DJI Osmo Pocket Camera

The DJI Osmo Pocket is an intriguing little device that takes form factor and concept of the earlier iterations of the Osmo and shrinks it down into a tiny form factor.

Who is the Osmo Pocket For?

The original Osmo was billed to be the must-have vlogging camera and that never really came to fruition. Most vloggers preferred the image they got from mirrorless or DSLR bodies often using larger gimbal like the Ronin- S to stabilise them despite some impracticalities. When they didn’t want to carry that kit or were in a pinch then most would just turn to plugging in a light and microphone into their phone.

The Osmo Pocket looks to take the heavy lifting of filming video away from the phone whilst also being easy to connect and share media from it.

Osmo Pocket Specs

Osmo Pocket is tiny at just 121.9mm x 28.6mm x 36.9mm (Height/Width/Depth), weighs just 116 grams and has a battery life of 140 minutes.

The Osmo Pocket has a 1/2.3” sensor, f/2.0 aperture with the ability to shoot 4K video at up to 60 frames per second at 100Mbps and photos at 12 megapixels. The camera is mounted on to a 3-axis gimbal for stabilising any camera shake during movement.

A built-in touch screen combined with multiple gesture controls make it the perfect tool to pick up little pre-programmed shots. The Osmo Mobile 2 is superb for these kinds of shots but taking the phone out of the equation is a welcome step for us.

It has a USB jack that can plug directly in to your phone and the new DJI Mimo app so you can quickly get your content off the device and share it online on the move. It also offers editing tools and settings to pre-program shots

Osmo Pocket Shooting Modes

The real advantage of the Osmo Pocket over many competitors are the built-in smart shooting modes like ActiveTrack for following subjects, FaceTrack for keeping your face in the frame at all times (perfect for vloggers) and FPV mode which smoothly follows the camera’s orientation to give a real sense of movement in a natural smooth way. Motionlapse allows you to set down the camera and set it to do a moving timelapse. NightShot offers handheld long exposures which you simply cannot do on a lot of other cameras. It also features a 3 x 3 panorama mode that will stitch together 12 photos to make one huge panoramic image.

Rivals to the Osmo Pocket

This will no doubt be compared to the GoPro Hero series. But it is different because it isn’t an action cam, so no dust or waterproofing off the shelf (a waterproof case is available as an extra accessory). This is due to the gimbal, something that GoPro claims to have killed with their digital stabilisation software in their camera.

Now although GoPros software does take out a lot of the shake from the video that is not all a gimbal is used for. Gimbals are fantastic for crane types shots, timelapse movement, and tracking shots.

The Insta360 One x shares some features that the Osmo Pocket offers but it is a 360 camera and again not really comparable on an even level.

The other rival, of course, is smartphones, they are now so good at producing vivid colour, smooth shots and have the option to add external microphones etc. It’s all about whether you mind using your phone’s battery and storage as well using it in situations where you could potentially damage it.

It seems DJI have created quite a unique offering in an otherwise quite crowded market.

Osmo Pocket pricing and release date

Osmo Pocket is £329 or $349 and is available to buy now direct through DJI’s online store with a delivery estimate of around 20 – 30 days so if you want this by Christmas then you have to get in early as that delivery time will increase as time goes on.

Is the Osmo Pocket worth buying?

If you are a vlogger or regularly document events and want a nice compact camera with smooth video and tons of little built-in features then this is certainly a contender.

DJI Osmo Pocket Promo Trailers