DJI Osmo Action review after using for 1 Month

DJI Osmo Action is the first action camera from the house of DJI that is known for drones such as Mavic, Spark, etc. This is DJI’s first attempt at building a Go Pro like an action camera. Osmo Action camera can record 60 frames per second at full 4K, it shoots time-lapse and images a whole bunch of other features. You can even talk to it and control it with your voice. Yes, I bought this device with my own money, and I just wanted to be open about it. The DJI Osmo action currently costs upwards of Rs. 23,000. This review is going to be split up into three parts. First, I'm going to go over the technical specifications of this camera, then I am going to take you on a bit of a field test using the DJI Osmo action and finally, I want to talk a little bit about what I personally like and don't like about it.

Technical Specifications

The DJI Osmo action can record full 4K videos at 60 frames per second and if you go down to 1080p, which is 1920X1080, you can shoot up to 240 frames per second slow-motion videos. The camera is equipped with the one over two point three inch CMOS sensor which is 12 megapixels which is actually just a little bit smaller than what you find in an iPhone XS. In terms of images, you can capture a resolution of up to 4000X3000 in DNG RAW or JPEG. All of the movies or all of the video you film will be stored in an mp4 format.

It has a vast field of view with 145 degrees, which is very similar to the Go Pro, but it is fixed so you cannot actually change it on the DJI Osmo action. In terms of dimensions and weights, you are looking at 2.51-inch X 1.65-inch X 1.37-inch and the whole thing weighs 124 grams. Probably one of the best features of the DJI Osmo action is that it has two LCD displays. It has a 1.4-inch display on the front and a 2.25-inch touch screen LCD display on the back. The front screen is not a touch screen, so do not try to tap on it as I did. You can only have one screen active at a time. 

Osmo Action has 1300 mAh lithium polymer battery. As per DJI, A fully charged battery can support video recording at 1080P/30fps for up to 135 minutes (with RockSteady turned off and screen sleep enabled after 1 min) and 4K/60fps for up to 63 minutes (with RockSteady turned on and screen sleep enabled after 1 min) and it takes about 90 minutes to charge. All of your videos and all of your images are going to be stored on a micro SD card with the maximum capacity of 256 gigabytes. 

DJI Osmo Action has two microphones, one of the top and one on the side. The camera is fully waterproof up to a depth of about 36 feet or 11 meters and can be used in temperatures as low as-10 degrees Celsius (-10°C to 40°C  or 14°F to 104°F). The battery can be located at the bottom of the DJI Osmo Action and you can charge it up simply by plugging the camera in via USB-C.

You can also control the DJI Osmo action from your phone using the free DJI Mimo app or if you really want to you can actually just talk to it. It understands about five commands both in English and Mandarin.

Other specs:

Video	4K (16:9) – 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24fps
	4K (4:3) – 30, 25, 24fps
	2.7K (4:3) – 30, 25, 24fps
	2.7K (16:9) – 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24fps
	1080p – 240, 200, 120, 100, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24fps
	720p – 240, 200fps
Slow Motion	720p 120, 240fps
	Speed: 4/8
	1080p 120, 240fps
	Speed: 4/8
HDR Video	4K – 30, 25, 24fps
	2.7K – 30, 25, 24fps
	1080p – 30, 25, 24fps
Timelapse	4K– 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 20, 30s
	2.7K– 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 20, 30s
	1080p– 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 20, 30s

DJI Osmo Action Field Test

 Now let us look at what you can actually get out of the details mentioned. I went out and took a bunch of test videos, test images, and had Sachin from Slow Walker Sachin (Subscribe to his channel, I will leave a link at the bottom of this article for his channel), help me out to get some behind-the-scenes footage and some slow-motion as well.

RockSteady is DJI’s proprietary software that is their form of electronic image stabilization. RockSteady is in-camera stabilization that works well; it gives you really nice and smooth footage even when you run. However, sometimes you may notice a little bit of a wobble that is due to the way the software tries to stabilize the image. Also, note that enabling RockSteady will crop into that wide field of view because it needs those extra pixels along the edges to do the actual stabilization. 

I went on a bike ride on the weekend to check what Osmo Action is capable of. All the videos taken were hand-held. I recorded at 1080p 25 frames per second leaving the RockSteady on. The videos were nice and crisp. The colors are natural and accurate. It also has a wind noise reduction mode that should help to reduce the noise. However, during my test, if I was on the bike there was a good amount of wind noise and it is perfectly fine as I was at high speeds. When you are walking the wind noise reductions works perfectly.

