DJI Osmo Motion 4: Specs
Beginning value: $399
Max video decision: 4K/120 fps
Sensor: 1/1.3” CMOS
Entrance display: 1.4” touchscreen
Rear display: 2.25” touchscreen
Measurement: 2.77 x 1.74 x 1.29 inches
Weight: 5.1 ounces
Water resistance: 59ft (18m)
Battery: 1770 mAh
The DJI Osmo Motion 4 is the newest iteration of DJI’s motion digital camera. It succeeds the DJI Osmo Motion 3, which we fortunately added to our record of the greatest motion cameras because of its affordability, versatile mounting system and, most significantly, stable video high quality. The Motion 4 builds on its predecessor’s robust factors, this time that includes a bigger sensor to additional enhance picture high quality, and an additional 3 meters of water resistance.
It’s up towards some stiff competitors, although, primarily within the type of the GoPro Hero12 Black — which tops our record of the most effective motion cameras you should buy, packs spectacular video specs on paper, and may be scooped up for the same value. The Motion 4 can also be priced intently to the just lately launched Insta360 Go 3, which is designed to be as light-weight and transportable as an motion digital camera can get, on the expense of some skilled options.
So, how does the Motion 4 stack up towards its rivals? And is it the fitting motion digital camera for you? Discover out in our full DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Value & Availability
The DJI Osmo Motion 4 was launched in August 2023, and is available in a wide range of bundle packages. The essential package deal prices $399 / £379, which nets you a battery, a plastic protecting cage and a stick-on mount. That is barely cheaper than the GoPro Hero12 Black primary equipment bundle, which retails at $449 / £449.
I’d go for the Journey combo, which is what I examined, for $499 / £469. This combo provides two additional batteries and a charging case, the protecting cage and a selfie stick as an alternative of the stick-on mount. As I’ll cowl later, I discovered the Motion 4’s battery life a little bit disappointing, that means you’ll undoubtedly wish to choose up spares. Two batteries and a charging case, plus a selfie stick, would set you again round $176 / £140 when purchased individually, so the journey combo will prevent $77 / £50. You gained’t get the stick-on helmet mount, however these may be picked up for simply £16 / £15, and battery life ought to undoubtedly be the precedence with this digital camera.
There are additionally a spread of different combo packages out there from DJI, every that includes specialised equipment for particular sports activities or makes use of, together with highway biking, mountain biking and motorcycling, vlogging, diving, and browsing. It’s a extremely nice vary, and might cater for nearly every thing you’d wish to do with the digital camera. Disappointingly, none include a Micro SD card, which should be bought individually.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Design
The DJI Osmo Motion 4 is light-weight and compact, at 2.77 x 1.74 x 1.29 inches and 5.1 ounces. This makes it barely smaller than the GoPro Hero12 Black, and really pocketable. It isn’t as compact because the Insta360 Go 3 with out its case, and gained’t be one for mounting on the peaks of caps or the collars of cats just like the Go 3, however the DJI actually gained’t trigger your neck any points when mounted on a helmet.
DJI has paid loads of consideration to the end, and it exhibits.
The Motion 4 seems to be similar to the Hero12 Black, that includes comparable proportions, a entrance and rear display, in addition to a facet Q button and a high document button. Construct high quality may be very spectacular. The digital camera feels sturdy and rugged because of a steel physique, and premium too, with its two shiny screens and the embossed Motion 4 emblem on entrance, which homes a shade metering sensor. Catches on the battery/card and USB-C port shut firmly, buttons present satisfying haptic suggestions, and the lens is provided with a sturdy filter to guard it, which screws into place utilizing metallic threads. Total, DJI has paid loads of consideration to the end, and it exhibits.
On one facet of the digital camera is the battery and reminiscence card tray. These can each be accessed independently of each other, which I like — on the Insta360 X3, you need to take away the battery to get to the cardboard slot, which is usually a little irritating throughout use. On the opposite facet is a USB-C port, which lets you cost the gadget or hook up equipment.
Alongside the underside of the digital camera is a fast launch mounting system, which helps you to quickly swap between totally different mounting choices. The mounting level on the digital camera itself is horizontal orientation solely, however there’s a further vertical orientation mounting level on the accompanying plastic protecting cage for if you wish to change.
Sadly, the short launch mount is usually a bit fiddly to make use of when the Motion 4 is in its plastic cage. The cage rim made it troublesome for me to get my thumb or finger into the hole between the cage and the fork locking pin to push the short launch button. In consequence, I discovered myself having to yank the Motion 4 off its fast mount from one facet. This successfully negates the “fast” a part of “fast launch” for anybody with chunkier fingers and thumbs.
