DJI Ronin-SC Review + Test Footage! Better than Ronin-S?

(upbeat music) - Hey, how's it going? Parker Walbeck with FullTimeFilmmaker.com, and today we take a look at the new DJI Ronin-SC. DJI was kind enough to send us this new gimbal to

test

and

review

, but as always, this

review

is completely unbiased, DJI is not paying me to do it. At first glance, this gimbal looks almost identical to its older brother, the Ronin-S. Basically, it's much smaller and lighter to accommodate some of the newer and smaller mirrorless cameras, but they also packed this gimbal with a ton of new features that we honestly weren't expecting. So in this video I'll go over some of those features to help you decide if it's a good choice for you and your current setup, and how it compares to the original Ronin-S.

As far as design is concerned, this gimbal is designed for smaller mirrorless cameras like the Canon EOS R, Sony a7 series, Nikon Z series, etc. So keep this in mind before you choose one of these, because the maximum payload capacity of the Ronin-SC is two kilograms, or 4.5 pounds, while the Ronin-S is almost double that, at 3.6 kilograms, or eight pounds. And some minor disadvantages that I want to eliminate have to do with this smaller form factor. If you plan to stick with a small mirrorless camera, as well as relatively small lenses, you should have no problem using this gimbal.

But while

test

ing, I noticed that most of my lenses couldn't actually work with this setup, simply because they make my camera setup too front-heavy, which makes it much harder to balance, so I think some people may end up outgrowing this system quite quickly and in that case the larger Ronin-S may be a

better

option. In terms of the overall design and build quality of the Ronin-SC, it is almost identical to the Ronin-S, but we do see a little more plastic used, probably just to make it lighter. But it still feels high-quality and sturdy like the Ronin-S, so there really isn't much downside to it.

And the SC weighs just 2.4 pounds, compared to the S's 4.7 pounds, about half as light. When shooting with the 1DX on the Ronin-S, my arms usually feel tired after a full day of shooting, but I was pleasantly surprised at how light it feels. It almost feels like a toy in my hand compared to this type, and makes filming all day much easier. So I think that was the main purpose, for them to make this smaller version is to allow people who maybe aren't as strong or don't want to have to carry that much weight all day, to give them a smaller weight. , lighter option.

And they definitely succeeded, making it much lighter. As far as battery life goes, the SC has a battery life of 11 hours versus the S's 12 hours, so there isn't much downside. However, something new that the Ronin-S doesn't have and that we saw with the Zhiyun Crane 3 are the mechanical locks that allow you to lock each individual arm, which makes it really nice for traveling and also makes it easier to balance each one. . arm individually. So I'm really glad they added that great new feature. They also gave us a new, smaller quick release plate, it's not a standard Manfrotto plate like on the Ronin-S so that's a shame as you can't switch between gimbal and tripod very quickly.

But the new plate is smaller and lighter and comes with a positioning block that you can squeeze and position so you can mark the position of your release plate and mount your camera more quickly because you don't have to worry about positioning. In terms of performance and stability, the Ronin-SC feels and performs the same as the Ronin-S, but smaller and lighter. Sometimes with smaller and cheaper gimbals the motors will not be as powerful and therefore will not produce as smooth results. But we found that the Ronin-SC gives us almost the same level of smoothness as its older brother.

In general, though, having a lighter overall setup will mean that walking or running movements will show up more easily in the

footage

, and that's still the case with the Ronin-SC, so it's something to keep in mind. We also mentioned earlier that DJI includes several software updates that really set this gimbal apart, and we'll go over some of them right now and show you some sample images of each of these features. The first feature is Active Track. This is the newest, and possibly our favorite, feature that DJI has included in the Ronin-SC: Active Track 3.0. Just as we've seen on DJI's newer drones like the Mavic Pro 2, this technology is now available for its gimbal.

I'm always a little wary of these automated features and generally don't recommend them, and I'd still be wary of relying on an automated tracking system in every situation, but I was actually surprised at how well it worked. Included in the box is a phone mount with a hot shoe connection so you can attach your phone to the top of the camera, launch the Ronin app, press create, and then activate tracking. And by using your phone's camera, you can select any object in the frame and your gimbal will keep it directly in the center. So you don't have to worry about the topic being cut off.

And you can also move the joystick and place the subject in a specific part of the frame, and it will remember your selection and keep it there, so you can also do a framing rule of thirds as well as center framing. We tested this feature in a few different scenarios and honestly, it worked really well, so I could see myself using this pro in certain situations. But as we'll show in a future test, I still think that learning to manually steer the gimbal will look

better

and more professional than using these automatic functions. Another new DJI feature we explored also involved its cell phone, which basically turns it into a wireless gyro remote control for your gimbal.

