Our DJI Osmo has arrived; so here’s our hands-on review on an affordable handheld Steadicam killer3 min read

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Video camera technology has advanced in many ways over the past few decades, but one aspect where it hasn’t made headway until the recent years is the area of stabilisation. If you move about and film, chances are your footage is going to be wobbling all over the place. Sure, there are 5-axis image stabilisation on a handful of cameras which mitigates that a little, but there’s nothing to rival the smooth motion of a often large and bulky “Steadicam-style” setup. Until now.

First up, the technical information. The standard Osmo package which cost S$1038, consists of the handle and the X3 camera with a 12MP, 1/2.3″ sensor capable of capturing video at up to 4K through a 94-degree field-of-view lens. It can also record 120fps in full HD for smooth slow motion playback. There’s an on board stereo microphone, as well as a 3.5mm input for external microphones.

Bells and whistles aside, it’s the gimbal and stabilisation it offers that will likely excite videographers and photographers. Using similar algorithms as the gimbals on DJI drones, it keeps the camera level and pointing in the direction you desire. You can make it face one direction and maintain that, or focus on a point and remain looking at it while you walk around, or even snap back towards you with “selfie mode”. There’s a limit to its range of movement since it’s still physically attached to the handle but compared to traditional cameras, it’s a huge breath of fresh air.

The Osmo is very solid and well built. It is light and compact enough to fit into a small backpack even inside its “bicycle saddle” like carry case. The controls are simple; there are buttons to record video, take a still shot and to control  the gimbal’s behaviour. For more camera controls and a viewfinder, you should use it with the DJI Go app on your smartphone. Battery life wise, we managed to get about 45 minutes shooting 25p UHD out of the Osmo, so spares would be essential to be able to keep it running.

Like the GoPro and similar products out there, it does struggle in low light environments. However, to be fair, we would say the Osmo does pretty decent considering the X3’s image sensor’s size.  With the option to mount the X5 or X5R, users should be able to overcome that constrain and still have a setup costing very much less than the traditional “Steadicam-style” setup coupled with a camera.

An option to mount the Osmo on a tripod is available; handy for shooting the glorious moving time lapse images, or hook up a variety of DJI-made accessories. The accessories available at the moment includes a suction-based car mount, a long extended handle, a tripod, a bike mount and a universal mount. (allowing the connection of a microphone or LED light)

After taking it out for a spin, we’ve come up with a list of applications where we feel the Osmo can really shine.

1) Actual day wedding gatecrashing
2) Skateboarding
3) Courtside sports
4) Followcam
5) Electronic news gathering (with a wireless microphone setup)

Here’s some of the 4K footage we shot two days back.

Footage and Image credit: Nicholas Chee