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DJI Osmo Action review: DJI’s new action cam has two screens

The Osmo Action is an impressive entry into the action camera market for DJI and gives the GoPro Hero7 Black a run for its money

Pros

  • Impressively steady image stabilisation
  • Waterproof to 11 metres without a case
  • Dual colour screens
  • Good quality image

Cons

  • Official accessories not released yet

DJI is rightly famous for its drones, but it’s also quietly been building a reputation for standalone cameras of late. It’s now gone all in with its first full-on GoPro rival: the DJI Osmo Action.

To date, all of DJI’s cameras have featured mechanical, gimbal-based stabilisation, but being a GoPro clone, the Osmo Action can’t do that. Instead, DJI is introducing its own electronic stabilisation algorithm, a technology it’s calling RockSteady.

That’s not the only exciting feature about the Osmo Action, though. It also has two full-colour screens, voice control and native waterproofing without the need for a case, and it can record HDR footage at up to 4K as well.

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DJI Osmo Action review: Design and key features

DJI sent across a sample a few days ago so I’ve been able to spend some time getting to grips with it. And it’s an impressive first attempt at an action camera. Physically, the design is very similar to the classic GoPro design. It’s a small, rugged-feeling brick with a lens that protrudes from its left side, a touchscreen at the rear and a smaller, non-touchscreen display at the front.

As with more recent GoPro Hero cameras, the DJI Osmo Action doesn’t have a tripod thread built into the main body of the camera. Instead, mounting is achieved via a plastic cage that wraps around the camera’s edges and can be attached to most standard action camera mounts. During my time so far with the camera, I’ve had it mounted on this rucksack strap mount from PGYTech and it fits perfectly.

The DJI Osmo Action is fully waterproof to 11 metres, thanks to sealed flaps covering the battery compartment, USB and microSD ports. It’s covered in textured grey rubber and plastic and feels solidly made. Shutter and power buttons adorn the top panel and are easily operated with gloves on. There’s also a quick settings button on the left for switching between the camera’s various modes and user presets.

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Fire it up and the UI is equally easy to get to grips with, with most settings a single swipe away. It’s certainly a lot smoother and more intuitive than the rather fiddly GoPro interface, and there are plenty of settings and modes to play around with, too.

Impressively, the camera can shoot in 4K at up to 60fps, fully stabilised; and that stabilisation is very impressive. Mounted on my shoulder during my regular hour-long cycle commute, it completely smoothed out all the lumps and bumps in the road to provide rock-solid footage.

In addition to 60fps, you can shoot 4K at 30/25/24fps; in 2.7K mode, you can shoot at 60/50/48/30/25/24fps; while 1080p and 720p footage can be captured at up to 240fps for slow motion playback.

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Other modes include HDR – although shooting in this mode disables stabilisation – timelapse, hyperlapse and slow motion. There’s a host of still image options, too, including manual exposure settings, auto bracketing and timed shots. The resolution of those images, incidentally, is nine megapixels, and images can be recorded in RAW and/or JPEG mode.

You can pull footage directly from the camera’s SD card or via a direct USB Type-C connection for editing but, just like the DJI Osmo Pocket, the Osmo Action is designed to be paired with the DJI Mimo for easy editing on your smartphone or tablet.

The star feature, however, is that full-colour front screen, especially for those interested in using the camera for vlogging. It isn’t activated all of the time – you switch it on with a quick double-tap with two fingers on the rear touchscreen – but it’s a real help when you want to address the camera and ensure you’re fully in-frame at all times.

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DJI Osmo Action review: Image quality and battery life.

As for image quality, you can expect that to be largely the same as the Osmo Pocket, since it uses the same 1/2.3in Sony IMX377 sensor. Despite a relatively bright aperture of f/2.8, in low light you’ll still see plenty of image noise, both in video and stills. In good light, however, detail is crisp and well resolved.

Importantly, as I’ve already mentioned, the stabilisation is good enough to flatten out most even quite severe lumps and bumps, and footage looks almost as smooth as if the camera were mounted in a mechanical gimbal system.

One other feature that widens the possibilities for creative shots – if you want longer shutter speeds for increased motion blur in video, for example, or long-exposure waterfalls in daylight – is that the lens housing can be entirely unscrewed and replaced with a neutral density filter. There’s no word on pricing but DJI will be selling ND4, ND8, ND16 and ND32 filters for the Osmo Action.

And battery life is reasonably good, too. DJI is quoting 1hr 31mins when recording 4K 30fps footage with RockSteady stabilisation enabled, from the camera’s 1,300mAh battery. This is about what I’ve experienced so far.

DJI Osmo Action review: Early verdict

Given that this is DJI’s first foray into the world of GoPro-style action cameras, the Osmo Action is a pretty good effort. It shoots detailed, smooth 4K footage at 60fps, has a range of useful modes and is natively waterproof, too, without the need for a case.

It’s also much simpler and easier to use than a GoPro, and has that front-facing display, which makes it a touch more flexible. Plus, at a price of £329, it looks like pretty good value compared with the GoPro, which is currently £342.

Source: expertreviews.co.uk


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