Sunday, September 21, 2014

DJI RONIN and the SONY F55 How to Mount it.


Well we've asked DJI for the XL Arms a few times and are still waiting, so in the meantime we got it working without them!

FOR STARTERS DO NOT RUN POWER FROM THE RONIN/DJI Battery to the F55. It will error out and drain the battery. Seems to work fine with an F5.

Anyway you look at it it is not a light rig to operate. Remember the RONIN does weigh in 5lbs heavier than the MOVI...We used a modified EASYRIG 500N with a 9" arm to replace the standard 5" arm. Price ouch:$3500.00 at B&H, $4230.00 double ouch,  from 16x9. The 5" arm that it normally comes with is TOO SHORT! Don't bother, PART# ERG500-3-89...The rig weighs in at 26lbs not too bad but too heavy for over 5 minutes for me! There is also a LESS EXPENSIVE rig called the Flycam Flowline for only $890.00 from who else but CINECITY! CAUTION the spec says it max's out at 16lbs but looking at their picture of a fully configured Red Camera on it I would guess the limits were pushed and closer to 20+ lbs (Gimbal weigh in at 9lbs) worth investigating with an F55 fully rigged and we'll let you know if we can get one in-house for testing.

BALANCING:To increase battery life you really want it calibrated no greater than -2 or -3 feedback via monitoring on  the DJI Assistant software. So it takes 10-15 minutes and mainly because the dovetail lock needs improvements on the locking mechanism, camera slips a bit during calibration. Cure:When you flip the lever forward the balance actually shifts so push it back a hair then flip the lever forward and tighten up the allen bolt on it as well to prevent slippage.

Aside from strapping a TERADEK Bolt to the top of the stripped down F55 you can put short 15mm rods on the rear of the dovetail and add counterweights. This brings the camera forward so it easily clears the rear of the gimbal. I used a couple of RED ROCK Micro mounts.Improvise here. Just get the weight up towards the rear of the F55, even washers bolted on top of the F55 1/4-20's worked.


BATTERY SETUP on handlebar:
Mounting a Battery was a simple task. Amazon had these and many more mounts available.
Use this link for Anton Bauer setup  $10.00
or this for link V-Mount-Sony/IDX  $10.00

Both of these battery mounts have a sturdy METAL backplate. Unscrew the backplate and drill a hole in the backplate for 1/4-20's then mount to DJI included handlebar mounts.

They have a ton of plates available for more $$ with power switch and multiple DTaps or barrel connectors from CINECITY. In my setup I have a DTAP on the battery and the one on the mount So I can run my ODYSSEY Monitor and just have one power point going down to the gimbal.

PS Checkout Jacek at OPTITEK if your using EF Lenses. Great stuff and enabled us to have a nice remote focus and iris pulling rig! No FIZ motors etc...