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

[Uros Zuraj]

Thanks guys.
This was more of a drone test then a Ronin test as this Hammer x-12 and Hammer x-8 are our own designs with some never before tried modifications for a drone design, but will for sure let you know how it works when we do few more tests and some real flying on a commercial shoot,...
So far we like how clean the Ronin is and easy to plug in the Lightbridge,... it is a bit on the heavy side but our X-12 can lift about 10kg with Ronin and still have more then 50% power left for flying and extra weight is not such a big of a problem.

 

[Bob Gundu]

ronin works really nice in the air as well:
https://vimeo.com/103955530

RTMotion FTW!

 

[Uros Zuraj]

yeah we love the RTMotion a lot. was a problem to get it but now its here for a while and we love it on the drone and handheld. super small and light!

 

[Rome Will]

Ketch,

I have my Ronin. Haven't flipped the switch yet, still trying to get all the gear on, but with my Epic and BT Viv on, it doesn't seem to fit the 15mm rails. No matter what combination I try (even screwing the Ronin rail bar upside down so that the rails are farther away from the lens) it still doesn't fit. Are the provided rails supposed to be the correct measurements for gear that fits on 15mm rails? There seems to be a gap at between the MB and the Lens...like the lens is to high for the position of the MB when it's on the provided rails. I know gear that's 15mm can fit on the rails, but the correct spacing to the lens, at least on an Epic, doesn't seem to work. Here are some pics about what in talking about...

 

[Dan Rosario]

I received my Ronin a week ago and absolutely love it. It worked flawlessly in less than 20 minutes from the opening of the box to shooting. Balancing my Scarlet took 5 minutes to set and calibrate. Great design and for the price I just had to have one.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Ketch,

I have my Ronin. Haven't flipped the switch yet, still trying to get all the gear on, but with my Epic and BT Viv on, it doesn't seem to fit the 15mm rails. No matter what combination I try (even screwing the Ronin rail bar upside down so that the rails are farther away from the lens) it still doesn't fit. Are the provided rails supposed to be the correct measurements for gear that fits on 15mm rails? There seems to be a gap at between the MB and the Lens...like the lens is to high for the position of the MB when it's on the provided rails. I know gear that's 15mm can fit on the rails, but the correct spacing to the lens, at least on an Epic, doesn't seem to work. Here are some pics about what in talking about...

RED cameras need the baseplate height riser to match industry standard rod height.

 

[Rome Will]

Matt,

I guess that makes sense...but since we can't attach a baseplate to the Ronin (it uses it's own baseplate) that only leaves a clamp on MB...this kind of sucks. Any ideas on a way to use the provided 15mm rods with rail attachments, outside of a wireless follow focus...thanks!

 

[Matt Ryan]

Matt,

I guess that makes sense...but since we can't attach a baseplate to the Ronin (it uses it's own baseplate) that only leaves a clamp on MB...this kind of sucks. Any ideas on a way to use the provided 15mm rods with rail attachments, outside of a wireless follow focus...thanks!

You should be able to have the riser plate attached... The Ronin baseplate would screw into that. Just haven't seen anyone rod mount a mattebox on a gimbal yet, it's usually clip on if any.

 

[Matt Ryan]

P.S. have you tried flipping the supplied Ronin rod mount or does that just throw it off in the other direction?

 

[Rome Will]

Matt,

Yes, I tried both directions...still throws it off. But it looks like it would fit if it was 19mm rods it might fit. Frustrated, but I think I'm doing it the wrong- making it hard. I think I'm going to order a clamp and see if that works...I've just heard that rod supported MB's are a little more sturdy than clamp-on MB's...

 

[Rome Will]

P.S. have you tried flipping the supplied Ronin rod mount or does that just throw it off in the other direction?

And thanks for the suggestions Matt!

 

[Rome Will]

Ketch & Matt,

I figured it out!...here's why I LOVE MY BRIGHT TANGERINE MATTE BOX!!!

