These setup notes are from my initial setup and balancing of the
DJI RS3 Mini. My use of the gimbal is for taking multi-row panoramas,
but the various clarifications,
etc., may also help for other uses.
A three-axis gimbal is intended to keep a camera pointing in a constant
direction. To do this efficiently the gimbal and camera combination
needs to be balanced, because different camera/lens setups have different
weights and Centre of Gravity (CoG).
These setup notes were made when I first used the gimbal, using:
- Camera: Lumix G90 with 45–175 PowerZoom lens, in landscape orientation.
- Clamp: I used two clamps, the DJI clamp initially (which has a
front↔back groove orientation) and later the SmallRig clamp for
the RS3 Mini (which has a left↔right groove orientation). For
both I used the supplied DJI Arca-Swiss-compatible plate (with flange
removed for the SmallRig clamp).
Note that the camera must be firmly attached (the gimbal will shake
it around during calibration).
- The position of the camera and plate affects balance; so must always
be fitted the same way, e.g.:
- for DJI clamp: clamp to far right of rail; front flange of plate
snug to front edge of camera base and plate fully back when added
to gimbal.
- for SmallRig clamp: clamp to far right of rail; plate to far right
of clamp (against stop).
Initial balancing
See the DJI manual for details and images; the suggestions here
may be helpful:
- Power off gimbal; mount on tripod.
- Set ‘cone switches’ for all three axes to Lock position.
- Set all levers to Lock position (except camera clamp grey lever).
- Mount camera to clamp (see above for positioning) and lock clamp
lever.
Remove lens cap; fit lens hood if it will always be used; let any
wrist strap dangle behind.
Connect RSS → camera cable (L1 for Panasonic) if using.
- Balance: follow instructions in manual; some clarifications:
(In all cases, lift weight of camera when sliding arms, especially
Roll.)
- Unlock each axis in turn, top-down.
- Tilt (point up) .. “horizontal arm” is that attached to the camera
base.
- Tilt (point forward) .. as per manual.
- Roll .. lift the weight of the camera to enable smooth sliding.
- Pan .. as per manual, but start by moving camera CoG over Pan axis.
- Once balanced (and therefore all three axes unlocked), power on
gimbal.
- Select Calibrate icon on gimbal screen (top left of 4) and then
Calibrate. There will be some juddering.
- Start Ronin app on phone.
Connect to gimbal.
Run ‘Balance test’ (requires >15° tilt); results should show three
‘Excellent’. If not, try Calibrate again while tilted then run ‘Balance
test’ again.
Once balanced, the gimbal can be kept assembled and should not
need re-balancing (assuming no change of camera/lens). To reduce
volume it is useful to fold the Roll arm 90° which usually requires
changing its arm position (e.g., to 4.0). I made a note of the balanced
position (see below) and added a label to the roll motor so when
unfolding I could just set the arm to that position and avoid re-balancing.
Balance arm positions
As an example, here are the arm positions I use with the Lumix
G90 with 45–175 PowerZoom lens and lens hood, positioned as described
above:
| Clamp:
| DJI
| SmallRig
| measure
|
|---|
| Tilt vertical arm (‘L-bracket vertical’)
| 2.9
| 1.6
| top of slider
|
| Tilt horizontal arm (90° to vertical arm)
| 2.5
| 1.8
| back of slider
|
| Roll arm (screen folded in)
| 1.3
| 1.2
| red line
|
| Roll arm (screen out to left and tilted)
| 1.1
| 0.9
| red line
|
| Pan arm
| 0.8
| 0.8
| red line
|
Other notes
- The virtual joystick in the app is very sensitive: to slow (beyond
‘Slow’ setting):
User profile → Control → Motion, then set all three axes to (e.g.)
15.
- Gimbal self-levels (even if mounted at a tilt), so there is no
need for levelling head.
The pages and data here are for non-commercial
use only. All content © Mike Cowlishaw, 1963, 2025. All
rights reserved. Please see http://speleotrove.com/mfc/ »
for contact details.
Privacy policy: the Speleotrove » website records no personal information and sets no
‘cookies’. However, statistics, etc. might be recorded by the
web hosting service.
This page was last
edited on 2025-01-24 by mfc.