C200: C200 gimbal options: Looking at the Crane 2 or Ronin MX

Smart. Gimbals have a lot of particulars and quirks about them and there is no substitute for actually shooting with one before spending the cash. I have bought three gimbals so far and not one of them has lived up to expectations for various reasons. Gimbals kind of remind me of the Model T days when buying a car wasn't the commodotized, sanitized experience it is in modern times. Each car had it's own set of quirks and shortcomings, just like each gimbal seems to. You cannot know if it's the right tool for the job until you at least shoot some extensive tests and screen them on a large screen to see exactly what the quality of movement and control are.

What are you using now? I remember us discussing gimbals when they first announced the C200 so I'm curious what your opinion is now that you own one.
 
What are you using now? I remember us discussing gimbals when they first announced the C200 so I'm curious what your opinion is now that you own one.

Funny you mention Angry, I sold two of my three gimbals and only own the Zhiyun Crane now which I use with my 80D or a friends Fujinon XT-2 when 4K is needed. I have been shooting a lot of handheld with the C200 and I don't feel as if I need or want to use a gimbal for it as the whole unmotivated roaming camera thing has become tiresome to me. If I am shooting a stationary subject but moving around them, I am liking traditional shoulder mounted handheld better than what a gimbal gives me and I rarely need to do walk and talks to track with a subject that often where it would be better with a gimbal. I find that overall, full size gimbals with larger cameras like the C200 and C300 MKII are rarely needed and I have several friends who own Ronins and MoVIs who rarely use them because they are a PITA to rig, balance and use, they all take time and are not very efficient when you have minimal crew and minimal time to setup.
 
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C200B on the Ronin-M is a dream. Although I'm sure you'd lose some of the ease of setup/balancing with the full C200 as the viewfinder would surely restrict the motion. Here are some pics of my setup:
https://www.sharegrid.com/sandiego/listings/53057-canon-eos-c200b-complete-gimbal-bundle#


That being said, expecting gimbal footage to feel like steadicam footage will almost always disappoint, but if you use a lens with stabilization and plan for some warp stabilizer in post you can get some great stuff.
 
Could the C200(not C200B) fully tilt in a Ronin M+Canon 24/40 or 10-18 stm lens?
I highly doubt it. There's just enough clearance to do it with the B, so adding a viewfinder and I would expect the results to be very similar to when I had my C100mkii on it - which not only limited the tilt up, but also made balancing more difficult and less precise because of the guesswork required in setting the vertical balance without the ability to fully tilt up
 
Resurrecting this thread. Has anyone flown a C200 or C200b on a Mōvi M5? I think I'm going to rent the combo next month if it'll work. Just from the footage I've seen online the M5 seems to handle quick and unpredictable movements the best, and the most stable footage I've seen at 24fps (You can get away with worse at 60 or 120p). I saw this video where they put a C100 on it and it looks like a great match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxwiSkNlf0

I'm probably going to go with the C200b with a couple primes, so if anyone has a similar setup with an M5 I'd love to see it.
 
I didn't try it on Movi, but I've tested C200 on a Crane 2 without the monitor and with 50/1.2L and 10-18, and it works great even not balanced at all, seems like motors are very strong. I will try with the LCD in a couple of days, It looks to me it will work. Crane 2 is really smooth and is much lighter and smaller setup then my Glidecam HD2000 with C200..
 
Funny you mention Angry, I sold two of my three gimbals and only own the Zhiyun Crane now which I use with my 80D or a friends Fujinon XT-2 when 4K is needed.

Speaking of angry. When is Canon going to release a half-decent SLR for video? I mean come on, Canon originated the SLR video revolution and they've done virtually nothing since the 5D Mark II was released.

*rant over*

the whole unmotivated roaming camera thing has become tiresome to me.

I like an occasional wide angle shot. But wide-angle gimbal shots are really overused. I shoot a lot of my gimbal footage at 100mm and really like that look. It's less controlled and more organic, but you can get different looks than shooting handheld.

Fujinon XT-2 when 4K is needed.

How is the XT-2 for matching with the C200? Not really happy with the look of my Sony SLRs.
 
I own a C200b along with a MōVI M5. Used the setup multiple times so far and it has worked great. Wouldn’t mind having the longer monitor cable, but other than that, it’s great.
 
How is the XT-2 for matching with the C200? Not really happy with the look of my Sony SLRs.

It doesn't really match, but that is something too that I am getting away from. For my style of documentary filmmaking, I don't care if cameras match. I am cutting to Go Pro footage, back to RED, then C200, then 80D, then back to C200 A camera. To me, the only time I care if the cameras match is for multi-camera shoots where they look like they should match. And in those cases, I usually rent the B-camera to match the A-camera. The XT-2 has it's own look of Fuji film simulations that look beautiful and a few of them can be in the neighborhood of a C200 look but they definitely don't seamlessly match in my experience. Also, camera matching is a function of color correction and grading too. I have worked with some good colorists who can make most cameras somewhat match pretty well as long as they are not miles apart but for my own projects, I have always favored the "mixed media" look, it's a hell of a lot more interesting that "everything looks like it was shot on the same camera even when it wasn't" but YMMV.
 
It doesn't really match, but that is something too that I am getting away from. For my style of documentary filmmaking, I don't care if cameras match. .

There seems to be something particularly incompatible with Sony and Canon. Not nearly so much with Panasonic and Canon. It's a lot of work to make them even compatible looking.
 
I am looking at the ronin 2 for a gimbal with my c300 mark II. I do not know if they are compatible though. Does anyone have any experience with this combination?
 
I have the regular c200 and balancing on the ronin m is not the best. I had to add a few counterweights to slide forward enough to have decent tilt motion but it still isn't perfect. Also the extra weight starts to get to the edge of what the ronin m can handle in my opinion.
 
I use the Ronin-M with the 1DX II and the extensions: works great. I’d expect the C200 would also need the extensions. I’ll try it with the C300 II one day.

For more than very short shoots, something else to budget is a steadicam arm with gimbal mount or one of the over the head options (if you don’t mind looking silly and won’t have any clearance issues). These devices can cost more than the gimbal!

Sony A7S II matches fairly easily with Canon C300 II and 1DX II:

Last night did some tests with the C300 II: after tuning the color with the 1DX II (Filmic Skin) the C300 II needs work now lol.
 
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I can fit the C300 II on the original Ronin without extionsions. I am sure that you can get the C300 II on the Ronin 2
 
I own a C200b along with a MōVI M5. Used the setup multiple times so far and it has worked great. Wouldn’t mind having the longer monitor cable, but other than that, it’s great.

Nice! That's good to hear. Do you have any footage you mind sharing? Also how easy is it to rebalance when switching lenses?
 
I'm looking into "upgrading" from my Ronin-M to a Ronin-MX specifically for better performance when using with my car mount and/or when skateboarding (the Ronin-MX is supposed to be specifically designed to maintain the horizon while fighting the force of faster movements), but I'm concerned about the top battery appearing in the shot when tilting up or down with the camera. I've read about people complaining about seeing the battery in their shots when using wide lenses. Does anyone have experience with this?
 
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