- This is the DJI Ronin 4D
and it's a super unique all-in-one camera system
that incorporates a four axis gimbal
along with a 6K RAW camera.
So we're gonna dig into what this camera is all about
and what makes this camera so special and unique.
(upbeat music)
So all of that footage that you just saw
was shot on this camera.
Now I just want to preface one thing,
I've only had this camera for about a week
and I've only been able to kind of play around with it
in a few different situations.
However, in this video, what I wanna talk about
are ten things that you need to know about this camera
and some things that make it super interesting
and a camera that you might want to get
depending on the type of content that you're producing.
So, number one, let's just talk about the sensor
and what you have access to on this camera system.
The Ronin 4D has a full frame sensor.
That means that you're getting full frame 6K
up to 60 frames per second.
Now you can shoot in H.264, Prores HQ, or Prores RAW.
So you have a lot of options
depending on what you want to shoot out of this camera.
Majority of what I've shot in the last few days
have been on Prores HQ, which grades beautifully.
But if you wanna bump it up to RAW
and have that extra data
and be able to do even more of your footage,
you get Prores RAW built right into it.
Now something to note about the sensor,
when you're shooting 6K 60 frames per second,
it crops in at a .239 aspect ratio.
So it's a widescreen aspect ratio.
So it gives you that wide field of view.
However, it windows the image.
It's not giving you more information on the left and right.
So if the 16 x 9 gives you more information
on top of bottom
and basically when it goes into the 60 frames per second,
you just chop off the top and the bottom.
So when you bump it down to 48 frames per second,
in 6K and 4k,
the image is not windowed anymore
and you get the full 16 x 9 resolution.
Now if you wanna shoot 120 frames per second,
you have to bump it down into 2K resolution
and you'll be able to shoot Prores RAW
and Prores HQ in all settings.
Now if you bump it down to H.264,
you're limited to 4K resolution.
And then the last thing about the sensor
is you can shoot at a Super 35,
so you can punch in.
However, you can only shoot in 4k and 2K
in the Super 35 mode.
So you get a lot of options
and I played around a lot with that
6K 60 frames per second, however, it is limiting.
If you do want that full 16 x 9 image,
you're gonna be getting a windowed image
instead of the full resolution.
Now the second thing that you need to know
about this camera is the form factor.
It's different.
It's kind of bizarre.
Everyone that's seen this camera when I'm out shooting it,
keeps asking like, "what is that thing?"
It just looks so different than any other camera
that you're out there shooting with
because it's an all-in-one system.
It doesn't look like a DSLR mounted onto a gimbal
or something like that.
But it looks like this for a reason.
The box on the back is basically the computer.
That's where your SSD drive is.
That's where all your buttons are,
your battery, your wireless,
everything that is built into this camera system.
And then you have two handles off to the side.
Now these handles are full of buttons and joysticks
and focus wheels and everything to operate the camera
with your hands mounted on either side.
Now on the top you have a handle,
which again, has some buttons on it
to make it easy when it's down by your side
and you're doing low angle shots.
You have a big monitor
which allows you to see your footage clearly
in any kind of situation.
I was outside in the sun
and I could see perfectly well on this monitor.
And again, the monitor has tons of buttons all over it
to adjust all of your settings.
And then out the front of it,
you have your Z-axis,
which is the arm that's coming out from the body.
And then you have your three axis gimbal,
which is on the front.
So when you're walking and moving this thing in any way,
your camera is completely still.
It's so bizarre when you actually see this in action,
because the camera like floats.
It's like perfectly still.
That Z-axis does such a good job
of getting rid of all your walking
and all of your running when you're filming.
And one thing I noticed when I was shooting,
is that it was just so easy to get super smooth footage.
Like it looks like it's on a slider
when I'm just walking with the gimbal.
Now another thing in terms of the form factor is
with the two handles, you have all of your controls
for operation, but these two handles come off.
And when you take these off,
you can mount them onto the monitor
that comes with the system.
And now you have a wireless monitor,
but also all of your camera controls on the monitor.
And you're able to completely control the camera
with the wireless monitor
and be able to do things like move the gimbal around
or like focus pole
or change all your settings
while being away from the camera.