If you record a video with RockSteady disabled the results are not good. The footage is shaky and it is not nice at all, even though you have that wide a field of view. Therefore, I would recommend just leaving RockSteady on all the time. In terms of the image quality, the footage is nice and sharp however, in high contrast situations I felt that the sky ended up usually a little bit blown out. For that, you can turn on HDR mode that will bring a bit more detail back into the bright and the very dark parts of your image but you cannot use RockSteady when you are shooting an HDR. That means you can only use HDR when you are standing and are panning around. Walking without RockSteady the footage is not going to come out nice.

 The DJI Osmo action can shoot full 4K at 60 frames per second means you get nice smooth videos straight out of the box. You can shoot slow-motion videos up to 240 frames per second that are pretty at full 1080p. You can get some nice-looking slow-motion shots just be aware that using high slow-motion will usually make artificial lights with scene flicker a little bit.

DJI Osmo Action - Selfie

DJI Osmo Action - Indoor lighting photo

DJI Osmo Action - Daylight

DJI Osmo Action - Picture Sample

Photos that were taken with the DJI Osmo Action actually turned out pretty good. Obviously, you get a distorted image out of the camera, however, you can apply automatic lens correction to that but the images themselves came out nice, kind of similar to what you get on an iPhone and there is plenty of resolution to crop in.  If you want some more flexibility for post-processing you can also shoot in DNG RAW format which will give you more space to adjust all sorts of things in the image processing tool but it's not the same as using a mirrorless or DSLR. 

There are several different modes available on the DJI Osmo action at the quick switch button. This is actually really easy and convenient to use between all of the different modes. The interface on the back is easy because it is a touch screen and it is nicely laid out so you can swipe in the panels from the side and adjust your settings, your mode, or the camera options.  I really enjoyed using the touch screen that is also bright enough to see when you are out in daylight. 

When I did take the Osmo Action out at night, I find that the low-light performance was not that great. Even at 4K 60 frames per second, the image turned out noisy. It is not a camera that I will recommend if you are trying to do low-light videography or photography. I hope that DJI will bring a software upgrade to correct that. The DJI Osmo Action has a front-facing the screen and it kind of invites itself to be used as a vlogging camera.  

The image is nice and steady because of Rocksteady enabled and because there is a screen on the front of the camera, I can actually see what is in view. Due to the wide field of view of the lens, I can capture everything around me as well me right in the middle. Now the audio quality is OK, it is not horrible but it is not amazing either. DJI Osmo Action has a microphone on the top and on the side so there is none actually in the front so, if you are using this camera for vlogging I would highly recommend getting a dedicated microphone. DJI has released a mic adapter and it is not available in India so I cannot say how good or bad it sounds once the adapter is connected. 

Battery life was kind of, like what DJI suggests. You can get 60 plus minutes of 4K at 60 FPS and close to two hours at 1080p. I shoot mostly at 1080 and it gave me a backup of 100 plus minutes. This is probably because I was turning the Osmo action on and off and shifting between different modes. I would recommend getting spare batteries beforehand. Luckily, I kept the power bank with me and charged it whenever I was having a break.

One good thing is that you can continue recording when it is connected to a power bank. However, do notice it gets a little hot while doing that. I would highly recommend getting spares so you can just pop out the battery and exchange it with another one especially when you are going in for a full day of shooting. 

Another cool feature of the DJI Osmo action is that you can actually control it remotely using the free DJI Mimo app on your mobile phone so if you have the camera standing a bit further away on a tripod you just need to see what is on the screen and can start recording. Also, you can edit videos in the app. They have different filters and what not for your ease.

Pros & Cons

So, now that I have been using the DJI Osmo action for a little while I've got some pretty strong feelings about what I like and don't like about it. 

Pros	Cons
Lightweight	Battery life
Touch screen	Low light performance
Ease of use	No microphone adapter
Front Screen	No RockSteady in HDR mode
RockSteady

Ease of Use  The first thing is something that I think DJI gets consistently right and that is simply the ease of use. The interface is good that you really don’t have scratch your head to use it. You can swipe up, down, left or right depending on what you want. Swiping down takes you to the setting screen, swiping up lets you choose the resolution depending upon the mode you are in, swiping left gives you manual mode and auto mode and you can change the settings and swiping to the right you can watch the images and videos to take on the Osmo Action.

The camera is really lightweight, it is really small so really easy to take it anywhere you want.  It is super easy to use. If it is turned off and I want to record a video or take a picture all I need to do is hold on the record button for a couple of seconds and the device is turned on. I can see here on the back LCD and that is all I need to do to get into video mode and start shooting.  This feature really comes in handy when I do not want to miss a shot. I just take out the camera and press the record button. It is really easy to use, I don't need to attach a phone or anything else.

