Adolescence (2025) camera and gear - Implications for the industry

[EduPortas]

Since this forum has taken a strong liking to cinema this past couple of years, I'd think it be useful to point out the gear used in this very popular series.

As you probably know, they used a DJI Ronin 4D and a Cooke SP3 32mm to shoot the entire series. That's about US$12,000 in total (not counting storage media).

Either way, it's a breakthrough in the  film industry that wishes to distance itself from the Arri/Sony duopoly. For the independent film industry this is even more important. Yes, for a mere mortal that's quite a bit of money. But for a film project -- any film project that wishes to be taken seriously -- it's basically peanuts.

Arguably, it's a pretty decent looking media product. Only the most ardent film aficionados will notice any difference, if any, from an Arri or Sony film cam. For 99.9% of the rest of the world, it's great quality.

I can see the American film-industry boycotting the Chinese DJI to protect their American gear. The wave of new pro and amateur projects filmed with the setup seen in Adolescence will be huge. We are "there".

[eatstoomuchjam]

FWIW, if you watch the BTS, they were most likely over $30,000 on the camera package alone.  I'm not sure if it was specified whether they used the Ronin 4D 8K or 6K, but I'm assuming the more expensive one.

$10,000 - camera
$5,000 - lens
$280 - focus motor
$400 - DJI transmitter

Then add in the set of master wheels that I saw in at least one BTS photo and at least 3 high bright remote monitors + handles that I saw in another.

$10,000 - DJI master wheels
$1,700 - monitor (x3)
$730 - handles (x3)

And then add in the car mount and a drone strong enough to carry a 15 pound camera, and it's not out of the question that that all would total about $50k.

If your definition of "serious film project" is $1m+ budget, then that is indeed a small portion - but it definitely ain't cheap.

I can also say that as an owner of a Ronin 4D and a person who loves it, it would not be my choice if I could pick only one camera.  To say it has quirks would be the understatement of the century.

As a second camera?  It might be top of my list.  And I'll be in that "wave of new pro and amateur projects" filmed with one - for the feature that I've been asked to shoot, it'll likely be UC12K as the A camera and Ronin 4D for most of the handheld, car-mounted stuff, faux-jib (Flex mounted on a monopod), etc.

[Davide DB]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

To say it has quirks would be the understatement of the century

Could you elaborate on this?

[EduPortas]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

FWIW, if you watch the BTS, they were most likely over $30,000 on the camera package alone.  I'm not sure if it was specified whether they used the Ronin 4D 8K or 6K, but I'm assuming the more expensive one.

$10,000 - camera
$5,000 - lens
$280 - focus motor
$400 - DJI transmitter

Then add in the set of master wheels that I saw in at least one BTS photo and at least 3 high bright remote monitors + handles that I saw in another.

$10,000 - DJI master wheels
$1,700 - monitor (x3)
$730 - handles (x3)

And then add in the car mount and a drone strong enough to carry a 15 pound camera, and it's not out of the question that that all would total about $50k.

If your definition of "serious film project" is $1m+ budget, then that is indeed a small portion - but it definitely ain't cheap.

I can also say that as an owner of a Ronin 4D and a person who loves it, it would not be my choice if I could pick only one camera.  To say it has quirks would be the understatement of the century.

As a second camera?  It might be top of my list.  And I'll be in that "wave of new pro and amateur projects" filmed with one - for the feature that I've been asked to shoot, it'll likely be UC12K as the A camera and Ronin 4D for most of the handheld, car-mounted stuff, faux-jib (Flex mounted on a monopod), etc.

Thank you, that's great info.

They used the 6K model which costs a measly US$5,000. The 6K US$9,999 model includes a very decent T3.0 lens. Again, for Hollywood, that's less than drinks on a Friday.

There's some more technical info here ---> 

https://ymcinema.com/2025/04/16/the-heroes-of-adolescence-dji-ronin-4d-and-cooke-sp3-32mm/

We're about to see come huge changes in the industry now that hegemonic power are being shifted. The camera industry is not impervious to that huge seismic tech shift. 

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, EduPortas said:

They used the 6K model which costs a measly US$5,000. The 6K US$9,999 model includes a very decent T3.0 lens. Again, for Hollywood, that's less than drinks on a Friday.

Thanks for the link!  I stand corrected - so that's about $25k instead of $30k by my above estimates.  That's a surprise about the 6K vs the 8K version!  I suppose that'd also be a great counter-argument to people who complain about cameras with rolling shutter speeds > 20ms.  The 6K is 22 or 24 or something like that.

