We’ve outgrown and upgraded almost all of our kit over the years, but the Ronin S has stood the test of time thus far. Here's why Ronda (as we call her) still has pride of place in the kit cupboard.
The Ronin S was the first piece of kit we bought jointly; it marked the first monetary investment into our business over 5 years ago. Since then, we've not felt the need to swap it out. We bought the Ronin SC as a second gimbal setup for events, but didn't find ourselves reaching for it often. Its light weight made it feel less grounded and we just didn’t get on with it much.
More recently we worked with the latest Ronin release, the Ronin RS 3 Pro, and as good as it is with its new features and what not, we still didn’t find ourselves dying to throw our money at it. Instead, we chose to upgrade our lights and some other bits. We thought the money was better spent there, rather than upgrading something that still works well for us.
I suppose what we're trying to say in a roundabout way is, “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.”. It's tempting to buy the latest model of any piece of equipment. And if your 'explore' pages look anything like ours, it's sooo hard to get away from the latest reviews. But video production is individual to each company or individual, and you get to choose which tools work for you. Whether it works for your budget, portability or production value. You decide what you really need, not the 'For You' page, or what other people are using.
Don't get us wrong, if your creativity is limited by out of date kit, that's something to consider. But you know how the phrase goes: "A good work(wo)man never blames their tools." If there's limited cash options, it's always free to get creative with it.
How well has it held up?
Now's a really good time to give DJI a bit of review, and we're actually really impressed with how the Ronin S has held up.
She's been battered, or, should we say, well loved. She's gained her battle scars and is rocking her wrinkles.
The signs of wear are:
The grip: It's come away a bit from all the craning, but it's noting a bit of superglue couldn't fix.
The axis arms: It's been balanced 10001 times, so it's no surprise there's a few scuffs here and there.
The box: There's a few scuffs on the inside, but again, it's been in and out of the box more times than you can say "rolling/cut" - so we're not upset about it.
The Battery Life
We can't end the blog without a shout out to the battery.
We can't remember it ever running out on us on a shoot.
It does multiple shoots on one charge and the battery capacity genuinely seems unphased by all the use.
In one of our first blog posts, Why We Love Our Ronin S, we said “All in all, we think it's one of the best pieces of kit we have invested in so far." and we couldn't have put it better ourselves. Oh wait.
Happy Valentine's Day Ronda, we ❤️ you!
Prickly Peach Films