Now the third thing you need to know about this camera is
that it's just super easy to use.
I pulled it out of the box,
turned it on and was able to start shooting pretty quickly
without having to really figure out
all the buttons and where everything is.
It's very intuitive
when you're actually working with this camera.
So you unlock the gimbal,
all of the motors have a lock on them,
and then you just attach the two handles
and you can start operating.
Start recording, start moving the gimbal around.
There's not a whole lot of setup.
And that's one thing that I noticed with this
is that working with the system, it's easy to work with.
So in comparison, this is my RS 2 setup.
I have my Sony a7S Mark III on here
and I'm using the Tilta Ring
because I like the two to handle operation.
So the RS 2 goes on here.
It's an add on from another company,
but this whole system basically
gives me the same thing as this system.
The only thing I'm missing is the Z-axis.
Now after I was filming with the Ronin 4D,
I went and shot an event with the RS 2
like back to back.
I flew from Alaska to Dallas and shot an event.
And I realized how much harder it was to use this setup,
just because you have to deal with different batteries
and you have to deal with different things
on the full ring that you're constantly having to make sure
that everything's turned on
and everything's working properly.
So on my Tilta Ring, I have to turn on my camera.
I have to turn on the gimbal.
I have to turn on the monitor.
And then if I have a wireless feed,
I have to make sure the wireless module is also turned on.
Now all of that is built into the Ronin 4D
and it's just a single button that turns it all on.
Now one other comparison, these weigh the exact same.
So this is around 11 pounds with everything on there.
And my RS 2 ring, fully built out, is around 11, 12 pounds.
So it's essentially the same weight,
just different form factor.
And just so you guys can see a comparison.
I have my FX6 right here
and you can see kind of the size difference between them.
Obviously, the FX6 is not a fully built out gimbal
with all of these features,
but it's, you know, a camera that I use all the time.
Similar form factor with the side handle and all of that.
So the fourth thing you need to know
is that this lens mount is removable.
So right now I'm using DJI's lenses on it.
I have the 35 millimeter.
However, they also sent me the Sony lens mount.
Which basically, it's a flip of a switch
and you can pop off the lens mount,
put on the new lens mount,
and now I can start using different lenses.
So you don't have to deal with like screwing something on
or anything like that.
It's just a lock and a lever
and you pop it off and you can put your new lens mount on.
And so there's gonna be different
lens mount options available for this camera,
depending on which lens system that you're using.
One thing to note about this gimbal though,
is you're not gonna be able to put big, heavy lenses.
You are limited on the size of the lens
that you can put on this camera.
There is a decent amount of lenses
that will work with this gimbal.
And I was surprised even the Sirui Anamorphic lenses,
which are a little bit heavier,
will work when you use a counterbalance on this camera.
Now number five is that
this camera has built in ND filters.
And so when you're on the screen,
in the lower left hand corner,
you have clear 2, 4, 8, 16 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512.
So you never have to worry about putting ND filters
on the front of your lens.
And just shooting out in bright sunlight,
the ND works great.
And it's more than enough power that I needed
to be able to shoot in the situations that I was filming in.
The sixth thing you need to know is
that this camera does come with auto-focus.
There's three options for your auto-focus.
There's single-point, there's wide,
which basically creates a wider box,
and then there's smart auto-focus.
Now I did a few tests here
to just kind of show you the difference between
all of these different auto-focus.
And what I found is working with the smart auto-focus
it's basically tracking faces
and so you're able to track someone
moving through your frame.
And what I found is, the smart auto-focus works really well.
It tracks a face, and that's super important.
If you want to track someone through your frame.
Now the single point is great.
If you just wanna be focused in on a single point
and you can actually move this box around the screen.
So it doesn't always have to be right in the center.
And the wide, I find works pretty good for those situations.
You want a little bit wider focus
where you're not so narrow in on something individual.
And the reason for that is,
if you're moving through the frame
and you bounce in and out of
that little box in the center,
well, the auto-focus will ping to the background
or something right away.
