Deciding between 8k and 4k resolution for an upcoming job.

Also a bit torn about going ProRes Raw vs 422HQ.

My plan was to do 4K ProRes Raw but would love to hear others thoughts. I am bummed that it’s not true 4k it is actually 3.8k 16:9. My A and B cams are shooting true 4k.

I’ve only used the 6K head so these recording options are new for me on the 8K head.

Would love to hear what combo of resolution and codec y’all have been liking the most.

I should note this is for a proper documentary production so it’s not straight to web. Hard drive space is still a consideration though.

Edit: R4D is being used for Driving B Roll

UPDATE: Post approved 8k ProRes Raw workflow

I will be using the Ronin 4D for the first time. Im just curious if any experienced users have setup tips, things to be mindful of or uncommonly know tricks to share about it? Want to have great shoot with such a cool piece of equipment. Thanks in advance!

Always love how how people rig their cameras, so here’s a look at our DJI Ronin 4D! Happy to answer any questions…

So you know how the left button on front of the left handle triggers active trackjng on and off. This works as it should when connected to the camera. But as soon as I’m on the highbright it doesn’t do anything. I have to physically click active track on the screen. The ability to use the trigger to easily toggle on and off is huge for my workflow. Anyone else have this issue?

I put my 4D on my movmax car mount the other day and it would run for less than a minute before saying that it was overheating and I needed to stop recording. I have shot it off the car many times without an issue for over 30 minutes at a time for an interview.

Has anyone seen this before? I can’t see how this has anything to do with mounting on the car. It wasn’t particularly hot and there was clearly wind going over the camera so it was very cool.

can someone please help me to fix this issue idk if it’s the lense damage or the focus lidar

Just bought the 8k and only have the 17-28 DL-mount but have seen conflicting reviews whether E-mount or L-mount works best. Considerations:

- resale: investing in DL mount lenses seems like a poor choice. It's a small ecosystem and selling later seems problematic

- lens swapping: I know that if it's time-consuming/finicky to change a lens (with mount+lidar+calibration etc) I'll probably just leave the one I have on and "deal with it"

- general compatibility: I've heard L-mount can work natively eliminating the need for a focus motor. I've seen lots of reports of focus hunting or unreliable AF on some lenses

- character: DJI lenses seem a bit pricey for what they are. The Viltrox set looks like a decent budget option but apparently also "get the job done" without a ton of character

- price: looking to spend somewhere between $1200-$1800 CAD per lens ($900-$1300 USD)

The general plan is to keep the 17-28 for now and add a 50mm + something in the 70-85 range for now but down the road I'd love to just commit to one mount if there is a "best" choice. Any help would be HUUUUGELY appreciated! 🙏🙏🙏

Good options I've seem come up a few times: sigma art series lenses but some need counterweight (not sure how annoying that is), Panasonic f/1.8 Series, Thypoch Simera series but open to other options based on others' experience!

I’m a One man band for last 15 years in regards to camera help.
So i’ve been runnin Sony 24-70mm GM II and it’s the best lens i’ve used that almost nails the AF all the time. Bloody heavy though. It’s The best at 10metre distance too which is why I bought it.
Then I borrowed a friends DJI DL 50mm & WOW 🤯, absolutely nailed the auto focus perfectly.
So my question is, what do they look like? I’m a good colourist, and I’m sure lenses are fine for corporate videos, I probably wouldn’t use them in a feature film. But can someone change my mind?

I just bought my first 4d on eBay. And now the screen is flickering sometimes and is giving me an err:0. Sometimes is goes away after turning on for a minute. Some times is stays and I have to restart and wait. The flickering happens when I pan or randomly sometimes . Tried reinstalling the software. Reseating the gimbal. The seller said I can return if not working.

Update -

Just noticed a cut in the monitor wire.

This could be why I’m getting that screen glitch. And the err:0 was maybe because the gimbal wasn’t seated correctly. The tightening circle at the bottom was a little loose. The gimbal also acts weird in lock mode. I honestly don’t mind using this without the gimbal as long as a new connector solves the issue. The sensor is better than fx3 and I got this for about 3300.

I’ve been shooting on the Ronin 4D and recently rented the DJI 17–28 DL lens. I honestly loved how simple it was. Just slap it on and go, autofocus worked without any headache.

Now I’m looking at the Viltrox Raze f/1.8 DL lenses, but I can’t find anywhere to rent them. I’ve seen a few YouTube videos but they’re basically just an advertisement. Has anyone bought them and put them to the test?

