It’s crazy how quickly we shooters adapted to 3-axis gimbals for these butter-smooth shots in basically every video out there nowadays. Today DJI announced the latest iteration of gimbals, the DJI Ronin-SC. A smaller and lighter version of the popular DJI Ronin-S.
Although being pretty late to the gimbal game, DJI made a decent impact with the Ronin-S. As it became very popular among filmmakers there was one big drawback: it’s weight. If you’ve worked with that gimbal before, you know it’s no fun to carry around that 4.1 lbs (1.86 kg) gimbal all day long on an event or a wedding.
That’s where the new DJI Ronin-SC comes in handy. It’s significantly lighter (2.4 lbs, roughly 1 kg) but still maintains a decent payload of 4.4 lbs / 2 kg without sacrificing too much of the battery life. The battery is good for 11 hrs, just 1 hr less compared to the bigger brother. Yes, the Ronin-S carries a much bigger payload (7.94 lbs / 3.6 kg) but let’s be honest, you’re not going to slap a Canon 1DX on these type of gimbals, are you?
While this gimbal is perfect for micro 4/3 cameras like the GH5, you’ll probably have to test your favorite camera/lens combo when using a full-frame mirrorless like the new Sony A7R IV to make sure you don’t exceed that official payload. Full-Frame lenses tend to be significantly heavier than micro 4/3 lenses due to the significantly bigger sensor real estate they have to project on.
But Sony also added a couple of very clever improvements to make this gimbal the ultimate single-handed magic wand all one-man productions been waiting for.
3-axis lock and position lock will make transporting, balancing and remounting much easier now. The redesigned Ronin App is giving you a bunch of intelligent modes such as:
- Active Track 3.0 (follow selected subject via mobile device)
- Virtual joystick
- TimeLapse and Motionlapse
- Motion Control
- Panorama
- Force Mobile (iOS only / control camera movement via Smartphone / Bluetooth 5.0)
If your workflow had been tailored towards a nimble shooting setup this gimbal is definitely going to be a good choice. But if you are leaning towards bigger cameras (like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K) let alone with prime lenses, you’ll definitely be looking at other gimbal systems.
The DJI Ronin-SC is now available in 2 packages. The standard package (439$) or the Pro package which includes a start/stop cable and a follow focus motor for only 100$ more (539$ total).
