Today we've got the Ronin 4D in the studio,
along with the new 8K gimbal, so as you might expect,
I have quite a few test results to share with you.
However, for disclosure, you should know
that I was originally hired by DJI
to do some lab testing for them on this new sensor.
Afterwards, I asked if it would be okay
to share my results in a video, and they agreed,
but because of that earlier transaction,
this is not gonna be a full review
and instead just a straightforward interpretation
of the data I collected,
starting with everybody's favorite, Dynamic Range.
But first, let's go over the test setup.
So, you can swap out from this part up,
which includes the gimbal for this,
which this would be the X9-8K, the Zenmuse X9-8K,
which refers to the gimbal
as well as the new sensor that's inside the top part.
And you can also swap out the mounts on this.
As you can see here, I'm actually running a Sony E-mount.
It comes originally
with the DJI mount for the aerodynamic lenses,
but you can put on E-mount,
as you can see if you wanna run your Sony glass.
This is basically what we're talking about,
is just this part, when we are referring to the new gimbal
or the 8K gimbal.
It's this component here.
Now this is actually the 6K gimbal in the 8K box
because the 8K gimbal is already on here.
Now, I do wanna go over a couple of the settings here
because I think it's important to the test results,
but also, I know I said this isn't a full review,
and it's not, but I do really like this interface.
This is the first time I've used the 4D.
Just a really simple big touch screen push buttons.
It's all very logical.
Good job on the user experience in that regard.
You can adjust your image sharpness
all the way down to minus two and plus two,
but more importantly, your noise reduction as well
down to minus two and plus two.
By default, they're both set to zero,
and I think if I don't mention it,
that's probably how it was shot, was zero and zero.
Image sharpness shouldn't have too big of an effect
on the results, but noise reduction will,
and I like that they give you the option in here.
And then the big one that we're gonna be talking about a lot
is this other toggle here for Dynamic Range Expansion
that you can turn off and on,
and that's gonna be a big part
of our dynamic range conversation.
But let's move over
and talk about the recording codec as well,
because as you can see here, I'm using ProRes 422HQ,
but there's also an H.264 and a ProRes RAW option.
Now, I chose 422HQ because it's consistent
on both modes on this gimbal and also with the 6K gimbal
for when we wanted to compare the two.
And I find it to be more consistent to do that
than something like a ProRes RAW,
which is dependent on a lot of other factors.
Now, jumping back to the Dynamic Range Expansion toggle
that we talked about a minute ago,
this is basically a trade-off toggle
that allows you to choose between higher dynamic range
and better image quality,
or turning it off and then getting a faster rolling shutter,
faster readout speed, but giving up some dynamic range.
How much?
Well, that's what our test results are gonna show,
and also how much rolling shutter is the improvement.
However, if you install the 6K gimbal and sensor module
onto this camera, the option disappears
because it's not available for the 6K.
It's only available for the 8K,
so the button, the box just isn't there on the 6K.
It's a bit confusing, but it's also cool that this is there.
I've been asking for this on cameras for a really long time.
Give me the option between speed
and a slightly lower quality,
and then the best quality with a slower speed,
and then I can choose what shooting scenario it's best for,
so I love that they included it on this camera.
Okay, dynamic range.
If you've never seen a dynamic range test before,
let me walk you through it.
This is what we capture.
This is what the camera records-- a chart called the Xyla 21,
which has all these different stops at different values,
and we put it into software that can analyze it
and give us sort of a score,
and those results look like this.
At the top we can see what was recorded.
So 8K equals 8K means that it was 8K footage
on an 8K timeline.
EI 800, 'cause that's the native ISO.
On meaning dynamic range expansion was on,
and then zero and zero refer to those image sharpness
and noise reduction sliders.
They're both in their default position.
Now, if you look over here at slope-based DR,
that's basically the total amount of stops that we captured,
which is pretty much 15,
which is probably what the camera's advertised
as a 15-stop sensor.
But then these other numbers here are based on noise,
how much noise tolerance we have.
And usually the 0.5 medium score is what we look at,
which is a signal noise ratio of two,
and this would be a reasonable amount of clean stops.
So in this case, we're getting 15 stops total
and 12.4 stops on the medium.
Let's switch over to the EI 4000,
which is the second native ISO on the 8K sensor
when Dynamic Range Expansion is enabled.
And you can see we're getting pretty much the same result,
which is good, 15.1 and 12.4.
This tells us that it's a true dual ISO system
and there's no funny business going on.
We're gonna get similar results at both stages.
And then I like to run a test
with noise reduction turned all the way down
so we can see, if the camera has no assistance,
what's the worst we're gonna get out of it?
And in this case, again, 8K on an 8K timeline,
which is good to know
because it means no oversampling is going on,
because oversampling also improves noise performance
and increases your score.
Still seeing 15 stops because that wouldn't change,
because it's not accounting for noise,
but the medium score does change
because there's no noise reduction.
So we're only getting 11.8 stops,
which is still pretty good.
