Overall I'm very excited to have the Ronin RS4 Pro as a review unit. I previously had the RSC 2 Combo Kit which included the Raveneye Transmitter and the original focus motor, which I've been using a lot for the past few years. The RSC2 could only handle about 6lbs, which was fine for most DSLRs, but I had to keep lens weight in mind. The new RS4 Pro can handle 10 lbs, so I can stack a Panasonic Pro lens on there or a 14mm 1.8 Sigma Art with ease.
By the way, it comes without any battery charge in it, so make sure you buy a 2nd battery first, charge it, so it's ready to go when the delivery guy comes and you won't have to wait three hours to use it.
APP INTERFACE
The old RSC2 had an antiquated text menu, requiring you to press the dial in and scroll scroll scroll. The new RS4 Pro has a pictorial menu with icons and is fairly easy to navigate and is touch sensitive. What's mildly off putting is RS4 Pro does away with the balance test compared to the RSC2. In the app, you used to be able to start a balance test, hold the Ronin on an angle, then it would stress test the motors. Now in the app, you'll hit the "Balance Test" button and it sends you to YouTube videos about how to balance a Ronin as opposed to an actual balance test...which is odd and annoying they didn't polish the presentation. Why call it an balance test when there's no longer a balance test? However, if you hit the green camera icon on the Ronin's menu screen, it will give you a pseudo replacement...a balance meter. Each axis will have a slider scale displayed on the Ronin's screen for left vs. right, top vs. bottom heavy, front vs. back heavy etc. You then move the Ronin around and if you're perfectly balanced, you won't see much green. If you're off balance, let's say too top heavy, then a green bar will light up and extend to the "Top" side of the slider. If you're too bottom heavy, the green bar will extend towards the "Bottom" side of the slider scale. Ditto for the other axis's in regards to left and right, front to back etc. So this is jarring at first but it's IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK. You do not have to go through the uncomfortable ritual of holding your Ronin at a 45 degree angle for an extended amount of time...only to have the Ronin tell you it doesn't like the incline angle, try again...and wait another minute as your wrist is on fire supporting the weight. You get access to a balance test ASAP, which is GREAT and a welcomed addition to speed up production and minimize down time. It's also welcomed to have this at the touch of a button WITHOUT having to dig your phone out of your pants pocket, then go through menus to find the balance test. The Ronin 4 screen menu has multiple pages, which merely require left / right / up / down swipes to access various pages. There was some minor hiccups in updating the app however. You have to scan a QR code on the Ronin's menu and it's very tiny and a bit of a chore for your phone to read. Then the RS4 Pro wouldn't connect. I merely restarted the Ronin 4 Pro and it connected. Then a few tries later it insisted I register the product which was annoying.
Aside from those minor setbacks, it's been working great. Now for old Ronin users, let's cover some new features that are selling points to decide if you should upgrade.
NEW FEATURE: ROLLING BASEPLATE PRECISION BALANCING
A very cool feature of the Ronin RS4 Pro is that the bottom of the included baseplate has a gear strip underneath and you'll now notice a gear dial on the plate chassis itself, to roll the baseplate back and forth for precision balancing. This is a very cool feature and good to have. The only issue I have is they put a precision knob on the tilt axis, which is the easiest to balance. If anything I'd love to have it on the pan axis, (the bottom most axis pivot) as holding the Ronin in one hand and trying to find the sweet spot going back and forth is a giant pain as you can't lay the Ronin on a table to balance the pan axis...sure you can put it on a table and move it back and forth but of course you can't see if it's unbalanced or not until you hold it sideways. So a gear fine tune slider is a great feature, but PLEASE PUT ONE ON THE PAN AXIS for RS5 time. As far as build quality and balancing, several have noted the Teflon finish is nice for balancing, but honestly I prefer the tension of the RSC2. The Ronin 4 is TOO TIGHT overall and you have to use a lot of force to go left and right on the roll and pan axis. Adjusting top vs. bottom weight has too little friction on the RS4 Pro and you have to hold the camera for support so it doesn't drop, which I never had to do on the RSC2 - you could get the tension on the older Ronin's loose enough to adjust top vs. bottom heavy, without being loose enough not to fall. That's not the case with the RS4, it's either REALLY TIGHT that you can't adjust up and down, or loose enough to require supporting the camera, with no sweet spot. Another nitpicking feature with the pan axis is the lock. The lock for the pan axis doesn't match the familiar form factor the other two axis's have. It's switch shaped and conforms to the round shape of the grip and is tucked deep into crevices. It's a bit challenging to unlock it by feel, usually requiring you to turn the gimbal around to see the unlock pan switch. Then it's very easy to lock it, ironically enough, while you're trying to balance the pan, while putting a lot of force going back and forth, so it's quite annoying.
