DJI Osmo Pocket

THE REAL ‘HERO’ OF STABILISED VIDEO.

DJI OSMO POCKET is the easiest way to record stabilized 4K video and fluidly moving time lapses without having to carry around a full-sized DSLR gimbal and bulky camera gear.

It’s a handheld camera stabiliser for the mainstream, and that means you’ll soon be seeing even more silky smooth video out there. That’s a good news for everyone who hates shaky video.

It’s comparable in some ways to the GoPro Hero 7, which offers camera stabilisation, albeit through in-camera software. And while their executions are widely different – the GoPro is more durable, while the Osmo tracking more veritable – the results are similar. They’re all about eliminating shaky video at the end of the day.

We found the Osmo Pocket to offer smoother video, much faster transfer rates, and exclusive features like the motion time lapses and active face tracking. It proves that gimbal stabilisation is superior to electronic stabilisation, if you’re willing to deal with this Osmo’s Gen 1 foibles that we’ll go over.

The DJI Osmo Pocket does almost everything larger gimbals can do and eliminates it the need for other camera gear, like bulky motorised panoramic time lapse tripod heads. We used to have to carry them around, too. All of this equipment fits in the palm of your hand now.

It’s not just small, it’s one-hand friendly, too, with a non-slip, sweat-proof grip. That makes it easy to operate the embedded one-inch touchscreen, which is used to cycle through modes and settings. In effect, we found it to be more mobile than the also likable DJI Osmo Mobile 2.

Here’s something that’s infinitely better than the GoPro design: we could export video and connect to our smartphone as a viewfinder with a physical connection. The Osmo Pocket includes a universal port that accepts small Lighting and USB-C adapters. Slot one of these adapters into the port and you can instantly connect to an iPhone or Android phone.

It’s the best way to transfer files to your phone, as transfer rate are a consistent around 10Mb/s with an unbreakable physical connection.

Attaching your phone directly to the DJI Osmo Pocket also opens up more settings and an expansive viewfinder. We do find the one-inch screen embedded within the confines of the gimbal to be effective for reference or tight situations and from-the-hop recording – people are often surprised that it was a touch-enabled screen. But this square-shaped screen shows a cropped frame, so it doesn’t have a true-to-life live view of everything you’re capturing, and having something like a 6.5-inch iPhone XS allowed us to fine tune shots.

The DJI Osmo Pocket is the go almost anywhere, record anything camera gimbal that leaves you with stabilized footage better than what you’ll get from top-of-the-line smartphones. You can capture 4K at 60fps footage that moves fluidly like an old-school Hollywood crane, and motion time lapses that mimic what the pros can do with much more expensive camera gear.

HERE’S SOMETHING THAT’S INFINITELY BETTER THAN THE GOPRO DESIGN: WE COULD EXPORT VIDEO AND CONNECT TO OUR SMARTPHONE AS A VIEWFINDER WITH A PHYSICAL CONNECTION.