The Parts My DJI Ronin 4D and Inspire 3 Were Missing

I shoot with a DJI Ronin 4D and fly a DJI Inspire 3. Both are remarkable machines, and both arrive with the same gap: the moment you rig them for real work, the accessories you need do not exist, or they exist in a form that takes something away from the camera. For two years I improvised. Now I am building the parts myself, under the name NIX, and this is what that means.

Why the Ronin 4D has no good bottom

Put a standard dovetail plate under a Ronin 4D and you cover the sensors under the body that its fourth stabilisation axis depends on. You gain a quick release and lose an axis. The camera does not tell you. It just stops doing one of the things you bought it for.

The other problem sits on top. The only cold shoe is on the top handle, directly above the gimbal motors, which is the worst place on the whole camera for a microphone.

The first NIX part is a base plate that fixes both. It carries a full dovetail with a cutout that leaves the sensors a clear line of sight, so the camera drops onto a tripod, a shoulder rig or a support system without giving anything up. And it carries forward mounting points that put a microphone ahead of the motors, pointed at the subject, where it should have been from the start. It is machined from aluminium in a machine shop an hour from my desk, then anodised. I will show it properly in its own video when the finished plates are in my hands.

A microphone where it belongs

Two printed brackets go with the plate: one for a single shotgun, one that holds a stereo pair in a fixed pattern you set once and never measure again. Both mount on the standard locating pin interface that most professional camera tops use, so they are not limited to the Ronin 4D. That camera is where I built them and where you will see them, but if your rig has that interface, they fit.

Putting an Inspire 3 down without putting it on the ground

Servicing an Inspire 3 in the field means putting it somewhere. On the ground it collects dust and scratches. In your hands it stays in your hands. The metal cradles I found clamp the drone flat and lock the arms, so it cannot change between transport and flight position while it is mounted.

The NIX holder grips the body only. The arms stay free through every mode: fold, unfold, swap batteries, clean the gimbal, change lenses, all at working height on any tripod. Every surface that touches the drone is soft. It fits inside the case. A carrier that moves the same holder onto a backpack for the walk to the spot is designed on paper and follows once it has been tested on a real trail.

Where things stand

In the middle. The printed parts are in their last revisions on my bench, and the first machined plates are at the machine shop, waiting for the anodiser. There is no launch date yet, and I will not name one until the finished parts are in my hands. Every part gets its own video before it goes on sale, so you can see what it does before you spend anything. Specifications and prices follow in those videos, not before.

The shop opens once, complete, with everything at the same time.

How to hear about it first

There is one door until then: a notify list. Leave your email and you get exactly one message when the shop opens. If you want to follow the build, tick the box for the build updates, a short note from the workshop at most twice a month: what got machined, what failed, what changed. No newsletter you did not ask for.

The list is at nix-film.com/notify.

Nick, Überlingen