2 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Could you elaborate on this?

Gladly!  Here are a few off the top of my head (some codecs/frame rates may vary with the 6K, mine are based on my 8K):

- Recording modes are either a mediocre H.264 or a very nice ProRes HQ or ProRes RAW.  There's nothing in-between.  The 6K has 4444 XQ available if you don't buy the raw license.  The 8K does not.
- To record in the nicer modes, you need to buy DJI's overpriced SSD ($800-1000 for 1TB), it doesn't matter if you have super fast CF Express cards.
- You can choose from 17:9 (full sensor width) or 16:9 recording modes and nothing else...  unless you go to the high frame rate mode when it will go to 2.4:1 (or something around that) and nothing else
- When the 4th axis is enabled, if you have it set to "lock" and you're standing still, sometimes it has some sort of freakout and the gimbal starts going up and down like crazy.  Numerous people have reported it on various forums, setting it to "follow" seems to result in fewer freakouts.  This seems to have been around since the start.  It definitely happens with mine.
- There are tripod mount holes on the bottom, but even a narrow Arca-Swiss plate partially blocks the 4th axis cameras/depth sensors, people have complained that this makes their 4th axis work weirdly.  I have just avoided putting a plate on it since most of my uses for it don't involve putting it on sticks
- The object tracking is really good...  most of the time.  If it loses the subject mid-take, it is difficult (and it might be impossible) to re-select it on the touch screen
- The autofocus is really good...  sometimes.  Sometimes it seems to lose the subject (even when in tracking mode) and drift to infinity.  Then it picks them up again and comes back.  It's also laggy.  This is less noticeable with wider angle lenses and when stopped down a bit, but it's clearly visible with a 75mm lens at f/4.  If I set it on a box on a shelf in my living room and walk slowly toward it, the label on the box will become unreadable until I pause for a half second and then the AF catches up - that's even with the AF sensitivity set to high.  I noticed this at first when experimenting with a tracking shot using a 90mm Summicron-M at f/2.  I bought the DJI 75/1.8 since native lenses focus faster than mechanical lenses and turned off AMF so the only motor would be the lens' focus motor.  Still visibly out of focus when approaching/retreating.  The lag when stopping is less than the manual one, but it's still there.  I stopped down to f/4 or f/5.6.  Still visibly laggy.  If I use their 17-28 and zoom to 28 and stop down to f/4, the label stays acceptably sharp - but so far, I don't see any way to use AF if you want the subject sharp while approaching/retreating.  Trying to dial in focus in those instances using the thumb wheel is too fussy for me (it's like 3mm of turning from 1.5m to 4m away, the look is similar to the AF with the subject in focus at the start and end and maybe for part of the walk).  This weekend, I'm going to experiment with a friend to see if it can do better with a person.  If not, looks like that 75 is getting sent back next week.  Professional productions probably address this with the 3 channel follow focus (add another $900).
- The first-party Sony E mount is actually made by a third party and doesn't update firmware through the body like every other part, you need to do it separately.  Many people think it doesn't work well for this reason.
- The internal microphone is completely unusable and has lots of high-pitched motor noises.  Many people say that the XLR ports on the port expander plate randomly stop working.  I think the 3.5mm input is reliable, but for a run and gun shoot, this is very limiting for audio.  For me, the internal mic has been at least been good enough to sync up audio to an external device.  Then I mute that track so I won't get a headache.  Timecode works when available, but you will need the expansion plate for that too.

I'm sure that I could add more if I spent a little more time thinking or I wrote this up after the next time I have it out on set.  If you read any discussion thread of people who have used it, you'll find that it's an extremely polarizing camera - a number of people who have used it hated it and described the whole thing as an ordeal - and the others generally loved it.  I'm more in the latter camp.

[newfoundmass]

I feel like every couple of years there's a film or television show that causes this same discussion to happen. I remember when 28 Days Later used the Canon XL-1, and when House used the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Or more recently when The Creator used the FX3. Or even when Steven Soderbergh used the iPhone.

I think we'll see people continue to buck the system and use "cheap" cameras to create high profile art, but I don't think that the rest of industry will change anytime soon for a variety of reasons, one of them being financial. The industry is content with the status quo, and changing it would impact everything from rental houses to folks who work full time on sets doing jobs that are dependent on film production continuing the way it does.