NEW FEATURE: VERTICAL MODE
Like most video people...I'm not a fan of vertical videos...#MVHA. But it seems like they're here to stay with cell phone internet usage I'd say being more important and widely used than desktop internet. The good news is if you have to make a TikTok video or Instagram Reel, you can do it more easily by snapping off the base and inserting it sideways, orienting the camera vertically...yay. Of course you will have to REBALANCE the camera, you're wildly changing top heavy vs. bottom heavy distribution as well as switching axis's with improper power levels. But if you're good at balancing, it should only take 1-2 minutes. Personally I'm lukewarm on this feature, but glad it's there, I'm sure it will come in handy. But it's still a chore as there are plenty of times a client wanting a video will want it both horizontal with some verticals thrown in as an add on, and you'll have to rebalance a few times an hour on those shoots. I generally had luck with the older RSC2 by putting it in FPV mode to activate the roll axis, then turning it sideways, to avoid rebalancing. That's why I'm not over the moon with a vertical mode, given that the roll axis on a horizontally balanced Ronin turned sideways generally works, and is more convenient if a client wants shots both ways on a dime. However it's great to have a proper vertical orientation to have a custom balance when the time comes. Now the main issue I have with the vertical mode's design is the hot shoe mount on the bottom of the plate. That was generally used for the Raveneye transmitter. The Raveneye blocks the port needed on the bottom plate to attach to the gimbal for vertical mode. If you turn the Raveneye 90 degrees to reveal the vertical port, guess what, the Raveneye then blocks the locking mechanism to lock the plate in vertical mode...so vertical mode is not Raveneye friendly unless you're ok with attaching the Raveneye on the top of your camera...making it top heavy. While a minor nuissance, I do wish the design were better to allow the Raveneye in vertical mode. Luckily...or unluckily...I barely use the Raveneye, it wasn't that good at tracking.
NEW FEATURE: AUTOLOCK...but there's a flaw (FIRMWARE REQUEST)
One of the major pains I had with the older Ronin RSC 2 was locking it. You can't have an active gimbal all day wearing out your battery. And you can't just turn it off and have your camera fall as the gimbal collapses, catching your HDMI and USB cables and ruining your ports. You have to lock each axis first, then turn it off or put it in rest mode. Then while you're locking it, someone calls and says "ready for the next shot"...then you have to unlock each axis again and wait for the startup. Then the impatient client or crew member gets frustrated because you're not ready. It was a major pain doing this with the older Ronins and made me cringe, especially since you have to hold the heavy gimbal one handed and wrestle with the gimbal axis flying away from you as you try to lock an axis as the Ronin tries to correct the motion...like giving a cat a pill.Finally we get an AUTOLOCK feature that solves all of this. Merely tap the power button and each axis locks automatically then the gimbal goes into rest mode, saving battery life. Not only that, as goofy as it sounds, I LOVE the sound it makes while autolocking...it sounds like a transformer or something made by Skynet. And with another tap of the power button, you get that sound again and the gimbal unlocks and awakens...RISE OF THE RONIN!But with that autolock feature, DJI missed a huge oversight in my opinion. The proper way to turn off the gimbal is tap the power button once, WAIT FOR IT TO LOCK. It will CALMLY LOCK IN THE NEUTRAL POSITION... ONLY THEN do you hold the power button down for a few seconds and it will shut off. The problem is people are conditioned to turn off a device by holding the power button down as the only step. THIS IS A PSA - DO NOT HOLD DOWN THE POWER BUTTON WITHOUT LOCKING FIRST! When you hold the power button down, the Ronin WILL SNAP SHUT and in a DEFORMED shape. It doesn't go to neutral, it contorts...and it contorts QUICKY. GOOD BYE HDMI AND USB PORTS on your camera if you were unfortunate enough to have 3 cables attached to your camera. There's been a whole industry around securing wire ports on cameras for a long time, you do not @#$% with cable ports getting knocked loose...so it's baffling DJI didn't fix this before release and IMO needs to be fixed by firmware.
