DJI launches Ronin-S

I wish DJI would release slider with slider module. This way you could combine it with Ronin-S and basically have something like Edelkrone with Motion Kit.
 
puredrifting said:
Not to get too side tracked, but same with the UTTER ABUSE of high frame rates/slow motion. If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you have slow motion capability, doesn't EVERYTHING look cooler in slow motion? (sarcasm on) The documentary I am shooting, we are mainly shooting the racing in 4K 60p but I have to say, in the sizzle, crowdfunding videos, so far we have not used one shot in slow motion, it just makes the paddlers we're shooting look less impressive, like they're lazy. Like every other tool at our disposal, slow motion looks amazing WHEN IT'S MOTIVATED from a story perspective. But YouTube video and demo reel after demo reel filled with ALL slow motion and or speed ramped shots, enough people! Learn how to tell a story with nothing but sound, cuts and good photography, then I'm impressed. Five minutes of 120 fps gimbal work, not so much.
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I'm right there with ya. If all I see is slow motion walking for the first 10 seconds I'm turning it off. I pretty much only use slow motion if I want to emphasize something and ramp to it, or if there's a lot of stuff everywhere like rain, bubbles, glitter, what have you. But don't use slow mo when what you're capturing is already slow!
 
So, my Ronin S showed up today. Did some playing around and my feelings are mixed.

Build quality is great.
The focus wheel is amazing if you've been relying on crappy AF when gimbal-ing.
It's a pretty nicely put together kit

It's also heavy for a single-handle gimbal. This is my biggest hangup.
It'd be nice if the battery wasn't locked in the handle.
I'd also like to be able to charge the handle without using the gimbal.

I think it's a keeper, but I'm going to spend some more time with it and my GH5.
 
Mine shows tomorrow... will be my first purchased/owned gimbal; I've been waiting until the tech had sorted itself out a bit and many of the common early generation gimbal problems refined or solved.

GH5s to be flown, and I'm glad DJI is showing some love for these Panasonic cameras for a change, and I'm hoping the rumor of the focus wheel working with speedbooster adapted Canon lenses is true.

Heavy, yes, but I have some hope it will work on the end of my jib at some point as well as using it for a handheld device. Very interested to see the ecosystem developing around it in the near future.
 
Best gimbal tip I've experienced, as long as sync audio isn't involved, shoot 30p for 23.976 timelines, slow to 80%. This irons out an amazing amount of the micro jitters and little bumps and mechanical dreck that all but the highest end gimbals have. It doesn't look slow motion, just a little dreamy. It's a great tip that has helped my gimbal work a lot. For walk and talks, trying to sync audio to make it work would be a PITA, but for non-dialogue shots, thumbs up.
 
puredrifting said:
Best gimbal tip I've experienced, as long as sync audio isn't involved, shoot 30p for 23.976 timelines, slow to 80%. This irons out an amazing amount of the micro jitters and little bumps and mechanical dreck that all but the highest end gimbals have. It doesn't look slow motion, just a little dreamy. It's a great tip that has helped my gimbal work a lot. For walk and talks, trying to sync audio to make it work would be a PITA, but for non-dialogue shots, thumbs up.
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That's great advice.
I discovered this by accident when I shot some footage at 30p instead of 60p. The 30p footage slowed to 23.98 doesn't really look slo-mo, but gives it a slight "dreamy" quality as you said. I've also discovered that you can shoot 60p, interpret the footage at 23.98 in Premiere, then speed it up 200%. This yields the same dreamy effect. The advantage of shooting 60p, all things being equal, is that you have the flexibility to also use it as slo-mo footage if you want. I use a GH5 which has good 4k 60p so this is an option. In any case, I highly concur.
 
jbregar, awesome to hear that the Gimbal is properly communicating through the Speedbooster! Waiting for the FEDEX truck right now.

Puredrifting... while still in college in 1985 I was moving into "normal" AC work from my Oxberry and Acme optical printer experience, and we shot a 35mm Arri lll MOS commercial for US SWIM & FITNESS (a trendy gym; lots of headbands and leg warmers) at 30fps base rate instead of 24fps because it was being editing on 1" tape and (so the client said) would never need to be film-conformed, and cutting properly for 3:2 cadence was sort of a pain for many video post houses at the time.

Sure enough, a few months pass and the client wants a negative cut of his big beautiful spot and prints struck for the local theaters. And of course they were in love with the in-outs of every edit so I couldn't fudge. They eventually re-cut a slightly longer audio track (theaters didn't care if a spot was :30 exactly or not) and I rebuilt the spot at 30fps to match. What a nice thing that slight slow-mo did to every shot! Lesson learned! I remember the client saying, "It looks like a dream!"
 
Does anyone know if the Ronin-S can be used with the roll gimbal in front of the camera? This tends to be the best arrangement for large cameras. While it's pretty easy to just mount the camera backwards the controls are on the wrong side if it doesn't have anyway to flip it around 180 degrees and still use the follow mode. I know my Zheyun Crane only operates this way in follow mode.
 
Used it all day on Sat shooting at a convention in Denver... not bad, my arm didn't fall off, with GH5s and 18-35 Sigma.

I'm not a gimbal guy yet, but I can see where this will be very useful in the kit, can't wait until I can decouple the head and attach to a jib with remote control and focus. Very solid hardware and a great feel compared to the other single handled gimbals I've held.

Did a quick test today with multi-pass recording and the "Track" controls in the app... using two keyframes. Put the gimbal on my heavy k-pod to anchor it down, did a nice slow move to control any vibrations. I had a seventh pass, but the app froze up mid-recording on that one. The passes were +- 1 frame sync consistently. I doubt there will ever be a software front end for this hardware that can truly push it to its limits, but if the SDK is out there maybe someone could really go to town with it.

Reasonable repeatability...

http://files.datausa.com/imageshoppe/outgoing/RONIN-S/Ronin-s_multipass_test.mp4
 
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