When DJI first introduced its Ronin 4D, which is a 4-axis digital camera gimbal designed for cinematographers making movies on the bottom (relatively than within the air, by way of drone), certainly one of its most-touted and highly-anticipated options was that the Zenmuse X9 gimbal digital camera — accessible in both 8K or 6K variations — could be able to internally recording Apple ProRes and Apple ProRes RAW.
That Ronin 4D announcement was again in October 2021. However when it truly started transport a couple of months later in February 2022, many potential clients had been extremely disillusioned. That’s as a result of it shipped with out ProRes RAW capabilities, as was first promised.
DJI did provide up a comfort prize; it dropped the initially-advertised price ticket from $7,199 to $6,799. However regardless of the fee financial savings, it was largely a blow to people in search of to shoot 8K ProRes RAW. Inside ProRes Uncooked was an enormous cause why many individuals needed the Ronin 4D. On-line feedback present folks cancelling previously-made orders.
However this month, DJI lastly solved the Apple ProRes RAW drawback. Together with the launch of its new DJI Ronin Flex, DJI additionally introduced that Apple ProRes RAW video recording is lastly accessible on Ronin 4D (observe that you just don’t want the Flex to activate RAW; the 2 bulletins had been simply made concurrently).
Now you should purchase an activation license key for the Apple ProRes RAW codec on Ronin 4D on the DJI Retailer. That’s nice information for filmmakers in search of to combine Ronin 4D footage into cinema productions.
However in fact, there’s at all times dangerous information to accompany the excellent news; the Apple ProRes RAW license for Ronin 4D prices $979. That’s far better than the $400 low cost DJI provided up as its comfort prize final 12 months. Maybe the over-2x worth improve is Ronin’s model of inflation.
What’s Apple ProRes and Apple ProRes RAW?
Apple ProRes is a video compression format developed by Apple to be used in post-production that helps video decision as much as 8K. In 2018, Apple ProRes RAW arrived on the scene, increasing upon the ProRes codecs with a concentrate on uncooked information coming from the sensor. Its worth is in providing higher coloration replica, given the way it delays the debayering course of to the post-production stage, and it’s perfect for high-dynamic-range (HDR) content material creation.
With ProRes RAW, you may import, edit, and grade video with RAW information straight out of your digital camera sensor — in idea rushing up edits. Mac customers may also render and export quicker with ProRes RAW than you may with different uncooked codecs on condition that ProRes RAW is optimized for macOS and the most recent Mac computer systems.
Now, the Zenmuse X7 and Ronin 4D are Apple ProRes RAW licensed merchandise. (The DJI CineLight, Encourage 2, Ronin 4D and Mavic 3 Cine had been Apple ProRes licensed merchandise already.)
Right now, there are nonetheless comparatively few Apple Professional Res RAW-authorized merchandise. Apart from DJI, different Apple Professional Res RAW-authorized merchandise embody Adobe After Results, Adobe Media Premiere Professional, Avid Media Composer, FilmLight’s Baselight and Daylight, the MTI FILM Cortex and the Nikon Z9, amongst others.
The record of ProRes merchandise (not RAW) is much longer, and contains different DJI merchandise together with DJI CineLight, Encourage 2 and Mavic 3 Cine.
What to learn about Apple ProRes RAW for Ronin 4D
When you’ve bought the $979 DJI Ronin 4D RAW License, you’ll be capable to report Apple ProRes RAW video in your Ronin 4D, whether or not or not you even have the Ronin 4D Flex. It’s not a subscription however relatively a one-time buy, so it’s legitimate indefinitely for so long as you utilize the Ronin 4D. The license is suitable with DJI Ronin 4D and Zenmuse X9-6K
It’s not completely clear why the Ronin 4D solely simply now helps Apple ProRes RAW — and it’s additionally not clear why the preliminary promise fell via at launch, however many suspected it needed to do with patent points.
Although before now, Apple ProRes 4444 XQ had been accessible to all purchasers by way of a firmware replace, and Apple ProRes HQ 422 was (and nonetheless is) additionally accessible. However the ProRex 4444 XQ codec was far much less interesting, in that it provided a worse high quality to file-size ratio than the newer ProRes RAW.
For what it’s value, the Mavic 3 Cine was a game-changer within the drone world when it launched to information that it will provide far richer video processing than simply the Mavic 3 by itself by the use of help for Apple ProRes 422 HQ, Apple ProRes 422, and Apple ProRes 422 LT encoding. Possibly ProRes RAW for drones is subsequent.
How one can buy and activate your license key for the Apple ProRes RAW codec on Ronin 4D
After you have your license, it’s fairly easy and requires simply 4 steps:
- Merely join your Ronin 4D to a pc utilizing the included cable, and energy on the Ronin 4D.
- Launch DJI Assistant 2 for the Ronin Collection with the identical logged-in DJI account you bought the activation key with.
- Click on the icon for Ronin 4D, navigate to the parameter settings web page, and click on “License.”
- Enter the verification code that was despatched to you (both by way of e mail/telephone) at buy, then click on via to ‘verify’ and ‘proceed activation’ till you obtain an ‘activation profitable’ message.
