The Gadget Guru’s Ultimate DJI OSMO Review
NOTE: Scroll down to see the two-part video review.
The reviews for DJI’s new OSMO handheld stabilizer are starting to roll in and to say the least, I’m confused.
There seems to be two types of reviews currently being posted online and they are as different as night and day. One group that seems to be made up of some well known bloggers and online news organizations seem to be singing its praises. The other group is made up of early adopter users who gambled and placed an order through a DJI Dealer or direct from DJI itself seems to having lackluster experiences with the OSMO.
So, which group is correct?
In a way, both are. I’ll explain…
To some reviewers, typically the ones who are most likely not considering a purchase of an OSMO, this product is a great technological achievement. And, they are correct as there’s a bunch of technology incorporated into the OSMO and they make a good point in that we can now go out and purchase a 4K stabilized camera. That in itself is quite amazing.
However, to those who have been waiting so long for this product, there’s an air of disappointment. I can only guess that’s because even after delays, it’s just not working as well as they would have hoped. The initial units seem to be riddled with bugs and it seems that DJI would have done us a service by withholding the OSMO just a bit longer. And yes, they too are correct.
While I had great expectations for DJI’s new OSMO handheld stabilizer, I’ll cut to the chase and tell you upfront that this product did not live up to my expectations. Yes, it’s very cool and a great conversation piece, but it’s just not right…yet. With that said, I went into great detail in compiling this two-part video review as the OSMO has great potential and it proves that having a handheld product that delivers mechanical and not a digital method of delivering true stabilized video is possible.
Comments are welcomed.
Here’s Part 1:
And, here’s Part 2:
Please note there’s two items I did not get two in this series, so I’ll add my notes below:
- Horizon Issues: The OSMO seemed to suffer from from the lack of ability to automatically maintain a level horizon. Even after calibrating the gimbal and performing manual calibrations from time to time on location, it seemed to hold the horizon for a period and sometimes, even a short period afterwards the OSMO’s horizon would appear to be off-center in the display. I’ll note this was not retested after the most recent firmware version was installed as that was during the the production of this video review.
- Panorama: I simply neglected to mention to mention the issues I experienced when attempting to capture either a 180- or 360-degree panoramic image. It seems that when attempting to do a “selfie” panorama, it was difficult to keep the user (me) centered in the image and it took multiple attempts to get a workable panoramic image. Another point that was confusing was that although OSMO (or possibly the DJI GO App software) would display the stitched image on the display’s screen, the micro SD card only stored the pre-stitched, individual images. This requires the user to use a third party program to stitch the images together. Please note that when testing this feature, it was set at the higher JPG resolution setting.
NOTES:
While I try to translate my thoughts an opinions accurately in my videos, sometimes I get caught up in the moment and may not translate my thoughts accurately and may not notice these errors until during the editing process and after the set has been dismantled. So, here’s my corrections.
The point I attempted to make about having good audio is that people will tend to watch a video longer if it has good audio over good video. In the video, I stated “bad” video in that comparison and that was incorrect. Sorry!
In the Editorial that appears at the end of Part 2 of this series, when I used DJI and Apple press launch events as a comparison, the point I attempted to make was that with Apple, when a product is placed in the hands of the reviewers in attendance for the “instant reviews,” there’s a reasonable expectation that Apple will get it right when the consumer version ships. DJI has yet to earn the same reputation with its first generation products.
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