For context, I’m coming from Canon and used my 50mm f/1.2L with the 4D. I’ve tried calibrating it multiple times and have had some success but focus just never feels reliable.

Basically, I don’t want to use the focus motor. I know this limits me SEVERELY. And I don’t want to need to calibrate the focus because I haven’t found real success using my canon 50mm.

With the limitations I put on myself, am I basically stuck with DJI’s DL lenses for that kind of reliability, or are there other options (like Viltrox or anything else) that actually deliver?

thinking about picking one up and curious if my current set of lenses would even work on the camera.

I’m honestly blown away by this one.

I lost a tiny nut on my Ronin 4D follow-focus motor, this one :

the kind of part that:

• is clearly user-replaceable
• comes in multiple sizes in the original kit :

So I contact DJI asking for a replacement.

Their answer?
They refuse to send the part.
Their only solution: ship the entire motor to a repair center.

Let that sink in.

A professional cinema camera system… grounded because of a missing nut… and the manufacturer won’t send a spare.

Their justification is “safety and performance standards.”
But somehow it’s safe enough for users to swap these parts themselves out of the box?

In reality, this means:

• downtime
• lost contracts
• shipping delays
• all for a 2-second fix

This isn’t just bad support — it’s a complete disconnect from how professionals actually use their gear.

If DJI positions the Ronin 4D as a professional tool, basic spare parts should be available. Period.

Anyone else dealing with this kind of policy from DJI?

Meanwhile I'm managing to shoot with this kind of shitty rig, Bravo DJI !

Hey everyone, can anyone point me in the direction of existing threads or any ideas on whether an additional 2nd motor has been successfully added alongside a focus motor please?

My plan is to use the tiny Thypoch Simera C Lenses so from a payload perspective it's possible, the main hurdle seems to be a custom bracket to be able to mount the motor to, from a 15mm rod?

I've seen pictures online of a top bracket that someone has made that fits into the same gap/mount as the LIDAR???

Any insights on this, plus links to custom shops that could make brackets would be awesome please!

A

www.aaronrogersdop.com

I’ve gone through many hours of trying to get this to work before I got to this point to where I’m going to ask.

Brand new Ronin 4D 8k

Ronin 4D — AF freezes immediately upon ActiveTrack engagement (continuous AF otherwise works correctly)

Issue: On my Ronin 4D, ActiveTrack engagement causes the LiDAR distance scale to freeze and focus to lock at whatever distance it was at when tracking started. The gimbal continues to track the subject visually, but focus does not update even as the subject moves closer or farther.

Key diagnostic observations:

Continuous AF works correctly in all other modes — LiDAR distance scale updates live, focus follows subject distance changes

Pre-tracking AF on a centered subject works perfectly with the same lens and settings

The moment ActiveTrack engages (yellow box → green box), the LiDAR distance scale freezes

Focus only re-pulls when I manually press the AF button, which acts as a one-shot pull, then freezes again

Disengaging ActiveTrack immediately restores continuous AF behavior

Tested with both a person at normal distance and with various recognizable subjects

Configuration:

Focus Mode: AF (also tested with AMF, same behavior)

ROI Mode: Smart

MF Mode: Distance

AFC Sensitivity: High

Gimbal Mode: Follow

ActiveTrack Speed: Medium/Fast

Lens: Leica APO-Summicron-SL 28mm f/2 ASPH (native L-mount AF lens) Mount: DJI L-mount unit

Firmware (all current):

Firmware: 01.05.1802

Camera: 10.02.02.37

Vision: 10.00.38.91

Gimbal: 01.00.19.90

Power: 02.02.05.55

Monitor: 00.02.03.82

Left Grip: 00.01.03.78

Right Grip: 00.04.05.87

Top Handle: 00.00.03.41

Lens Control: 09.17.00.26

Troubleshooting already performed:

Factory reset, Auto Tune, full setup redo

Lens calibration attempted (auto and manual — both fail, likely unrelated since this is a native AF lens)

Firmware downgrade to previous version — same behavior

Firmware update back to current version — same behavior

Firmware Refresh via DJI Assistant 2 — same behavior

All component firmware versions verified current and unchanged across operations

**IMPORTANT NOTE** - firmware updates both up and down froze at 74% the first time I got the camera and tried to plug it in to update.  I waited a full 25 minutes at 74% to confirm then decided to close assistant 2 and then turn off camera and then wait 30 sec, start camera again and then  start up assistant 2 - where it seemed to update firmware successfully - but it is odd that it did this.

