 It's time for a Ronin-S C review, which means you're about to see a lot of these. Okay, before we go back to more sample footage, let's go through some of the things you need to know up front. This is DJI's third gimbal. It's not a successor to Ronin-S per se, but in your smaller sibling to the Ronin-S, specifically built for mirrorless cameras. It comes with some unique features and yes, some compromises. Gimbals used to be the kind of accessory reserved only for professional video makers. It was the sort of thing you'd consider spending money on, but often end up investing into something like a new lens. I know I would. For $440 or $540, which includes a few extra accessories along with a focus motor, you get a gimbal that will satisfy most people's needs. As long as those people aren't Fuji users like myself, I'll get into that later. But my first issue is not a Fuji-specific problem, but more of an issue with the payload. I'm using my Fuji X-T2 with an ultra-wide 8-16mm lens, which mind you is a heavy, bulky lens. It just doesn't work that great. And you can see that from this footage here. It's not perfectly stable, but you can still make it work. And if you add a battery grip to your camera, it doesn't work at all, despite weighing in at 3.5 pounds, way under the recommended 4.4 pounds payload. And I don't think this is due to sheer weight, but rather than the camera with the grip attached to it simply sits too tall for the gimbal. You could add and include a lens support to distribute the weight more evenly, but it actually doesn't fit with that setup. Plus the iCub just gets in the way of the gimbal. Another thing that'll get in the way of the gimbal is if your camera has a tilting screen. The point is you should definitely take a good look at your gear before picking your ideal gimbal. But switching to other, lighter lenses and filming with the Ronin-SC was a blast. At 2.7 pounds, without a camera attached, it's easy to use for a longer period of time. You can also use it with one hand, it's basically designed for that, but I tend to leave the tripod legs attached and hold onto it for added support. Still, depending on which camera you use, I use my Fuji X-T2, Sony A7S2, and EOS R, you could run into some issues if you don't balance it perfectly the first time. That was mostly the case with the EOS R, as you can see from some of the timelapse videos I tried. There are a total of 3 standard filming modes, there's pan and tilt follow, there's first person view, and a 360 roll. You can adjust the speed and depth band for each of those, and smoothing for the 360 roll, and I do love using that feature. But one thing that is hard to pull off is to get it perfectly straight once you complete the full rotation. And I do wish you could make it spin faster, there are 3 presets for speed and the custom one, but this one was a bit too slow for this shot right here. Overall build is fantastic. The handle feels nice, button layout makes sense, the focus motor feels smooth, although it has a short travel and sometimes feels a bit too sensitive. It has a black matte finish which does get scratched up easily, but still looks good. Although that's less important than a few nifty engineering tricks that Ronin-SC has. First one is the ability to lock all axis, it helps with balancing the gimbal and also with transporting it. The battery also detaches and makes it even more portable. DJI says the battery will last 11 hours, just an hour under what Ronin-S had. That will largely depend on how well you balance your gimbal and if motors have to work extra hard to keep the camera steady. And from my testing, 11 hours sounds about right. It'll easily last you for more than a day's worth of filming. Last little thing that I like is that DJI added a little clip on the camera plate so next time you put the camera on the gimbal, you don't need to rebalance it again. All those things do make for an enjoyable filming experience. As I mentioned, Ronin-SC comes with a bunch of other features you can access through the app. There's stuff you'd expect like shooting panos or time lapses, but there are also a few that you won't find anywhere else. So let's start with ActiveTrack. If you're familiar with DJI drones, you probably recognize this one. It basically lets you lock onto a target like a car or a person. In order to make it work on the Ronin-SC, you have to attach your phone on top of your camera, and that's where you'll find the camera. You can also use the camera to lock onto your phone, and that's where things get a bit tricky. Balancing the phone on top of the camera wasn't an easy task. The whole setup just felt very flimsy. I tried a few different lenses to make the setup lighter, but wasn't having a lot of luck. That said, the app was tracking well, but the gimbal had issues changing directions and trying to keep up with the subject. But I still feel like I wouldn't use this feature that often unless it really needed to do something specific. Second new feature is called Force Mobile, and it's wild. What it does, it tracks the movement of your phone, reads the gyroscope data, and mimics that onto the gimbal. It works surprisingly well, but it's also the kind of feature I'd rarely use. Still, if you're shooting with a bigger crew, you can come up with some fun shots to pull off. I'm just not that creative. And it's worth noting that gear which enables remote movement control usually costs upwards of $1,500, like DJI's own Force Pro. So props for making that accessible. Lastly, the Ronin app is also really good. It's stable, it connects to your gimbal almost instantly, it has a lot of customizable options, it has user profiles too, and it's just simple to use. But if you're a Fuji user, a lot of these features won't work since both Ronin-SC and the older Ronin-S don't actually support Fuji. So things like time lapses, motion lapses, panos just won't work. DJI tweeted they're working on it, but no clue when that'll be available. So if you're like me and all those 12 other Fuji shooters, you're gonna be bummed by this one. Even without being able to take advantage of all those features, I still kept my Fuji on it for most of the week. I just love filming with that camera, and I genuinely love using the Ronin-SC too. It's small enough to bring around, and it just feels like a piece of gear that'll last you for years to come. If you're only interested in getting stable shots and nothing more, you can probably save a few bucks and look for other options like the Zhiyun or the Moza. But if you want a gimbal that's almost as carefree as it gets, built like a tank, and packed with fun features that'll actually push your creativity, this is the one to get.
 It's time for a Ronin-S C review, which means you're about to see a lot of these.
