DJI Osmo 360 hands-on: Insta360 now has a real competitor

The Verge

DJI has announced the company’s first 360-degree action camera designed to compete with the Insta360 X5. DJI's Osmo 360 slightly edges out the X5’s recording capabilities by capturing 8K videos at 50fps, instead of 30fps, and features a design that’s both smaller and nearly 20 grams lighter than the Insta360’s. But more importantly, this camera also uses 1-inch sensors capable of recording 10-bit video. We just don’t know how much the Osmo 360 will cost because DJI hasn’t revealed when it will be coming to the US.

Transcript

00:00This is the DJI Osmo 360.

00:03It is DJI's first 360 camera,

00:05and they're hoping to leave a mark

00:07in a market that's been largely dominated by one company,

00:10the Insta360.

00:12So in this video, we're gonna take a look at the Osmo 360

00:15and compare it to the Insta360 X5,

00:18their latest 360 camera.

00:20How many times have I said 360 in that intro?

00:24So first things first,

00:26I've only had the Osmo 360 for a couple of days.

00:29So think about this video more as a first impression hands-on

00:33than an actual full review.

00:35With that out of the way, let's get going.

00:37DJI sent me the Adventure Combo.

00:40That combo comes with battery case, three batteries,

00:43there's a pouch, cables, quick release plate,

00:46a rubber lens protector, 1.2 meter selfie stick,

00:50and yes, the Osmo 360 camera itself.

00:53I do wish I can tell you the price,

00:54but we don't know as the time of this recording.

00:58And once we find out,

00:59which might be before we publish this video,

01:01I'm gonna put the price up here.

01:05All right, now we know.

01:06Also, the thing that you need to know is that DJI told us

01:09that they're not officially selling the Osmo 360 in the US

01:14via the official DJI channels.

01:17I've asked to find out what official channels mean.

01:20Is that retail or just the DJI website?

01:22No idea yet, but I will let you know down below

01:25in the comments once I do.

01:28The first big difference between these two cameras

01:30is the form factor.

01:31The Insta360 X5 is a little bit longer and narrower,

01:34and the Osmo 360 is shorter, but wider.

01:37And aside from it also being lighter by 20 grams,

01:40I do prefer the Osmo shape overall.

01:44And there's one specific reason,

01:45and one specific use case for me, why I like it.

01:48So usually when I use 360 cameras,

01:50it is out for skiing and snowboarding and things like that.

01:53I have it on a selfie stick.

01:55I want it to be somewhat light so I don't get too tired.

01:59But more importantly,

02:00if I want to place the 360 camera onto my helmet,

02:03it always felt like the Insta360 X5

02:06was just a bit too heavy,

02:09but would also kind of pull on my helmet

02:12since it's sticking out so much.

02:14So I do prefer this form factor,

02:15which will be a little bit more flush to the helmet.

02:19The smaller footprint also means that the screen is smaller,

02:21but it's okay.

02:23It is a small price to pay.

02:25Let's go through the specs next.

02:26Behind these non-swappable lenses,

02:29I know I'm pretty bummed about that one.

02:31The X5 can swap lenses if you damage it.

02:34There are two one inch sensors.

02:36And what's interesting about those sensors

02:38is that they are square shaped instead of rectangular.

02:42DJI says that allows for better power consumption,

02:45makes the camera smaller,

02:46and utilizes the entirety of the sensor,

02:48whereas some other cameras,

02:50they actually don't use the entirety

02:52of the rectangular sensor.

02:54So there's that.

02:55The Osmo 360 can shoot 8K up to 50 frames per second,

02:58which is really awesome.

03:00X5 is capped at 8K 30.

03:03If you prefer 60 frames per second,

03:05the Osmo will get you that at 6K,

03:07whereas the X5 stays at 5.7K.

03:11But one place where the X5 wins is slow motion.

03:14It can shoot 120 frames per second in 4K.

03:17The Osmo only goes up to 800.

