gurustump
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I was excited to hear that we were finally going to be able to pull focus with the Ronin-S on a Sony A7III. I read on other sites that I would need the DJI "Multi" control cable that must be purchased separately in order to make it work. I ordered that and got it today.
As other users in this forum have already said, the Multi cable is NOT the one you need to pull focus. After you have updated to DJI's latest firmware (v. 1.8.0.70), you can control the focus with the USB-C control cable connecting your Ronin-S to your A7III.
To make it work, you must go into the settings on the A7III under "Setup 4" (that's the 4th page under the briefcase-looking icon) and make sure "USB Connection" is set to "PC Remote." You must also make sure that your Focus Mode is set to Manual Focus. I can enter my Focus Mode setting using the C3 button at the top right corner of the back of the A7III, but perhaps you have customized things and moved that settings somewhere else. In any case, once that's done, you can just plug the cable into the Ronin-S control port and the Sony A7III USB-C port, and the focus wheel will change the focus.
At this point, you will discover that it work abominably badly. There is either a great deal of lag, or Sony's focus internal focus control is expecting input from something more like zoom rocker than a focus wheel. It's not all responsive, in any case. Furthermore, on the lens I'm trying it on (which is admittedly a Rokinon 35mm autofocus, not a Sony branded lens), it apparently thinks the focus range on the lens is significantly less than it is. So I can only focus within a certain limited window. If I reach the edge of that window, I can spin the focus wheel on the Ronin-S until my fingers fall off, but it doesn't keep pulling the focus any farther on the lens.
All that might be because Sony set up their internal auto focus mechanism in a way that was expecting something more like input from a zoom rocker than from a focus wheel. Or they may have made assumptions about how long the pull on a lens might be, perhaps to prevent the system from trying to continue turning the physical focus element when it had already reached its limit. That seems preposterous to me, though, since the A7III's auto focus manages to go to the extremes of the lens' limits without a problem. The point is that the problem might be with Sony's implementation of outside control of internal focusing, and not with DJI's attempts to interface with it. Sony seems pretty notorious for not caring at all about 3rd party products or making it so that outside developers can build products to interact with Sony products.
On the other hand, maybe DJI just pushed out a firmware update that is not at all mature just so they could keep the promise of their marketing materials that suggested that the Ronin-S could control focus on Sony cameras. Got me.
If you, like me, did buy the DJI "Multi" control cable for your Sony camera, it might not be wholly useless to you. With that cable, you can control starting and stopping recording with your Ronin-S (this also works with the USB-C cable, so no reason to organize a parade over it). The one thing the Multi cable seems to be able to do that the USB-C cable cannot is to force an attempt to reset the autofocus. If you half press the record button on the Ronin-S while your "Multi" control cable is connected to your A7III, it acts the same as a back focus press or a half press of the shutter release. If you find that the autofocus is guessing wrong during a shot but you don't want to try to switch to manual and focus on the lens barrel, you can try just half-pressing the record button on your Ronin-S. Maybe you'll get lucky and the autofocus will find the subject you're trying to focus on. This function does not appear to work with the USB-C cable. Unfortunately, if you touch your focus wheel while connected to your A7III with the "Multi" cable, it will attempt to zoom the lens. If you happen to have a prime lens mounted, your display will get covered with a message that says the zoom function isn't available, and that message will stay until you physically dismiss it by pressing the "Center Button" on the camera.
I would recommend giving up hope of using the Ronin-S to pull focus with a Sony camera, unless you purchase the focus motor and some lens gears. Perhaps things will improve in future update, but for the time being, this thing just doesn't work.
Ideally, DJI will go back to the drawing board and hopefully work things out so that focus control will work with the "Multi" cable instead of zoom (or that you'll be able to select which one you want using the DJI app). Hopefully they'll also figure out how to make focus pulling highly responsive, and so that it will pull through the entire available range on the lens. In the meantime, I'm taking the focus wheel off my Ronin-S and putting it back in the box. |
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