DJI Osmo Motion 3 Evaluation: Cheaper and Almost as Good as a GoPro

Each iteration of DJI’s motion digital camera will get higher, from the unique with its shade entrance display screen, to the second model with its intelligent modular and magnetic design, to the newest, which is in some ways a synthesis of the perfect elements of the primary two. Design-wise and functionally, there’s a lot to love right here.

If the brand new Osmo Motion 3 have been going up towards the GoPro Hero10 it might be very aggressive. Sadly, the GoPro Hero11 is already on the scene and the Osmo struggles to compete with video and picture high quality. That stated, should you don’t want vertical video, 5.3K-resolution footage, or the 27-megapixel stills of the Hero11, the Osmo Motion 3 is extra reasonably priced and nonetheless is an excellent motion digital camera.

Osmosis

The primary Osmo Motion introduced a shade display screen to the entrance of the motion digital camera, a transfer that GoPro later copied. Now DJI has upped the ante once more by including a touchscreen to the entrance of the Osmo Motion 3, permitting you to not solely body photographs, but in addition management the digital camera as properly. Utilizing your fingers to manage a tiny display screen would possibly sound cramped, nevertheless it works surprisingly properly. I had no hassle adjusting primary settings like mode and taking pictures decision.

DJI additionally introduced the perfect a part of its Motion 2 digital camera—the highly effective magnetic mounting system—within the type of a quick-release mounting system. That is the primary mounting system I’ve used that trumps the GoPro in some ways. It is by far the quickest, best approach to transfer, as an illustration, between a versatile tripod and a helmet mount. There isn’t any unscrewing and twiddling with the threaded screws of GoPro mounts.

Certain, there are third-party quick-release mounts for the GoPro that provide comparable performance, however they aren’t as easy and stylish as what DJI has carried out with this magnetic mount. Regardless of what you would possibly suppose, it’s laborious to by accident knock these magnets off—it by no means occurred in my testing, which included a number of makes an attempt to hit it as laborious as I may with out breaking the digital camera.

The opposite place the Osmo Motion 3 impresses is battery life. DJI claims 160 minutes. I solely managed 140 (with the rear display screen off, the entrance display screen used about half that point), however that’s nonetheless leaps and bounds past the GoPro Hero11’s 70 minutes, which appears downright paltry. Additionally spectacular is the recharge time—I used to be in a position to get the batteries totally recharged in 52 minutes. DJI can be promoting what it calls a “multifunctional battery case,” which is a really slick case that additionally serves as a charging hub, powering up three batteries at a time. Throw that in your bag and also you’ve obtained properly over six hours of taking pictures time earlier than it’s good to recharge. To shoot the identical size of time with the Hero11 would require six batteries.

Lights, Digicam, Motion

To this point so good. Externally, the Osmo Motion 3 is chock filled with intelligent improvements. The place it’s much less spectacular is the sensor inside. The Osmo Motion 3 sticks with the 4K decision of its predecessor. More often than not that can get the job carried out, however I’ve discovered that the Hero10 and Hero11’s 5.3K video decision turns out to be useful once you need to crop into the footage and nonetheless export to 4K. I’m additionally keen on taking pictures at 5.3K for the power to tug out higher-resolution nonetheless photos.

The Osmo Motion presents the identical body charges at 4K as you’ll discover in different motion cams, permitting for 120 frames per second at 4K and 240 frames per second in 1080p, which is loads of frames to get these dramatic slow-motion photographs you crave. Once you swap to 120 fps, the Osmo will warn you that at 25 levels Celsius (77 levels Fahrenheit), the digital camera will overheat in 9 minutes.

Whereas high-quality video is part of the equation, what you really need in an motion digital camera is a superb stabilization system. DJI’s RockSteady isn’t fairly GoPro clean, nevertheless it’s fairly shut. The principle time you’ll discover some noise and blurring is in low gentle (indoors for instance). This wasn’t actually a problem in most of my footage, however the GoPro Hero11 did clearly outperform the Motion 3 in low-light conditions.