dji Ronin (XL) Multi Test-Shoot/Review!

[Matt Ryan]

Still no footage?!

 

[Rome Will]

Ketch,

Excited to read your review! Ordered my Ronin and waiting patiently. As I've mentioned, I have the same set-up: Xenon's, BT matte box, and the 9" Touch...so the pro's and con's should match up exactly with what I'll experience...minus the dragon sensor (for now) lol!

Quick question about the arms. From what I've read, there are "XL" or extended versions?...does this make a huge difference from what you've seen with the movement/handling of the Ronin? How about with the touch monitor on the arms? Hopefully, if it makes a difference, the arms will be released in tandem, and I can order around the same time as I get my Ronin.

Thanks again. Safe travels and can't wait!

 

[Rome Will]

Matt,

Quick side note, Great job on the Chemical Romance "Fake Your Death" trailer!

 

[Matt Ryan]

Matt,

Quick side note, Great job on the Chemical Romance "Fake Your Death" trailer!

Thanks Rome, Appreciate it. Really tiny budget and a crew of 1

A gimbal would have been ideal, funny how these tools can completely change the outcome of projects for the better.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Still no footage?!

Matt, the short is on the Editing room... As I said, I decided not to post any of the simper tests and other smaller movements and or other technical tests which were really only done to benefit final Production units.

The short presented will be a real world production short done NOT with the Ronin in mind but with the actual production needs in mind, were the Ronin as just an other tool to get the shot done, and this to me was more important to show and see how well and how fast and seamlessly would interact with production.

Ketch,

Excited to read your review! Ordered my Ronin and waiting patiently. As I've mentioned, I have the same set-up: Xenon's, BT matte box, and the 9" Touch...so the pro's and con's should match up exactly with what I'll experience...minus the dragon sensor (for now) lol!

Quick question about the arms. From what I've read, there are "XL" or extended versions?...does this make a huge difference from what you've seen with the movement/handling of the Ronin? How about with the touch monitor on the arms? Hopefully, if it makes a difference, the arms will be released in tandem, and I can order around the same time as I get my Ronin.

Thanks again. Safe travels and can't wait!

Happy to be of service Rome, and bald it helped you make your decision in ordering the Ronin.

The XL arms, are not yet available as you know and the Ronin will be most likely all shipped out tot shier customers before they do, but the good news is that you don't need them with your set up been the same as mine...

The XL arms, were proposed to DJI by me thru Willis at NAB for the simple fact that I wanted not to be limited with camera set ups, lenses Matte Box etc.

However to my surprise the Ronin has handle the Epic very well with a full cinema set up, without the XL arms.

What the XL arms will allow to do is actually the use of larger cameras, such as the Sony, Canon, and other even bigger cameras.

Additionally because of the high load the Ronin can handle, if the balance could not be achieved with a given camera set up, counter weight could be also added, and I'll go in detail on this once our short comes out and I'll do a full review of the Ronin, once I have tested out just about every option I can in it's use.

 

[Joachim Hoge]

We are getting our Ronin here in Norway tomorrow. Can't wait to try it out. Can one fit an Epic with he smallest v-lock battery on the back?

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Yes you can Joachim, and congrats on your Ronin!!

 

[NOSA OBAYIUWANA]

JUST GOT THE RONIN

JUST GOT THE RONIN

Just received the Ronin and I thought I should answer a couple of questions I was curious about myself

1. The Ronin is extremely well built, but as others have stated, its also heavy. Especially after mounting the Scarlet on it.
2. Could not get it to fit my F5 with the battery on the back, but it is possible if you power the F5 with a belt pack. Even with this setup your movements will be very restricted.
3. It was nice of DJI to include the case. In my opinion ALL camera and gear equipment should come in cases. I was really upset when Sony sent the F5 in a cardboard box. That is not on.
4. did not have enough time to finish the balancing and set up, but DJI is not exaggerating, it is almost all tool's free adjustment.
5. App is easy to use and almost all hassle free.

For the price it's a steal.


P.S: Ketch you were right, its utterly solid. I would rather have the solidity than the lightness as I will use a steadicam for more strenuous shots. Yes Ketch the motors are quite powerful as well.

 

[Joachim Hoge]

Yes you can Joachim, and congrats on your Ronin!!

Thanks for that info Ketch. Can´t wait to get to the office tomorrow. Just got a call from my partner that it arrived just now.

Edit: Just realised it´s the XL thread, guess it won´t work with my small v-mount batteries after all?

 

[Greg Faysash]

I think there's a sweetspot in weight/size when it comes to batteries, but I don't know what that is yet. I attempted to mount my Scarlet with an RPZ 17-50, O'connor matte box and one filter with both a 65 W/H and a 95W/H Globalmediapro battery and there wasn't enough room. I could leave it front heavy and the motor was taking care of it just fine, but I didn't want to stress the motors. So I'll be mounting the battery on the handle with a flexible power cable down to the camera.
In that configuration I also have a Bartech Digital receiver, a Heden 21 motor and a Paralinx Arrow+. No sweat for the motors.
In the past, having dealt with the Movi several times, I could feel that an Epic/Scarlet were right on the edge of the capacity, and made the whole rig very temperamental...

Daniel, Will the 65 W/H Global Media battery power an EPIC? If so, for how long?