So those three options,
aren't a ton of options when it comes to auto-focus,
but it does give you enough
to be able to use auto-focus with this camera
and be able to rely on it for certain situations.
And I found that the auto-focus is really snappy
and works pretty well.
Number seven is the wireless system
that's just built into this camera.
And we talked about this monitor a little bit earlier,
but what's great about this monitor
is you can record on the monitor itself
and you also have on the back an SDI out
and an HDMI out.
So you can then output the image to other monitors.
If you're working in a professional environment
where you need to have more monitors on set.
On this monitor, you have access to control
all of your camera settings through the touch screen.
And also using the handles,
you can completely control everything wirelessly
when you're away from the camera.
Now when you're using this wireless system,
there's no need to turn anything additional on.
So all you need to do is turn on the wireless monitor
and it automatically connects.
It just makes the whole process that much easier
because you're not dealing with cables
and you're not dealing with
trying to make sure that the transmission is connecting
or apps or anything like that,
that I've worked with when I'm dealing with
these other wireless systems.
So number eight, we need to talk about the audio options
because on the camera body, you're a little bit limited.
You only have one 3.5 input and one headphone out
and then you have an HDMI out
for video signal underneath that.
Now there is an accessory that's going to be available,
that is the remote monitor expansion unit.
And basically that's gonna give you XLR, SDI,
and it's also gonna give you a BNC
for jam sync and time code.
However, if you're just gonna use this camera
without the expansion accessory,
you can split the stereo pair into two different tracks.
So you have the one input, but because it's a stereo input,
you can split that and control them both independently.
And you also have internal mics
on the body itself for scratch audio.
Now number nine is your built in tracking.
So this works just like a DJI drone,
where you have active track.
So when you're looking at your subject,
you just draw a box around them
and the camera will start tracking your subject.
Now it's doing a visual tracking.
So someone's walking around and they walk behind something,
it's gonna lose that subject and stop tracking them.
However, what I've been playing around with it,
it does seem to grab the subject
when they pop out from behind whatever object that is.
And because of the way that this camera is built,
you have a lot of range for someone to walk around.
And I found that even when a subject
gets close to the camera and walks by,
the camera seems to respond quickly and track the subject.
So I've only been testing this tracking
in kind of limited situations,
but I definitely wanna play around with this
in more of a filmmaking setting
where I'm tracking a subject
and then moving quickly with the gimbal
so that I can keep them in frame the entire time
and not have to be looking at the screen
while I'm running through a scene
where there might be some hazards
when I'm walking with the camera.
Now one thing I noticed that was pretty cool,
and I've been wanting something like this on a gimbal,
is the ability to adjust your tracking.
So if someone's dead center,
you can use the joystick and slide them over
to like the right third.
And then the tracking is going to keep that person tracked
as they're in that right third versus always centering them.
So you can create some different looking compositions
where your subject is not always dead center.
And the 10th thing that you need to know,
which is probably the most important
out of anything we've been talking about,
is that the footage just looks beautiful.
I've been shooting with the sensor
in some pretty cool situations
and just adding a little contrast
and a little boost and saturation on the D-log,
and you have amazing looking footage without a ton of work.
The sensor has such a nice look to it.
And in terms of color settings,
you have Rec. 709, D-log, or HLG.
And I've been shooting everything in D-log
and it creates a nice flat image
that preserves your highlights.
And you're able to do some
really easy grades on this footage,
especially when shooting in Prores HQ or RAW.
One other really cool thing about this camera is
the SSD drives are just these simple little drives
that have a USBC built into it.
And it just makes it really easy to offload footage
because when you're shooting Prores HQ and RAW,
you're gonna be using a lot of data.
I burned through a terabyte of footage pretty fast
shooting at 6K Prores HQ.
So if you wanna see more information about this camera,
I'll include a link down below in the description.
And I'm gonna continue to shoot with this camera,
I have another trip coming up
and I'm gonna take it with me
and really see how this performs
in an outdoor adventure style setting.
So next, I highly suggest you check out this video here.
It was all shot using this camera
and it goes through five different gimbal moves
that I use when I'm crafting my stories.
I'll see you over there.