 Okay, before we go back to more sample footage, let's go through some of the things you need to
 know up front. This is DJI's third gimbal. It's not a successor to Ronin-S per se,
 but in your smaller sibling to the Ronin-S, specifically built for mirrorless cameras.
 It comes with some unique features and yes, some compromises.
 Gimbals used to be the kind of accessory reserved only for professional video makers. It was the
 sort of thing you'd consider spending money on, but often end up investing into something like
 a new lens. I know I would. For $440 or $540, which includes a few extra accessories along with a
 focus motor, you get a gimbal that will satisfy most people's needs. As long as those people
 aren't Fuji users like myself, I'll get into that later. But my first issue is not a Fuji-specific
 problem, but more of an issue with the payload. I'm using my Fuji X-T2 with an ultra-wide 8-16mm
 lens, which mind you is a heavy, bulky lens. It just doesn't work that great. And you can see
 that from this footage here. It's not perfectly stable, but you can still make it work. And if
 you add a battery grip to your camera, it doesn't work at all, despite weighing in at 3.5 pounds,
 way under the recommended 4.4 pounds payload. And I don't think this is due to sheer weight,
 but rather than the camera with the grip attached to it simply sits too tall for the gimbal. You
 could add and include a lens support to distribute the weight more evenly, but it actually doesn't
 fit with that setup. Plus the iCub just gets in the way of the gimbal. Another thing that'll get
 in the way of the gimbal is if your camera has a tilting screen. The point is you should definitely
 take a good look at your gear before picking your ideal gimbal. But switching to other,
 lighter lenses and filming with the Ronin-SC was a blast. At 2.7 pounds, without a camera attached,
 it's easy to use for a longer period of time. You can also use it with one hand, it's basically
 designed for that, but I tend to leave the tripod legs attached and hold onto it for added support.
 Still, depending on which camera you use, I use my Fuji X-T2, Sony A7S2, and EOS R,
 you could run into some issues if you don't balance it perfectly the first time.
 That was mostly the case with the EOS R, as you can see from some of the timelapse videos I tried.
 There are a total of 3 standard filming modes, there's pan and tilt follow,
 there's first person view, and a 360 roll. You can adjust the speed and depth band for each of
 those, and smoothing for the 360 roll, and I do love using that feature. But one thing that is
 hard to pull off is to get it perfectly straight once you complete the full rotation. And I do wish
 you could make it spin faster, there are 3 presets for speed and the custom one, but this one was a
 bit too slow for this shot right here. Overall build is fantastic. The handle feels nice,
 button layout makes sense, the focus motor feels smooth, although it has a short travel and
 sometimes feels a bit too sensitive. It has a black matte finish which does get scratched up easily,
 but still looks good. Although that's less important than a few nifty engineering tricks
 that Ronin-SC has. First one is the ability to lock all axis, it helps with balancing the gimbal
 and also with transporting it. The battery also detaches and makes it even more portable.
 DJI says the battery will last 11 hours, just an hour under what Ronin-S had. That will largely
 depend on how well you balance your gimbal and if motors have to work extra hard to keep the
 camera steady. And from my testing, 11 hours sounds about right. It'll easily last you for more than
 a day's worth of filming. Last little thing that I like is that DJI added a little clip on the
 camera plate so next time you put the camera on the gimbal, you don't need to rebalance it again.
 All those things do make for an enjoyable filming experience.
 As I mentioned, Ronin-SC comes with a bunch of other features you can access through the app.
 There's stuff you'd expect like shooting panos or time lapses, but there are also a few that you
 won't find anywhere else. So let's start with ActiveTrack. If you're familiar with DJI drones,
 you probably recognize this one. It basically lets you lock onto a target like a car or a person.
 In order to make it work on the Ronin-SC, you have to attach your phone on top of your camera,
 and that's where you'll find the camera. You can also use the camera to lock onto your phone,
 and that's where things get a bit tricky. Balancing the phone on top of the camera wasn't an easy
 task. The whole setup just felt very flimsy. I tried a few different lenses to make the setup
 lighter, but wasn't having a lot of luck. That said, the app was tracking well, but the gimbal
 had issues changing directions and trying to keep up with the subject. But I still feel like I
 wouldn't use this feature that often unless it really needed to do something specific.
 Second new feature is called Force Mobile, and it's wild. What it does, it tracks the movement
 of your phone, reads the gyroscope data, and mimics that onto the gimbal. It works surprisingly well,
 but it's also the kind of feature I'd rarely use. Still, if you're shooting with a bigger crew,
 you can come up with some fun shots to pull off. I'm just not that creative. And it's worth noting
 that gear which enables remote movement control usually costs upwards of $1,500,
 like DJI's own Force Pro. So props for making that accessible.
 Lastly, the Ronin app is also really good. It's stable, it connects to your gimbal almost instantly,
 it has a lot of customizable options, it has user profiles too, and it's just simple to use.
 But if you're a Fuji user, a lot of these features won't work since both Ronin-SC and the older Ronin-S
 don't actually support Fuji. So things like time lapses, motion lapses, panos just won't work.
 DJI tweeted they're working on it, but no clue when that'll be available.
 So if you're like me and all those 12 other Fuji shooters, you're gonna be bummed by this one.
 Even without being able to take advantage of all those features, I still kept my Fuji on it for
 most of the week. I just love filming with that camera, and I genuinely love using the Ronin-SC
 too. It's small enough to bring around, and it just feels like a piece of gear that'll last you
 for years to come. If you're only interested in getting stable shots and nothing more,
 you can probably save a few bucks and look for other options like the Zhiyun or the Moza.
 But if you want a gimbal that's almost as carefree as it gets, built like a tank,
 and packed with fun features that'll actually push your creativity, this is the one to get.