 

[Rome Will]

Ketch,

Thanks for the clarification about the XL arms...looks like all I need now is the Ronin!

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Just received the Ronin and I thought I should answer a couple of questions I was curious about myself

1. The Ronin is extremely well built, but as others have stated, its also heavy. Especially after mounting the Scarlet on it.
2. Could not get it to fit my F5 with the battery on the back, but it is possible if you power the F5 with a belt pack. Even with this setup your movements will be very restricted.
3. It was nice of DJI to include the case. In my opinion ALL camera and gear equipment should come in cases. I was really upset when Sony sent the F5 in a cardboard box. That is not on.
4. did not have enough time to finish the balancing and set up, but DJI is not exaggerating, it is almost all tool's free adjustment.
5. App is easy to use and almost all hassle free.

For the price it's a steal.


P.S: Ketch you were right, its utterly solid. I would rather have the solidity than the lightness as I will use a steadicam for more strenuous shots. Yes Ketch the motors are quite powerful as well.

Congrats on your Ronin Nosa!

Glad you see the same advantages well pinter out of the Ronin.

Thanks for that info Ketch. Can´t wait to get to the office tomorrow. Just got a call from my partner that it arrived just now.

Edit: Just realised it´s the XL thread, guess it won´t work with my small v-mount batteries after all?

Joachim,

While been the XL thread, I have been running the Ronin with standard arms as well, in fact since I have bene back to Italy that is all that I have been running as I am awaiting the new XL production units.

So don't worry, you'll fit the V-Lock battery not he Red Epic/Scarlet no problem, however depending on lens and set up chosen, it might limit your tilt-Up action if the battery is placed in the standard fashion, with the top of the battery standing tall over the Epic body.

For this I have been working on getting the actual thin battery plate to lock below the actual Brain so to have the battery flashed to the top plate, and this will allow for more tilt-Up range.

But even as is, the tilt range i both direction is ok, and we stil got all the shots we needed, on land and on water.

Ketch,

Thanks for the clarification about the XL arms...looks like all I need now is the Ronin!

My pleasure Rome!

 

[johny woodstar]

I am actually going to test an FS700 on my Ronin later tonight. Will let you know the results with both an L lens and Zeiss Contax (very light). If there isn't enough room for balancing, I made end up added weights to the back of the body. Luckily the 700 is very light so there is plenty of playroom with adding weight.

Kyle Messine, did you test it last night with the fs700? What did the test gave?

Kind regards

 

[alexandre Chailan]

Oh FS700 users

Well, I balance mine with some weight too, I test with the 17-40 at 17 and Canon 35L & 50L. I can balance but can't use my odyssey because I haven't enough space behind the cam, so Tomorow I will recieve another extra weight (1.6) and normaly I could push the FS700 more in front and having more space behind, for sure more weight but at this time without the XL arms it's the only solution.

Actually, i use the 2 screw under the cam and conter weight with 2 ikan hot shoes (use for holding monitor normally), and it's work, around 285grammes.

Pics with Ronin off :

 

[Joachim Hoge]

We got the ronin today, tried to set it up with a small IDX battery and Canon 16-35, and it was 2mm to long. We have the Swift battery option, so that might be the reason.
We ran with the redvolt instead. Thinking back we probably could have run the IDX , as we never need to tilt the camera so high that the battery would hit the back of the ronin

 

[johny woodstar]

Oh FS700 users

Well, I balance mine with some weight too, I test with the 17-40 at 17 and Canon 35L & 50L. I can balance but can't use my odyssey because I haven't enough space behind the cam, so Tomorow I will recieve another extra weight (1.6) and normaly I could push the FS700 more in front and having more space behind, for sure more weight but at this time without the XL arms it's the only solution.

Actually, i use the 2 screw under the cam and conter weight with 2 ikan hot shoes (use for holding monitor normally), and it's work, around 285grammes.

Pics with Ronin off :

Alexandre, you have some footage? fs100 is shorter so should be ok.

grtz

 

[alexandre Chailan]

Yep but doesn't want to show in public the footage I have (just some test with my GF and it's inside the park of my building so I prefer do not to show, but tomorow I will have my counter weight for plugin the Odyssey 7q, so I will do some shot tomorow in town , I will show you asap !

The camera is balanced perfectly, in car it's really really smooth, when i walk, i need to walk like a "ninja cat" , but seriously, as the steadycam operator, in my case i need to learn to walk with. (as the other gimball on the market)

 

[Sergei Smolovich]

Just received the Ronin and I thought I should answer a couple of questions I was curious about myself

1. Could not get it to fit my F5 with the battery on the back, but it is possible if you power the F5 with a belt pack. Even with this setup your movements will be very restricted.

1. 
   I was right... as usual.. :smile:

 

[Sergei Smolovich]

Oh FS700 users

Well, I balance mine with some weight too, I test with the 17-40 at 17 and Canon 35L & 50L. I can balance but can't use my odyssey because I haven't enough space behind the cam,

Sorry, I don't get it... why do you need "the space for Odyssey behind the cam" ? :w00t: Monitor should be mounted to the TOP HANDLE BAR , right? ..

 

[alexandre Chailan]

Haha Sergei,

I mean for the SDI cable