It's very similar to the Freefly MoVI MIMIC system, except it doesn't transmit the image to the phone, so you have to be right behind the camera to see what you're filming. It's a cool idea, but not entirely useful. And the way to access this mode is to enter the Ronin app, select create and then force the mobile, then turn it on and the Ronin-SC will automatically start to imitate the movements that you are doing with your phone. If you're a one-man show, this probably won't be very useful to you, but for a small crew shooting a video that involves complicated camera movements, this feature could come in handy.

It worked pretty well when I was walking behind the camera, but when I tried to use it outside of a car, it was too difficult to use because I couldn't rotate my whole body while sitting in the car, so I really can't. I imagine using this feature a lot. Maybe if I could see the image from my phone, but it's still a cool little feature they've included that some people may find useful. The next cool feature is called FPV mode, which basically gives you a POV mode where you can move the gimbal in virtually any direction and get a more intimate look from your shots.

This somewhat mimics the movements you'd see on an FPV drone, so it's a fun little feature as well. And to set it up, all you have to do is launch the Ronin app, tap user profile, choose which profile you want to change, and then tap FPV. It should also be noted that DJI changed the design of the application. I imagine it will be updated with both Ronins, but I'm not sure. But in this new app, there are certain settings that we couldn't find, like motor strength settings, so we found it a little harder to dial in the exact motor settings we wanted.

So whether it's just a beta version of the app or if they're going to improve it, I don't know, but we felt like we had less overall control with the new app. But after balancing everything and adjusting the app settings, here are some tests we ran to show you how this gimbal performs in some common shooting scenarios. First, there's the standard lock mode, where the camera stays perfectly straight, facing one direction, and we hold down the front trigger to lock it and, like the Ronin-S, this worked super smoothly. There's not much difference there. We then moved on to a running test, where I ran directly behind a subject as fast as I could and overall it worked well, I'd say not as good as the Ronin-S, mainly because it's a lighter setup, so You will be more susceptible to some of those up and down motions when running.

But he still did a pretty good job. And then the next one was low mode, or sleep mode, and just like the Ronin-S, all you have to do is hold the trigger and then slide the camera down until it goes into low mode. And again, I'd say it worked just as well as the Ronin-S. We then tried the parallax shot - this is where we orbit around a subject - and again, I thought it was super smooth, although it requires some motor setting adjustments and a bit of practice to get it right. But if you don't have much practice, you can now use Active Track 3.0, as we showed you before, and literally turn the handle in any direction you want and it will always keep your subject in the center.

Again, this is probably the standout feature of this new gimbal - it makes it super beginner friendly to have that Active Track there. Either way, I thought the SC did as good a job with parallax as the Ronin-S. However, I noticed that when using Active Track 3.0, if a subject is moving too fast, like a car passing by, it is a little slow to follow, so as long as the subject isn't moving too fast, it should make a good move. . Good job on auto tracking mode. Moving on to our last test was the sport mode. Although this feature is more common among current three-axis gimbals, I think the Ronin-S is still the best in sport mode, and I thought the Ronin-SC would perform just as well in sport mode, and it almost did.

But we tried all kinds of different configurations and couldn't get it to be as good as the Ronin-S. As you can see in this example, it does a great job, but it was a little harder to control. And to activate Sport mode, you can press and hold the M button until the indicator light turns yellow, or press and hold the M button and then double-tap the front trigger to lock it in place. There you have a quick look at the new Ronin-SC. Overall I think this is a great new gimbal that I would highly recommend to anyone with a smaller setup.

But again, the biggest downside is simply that it can't hold that much weight, which means I personally wouldn't use it much because I don't have many setups that are that small. I even recently purchased a Canon EOS R that only weighs about a pound and a half, and with a lens that also weighs about a pound and a half, which is under the 4.5 pound weight capacity limit. The front was very heavy so you have to slide the camera all the way back which slams it into the rear motor which will ruin your

footage

. So keep in mind that even though it says a 4.5 pound capacity, you also need to take into account the form factor of your setup and the weight distribution to fit it in the space provided.

So the only setup I have that I was able to fit in here was the Sony A7III with the Tamron 28-75, which weighs about two pounds total. And I still had to remove the eyepiece so it wouldn't collide with the rear motor. So if you had a G Master lens here, I doubt it would balance, so something to keep in mind with your setup, both the camera and the lens need to be super light; otherwise, you'll want to get the larger Ronin-S. Price-wise, the Ronin-SC comes in as expected, just below the Ronin-S, starting at $450, so you'll also save some money by choosing the smaller version.

But that's all I think about, guys. There are links in the description for where you can pick up any of these and if you'd like to see more gear reviews and comparisons like this one, along with tutorials on my favorite Ronin-S setups, as well as other tutorials for how to become a master at filmmaking and how to run your own video production business, you can join our online film school at FullTimeFilmmaker.com, or to preview what the course is like, you can sign up for my Free One-Time Film Training time by clicking here. But that's all, thanks for tuning in.

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