The Motion 4 options two contact screens. One on the entrance, and one on the rear. Each are extremely responsive. The rear display is giant and clear, which makes navigating the menu methods (themselves quite simple and sensibly laid out) simple.
The entrance contact display is tremendous helpful for those who’re filming your self, permitting you to rapidly examine your hair, framing or settings. I barely used it, typically turning it off to avoid wasting battery, nevertheless it’ll be tremendous useful for vlogging particularly.
In case you are vlogging, the Motion 4 presents computerized orientation switching to allow native vertical content material for social media tales and shorts. Mixed with the display and the vertical fast launch mount on the plastic cage, this makes the Motion 4 a extremely great tool for rapidly switching to vertical content material and including an additional dimension to your content material.
The Motion 4 is waterproof right down to 18 meters, which is 3 metres deeper than its predecessor and eight meters deeper than the GoPro Hero12 Black, making the Motion 4 the one to decide on for watersports or diving footage.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Video efficiency
The Osmo Motion 4 produces wonderful video footage. There’s a 1/1.3” sensor, a step up from the 1/1.7” sensor within the Motion 3, and the 1/1.9” sensor within the GoPro Hero12 Black. This could lead to a cleaner picture when at increased sensitivity settings, for instance in low gentle.
There’s nothing above 4K as you’d discover within the Hero12 Black, however for many informal customers, this gained’t be an actual world challenge as 4K is loads adequate for YouTube and even for skilled work. 120fps is on supply at full 4K, which is very nice to have. This implies you don’t should sacrifice decision on your gradual movement scenes.
DJI makes an enormous deal out of the colour temperature sensor within the entrance of the digital camera, and claims that this helps the Motion 4 produce lovely, pure colours. I didn’t contact the white stability or shade settings and simply left the digital camera to meter and regulate shade temperature itself, and the outcomes had been spectacular. Colours had been pretty within the MP4 footage out of digital camera. On heat sunny days, skies had been deep and vivid, with luscious greens and daring, vibrant reds. Footage didn’t really feel unnatural, although — within the footage above, shot on a chilly morning with sunny intervals, the Motion 4 captured the marginally muted tones of the subtle daylight.
There are solely two shade modes in-camera: regular and D-Log. Whilst you can apply numerous filters later down the road when enhancing footage within the DJI Mimo app, it is a little limiting when it comes to artistic choices as you shoot — Insta360, for instance, presents a spread of various shade filters in its cameras and through its app as you document, so you possibly can see and alter your filter whereas taking pictures. Anybody who edits their footage, particularly for skilled utilization, will actually admire the Motion 4’s 10-bit D-Log recording, although, which supplies additional flexibility in put up manufacturing with shade grading and dynamic vary.
There’s a guide mode, however I discovered the digital camera uncovered and handled altering exposures very properly in auto. It didn’t blow out highlights and maintained first rate element in shadows.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Picture stabilization
The Motion 4 options digital picture stabilization, which I examined out by taking the digital camera out for bike rides on bumpy British nation roads. The stabilization has two modes: RockSteady and RockSteady+. The primary is the fundamental degree of stabilization, which labored properly sufficient at holding footage easy once I had the digital camera mounted in solely a barely bumpy place: mounted to my chest (through DJI’s chest mount harness).
I then examined out the RockSteady+ picture stabilization, which primarily provides on digital stabilization, cropping the picture to align frames. I connected the digital camera to a bracket on my bike’s chassis, low down close to the wheel the place the footage can be affected extra by the bumps within the highway. I rode the identical route with no stabilization after which with RockSteady+, and the latter was barely smoother, particularly the background of the picture, though because of the crop, the my bike within the close to floor was much less easy than I’d have appreciated. Stabilization was a weak level within the Motion 3, with our overview concluding it was nearly adequate — it’s extra of the identical this time round.
There’s additionally horizon stabilization out there when utilizing the DJI Mimo app, which retains the horizon straight if you’re twisting and leaning. DJI claims that this works throughout full 360 diploma rotations, equivalent to backflipping or loop-the-loops — this’ll be a helpful characteristic for excessive sports activities that incorporate jumps, like snowboarding, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and so forth.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Audio high quality
I used to be impressed by the standard of the Osmo Motion 4’s inside microphone. Even in wind-reduction modes, many cameras wrestle with the wind noise of bike using, however the Motion 4 did a great job in my testing. Wind noise within the check footage above was current, however not overwhelming.
