Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Ronin-S from DJI
to see how well it gets along with Panasonic cameras
like the GH5 and the G9 in terms of functions
and follow focus accuracy.
And I'm also gonna show you a pretty cool trick it can do.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What is happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and I recently got my filthy mitts on the DJI Ronin-S,
which is a gimbal that I was pretty excited for
because of its advertised compatibility with the GH5.
Now, there are quite a few reviews on this gimbal already,
but most of them focused on the more general performance
of it and left me wanting to know more when it came
to how it interacted with the GH5, GH5S, G9, etc.
So, that's what we're gonna focus on today,
but in quick summary, I think I can safely say
that Panasonic owners will be really happy with this gimbal.
Quick shout-out to Camera Canada who provided me with
the Ronin-S. Funny story, despite my ongoing relationship
with Camera Canada, I didn't actually know that they carried
products like this. But I was pleasantly surprised about that,
and also that they had a couple in stock,
which has been harder to find in Canada here recently.
So, to any of my fellow Canadians that are
looking for a gimbal like this or any other products
from DJI like drones, give Camera Canada a try.
Links'll be in the description below. Alright, so I'm not
gonna go into detail about the basics of this gimbal,
because like I said, that's already been covered
in other videos. So, let's jump right into testing
the follow focus and some of the other controls.
So, I'm gonna do the demo on the G9 so that I can keep
shooting this with the GH5, but as far as I could tell,
they worked exactly the same, except for one small benefit
to the G9, which I'll get into in just a minute.
So, the first step was obviously just unpack it, assemble it,
and then balance it, which was reasonably easy and intuitive.
[funky music]
♪
Quick tip about that, by the way.
If you're looking for the instruction manual
or the other paperwork, they're actually hidden inside
the bottom of the box, inside their own little black box
that's fit inside this funky little recess
in the bottom, and it's pretty hard to see.
But anyway, once it's together, you'll find a few USB cables
in the leather case. For the GH5, there's a USB-C version,
and a Micro USB for the G9.
There's also this little infrared cable that's used
for cameras that don't function this way over USB.
You just have to point the infrared sensor at the camera
and then it can communicate that way.
Quick note on the weight. The Ronin-S can handle
3.6 kilos or 8 pounds, so pretty much
any Panasonic Mirrorless should be well under that weight.
But another cool thing is that the carriage is large enough
that it can even take a GH5 with a cage on it,
which I thought was pretty cool. So, you hook up the USB cable
to the side of the baseplate here.
And then the other end goes into the USB port in your camera.
And for anybody that didn't know, these longer USB 3.0
Micro ports actually have a regular USB port within them,
so you can just plug it in there and you're pretty much
good to go. Now, you definitely want to download the app,
and another pro tip for Android users, you want to make sure
that you get the DJI Ronin app and not the Ronin Assistant.
The Assistant's just gonna frustrate you and fail
to connect to the gimbal, and you're gonna be wondering what's
going on. So, make sure you get the DJI Ronin app. Once you have
the app you can finish initializing the gimbal,
and then you can also use it to tweak your settings the way
that you like them. And then you can also do some pretty cool
shots with it, but we'll get to that at the end of the video.
Now, once you're all configured you should have
operational control, which means that the record button will
start and stop the recording, but it also doubles as an AF-ON
when pressed halfway. This will work in all focusing modes,
but if you drop into manual focus,
then you can also use the focusing wheel on the side here.
Now, this is of course the electronic variety
which means it's non-linear and a bit tedious.
But that's Panasonic's fault and not DJI.
But despite those limitations, I actually found
the responsiveness to be pretty good and was impressed
with its precision. And you can also hold this button
on the side near the focusing wheel that changes the direction
that the wheel operates, whether it goes from far to near or near
to far. So, set it to whatever you find most comfortable
for you. Now, I recommend you update your firmware, which is
done through your computer using the provided charging cable.
And it's a good thing to do because they actually have
quite a few releases already that add performance
improvements and tweaks to different camera models.
But mine worked for these Panasonic cameras
right out of the box with no firmware updates.
Now, the GH5, like I was saying, works exactly the same
as the G9 except for one difference.
The G9 can be charged over USB, which is great because
the Ronin-S is a 2400mAh battery which is good for,
like, up to 12 hours, which means you probably
have some juice to spare to donate to your camera
if your camera's one of the ones that can be charged over USB.
But the GH5 unfortunately does not have this feature.
One thing I should also mention when it comes to USB
connectivity is you want to set the camera to tether mode.
If you have it on that computer USB mode, that's no bueno.
So, you want to go into the wrench, and then go down
to page three, which might be on a different page
for your camera. And then set the USB mode to "PC(Tether)".
Now, one of the cool functions you can do with
this gimbal that I said I would show you involves the app.
So, you wanna go in, go to "Create",
and then go to "Track".
Oh, but if you go to the video button first,
you actually get this cool little virtual joystick
that you can use to control the gimbal remotely.
And you can set the speeds and stuff like that,
which I think is pretty cool.
But anyway if we go back and we go to this "Track"
option here, we can set our start point
and our end point, and basically this will set
a path for the gimbal to have predetermined movement.
And up here, under "Stop time", you can set that--
that's how long it's gonna stop and stay
at the final location before ending the record.
And then the "Move time" is how long it will take
to complete the action.
Then we can just press record. But before that
if we want to test the motion at full speed,
we can just press the play button,
and the gimbal will move from point A to point B.
And then we can start it by setting it to position 1,
and then pressing record.
And when you do this, it will start recording on the camera,
it'll make the movement over the duration of time that you set,
and when it gets to its finished position, it'll stop
and wait there for the amount of time that you set as well.
And then when that time's up, it'll automatically
turn off the recording on the camera.
I think this is a really awesome feature and I have so many great
applications for this based on the type of shooting that I do.
♪
Now, as you many of you know and as much of this video
would suggest, I use manual focus a lot.
But for those examples I just showed you,
I thought I would give the autofocus a try,
and I was using settings similar to the ones
that I've provided in previous videos I made on GH5 autofocus.
And I have to say, I thought it held up pretty well.
I was pretty satisfied with it.
Overall, I think the DJI Ronin-S is the best gimbal to date
in its weight class, and easily the best stabilization
companion to the latest Panasonic series of cameras.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
helpful or at least entertaining, and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs-up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright... I'm done.
♪