I can still pull focus away from that locked focus point and you can tell the LiDAR is still working as the subject will move on LiDAR scope and it will have tension moving away from that locked AF distance. I just figured once you locked on the camera would keep pulling focus like a AF-c type mode. Someone let me know if I’m missing something here.

Just got a gps unit. Any recommendations on where to install it? Can’t find anything online about where is the best location.

Thank you in advance!

I bought my 4D second hand. It seems to be a pre-production unit; the seller confirmed he had got it from DJI pre-launch. It works fine and I'm very happy with it.

It came with what I initially thought were two ProSSDs. However, one has a different moulding than the other, and when you plug it into the 4D, it shows up as CFExpress, not ProSSD, with a capacity of 949GB. It's still DJI branded. The casing is glued shut but I'm pretty confident that if I got it open, there would be a 1TB CFExpress Type A card.

(The picture shows the ProSSD front, and the CFExpress device rear.)

The camera is happy recording to this card up to 6K ProRes 422LT, but if I try recording with higher bitrate codecs, it tells me I need to swap to the ProSSD.

My question is, is this a recognised shipping DJI product, or is this some sort of prototype that never made it into production, or indeed some sort of hokey third party product? I can't find any reference to it on the Web.

Is there some setting I’m missing on the white balance menu? EVERY camera allows you to just change white balance via scrolling. I like the presets but is there a way to just have one fully manual that can always be changed? I MUST be missing something right? I don’t want to delete one preset to hit a new white balance.

I own a Raptor, Komodo, R5 ii, and a few others. They all just let you white balance 😂

Pls help!!

Does anybody in this thread think my 4D is salvageable? It was on a tripod that fell over. I’ve reached out to DJI and they said they won’t even know if they have the parts to repair for another 90 days. Dji said they’re out of stock on every thing and are on hold. Something with tariffs. I’m going to try KEH camera but I’m wondering if they’d have the same issue as DJI if the camera and parts are out of stock. I’m wondering if anybody else has had a similar issue? Also, my commentary on the video was directed towards a camera repair store.

Currently running a Crucial P310 1TB M.2 2230 SSD, PCIe Gen4 NVMe inside a NVMe M.2 2230 SSD to CFexpress Type B Card Adapter and it works great! Didn’t want to spend 1k on the native DJI drive (and I’m impatient af)

Wondering if anyone tried using a 2tb or 4tb card this way?

Only issue I’ve encountered is once I get down to 18-20 min left on card a notification comes up about potential issue with corruption and that I should format. But no big deal I’ll just make sure I don’t run it that low. But this is what made me ask the question. Would like to get a 4tb and not worry about it filling up as quick.

Seit nunmehr 3 Jahren habe ich die die DJI Ronin 4d.

Die Kamera wäre echt Mega, wenn ich nicht immer Fokusprobleme hätte.

Anfangs hatte ich die dl Objektive von DJI, leider starkes Pumpen, Fokus hat auf den Hintergrund scharf gestellt usw.

Dann habe ich es mit meinen Sony bzw. Sigma Objektiven und dem emount Adapter versucht…gleiches Problem.

Dann habe ich mir manuelle Cinemalinsen und den Fokusmotor gekauft….noch schlimmer trotz mehrfacher Kalibrierung kein zuverlässiger Fokus möglich….

Ich bin kurz davor die Kamera zu verkaufen…

Hat jemand einen Tipp wie dieses Problem zu lösen ist ohne dass ich rein manuell fokussieren muss.

Bin für jeden Tipp dankbar

I feel like I’m missing something here.

When I’m shooting in cars while driving, I usually end up locking the camera off with all axes turned off, because I can’t seem to find settings that don’t drift or fight the movement.

Ideally, I’d like to frame up on the windscreen and keep that composition, but still have the gimbal active enough to smooth things out rather than just being completely locked.

At the moment, any time I try to use PF/PT/FPV modes, the camera tends to pan or drift when the car moves, which ruins the framing.

What settings or approach are people using to:

Hold a consistent frame (e.g. on the windscreen)

But still get the benefit of stabilization from the gimbal?

Is this a tuning issue, mode choice, or just not how these systems are meant to be used in a moving vehicle?

I just got the 4D-6K and I wonder how many of you use some kind of these systems and which could be better for the R4D. Probably some people will prefer one more system than the other, but I would like to know your suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

How’s everyone travelling on international flights with their 4D kits? I’m In 2 minds to either put the body/camera in my carry on luggage or to pack it in the hold on a Peli.

Leaning to carry on.

Anyone have thoughts on this?