The DJI Ronin 2 isn’t new: it has been around since 2017 and has already had its round of updates. Even so, it still leaves our warehouse regularly, and not out of nostalgia. It covers a bracket that single-handed gimbals simply don’t reach: a proper cinema camera, with a zoom, focus motors, monitor and battery already mounted, that has to stay steady while the operator runs across a field or leans out of a moving car window.

The gap between this and a DJI RS 3 Pro isn’t incremental, it’s categorical: that one carries a mirrorless and is ready in ten minutes, while the Ronin 2 is effectively a small remote head you can also carry by hand.

The numbers that actually matter

  • Tested payload: 13.6 kg. That’s not a stretched marketing figure: a full ARRI ALEXA Mini with a cine zoom and lens control fits inside it.
  • Weight: 5 kg for the bare gimbal, 6.3 kg with the grip ring. Camera on top of that.
  • TB50 batteries: up to 8 hours on two charged packs, dropping to around 2.5 hours when the Ronin is also powering the cinema camera.
  • Power outputs: two 14V P-TAP ports (8A combined) plus camera cage power. Camera and accessories run off the gimbal’s batteries.
  • Operating temperature: -20 to 50 °C. In Abruzzo, with winter shoots at Campo Imperatore or on the Blockhaus, that isn’t an academic detail.
  • Mounting modes: underslung, upright, briefcase, handheld, car mount, aerial, tripod.

The power spec is the one that changes your shooting day: no separate camera batteries to keep an eye on, no swap in the middle of a take. The TB50s are hot-swappable, so you change one at a time without shutting anything down.

Who it’s for, and on what kind of job

In our view the Ronin 2 makes sense in three scenarios. First, the commercial or music video where the camera flies through the scene with a cinema body — an ARRI ALEXA Mini or a Sony BURANO — and you don’t want to drop down a format just to stay light. Second, car mounts: the frame goes on a suction cup or an arm, you drive it remotely and the operator stays in the cabin. Third, anything hung off a cable, an arm or a crane, where the gimbal works as a remote head and nobody holds it at all.

When we don’t recommend it: cinematic wedding work, shoulder-mounted reportage, documentary with a single operator moving all day. There, the RS 3 Pro does 90% of the job with a tenth of the effort and setup time.

Three things we’ve learned on set

Balancing is not a five-minute job

With a full cinema build, between the three axes and battery positioning you need a solid half hour the first time round: put it in the schedule rather than discovering it at 7am on location. If it helps, we can balance it before delivery: just tell us body, lens and accessories.

Your back pays for the weight, not the gimbal

Six kilos of gimbal plus five of camera means eleven kilos hanging off your arms. Long handheld takes need support: we almost always send it out with an Easyrig Vario 5 Serene. Without one, by the third take the hand shakes and it shows.

Focus has to be remote

Nobody reaches the focus ring on a Ronin 2. The standard pairing is a Tilta Nucleus-M II, so the focus puller works independently of the operator. That’s how we hand it over by default, unless you ask otherwise.

Why renting it in Abruzzo beats buying it

A complete Ronin 2 only pays for itself if you use it dozens of days a year, and that volume of cinema-body gimbal work doesn’t exist in Abruzzo: buy one and it sits in the cupboard between jobs, batteries ageing while they wait.

From us the DJI Ronin 2 rents at €260 per day + VAT, €675 for three days, €935 for a week, including case, grip ring, batteries, charger and delivery on set anywhere in the region. On a two or three day production it’s a budget line that disappears into the rest; buying it, for most people shooting here, doesn’t.

Full specs are on the official DJI page. If you want to see how it fits with the rest of the gear, have a look at our complete kits or send us your production dates: we’ll come back with a quote within 24 hours.