OPERATION - SHORTER ROLL
The Ronin RS4 Pro is built for 10lbs, which is a lot as I'm a Panasonic S series shooter and the RSC2 held up just fine with a few pounds to spare. I previously was eyeballing the RS3 Mini and got the S series lenses to stay lightweight as gimbals do get really heavy over time. With a beefier motor, you do get the freedom to add accessories as well as have less hiccups and motors shaking under stress, so that's a huge plus. It does operate more smoothly and feels more secure, like the gimbal is more put together than prior versions. DJI stated there's less gaps in the gimbals axis components and it feels like it fits better. There's less shake and less stress tremors. Granted, the RSC2 wasn't bad at all and was completely trust worthy for me, but the RS4 Pro feels more secure. The only caveat is you have to move your body more for orbit shots. The roll axis on the Ronin RS4 Pro has less range than the RSC2. Perhaps that's a safety feature to ensure less gimbal confusion, but I noticed it right away and have to be conscious to avoid situations where I stress the roll axis as I'm trying to stand still in tight quarters, trying to get a crescent pan around a close range object, relying on the roll axis to maintain horizon. The RS4 Pro will often stop short and bump against the roll axis's short 30 degree limit, which is the max setting allowed in the app. Hopefully a firmware update can allow it to expand to older Ronin performance. Perhaps this is the cost with having an extended tilt arm allowing for larger cameras and cinema lenses.
You can also map shortcuts to the front trigger, which is much appreciated so you can leave your phone in your pocket. By default the front trigger locks the camera so you can do interviews or have a very smooth "simulated dolly on tracks" shot as opposed to a floating airship shot. Or you can set it to FPV mode to get twisty Inception shots on the fly.
VERDICT
I will say Black Magic users probably don't have much choice and should get the RS4 Pro. Their cameras are heavier and without autofocus, so that's a match made in heaven. The main accessory that excites me is the BG70 battery. I love how newer Ronins have swappable batteries. My RSC2 had it built into the handle...and after a 3 hour shoot recently, fully charged, it was down to 50 percent...scary for a 14 hour quote. So it's good to know I never have to worry about charging again with the RS4 Pro, which makes it worthwhile at least. However the battery grip lock in the Ronin RS4 Pro only slides partial way to the lock icon, which makes me go OCD, even though it stays put and feels secure.
Overall, if you have a camera over 6lbs with the lens, GET THE RS4 Pro. If you have a Blackmagic Camera and can swing a few grand on accessories for autofocus, then GET THE RS4 Pro. If you get habitual work shooting vertical videos...GET THE RS4 Pro.
If you own an older Ronin and have a light weight DSLR, then you'll have to debate how badly you want the auto lock feature and newer batteries that are swappable...which to be honest, are great quality of life improvements. Then again older Ronins can be had for almost 1/3 the price...which is really tempting as the RS3 mini is a mere $350.
So average Joes on mirrorless cameras may want to wait as this is a welcomed evolution, but not a revolution. I'd give this 5 stars if it had fine tuning dial gears for the Pan axis and didn't have that annoying power down glitch. I do wish the new accessories were ready on the market to showcase the RS4 Pro as well.
I will reiterate, my personal opinion, I wish I didn't get the combo kit in the RSC2 days. I still feel the same way about the current RS4 Pro combo kit. While it includes the NEW Pro Focus motor, it's still including the Raveneye Transmitter. That's understandable given the new transmitter is $2500 complete, but the Raven eye was only good at transmitting a video feed to your phone in all honesty. It's not precise or fun to control the joystick via a phone screen and tilting your phone to pan up and down can get dizzying and confusing fast.