About 12 stops with no noise reduction.
I'd be happy with that, knowing that with the sort of
middle amount of noise reduction
that a lot of mirrorless cameras have, we're getting 12.5.
I think that's a good score.
Now let's compare it to the EI 320,
which means Dynamic Range Expansion is off,
and we can see how much we're losing in dynamic range
in order to speed up that sensor
and get the better rolling shutter result.
So as you can see, we lost about half a stop
for total detected.
We went from about 15 down to 14.4,
and the medium went down to 12.2.
Now, what was impressive or kind of surprising here
is that I thought we would lose a lot more
based on how much the rolling shutter improved,
and I'll tell you about that
when we get to the rolling shutter section,
but only losing about half a stop,
I mean, that's acceptable in my opinion.
Half a stop to drastically increase the rolling--
to reduce the rolling shutter, is very, very good.
Okay, now let's talk about oversampling.
I always like to run this test as well because personally,
I don't really work with 8K timelines that much.
I normally work with a 4K timeline
and I think a lot of other people do as well.
So you shoot on this 8K sensor,
and then what if you drop it into a 4K timeline?
Well, now if you look at the top,
you can see 8K on a 4K timeline, again, EI 800,
Dynamic Range Expansion is on,
noise reduction set to zero,
which is the middle default option.
We're still seeing about 15 stops,
but our medium score jumped to the 12.9 or pretty much 13,
so that's about half a stop improvement
on the medium score.
And I also ran it with noise reduction at minus two.
Then we went to 12.5.
That was 11.8 earlier, if you remember.
So we're getting significant improvement
dropping the 8K footage onto a 4K timeline.
But you can do internal oversampling
on the 8K sensor as well,
and that is reflected here.
It says 4K equals 4K.
We're getting 15.5 stops total detected
with 13.2 clean stops.
But even if we turn the noise reduction down to minus two,
we're still getting 13 stops.
That's a really great result and a really nice combination
of sort of a run and gun setup
with the least amount of work required.
But again, there are gonna be rolling shutter consequences
for that combination
because we have Dynamic Range Expansion turned on.
Now for comparison, we should probably look
at the 6K sensor results as well
because I want to compare the rolling shutter
between the new gimbal and the older 6K gimbal.
So when I tested the 6K gimbal, again, EI 800
with the noise reduction at zero, which is the middle one,
6K on a 6K timeline, we also saw 15 stops total.
We did get a slightly better medium score though of 12.7.
So, default outta the box, it would appear that the 6K
will give you a slight bump on the medium score,
but they're both seeing about 15 stops.
And then if we run it with noise reduction at minus two,
we're getting 12.2, which again,
is about a third of a stop better than the 11.8
that we saw on the 8K sensor
when shooting 8K on an 8K timeline.
But if you jump to oversampling,
this is where the 8K sensor will pull ahead.
The best I could see was this one here,
which I got up to 12.9,
but that's with noise reduction on zero.
On this one, you can set the noise reduction
down to minus two,
and oversampling all the way from 8K down to 4K
gets you 13 stops with noise reduction set all the way down.
Let's talk about rolling shutter,
because that's what this is all about.
That's what Dynamic Range Expansion on and off,
it was all about the rolling shutter benefits.
Let's start with the 6K.
I don't know why I'm pointing over here.
There's no 6K over here,
but this is 6K from now on, okay?
So this first one here is 6K full frame
on the 6K gimbal obviously,
and we're getting 20.3 milliseconds.
And 20.3 is kind of a mediocre score, to be honest.
It's not as fast as some stacked sensors,
but it's not as slow as like an a7 IV
or something like that, where it's really jello-y.
It's kind of in the middle ground.
Some people will be annoyed by it. Other people won't care.
And if we switch to 4K oversampled, it's still 20.3,
which makes sense
and it kind of validates our earlier results,
because if you're reading out the 6K sensor,
whether you're recording it to 6K
or oversampling down to 4K,
it should take the same amount of time,
and you can see it does here.
And then if you shoot Super35 on the 6K,
which means you shoot 4K without oversampling,
you're basically just windowing in to 4K, 13.9 milliseconds,
which is now in the passable territory
of like, you know, it's good.
It's like stacked sensors like an a1,
you know, a Z9,
and this is actually slightly better than those, even.
It's just only beaten by an a7S III
or cinema cameras that can do single digits,
but 13.9 is pretty good.
Now, let's look at the 8K sensor,
and we'll start here with 8K full frame
with Dynamic Range Expansion on.
So that means again, between 24 and 30 frames per second
with that toggle enabled.
And you can see we get a rather slow result,
29.9 milliseconds.
That's worse than the a7 IV I mentioned earlier.
That's significantly slower than the 6K's 20 milliseconds,
and this is now in the area where for some people
in some situations, this would just be a problem.
If you shoot on a tripod or you shoot more static situations,
it's not gonna matter, and in that case,
you're definitely gonna want to use it
and get the better image quality.
