The Death of The FlowMotion One Gimbal (Part 2)
I really thought the FlowMotion story was over — but it wasn’t.
Soon it will be 5 years since I published a piece here on Medium title “Kickstarter is Not a Magic Wand for Success — A Flowmotion Story” about a little startup that was working incredibly hard (or so we would be lead to believe) to produce a world-changing gimbal to put an end to shaky videos.
Flowmotion had been initially funded with over $1.3 million dollars by 5,508 backers on Kickstarter in 2017. I had jumped on the bandwagon and bought one of the units.
Soon thereafter, constant emails would drop into my inbox about problems and production delays. I had reached out directly to the CEO to help potentially fund the fledgling startup. But, in the end, on July 1, 2019 I received an email entitled “FlowMotion is closed down” stating;
“Today, with a heavy heart, we must announce that FlowMotion is shutting down and we are not able to pay out refunds or deliver the remaining FlowMotion ONE’s.”
I really thought this story was over — but it wasn’t.
While I was not alone in the losses, my story would become a cautionary tale about the risks of backing Kickstarter projects. However, it goes without saying that high-risk is the name of the game as an angel investor no matter what the deal size. The subsequent COVID pandemic would later wipe out massive swaths of my 7-figure investment portfolio, making FlowMotion a microscopic loss in comparison.
Today, the Kickstarter channel shows over 5,699 comments and they aren’t flattering. Many people just like me, who never received their orders, as well as a number of other various complaints from those who actually did receive product. There were indeed, people who received the product.
One day, I received yet another email about FlowMotion, but this time, it wasn’t from the company or its founders. It was from one of the 3,000 people who had read my article here on Medium. They had a surprising offer. It went something like;
“I came across your article on FlowMotion over on Medium and found it quite insightful. It got me thinking — I actually have one of these devices lying around. I’ve been using an iPhone, and sadly, it’s not compatible anymore. However, it should still work with Android! If you’re interested, I’d be happy to ship it over to you. Just let me know!”
I couldn’t reply to the email soon enough. After having the run around from this company for ages, actually getting the chance to have a FlowMotion device after everything that happened was an opportunity I wouldn’t pass up.
The package was shipped to my in-laws and arrived in time for our family vacation. When it arrived, I spent hours shooting the kids playing with their battery powered ride-ons, fireworks, and attempted using the auto follow feature.
Well, the gimbal performed average at best. The unit feels high quality due to having some weight to it — not cheap by any means, but being heavy might be a detriment when using this for long periods of time.
It worked fine for the videos of the kids and such, but the auto follow feature didn’t seem to work and often kicked off. Bummer. It also seemed to not play well with my Samsung Galaxy S20. It works with phones between 2.16" and 3.3" in width. That said, the mount is sturdy and your phone isn’t going to come loose.
The joystick works fin but motion seemed slow to me, but I suppose if it were faster I’d be complaining it was too fast.
For the same reasons I received the device in the first place is the problem that most users complain about. The app is one of the biggest downsides of the device. You don’t actually need the app to use the FlowMotion gimbal at all, which is cool because that means it will indeed live forever, but without the device you cannot use the auto follow or check battery life — the latter being a pretty critical function.
Overall, it has good battery life, easy to use (especially for me, as a new gimbal user) and fit my phone without issue and was very stable. On the downside, as mentioned, its heavy and the app is buggy, if it still actually works with your phone.
The most horrible part of this experience has been losing my money and FlowMotion going bust. The best part? Experiencing the kindness of strangers that lead to me finally receiving the FlowMotion One, when all appeared lost. Thanks.
If you’re looking for great gimbals, I recommend these. I own one and I love it.
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