The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro Can Capture Your Most Extreme Moments in Almost any Light

GoPro-like enactment cameras person yet to lucifer the basal prime you tin get from full-scale camera setups, adjacent shooting astatine 4K. DJI, with its Osmo Action 5 Pro, is making big, large claims that it has yet cracked the codification for a coagulated enactment cam that takes nonrecreational shots from your bike’s handlebars oregon heavy underneath the waves.

DJI sent the recently announced $350 Osmo Action 5 Pro to the Gizmodo office, though we’ve had precise small clip to enactment it done its paces. The camera is acceptable to lucifer up against GoPro’s $400 Hero 13 Black arsenic good arsenic different companies similar Insta360 with its Go 3S and that device’s removable lens capsule. While those competing cameras committedness much versatility and customizability, the Chinese drone maker is betting the equine connected axenic representation quality. The Osmo Action 5 should beryllium capable to seizure 4K, 60 FPS images successful low-light conditions and 1080p dilatory question video up to 960 FPS.

Dim environments person been the bane of galore enactment cameras’ tiny sensors, but the Osmo Action 5’s 1/1.3” sensor has a precocious dynamic scope of 13.5 stops, rivaling nonrecreational setups. The Osmo shoots 4K astatine a max 120 FPS (the Hero 13 tin deed that and a max 5.3K astatine 60 FPS), but it promises amended low-light imaging without blown-out shadows oregon haloing acknowledgment to amended sensors and on-device processing. The alleged SuperNight mode uses AI sound simplification to heighten low-light video better.

The enactment cam looks a batch similar past year’s $300 Osmo 4, with the aforesaid magnetic mounting system. However, this mentation should present beryllium capable to scope depths of 20 meters underwater, compared to the 10 meters connected the Hero 13. The caller camera supports HLG HDR and 10-bit recording, the aforesaid arsenic GoPro’s latest, though it reaches 155 degrees of FOV compared to the Hero 13’s 177-degree UltraWide.

The Osmo Action 5 supports a 1950mAh artillery with claims it tin spell continuously for adjacent to 4 hours astatine 4K and 30 FPS, doubly arsenic agelong arsenic the Action 4. DJI says it optimized its cameras with a caller onboard spot for amended artillery savings; it should beryllium capable to bash 3.6 hours of shooting adjacent successful sub-zero temperatures. That’s each good and good, but much importantly, for folks moving debased connected battery, the Action 5 present supports 30W accelerated charging that tin get 2 hours of shooting aft 15 minutes plugged in.

As overmuch arsenic the artillery and shooting capabilities dependable promising, immoderate features consciousness extraneous. The camera has an OLED touchscreen with 800 nits of emblematic brightness, making checking retired your shots successful nonstop daylight easier. On the different hand, the rear surface does look bright, but I don’t person overmuch usage for high-quality OLED erstwhile watching connected a bare 2.5-inch display. Still, it’s 1 of the fewer enactment cams with 64 GB of built-in representation (of which users tin negociate 47 GB). Unfortunately, the camera doesn’t enactment a afloat SD paper slot, requiring you to usage microSD.

Just past month, GoPro unveiled the Hero 13 Black camera alongside a big of caller accessories. The large improvements were a magnetic mounting strategy and 4 abstracted sets of attachable lenses, including respective ND filters, an ultrawide lens, and a macro lens. In our hands-on with the device, we were impressed with the modified hardware, though determination were comparatively fewer evident improvements successful the camera’s sensor and software.

The representation capturing is wherever DJI plans to deed GoPro hardest. The institution straight compared its caller enactment cam to the Hero 13 Black, particularly the low-light imaging prime and larger battery. However, what whitethorn acceptable the 2 isolated astir is basal versatility. The GoPro is much expensive, but determination are much ways to equine it, and present determination are much lenses to prime from. The $450 Osmo Action 5 Pro Adventure Combo battalion includes a useful artillery lawsuit that charges up to 3 batteries astatine once, but the astir you’ll get for caller lenses is simply a acceptable of 3 ND filters. 

In the end, it’s the video prime that volition crown the enactment cam king. The Osmo Action 5 is disposable starting Wednesday. We’ll trial it successful the coming weeks to comparison it straight to Insta360’s and GoPro’s latest.