And if you look at the Inspire 3,
which again is using the same sensor,
and it has this mode forced on
when at 30 frames per second or below,
some people had an issue, some people didn't.
If people are flying in a certain way, it doesn't matter.
It's great, you know.
If you're doing a lot of panning,
it might be an issue.
However, if we switch to Dynamic Range Expansion off,
it drops significantly,
all the way down to 16.3 milliseconds, which is huge.
This is so significant, it now actually beats the 6K sensor,
which was getting 20 milliseconds.
So, the 8K gives you the option
to be the higher image quality, the higher dynamic range,
but a slower rolling shutter,
or you can switch, not give up that much dynamic range,
but then have the fastest rolling shutter option
of the full frame sensor combinations.
And then a couple more results to validate.
This is 4K60 full frame.
I put Dynamic Range Expansion not available,
because like I said, when you shoot
above 30 frames per second, the toggle disappears.
You don't have the choice anymore.
And you can see we get 16.1, which is sort of that proof.
People were doing this on the Inspire.
They were shooting at 4K60 to get a faster rolling shutter.
It didn't really have a toggle for them.
They just noticed that it was faster,
and it's because this is what happens.
You're basically turning off Dynamic Range Expansion
when you shoot above 30 frames per second.
Then 4K Super35, again, Dynamic Range Expansion
is not an option, and it speeds up
a little bit further still to 14.3 milliseconds.
Let's go one step further and talk about the ISO range
and noise and what it actually looks like.
This is what I shot, the ColorChecker chart.
It's quite dark,
and we're gonna be zooming in down over in this corner here.
So in the left this is the 8K sensor
with Dynamic Range Expansion on.
We know that because it's EI 800.
The middle one is the 8K sensor
with Dynamic Range Expansion off.
We know this because it's EI 320.
And then the 6K sensor at its native, which is 800.
Now let's jump ahead to the second native for each,
which is 4000 with Dynamic Range on,
1600 with it off, and on the 6K sensor, it's 5000.
It's not that big of a difference between any of them,
which is why it's so crazy that we can get
such faster rolling shutter
by turning that expansion mode off.
I have a couple theories as to what it's doing.
I'm not gonna share them
because I don't know that they're right,
and DJI hasn't told me,
probably 'cause they got some secret sauce going on in here.
But what I can say is that you don't even appear
to really lose sharpness.
There doesn't appear to be any real obvious cons
at say native ISO.
If we move up to here, though,
this is now the maximum EI on the 8K
with Dynamic Range on, which is 6400.
This is sort of the matching version of that
with Dynamic Range off at 2500,
and then 6400 on the 6K.
It is not the maximum the 6K, though,
and this could affect your use case
and your purchase decision potentially.
Here I wanted to show that even though the 8K
doesn't have a 12800 EI,
you can shoot at 6400
and then just bump it a stop in post, and it's still,
maybe because of the 8K oversampling or whatever,
it still actually looks a little bit better
than the 12800 that you can shoot properly
on the 6K sensor.
Compare them all.
This is 6400 add a stop in post.
5000 with Dynamic Range off, and then 12800 here.
And looking at this one, the middle one is by far the worst.
The 6400 plus a stop beats the 6K at 12800.
We're seeing sort of what's being given up
by turning off Dynamic Range Expansion.
So, keep that in mind.
Really, I suppose the place for the 6K here
would be if you shoot in lower light and you need it fast,
the 6K is the best combination there,
because while not as fast as Dynamic Range Expansion off
on the 8K, it's faster than when it's on,
and you need it to be on
to beat the low light performance of the 6K.
Okay, lastly, let's take a quick look at color.
You can see the vectorscope in the top left corner here,
and it's excellent.
This is the 8K with the Dynamic Range Expansion on.
I'm really happy with the way this looks.
I think the skin tones are good.
I think all the colors
are lining up really nice and accurately.
I will say, though, if I had to be nitpicky
that the magenta seems to be a little bit oversaturated,
and I can see that on the chart as well.
That's an easy fix, though.
You might want to,
if you're trying to be perfectly accurate,
you're gonna wanna reel in the magenta a little bit.
But other than that, I mean, this image looks great.
And yeah, so color is not a concern for me on the 8K.
So for my testing, I would say that the X9-8K
really does provide
a best of both worlds option for a Ronin 4D user.
You have the option to switch to a faster readout mode,
which is then even faster than the 6K,
without giving up as much dynamic range
as I would've expected.
And if you don't need
the superior rolling shutter performance,
enabling Dynamic Range Expansion will give you
the best image available on this system.
And it will perfectly match the Inspire 3
if that's something that you could find useful.
From a technical perspective,
it's definitely the superior product, but to be fair,
it's also quite a bit more expensive,
which means that a budget-conscious shooter
could still confidently pick up the 6K sensor
and know that they're getting a nice balance
between image quality and readout speed
for a lot less money, especially if they need to combine
readout speed with low light performance.
And both sensors offer Super35 mode
if you need to speed up that readout even further.
Alright...
I'm done.