I don't know if every MB has this function, but the VIV does. Every time I talk to people, and I tell them about my MB, I say it's worth the money. Tonight, it saved me additional money. On the 15mm rod attachment underneath the MB, there are two screws that let you adjust how it attaches to the rails...some "give" to make it a nice fit depending on the height of the MB to the various rail systems. I had all but given up and was about to order the 150-100 step-down clamp to fit my Schneider Xenon lens, when I said to myself "I wonder if these screws can fix the issue with it not fitting"...sure enough, it did!

No riser plate needed Matt. The Epic fits perfectly on the Ronin plate provided when attaching the Bright Tangerine (BT) VIV MB. I can go to sleep now lol! Tomorrow I'll get my slimmer IDX batteries and I'll be able to fire this puppy up! The Switronix wont't work the way I thought, it's too wide. Hopefully it will balance better when I install the IDX on the opposite side of the gimbal.

Here are some pics of what I was talking about. Again, This is only MB I've ever purchased, but I can't imagine a better one for the money! Thanks again Bright Tangerine for a great product!

 

[Rome Will]

& PS Matt, I did end up flipping the Ronin rod mount, as it gave me more room to push the camera back into the Ronin when trying to balance. When the Rod mount is attached to the Ronin baseplate, in the downward position, it will hit the bottom of the Ronin base where the plate attaches to the gimbal, restricting how far back you can push the baseplate and therefore how far back you can push the camera.

I'm done for tonight...I'll have more tomorrow.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Good to hear. Forgot to mention the height adjustment. Forgot about that little feature

 

[Ketch Rossi]

I received my Ronin a week ago and absolutely love it. It worked flawlessly in less than 20 minutes from the opening of the box to shooting. Balancing my Scarlet took 5 minutes to set and calibrate. Great design and for the price I just had to have one.

Nice Dan!

Ketch & Matt,

I figured it out!...here's why I LOVE MY BRIGHT TANGERINE MATTE BOX!!!

I don't know if every MB has this function, but the VIV does. Every time I talk to people, and I tell them about my MB, I say it's worth the money. Tonight, it saved me additional money. On the 15mm rod attachment underneath the MB, there are two screws that let you adjust how it attaches to the rails...some "give" to make it a nice fit depending on the height of the MB to the various rail systems. I had all but given up and was about to order the 150-100 step-down clamp to fit my Schneider Xenon lens, when I said to myself "I wonder if these screws can fix the issue with it not fitting"...sure enough, it did!

No riser plate needed Matt. The Epic fits perfectly on the Ronin plate provided when attaching the Bright Tangerine (BT) VIV MB. I can go to sleep now lol! Tomorrow I'll get my slimmer IDX batteries and I'll be able to fire this puppy up! The Switronix wont't work the way I thought, it's too wide. Hopefully it will balance better when I install the IDX on the opposite side of the gimbal.

Here are some pics of what I was talking about. Again, This is only MB I've ever purchased, but I can't imagine a better one for the money! Thanks again Bright Tangerine for a great product!

Yes Rome,

ever since I sold both MB 20II's and switched to the BT Strummer and now the VIV, I am not going back, and love every bit of this new deign MB's, especially my VIV completely fitted out with all the extras, there is nothing like it, and it's adjustability in hight is a big one, as well as the Tilt function!!

But most on the Ronin I use the Clamp on system, NO rails, those only for FF system.

 

[Rome Will]

To Ketch & anyone else with a similar setup,

Is it safe to assume that you weren't able to fully balance your Epic with the Xenon lens in the tilt mode? I've been trying to get this balanced since last night, and the lens is just too front heavy from what I can tell...I even took the VIV off because you can't really move the camera up to balance it in the vertical movement (not that in real life during a shoot you would move the camera up that high, I'm just trying to get the camera balanced so it's less strain on the motors)...I've even tried to move the battery in different positions to help counterbalance the lens...just wanting to know "how you did it" so I can stop going crazy!!! Here are a couple pics of my setup just in case you (or anyone else) has some suggestions on a better way to pre-balance this before turning on the gimbal.