One more thing that is really good is the custom mode and I need to appreciate Team DJI for it. This mode lets you set your personal preference. For example, I shoot mostly 1080p at 25FPS; I just need to set it on the custom mode. So next time when I want to shoot a 1080 video I just have to select my custom mode and do not need to toggle on different screens to set frames, resolutions, etc.  It is just that easy.

Front Screen
The front-facing screen is a welcome feature. No other manufacturer thought of it. It is super easy to use all you need to do is hold down that quick switch button the screen flips over to the front and you can see what you're filming right at the front of the camera. Click switch again and it flicks it back to the back so it's super useful if you want to film yourself and know what is in front of the camera.

If you are on a motorbike, attach it to the handle of your bike and you want to show your face and the background, it is super useful to have the screen on the front as you can see what all you are covering. Right now this is unique to the DJI Osmo Action. Actually, the Go Pro does have an LCD like a liquid display however; I am sure in the future generation that is going to change.

RockSteady
One thing I have really liked about the DJI Osmo Action, I have to admit I was quite impressed with RockSteady. This is DJI's version of Electronic Image Stabilization. Captures a good amount of details, however, does crop in the video to give you that smooth and stable footage..Especially when I was running, it was really able to keep that frame nice and stable although you do get a little bit of a wobble every now and then however it is still better than Go Pro Hero 7 Black. 

Now let us talk about the cons or limitations of DJI Osmo Action.

RockSteady
Yes, you read it right, RockSteady. First and foremost are the limitations around RockSteady and that you cannot use it in HDR mode so I would not recommend using HDR mode when you are actually trying to walk around. It works perfectly right when you are standing still and panning up or down.  You cannot use HDR mode because RockSteady is not enabled although we can personally try to stabilize and smooth everything out in post-production. Also especially since this is an action camera the fact that you get about a second delay on the display screen when RockSteady is enabled can be a bit of annoying.  If I have to take a shot at something that is moving very fast, for example, a motorcycle at high speed, I want to capture it, however, by the time I am even seeing that on the screen that motorcycle, in reality, it has already gone past me. It is not instantaneous. Yes, you can turn RockSteady off, then film, and then do the stabilization post-production but you can feel that RockSteady does take quite a bit of processing power out of the camera.  That is a bit of a downside of using RockSteady that also affects the preview on that LCD display so much. 

File Size and Codec
Also, another thing I've noticed once you take the files of this camera and put them into the video editing tools, they're quite slow to preview and render. I think it might be something about the codec or the format used for these files as the same things happen with the Go Pro.  By the way not sure what it is, but just be aware that these files are heavy like not just file size heavy because it's 4K and 60 frames per second but they're just they don't seem to be as optimized as some of the other file formats that you might find.

Low Light Performance is not that good
The next thing and also a little bit surprised about this given that this is an F 2.8 lens, which should be okay in low light, was that when I took it out in low light it was actually really low quality.  Even if I was shooting at 4K and if you do downsampling to 1080p, there was a lot of noise in the image, many blurred frames.  It just did not work terribly well.

Microphone Adapter
The only other consideration I give because the front screen kind of invites you to vlog with this, you will probably need a dedicated microphone. With the one on the top and one on the side, you are getting decent audio but it is not great. Especially, if you are holding the camera and you want to talk into the camera you probably want a dedicated microphone and you can get some cages and attachments to make that all happen but just be aware that the audio quality directly out of the camera is not the most amazing. DJI does sell a microphone adapter known as Cynova. I live in India and it is currently not available in any of the stores near me. Obviously, you can add audio later on in the postproduction, however; I want something that can do this job straight out of the box. 

Battery
Last would be the battery life. Do not get me wrong, if you shoot a small segment of videos then this is amazing and gives you the back up that DJI claims. Besides, you can attach it to a power bank and continue shooting but it gets hot I do not want to damage this amazing action camera even accidentally. However, if you go on long rides or longer journeys I would recommend getting extra batteries so that you can remove the discharged battery and replace it with a fully charged battery.

Verdict

Overall, I am very happy with the DJI Osmo Action. Would I recommend this to anyone? A big Yes. Osmo Action is worth every penny. You have more pros than cons. You have two screens. It is the only action camera where you have a front screen and that is a big plus for vloggers. DJI recently rolled out an update that also has Hyperlapse. DJI is already working on the fewer limitations it has, hopefully, will be removed in future updates. It is a great package and an overall winner.

As promised here is the link for Sachin's Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuimTIGnu5axV604L7IPuQw/videos
He is a fantastic dancer. Please subscribe to his channel and encourage him to make more videos.

If you want to buy this amazing product click here.

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