path: root/osmo-action.txt

GoPro's Hero series action cameras finally have some worthy competition. Others have tried in the past but none of the GoPro alternatives have been as compelling as DJI's new Osmo Action. 

The Action offers nearly everything that makes the GoPro popular and adds a few tricks of its own, including a front screen for effortless action selfies.

Before I dive into what makes the DJI great and where it's lacking, what everyone wants to know is how it stacks up against last year's [GoPro Hero7](https://www.wired.com/review/gopro-hero7-black-2018/). DJI clearly took a page from GoPro's playbook. The basic features are nearly identical. Both can capture 12-megapixel stills in both RAW and JPG, record 4K video at up to 60 frames per second, offer video effects like 8X slow motion and excellent electronic stabilization, and both are waterproof right out of the box (the Action claims 36 feet, GoPro 33 feet).

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###Seeing Double

The Osmo Action's headlining difference, and what sets it apart from other action cams we've tested, is its 1.4-inch front screen. It's tiny, but it offers a full-color display and it's incredibly handy for selfie videos. The front screen is just large enough that you can easily tell where you are in the Action's sweeping 145 degree field of view. The selfie-friendliness alone will make it a compelling buy for anyone primarily shooting from a stick.

There are two ways to switch between the Action's dualing screens, either use a touch gesture -- a two-finger double tap on the rear LCD -- or a long press of the QS (Quick Switch) button. Either way you're in and out of selfie mode nearly instantaneously. 

In the hand, the Action isn't an exact clone of a GoPro, but the form factor is very similar. DJI tweaked the basic action camera design enough to squeak in a nice, bright 2.25 inch LCD with true 16:9 aspect ratio -- no letterboxed video playback like you'll find in the Hero series. It makes the Action slightly wider than a GoPro, but it still felt comfortable enough in my hand, as comfortable as any tiny camera can feel anyway. 

You probably aren't going to be holding this thing anyway, you're going to mount it. DJI has wisely included a case and mounting system that mirrors the GoPro, which means most of the mounts that fit the GoPro would work here as well. 

The Osmo Action is water proof out of the box to 36 feet, just be sure you seal the flap that covers the USB-C port and Micro-SD card slot before you dive in. Notice that I did not say USB-C and HDMI port, because there is no HDMI port on the Action -- no real-time monitoring from the comfort of your director's chair. This is an action camera after all, it's meant to be on your helmet or handlebars recording the, ahem, action.

Technically there is a way to monitor footage if you really need to; you can use DJI's mobile app on your phone. Not a huge screen, but bigger than what the Osmo Action offers anyway.

The Action is fronted by an F2.8 lens that's covered with a screw-in clear filter. My test unit also included four ND filters to help out with shutter speeds in bright situations. I found the 16 filter perfect for bright days at the pool. The ND filters are sold separately and there will no doubt be plenty of third party filters available soon.

The Action uses the same sensor as the [DJI Mavic Air](https://www.wired.com/review/dji-mavic-air-2018/), and supports the same frame rates and video options, which is handy if you're mixing footage from the air and ground.

###Rock Steady

DJI may be new to action cameras, but it has quite a bit of experience stabilizing tiny cameras. The company calls the Action's image stabilization system "RockSteady", which might be mocking the GoPro's equally silly, "HyperSmooth" system. Whatever the case, what took GoPro seven iterations to get right DJI has nailed in its first go. 

There are some situations in which I like the results of GoPro's stabilization a little better, for example sudden jouncing smooths out better, but for the most part it's difficult to tell the difference between the two.

###Custom Menus

Given their size, and general lack of buttons -- the Action has just three buttons, Power, QS and Record -- menu systems on Action cameras often have to get creative. DJI has copied GoPro's approach here, menus are accessible by swiping in from the sides. Swipe from the left to see your images, from the top to get to the main settings panel, and from the right to get to exposure settings, de-warp toggle and image format settings. Swipe up from the bottom to get to the aspect ratio (either 4:3 or 16:9 and the countdown timer.

The menus work well enough though they were sometimes unresponsive when I had wet fingers. The good news is that there's an easy way to custom program settings and quickly switch between them using the QS button. Out of the box press QS brings up a menu of shooting modes -- Video, Photo, HDR video, Timelapse, and so on. This menu can be customized though, most importantly with customized modes. 

I created several custom modes, setting, for example, a 4K video with stabilization mode and one without stabilization. Then I went into the QS menu and uncheck everything else from the QS menu except your custom modes. That way I had a quick way to toggle stabilization without having to even look at the screen.

The De-warp option mentioned above removes the fisheye aspect from the lens. There is a tiny bit of cropping involved and the finished look will be familiar to anyone whose used a DJI drone. This is one place DJI manages to surpass the GoPro, the Action can remove fisheye from all resolutions and frame rates, even 4K at 60fps. The Hero 7's fisheye removal is limited to 2.7K at 60fps.

Another nice touch is the HDR video mode, which applies a very slight HDR effect to open up shadows and give scenes a slightly more vivid look. It's no match for what you can do in post production, but if you're going straight to the web it can save some otherwise high contrast scenes. The only gotcha is that you can't use both HDR and image stabilization at the same time.

While most of the emphasis on action cams if video related, the Action packs a decent still camera as well capable of capturing 12MP Raw (DNG), JPEG or both in either 16:9 or 4:3 image ratios. The ISO sensitivity range covers 100-3200, though the high end of the spectrum gets pretty noisy. I ended up setting the max ISO at 800 when shooting indoors. There's also a burst mode capable of three, five or seven fps, and a self-timer of either three or ten seconds.

Battery life on action cams is nothing to rave about, the small form factor severely limits battery size. Battery life varies considerably according to the video quality you're recording, but I was able to get almost an hour of 4K footage at 60fps on a fully charged battery. Dropping the frame rate to 30fps bumped the run time up to 90 minutes. The lower quality video you shoot, the longer your battery will last. 

The Osmo boots very quickly, hit the Power button and it'll be on and ready to shoot in about three seconds. Even better, you can start it up by tapping the record button and it will start up and immediately and begin recording using the mode and settings you had the last time you started it. 

There's much to love about the Action, but it's not perfect. There's no support for GPS, which seems like a huge oversight given the market DJI is going for here. There's also not much support for instantly uploading footage and no support for livestreaming. You can upload relatively easily using DJI's mobile apps, but it's not nearly as simple as what the GoPro Hero 7 offers. The missing livestreaming is odd given that other DJI products are capable of it. My other major gripe is the use of blue text in menus, which is very hard to see in bright sunlight.

Slight nitpicks aside, this is a very solid action camera. DJI may be new to the action camera market, but it's been making tiny cameras for years and it shows. The lack of GPS support is something of an Achilles heel on an otherwise very solid camera, but for many the front facing monitor will more than make up for it.