I used to be additionally happy with the vary of audio frequencies the microphone picked up. Small inside microphones generally have a tendency to chop out the decrease frequencies of motorcycle engines, leading to your bike sounding extra like an RC automotive. The Motion 4 picked up the booming bass tones of the bike’s engine, and audio was pretty clear on playback.
Higher nonetheless, for those who’d like actually clear audio, the Motion 4’s USB-C port can be utilized to hook up an exterior microphone. DJI presents a vlogging package, which incorporates an exterior microphone, however we wouldn’t advocate it. The vlogging package is exorbitantly costly, costing $728. Positive, DJI makes some vaunted microphones, however you possibly can choose up a top quality USB-C mic from the likes of Rode for round or beneath $100 individually — try this as an alternative.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Apps and options
DJI presents quite a few smartphone apps for its gadgets, which isn’t precisely a great factor. This is usually a little complicated to a newcomer, particularly as solely sure apps work with sure gadgets. It additionally makes me a little bit uncomfortable once I see a wide range of totally different apps from a producer — it feels messy and unstreamlined, and suggests a scarcity of interoperability and/or backwards compatibility. My unease solely worsens once I see a lot of these apps reaching low person rankings on the Apple App Retailer, as is the case with DJI’s apps.
The app that works with the Osmo Motion 4 is the DJI Mimo app, which opens up options not out there with the standalone digital camera, equivalent to artistic filters and horizon stabilization. The Mimo app is fairly good: it’s simple to navigate; connecting to the digital camera is fast and painless; and there are a number of controls and taking pictures parameters within the reside view mode, the place you need to use your cellphone as a monitor. The enhancing perform is okay: it permits you to apply some primary edits like reducing, adjusting pace, including music and making use of filters, however there’s no method of adjusting the publicity of your footage. For the latter, DJI prompts you to obtain a 3rd celebration video enhancing software — that’s two apps the place I solely need one. On the entire, the Mimo app is OK, however nowhere close to nearly as good as rivals, particularly Insta360.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Battery life
The Osmo Motion 4’s battery life is a little bit disappointing. In my testing, I used to be in a position to document simply over 80 minutes of combined Full HD and 4K footage earlier than the battery died. Round 2/3rds of that was 4K, and every thing was shot at 60p.
After I was recording in an indoor setting to check battery life, the Motion 4 sadly overheated after about 10 minutes, recording at Full HD/60p. Though I used to be indoors, that is nonetheless disappointing to see at such a low decision. You may clearly get round this by recording whereas shifting at tempo — on my motorcycle, I skilled no overheating, even at 4K/60p — however this might nonetheless be a sensible challenge in lots of different eventualities the place there isn’t the wind to chill the digital camera down, equivalent to strolling or vlogging to digital camera.
For context, the GoPro Hero11 Black additionally achieved 80 minutes in our testing, however that was filming at its most decision of 5.7K, whereas the newer GoPro Hero12 Black can also be rated for the same period of time at 5.7K. Given I used to be mixing in Full HD footage, I used to be anticipating longer. In case you’re out adventuring, 80 minutes isn’t a very long time, so we’d undoubtedly advise investing within the spare batteries and charging case that include the Journey combo.
With the journey Combo, issues are totally different. You’ll have triple the efficient battery life — 4 hours, which is an effective chunk of time to be recording 4K.
DJI Osmo Motion 4 overview: Verdict
The DJI Osmo Motion 4 presents loads for action-oriented content material creators and vloggers. The video high quality is improbable, inside audio is first rate, and there are a number of superior mounting choices. Personally, that’d be sufficient to sway me into shopping for the Motion 4, as the basics of image, sound and digital camera angle are most necessary to me. In case you’re into water sports activities, the 18M water resistance may properly be a clincher, too, as this beats the GoPro Hero12 Black by a whopping 8 meters. There’s additionally D-Log and 10-bit shade, which is able to attraction to people who spend time in post-production.
The problems with the Motion 4 come within the secondary particulars. 4K is the utmost decision — that gained’t be an issue to all however the hardest of pixel chasers, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a con versus the GoPro. The picture stabilization is okay, however nonetheless inferior to it may or must be. And battery life appears to have gone backwards when in comparison with its predecessor.
These cons wouldn’t essentially be a difficulty if the Motion 4 wasn’t so intently priced to the GoPro Hero12 Black, which retails for under $50 extra. The advantage of the Motion 3 was that it was a finances GoPro various — you sacrificed among the GoPro’s skilled options, with the benefit of paying a noticeable chunk much less. With the Motion 4, you’re making an analogous sacrifice, with out the advantage of value.