes a moment to recenter when you’re ready to start filming again.
Perhaps the biggest issue for me was everyday practicality. The large screen is very welcome, but it does mean the body is quite wide and, while you can put the MC3X in a pocket, it does leave the gimbal head feeling quite exposed while the unit is powered off – I’d be happier if the gimbal axes were locked when the camera is off, but then it’s the same for my Pocket 2, so I can’t say much.
But the Pocket 2 and Pocket 3 do come with protective slimline hard cases which don’t add much to the size and do protect them in your pocket or bag. The Realimove MC3X doesn’t have this. It does come with a fitted hard case that also accommodates the cables, but it’s pretty big and there’s no way this is going to fit in a trouser pocket.
So I do think this Agfaphoto gimbal comes with compromises. It’s a lot cheaper than the DJI Pocket 3 but it’s not hard to see what you’ve had to sacrifice. I’d say it’s a great buy for anyone who would like to try out a gimbal camera without splashing too much cash – and the results can be very good. So good, in fact, that you might be glad you didn’t spend more.
But if you are a little more serious about filmmaking and need a wider choice of framerates, better video quality (especially in low light) and a little more design finesse and practicality, you might end up upgrading to the DJI Pocket 3 after all.
Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X review: price
The Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X is on sale in the UK for £299 but with US availability and pricing yet to be confirmed. It’s a decent enough camera, but while it’s a lot cheaper than the DJI Pocket 3, you might find the older DJI Pocket 2 even cheaper. The screen is smaller, but the Pocket 2 is a better camera. This puts the Realimove MC3X in awkward territory. Yes, it’s cheaper than its main rival but it’s also a good deal less sophisticated. It’s quite good for the money but it is quite basic.
Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X review: specs
Should I buy the Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
How I tested the Agfaphoto Realimove MC3X
I had the Realimove MC3X for several weeks and tested it in many different scenarios. I checked its ability to maintain a level pan-follow orientation with height changes and following a fast-moving pet dog through long grass (very fast-moving!), and also the smoothness of its panning movements, what I’d call a ‘sideways pan’ while walking, and its stability when filming and walking in typical vlogging style, and it did all these things pretty well.
I also wanted to find out what the video quality was like both in bright daylight and dimmer indoor conditions, which is where I would expect a smaller sensor to start to struggle – and sure enough, it did.
I didn’t set out to test the battery life, but I did come away impressed, as I spent a couple of hours at a time filming sequences to stitch together into a move, and the battery indicator hardly budged. I think I got it down to about half during my longest session.
