OPINION
I don't like the Ronin R2. I don't like how it works
I don't like how it stresses out my arm.
During New Years my friend Jenna and I were shooting for a club but we both had single-handed gimbals. She had the Ronin with an A7s and I had a Crane with an A7s. 1/2 way through the night I started to get shocks down my arm. I started to believe that the gimble was malfunctioning and the motors had some kind of electromagnetic shock but then Jenna also said the same thing about her arm. Using a single-handed gimbal even when using 2 hands causes lots of stress on one arm after prolonged use. For me, that doesn't fly. I found myself putting the gimble down to relieve the shock many times.
The only thing I think the Ronin RS2 did right was its motorized focus gear and that it can fit into tight spaces. The rest can kick rocks.
I don't care that it could be placed down on demand.
I don't care that it has got cool PAN/TILT settings.
I don't care that it can do a barrel roll.
None of that matters to me because I rarely use them. If I can't hold a camera steady, the shot is pointless or rocky at best.
I don't like how it rocks when using heavier cameras.
Sometimes I'm using a RED Komodo on the Ronin S2 and that camera is much heavier than the average DSLR/DSLM camera. Comfortability drops dramatically and I wasn't ever even comfortable with the RS2 gimble to begin with. Getting slow and steady shots are much more difficult for me when less muscle is being used to stabilize my movements. There would be moments where I'm doing a nice orbit around a subject followed by a dramatic tilt for transition and I seem to mess up at the beginning or end more often since my wrists are no more involved in balancing the camera when it never had to on the Ronin-M.
Ronin-M
With the Ronin-M, I love how the weight is distributed evenly. Now that I have 2 hands and two arms equally distributed across the gimble, I can involve more of my muscle to stabilize the shot. When I have the camera in my hand, I'm shooting or hunting for the next shot. When I put my gimbal down (Ronin-M) I put it on the stand and that's when I'm either switching lenses, memory cards or batteries. Some folks insist that the Ronin S2 is "Better" because it has legs. For me, having legs doesn't dramatically benefit me. I put my stand somewhere safe and I regroup there for my loadouts. My backpack is probably already over there so even if I had a Ronin S2, I'd regroup to the same spot for loadouts anyway.
I wish that Dji made a Ronin-M2 that had built-in gun shape handles like the Tilta Nucleus-M Handle Grip (shown above) and a built-in motor gear on the baseplate like the Ronin S2. Leaving it as modular as it is now may be the best however, it does happen, I don't see any reason why I should use the Ronin S2 other than the barrel roll and tight spaces
Take a look at the image above. That is the Ronin RS2. People don't make things like this if the Ronin didn't have a large descent rejecting the RS2's form factor. To me, this looks like mass buyers remorse looking for a solution. I know I'd be one of them. We've got to give it up to companies making 3rd party after market for Dji's Ronin RS2. If it wasn't for them. I wouldn't ever warm up to the RS2. A stock RS2 is trash in my opinion. Add the Tilta Ring grip and now we have our Ronin-M2 we've always wanted.