DJI Osmo Action 3 Review

Had the Osmo Action 3 been launched a couple of months back, prior to the outstanding GoPro Hero 11 Black, it would be the finest action video cameras on the marketplace.

It’s well built and water resistant with good image quality and outstanding stabilisation, plus a great installing system, however can’t match the (undoubtedly costlier) GoPro in regards to video and image efficiency. Still, it’s a great all-rounder, and has lots of appeal as a spending plan option to GoPro’s flagship.

Introduction

Hot on the heels of the outstanding GoPro Hero 11 Black comes the most recent opposition from DJI, a business much better understood for its drones than its actions.

The DJI Osmo Action 3 objectives to alter all that with a back-to-basics method. Gone is the enthusiastic modular style of in 2015’s Action 2, as DJI go back to the basic action webcam design template and rather tries to appeal in essential locations like waterproofing, functionality and battery life.

Not to discuss worth: the Osmo Action 3’s prices begins a lot lower than the GoPro Hero 11 Black, pitching it as a thrifty option for vloggers and outside sportspeople on a spending plan.

So does the Osmo Action 3 deal a real difficulty to GoPro’s brand-new flagship, or is it still a second-tier action webcam?

Design

• Excellent magnetic clamp installing system
• Waterproof to 16m out-of-the-box
• Touchscreens on front and back of the video camera

While the Action 2 boasted an ingenious modular style based upon cuboid obstructs that pair through magnetic clamps, the Osmo Action 3 returns to the much more conventional GoPro Hero-inspired appearance of DJI’s very first Action.

While that might be deemed a concession that the Action 2’s method didn’t truly work, DJI has actually kept the magnetic clamp and utilized it as the basis for an outstanding quick-release system for repairing and unfixing the video camera on very first- and third-party installs.

The Osmo Action 3 can utilize the exact same kind of installs as a GoPro Hero, however instead of needing to loosen it each time, you can now unclip and go. It’s a better system than GoPro’s, a minimum of in my experience – although I expect if you were taken part in very quick and irregular motion you might discover the GoPro technique a bit more reassuringly protect.

The video camera includes among these mag-lock installing points on its base, and the consisted of Horizontal-Vertical Protective Frame (a case that can be snapped around the video camera to offer it an additional layer of defence) has another one on the side, implying you can rapidly turn the video camera in between landscape and picture orientations – convenient if you wish to produce 9:16 material for TikTok or Reels.

Case or not, this video camera is difficult. It’s able to endure drops of approximately 1.5m untouched and be soaked approximately 16m in water without a dive case (an optional dive case is readily available, increasing water resistance to 60m). The lens is swappable too, so if it gets scratched or otherwise harmed you don’t require to change the whole video camera.

There are Gorilla Glass screens on the front and back, similar to the GoPro Hero line, however DJI has actually taken things a little additional by making both of them touchscreens. Previous dual-screen action webcams have actually just made the rear screen touch-sensitive, with the front screen being for structure and details functions just, however here you can tap to change settings and see formerly shot product. It’s a great touch (no pun planned), even if I wouldn’t call it transformational; I still discovered myself utilizing the rear screen regularly due to the fact that of its size (2.25-inch compared to the front screen’s 1.4-inch size).

The video camera includes simply 2 physical buttons: a big shutter button on the top and a power/quick choose button on the side. The latter can be utilized to rapidly cycle through your preferred shooting modes. Neither button has a big quantity of ‘travel’, which suggests it in some cases takes an additional push or 2 to sign up, and I can picture this would be especially challenging when using gloves.

Video, image and audio quality

• Video tape-recording approximately 4K/120fps 
• 360º horizon levelling at 2.7K
• Time lapse and slow-motion alternatives

Like the Action 2, the Osmo Action 3 is based upon a 1/1.7-inch CMOS sensing unit and f/2.8 aperture lens with a wide-angle field of vision. At 155º, this is really larger than the FOV used by GoPro Hero designs, which is possibly a huge offer if you’re aiming to get as much in frame as possible. 

Image quality is excellent instead of excellent, with lighting being a crucial aspect: if you tape outdoors throughout the day, your video from the Osmo Action 3 will look typically sharp, comprehensive and well-exposed. However in harder lighting conditions, these things rapidly fall off and the outcomes are far less outstanding.

One thing to note is that utilizing image stabilisation leads to a crop – small with the basic RockSteady 3.0 electronic stabilisation on, and rather significant with the horizon levelling mode engaged. That stated, the stabilisation here is very outstanding, as you can see from the contrast in my sample video.

360º horizon levelling needs that you utilize a resolution of 2.7K or lower, however if you wish to preserve 4K recording you can still utilize horizon levelling of approximately 45º. I believe that’s an appropriate compromise, although with the GoPro Hero 11 Black able to provide 360º levelling at 5.3K, it’s tough to argue that the Osmo Action 3 is the much better option for severe sportspeople who desire level, sharp video right out of the video camera. 

In addition to routine video shooting, the Osmo Action 3 can catch 12MP still images, time-lapse videos and slow-motion videos. In excellent lighting, stills are great, if a little unexciting, however low-light abilities feel extremely restricted compared to some video cameras and the majority of good mobile phones. 

Performance and battery life

• 1770mAh fast-charging battery
• 160 minutes of 1080p/30fps tape-recording
• Designed for cold temperature level efficiency

The Osmo Action 3 has an easy and slick UI based upon tapping on-screen icons and swiping from screen sides to raise different menus. I discovered it rapidly instinctive (although it takes a while to memorise which menu swipes in from which screen edge) and responsive on the rear screen, with the front screen (as I discussed earlier) being a little too little for my taste from a control viewpoint.

You can obviously utilize your mobile phone and the DJI Mimo app as a kind of push-button control, and it works remarkably thanks to basic controls, cinema viewfinder and strong cordless connection. Utilizing the app likewise makes it possible for livestreaming.

Battery capability has actually been increased over the Action 2, from 1300mAh to 1770mAh, although remarkably DJI’s own figures recommend the Action 2 can last a bit longer: 180 minutes to the Osmo Action 3’s 160 minutes (when tape-recording 1080p at 30fps, with image stabilisation switched off).

Still, I discovered the Action 3’s battery life to be adequate for basic usage, and the reality you can purchase the video camera with 3 batteries and a charging case suggests that heavy users have a strong alternative at the checkout.

Batteries charge rapidly through USB-C (from empty to 80% in a simple 18 minutes) and according to DJI are more resistant to cold than those discovered on previous DJI video cameras, with battery life hardly impacted by temperature levels as low as -20ºC.

With the Action 2 bring in extensive criticism over its propensity to rapidly get too hot throughout video recording, the Action 3 has actually been created to much better disperse heat. I discovered that it will still end 4K recordings suddenly, however it now takes longer to heat up: you can now tape 4K/60p for about 30 minutes prior to things grind to a stop, or about 12 minutes of 4K/120p video.

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