The first two pics are based on my option #2 for counterbalancing the camera...moving the IDX to the back to help offset the lens...

 

[Rome Will]

Here was my initial setup...really want to know how you were able to balance the Epic with a matte box...I feel like this ------>:emote_headwall:

As always...THANK YOU FOR ANY ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS!!

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Rome,

While I see that the rear battery placement is high, and blocks the Tilt function as most certainly as I see it, it will not allow for the full tilt up, in case you decide to use it, you won't be bale to in this set up, and I find that when using the rear battery set up the battery plate must be placed with the top at camera top level, and not over, this can not be achieved attaching the V-Lock to the rear of the camera, but by attaching the V-Lock battery plate via a L shaped plate so to have it hung from the top plate, I use the Red Top Tactical Plate and do this, we'll share in my next set up.

I also use the heavier Blueshape 100HD V-Lock batteries which make it easier to counter-balance front heavy set ups, this was of course much easier to achieve with the XL arms, and still hoping to receive soon the new XL kit to re-test and report with.

Till then, my strong suggestion to any is simple, balance to the best of your capacity and the set up allowed, via the camera plate, rear weight and lens, but to do this, you must try different ways of mounting your gear to the camera, and mounting some of the accessories to the rear half of the camera on either side or top.

If this does no work you can also mount the V-Lock battery plate to the side of the camera itself in the place were the Side Handle would go, I also have done this and it works.

I also have at times not reached the optimum balancing set up, yet I didn't care, and you should not either too much, do not worry about the motors carrying too much of the weight, they are built strong, and they will allow for the system to properly take up the slack, don't sacrifice not having an MB as in my opinion you should not do without.

Do a set up, try it out and see how the footage turns out, also remember that you can give or take extra power off the motors of each axis via the iOS App form your iPhone.

 

[Rome Will]

Thanks Ketch.

As I mentioned earlier, the first pic's was my last setup in order to try and get the camera balanced...I have a Freefly carbon mounting kit for a V-mount battery on the side...this was my initial setup- and the one I went back to (like you noticed the tilt function did't work with the battery on the back so I went back to the battery on the side). I did like you said and added back the VIV MB...and just like you said, when I cut the Ronin on, it picks up the slack. Including everything one would need to run this gimbal, I'm weighing in at just under 14 lbs...here's my list:

Red Epic: aprox 5 lbs
Xenon lens: <3 lbs
Red Cage and wires: <1 lb
IDX Battery and v-mount kit: <3 lbs
Heden Lens motor and F:2 receiver: <2 lbs

Here are some pics.

Quick observations/questions.

1) The motors make some loud noises (humming) for a couple seconds...its off and on. I've skimmed the manual, but definitely need to go through it some more as I'm sure I'm missing something. I've downloaded the app, and attached some pics of how my Pan & Tilt reads are going...

2) It's heavy...all the stuff people are saying is true...it would be extremely tough for one guy to hold this all day for a +10 hr shoot...I'm either going to buy an Easyrig or rent one...or switch off to a second person to help when using this

3) I probably need the XL arms...especially given that I'm adding a MB to the front. The side battery mount feels good with the rig, but I'm sure it would be balanced more if I had room in the back to add a battery there.

4) Since we have the same setup, other than than the fact that my MB is rail mounted, I'm interested in knowing what your measurements are for the Epic on the Ronin..

Like I mentioned, with this Xenon lens, there's no way I can do a proper tilt balance. I am noticing that the motors are making a loud humming noise based on certain positions I have the camera in...this has to be user error...I'll go back to reading the manual and doing some research.

Here are some pics of what I have so far...no where near done yet as I've taken it off and shot around the house, but the gimbal has acted a little erratic a couple times...like flipping all the way upside down, which bangs my MB on the top row arm; and the overall footage doesn't look so smooth yet like others...I'm sure I'll get there, but for now, its hard...on the bright side, I don't need to workout my arms today! lol

 

[Tony Harris]

How long before your arms get tired? I'm still going to buy one but I want to know what I'm getting into.