sam
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United States
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Hi I'm new to this forum - maybe some kind people can help me out? I'd love to hear from anyone who's successfully used the Ronin in full sized Helicopters.
I've had my Ronin for about 3 months now and it's a great device, but I'm still trying to work out some of the wrinkles.
One of my reasons for buying the ronin was to film out of helicopters for architectural films. Usually we'd shoot with a mounted gimbal like the Cineflex, but for lower budget productions the Ronin seemed like a good solution. Obviously it's not designed to have the same performance as a 5 axis $300K gimbal (the price is a hint), but it should be a good option if shorter focal length lenses are used.
We've done 2 test flights now, one in an R44, and one in a largerBell 407 over NYC.
Our setup:
RED Scarlet 4K
Canon 24-105 stabilized lens
Terradek Bolt wireless tranmitter.
2nd operator with wireless monitor and Ronin controller.
The Ronin was inverted, so that the top handle rested across the operator's knees.
Ronin settings: Controller speed: 15 on all axes, so that movements of the controller created subtle movements for tracking building on the ground.
Everything balanced well, system calibrated etc.
Results:
The Ronin is a little tight especially in the smaller chopper. I'd love to get a slightly shorter top rod(?), as we don't need a full 180 degree movement. I could probably find something equivalent, especially as weight is less of an issue inverted.
The good news: The 2nd operator was able to control the gimbal pretty well. With a little practice they can frame up a point on the ground, and the Ronin will track pretty well. It's much better than handheld or the passive gyro systems (eg tyler mini gyro).
The not so good:
The unit tends to loose horizon, but I understand this is due to lack of gps (it uses acceromenters and gyros to figure out which way is 'up'), but this can be corrected by the operator.
I'm still seeing a lot of vibration in the image, especially at focal lengths more than 50mm. The vibration translates into rolling shutter (jello) on the Scarlet, which is almost impossible to fix in post. Interestingly the amount seems to vary depending on the position of the gimbal. It's worse when the chopper is flying fast. This may partly be due to slipstream, and partly higher vibration from the engine. But even at slower speeds its always there to some degree.
I really have high hopes for the Ronin (excuse the pun), but currently a lot of the footage is unusable.
Questions:
Is there anything that we can do to improve the vibration resistance of the unit. The gimbal is correctly balanced, but I'm wondering if suspending it using bungees might help dampen vibration?
Is the IS in the lens helping or hindering? - I thought it might help to dampen out the last few micro vibrations, but if anything it seems to be adding to the jello. Has anyone found any lenses with better IS that are more suited to video?
Is the unit less effective inverted? Would we see better results with it upright? If so, what would be a good configuration to allow the unit to 'rest' on an operator's knees or the seat?
Are there any recommendations for settings that would help the 2nd operator better control the gimbal. Despite having scanned the forum and manual, I'm still yet to find a clear explanation of how the acceleration and smoothing settings work. For example, if I set the pan speed very slow (eg 10), and the acceleration very high, will the unit allow a speed above 10 if it receives a big input? The answer seems to be yes.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd be happy to share my experiences with anyone out there. I'll also post some footage on vimeo.
Sam
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