03:19And in my side-by-side testing,

03:21the footage on the Osmo does look a bit sharper and crisper,

03:25but I also just prefer the color choices

03:27that the camera is making.

03:29The sky just looks a little bit more real,

03:32whereas on the X5,

03:33it always felt like a bit more too saturated and too processed.

03:37The bigger difference, I would say,

03:39is that the Osmo 360 can shoot in 10-bit color

03:42and X5 can only shoot in 8-bit.

03:44Both of these cameras can shoot in HDR,

03:46and both of these do have some kind of a log setting.

03:50DJI LogM is not really proper log setting,

03:53but if you do want more room for color processing

03:57and more dynamic range,

03:59this is where you'd want to stay.

04:01A lot of people also want to know about low-light testing,

04:04so let's do that next.

04:06Okay, I'm on pure night mode.

04:09Everything looks a little bit more yellow on DJI One.

04:14Someone's playing All-Star.

04:18Okay, so everything is looking a bit more yellow on the right.

04:21Here we have a little bit more saturation in the night mode.

04:25Both of these are running their own night modes, 8K30.

04:30Yeah, let me know which one looks better to you.

04:33Okay, next up is the battery life.

04:36In the few days that I've had the Osmo, the battery held up pretty well.

04:40Most times, I would be okay with one to two batteries for, you know,

04:45a couple of hours of shooting at a time.

04:47DJI is quoting 100 minutes of 8K30 of continuous recording,

04:52and honestly, I don't think that's a practical use case.

04:55I don't use cameras that way.

04:57I mostly just take snippets of 5 to 10 minute clips, depending on the activity that I'm doing.

05:03But it sort of became a benchmark for these cameras.

05:06Overall, what you need to know is that the battery is good, even though it is 1950 milliamps,

05:12whereas the X5 is 2400, so that difference is kind of big.

05:16But again, DJI says that their power consumption is a lot better,

05:19so it should allow for just comfortable battery life.

05:24And yeah, in the last few days, I haven't really had any battery anxiety.

05:28Okay, one more thing, it's the app.

05:30One, there's the desktop app, which is brand new for DJI.

05:33It's called DJI Studio.

05:34Again, I would need to spend more time with it, but it looks kind of nice.

05:37Runs pretty well so far.

05:39And the mobile app looks suspiciously similar to the X5.

05:44Like, the export menus are basically identical.

05:48A lot of the other features are pretty similar.

05:50You get the tracking features for objects and pets and things like that.

05:54You get the keyframing, you get color modes, and all that stuff.

05:58But I do hope that DJI starts offering some kind of cloud subscription service.

06:04I recently looked at my GoPro cloud, and it turns out I have seven terabytes of footage there.

06:09I also am a subscriber to the Insta360 cloud as well,

06:13because I do think that's the best way to actually edit these videos.

06:18It's kind of hard to connect the camera to your phone,

06:21and then download it on your internal storage, and edit it that way.

06:24It just becomes a process, whereas cloud, a lot easier.

06:29So, hoping to see that from DJI soon.

06:34Sorry, sorry camera.

06:37And there's still a whole lot more to talk about when it comes to Osmo 360.

06:40There's a few shooting modes, there's the single lens mode,

06:44the DJI connects to the mics as well pretty nicely.

06:48But yeah, this is pretty much what I have for you today,

06:51kind of first impressions overview.

06:53But overall, I am pretty excited to see DJI entering this space.

06:57Again, it's largely been dominated by one company, and competition is always good.

07:03Now we just need to wait for GoPro Max, which is apparently still on its way.

07:08I don't know, still waiting.

07:09So, your move GoPro.

07:13Okay, thank you so much for watching.

07:14If you have more questions or anything that you want to know about this camera

07:17that I can answer down in the comments, I will be hanging out down there.

07:20So, let's chat.

07:22If you need more info, there's more stuff on the website too.

07:25So, yeah, talk soon.

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