These setup notes are from my early setup and balancing of the DJI
RS4 Mini gimbal. My use of the gimbal is for taking multi-row panoramas,
but the various clarifications,
etc., may also be helpful 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
need to be balanced before use, because different camera and lens
setups have different weights and centres of gravity (CoGs).
These setup notes were made after I had already used the DJI RS3 Mini gimbal. The RS4 Mini has a much improved
camera clamp system with useful forward ↔ back adjustment and a
left ↔ right camera plate, so setup was much simplified. These
notes are for my current lightweight camera system, based on the
Sony ZV-E10 II and APS-C lenses.
Initial setup
(See the DJI manual for additional details and images.)
Note that the camera must be firmly attached to the gimbal
(the gimbal will shake it around during calibration).
- Power off the gimbal and mount the gimbal on a (e.g., table-top)
tripod.
- Set the switches (smaller than the levers) for all three axes to
Auto Lock position.
- Set all levers to lock (clamped) position (except camera clamp
lever).
- Adjust gimbal to working position:
Unlock roll from Auto Lock, rotate so roll arm horizonal, re-apply
Auto Lock.
- Add camera + lens (without lens cap but with hood) to gimbal (this
assumes clamp plate is already on gimbal and Arca-Swiss plate is
on camera) and lock clamp lever; camera should be just short of vertical
arm.
- Plug USB↔USB cable between camera and RS4 Mini USB-C socket (on
rear of tilt arm).
- Extend and tilt screen to left as required.
The position of the screen, camera, and plate affects balance so
must always be fitted the same way, e.g., screen out to left, camera
plate centred in clamp.
Balancing
Follow the instructions in the manual and tutorial video; this
is a summary with some clarifications:
(In all cases, when sliding arms it is helpful to support the weight
of the camera with the other hand, especially for the Roll axis.)
- Unlock each axis in turn, top-down.
- Tilt vertical (point lens up) .. “horizontal arm” is that attached
to the camera base; the slider to move to adjust is on the (usually
vertical but now horizontal arm).
- Tilt depth (point lens forward) .. adjust camera clamp plate forward
and back, using the knob, until balanced.
- Roll .. lift the weight of the camera to enable smooth sliding.
- Pan .. start by moving camera CoG over the 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 during the calibration.
- Start Ronin app on smartphone.
Once balanced, the gimbal can be kept assembled and should not
need re-balancing (assuming no change of camera/lens). If adjustments
are needed while packing, etc., it is useful to record the arm/slider
positions as in the example below – setting these manually should
be sufficient to balance the gimbal adequately without re-balancing.
Balance arm positions
As an example, here are the arm positions I use with the Sony ZV-E10 II
with two different lenses (including their lens hoods), positioned
as described above:
All measures are on the each arm’s scale, using the edge of the
slider that gives the smaller value.
| Lens:
| 60mm
| 18-135mm
| 85mm
|
|---|
| Tilt vertical arm (‘L-bracket vertical’)
| 3.2
| 3.6
| 3.7
|
| Camera clamp rail (front↔back under camera plate)
| 4.2
| 2.8
| 1.9
|
| Roll arm (NB screen out to left and tilted)
| 3.4
| 2.7
| 2.2
|
| Pan arm
| 1.3
| 1.3
| 1.2
|
The lenses used for the above were:
60mm: Sigma 60mm F2.8 DN Art; 200g
18-135mm: Sony 18–135mm F3.5–5.6 OSS
85mm: Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8 II FE
Other notes
- The virtual joystick in the app is very sensitive: to slow it:
User profile → Control → Motion, then set all three axes to Slow.
If still too fast, speeds can be reduced further in Create → Virtual
Joystick.
- The gimbal self-levels (even if mounted at a tilt), so there is
no need for a levelling head on the tripod.
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This page was last
edited on 2025-04-02 by mfc.