- 4 weeks ago
Looking for a DJI Pocket 3 alternative? We unbox and review the Xtra Muse Gimbal Camera to see if this budget-friendly vlogging setup is worth the hype.
Xtra Muse Gimbal Camera, DJI Pocket 3 alternative, Xtra Muse vs DJI Pocket
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Tags:
Xtra Muse, DJI Pocket 3, DJI Osmo Pocket 3, Gimbal Camera, Vlogging Camera, Xtra Muse Review, Xtra Muse vs DJI Pocket 3, Think Media, Camera Comparison, Budget Vlogging Setup, DJI Knockoff, 4K Gimbal Camera, Content Creator Gear, Best Pocket Camera, Vlogging Gear
Xtra Muse Gimbal Camera, DJI Pocket 3 alternative, Xtra Muse vs DJI Pocket
Check Latest Discount offers: https://amzn.to/4t8Ik5O
Tags:
Xtra Muse, DJI Pocket 3, DJI Osmo Pocket 3, Gimbal Camera, Vlogging Camera, Xtra Muse Review, Xtra Muse vs DJI Pocket 3, Think Media, Camera Comparison, Budget Vlogging Setup, DJI Knockoff, 4K Gimbal Camera, Content Creator Gear, Best Pocket Camera, Vlogging Gear
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This is one of the strangest cameras I've ever seen. I was on Amazon one day and came across
00:05what looked like another cheap knockoff of the DJI Pocket 3 until I noticed the reviews and
00:11people actually seemed to like it. They said it had a very similar design, same menus, even similar
00:18image quality, if not the exact same. In fact, it's so close that some people are convinced
00:25it's not a copy at all, but the exact same camera sold under a different name and maybe even secretly
00:32made by DJI to dodge tariffs and regulations. If that is true, I just had to get to the bottom
00:38of
00:38it and test it out for myself to see if this is truly a DJI Pocket 3, if it's worth
00:44buying or if
00:44it's all just a scam. Okay, so we have the Extra Muse gimbal. This thing looks quite similar to the
00:52Pocket 3 just on the box itself. This is the standard combo. Let's give it an open and see
00:58if it really does live up to the hype.
01:03I'm super curious because it makes sense that the DJI Pocket 3 is so popular that people would
01:09naturally copy it, but this is the closest I've seen to a straight-up copy of the Pocket 3.
01:16So let's go ahead and open up this. We got a little bag. Quick start guide. We won't be needing
01:22that.
01:22Okay, so we have a pouch. This feels a little bit lighter compared to the DJI Pocket 3. Just a
01:28soft
01:29carrying pouch. A little bit cheaper. And then here we have some accessories, it looks like. Let's get to
01:34the camera, which is right there. That's all that is inside the pouch. And what we'll notice here
01:40is with these accessories, they also look quite similar as well. So here we have a little tripod
01:45adapter. Looks identical to the Pocket 3 minus the little color, but we have that. This just looks
01:51like a little lanyard thing. USB-C cable. And here is the Extra Muse camera.
02:02Okay. Feels pretty much similar. Maybe a little heavier on first notice. So media difference is
02:10there's like this silver color, which I actually think is quite cool. A little silver and black.
02:15Then we have this Extra logo. I don't know the reason behind the name Extra. It seems kind of
02:21cheap, but maybe that's how potentially DJI is getting around that. If this is made by them,
02:28we don't know. Let's go ahead and flip this open. We have our logo and boom. So we can select
02:33our
02:33language, which just do English. You don't have to register this camera at all. That's something you
02:38have to do on DJI products, which is really annoying. This, you turn it on and you're ready
02:42to shoot, which is very, very nice. But yeah, you can see immediately from this screen, it feels
02:48pretty much the exact same minus like different fonts. This camera also does take micro SD cards,
02:54which just fits right here on the side. It's a little bit harder to get in and out. And it
02:59was
02:59already difficult on the Pocket 3. So that is something to just be aware of. Come on.
03:03There we go. Finally, this takes the same exact accessories too. Here is the battery from the DJI
03:10Pocket 3 and we can just attach it and boom, we're actually charging the camera with this DJI
03:16accessory. If you have filters or lenses, you can just fit that on the top and it all will work,
03:23which is really interesting. Let's go ahead and pull out the DJI Pocket 3 so we can look at them
03:30side by side. The gimbal head is slightly larger. I don't know if you can see that. On the sides,
03:36you have our SD cards, control stick, record button. Maybe there's like a slightly cheaper
03:41plastic on this one where this feels like a little bit nicer than this. Let's go ahead and turn these
03:47on and take a look at the menu differences. Just looking at the cameras on the back of the screen,
03:53the image quality looks getting really similar here. We'll do some official tests in just a second.
03:58In terms of resolution, we can swipe up and both cameras are capable of doing 4K up to 60 frames
04:04per second, which is pretty impressive. If I go ahead and swipe over to the right to access some
04:08of our pro settings, again, things are looking quite similar. Slightly different placement of
04:13exposure, white balance, but everything is right there if you want to adjust it. Now I'm curious to
04:18see the differences in the color profiles. On the Pocket 3, we have normal, HLG, D-LogM,
04:24and on the Extra Muse, we have normal, HLG, and X-Log. So if I actually go back to logs,
04:33do they look similar? Yep. So at first glance, it looks like this log profiles look pretty similar
04:38as well, but we'll get to some test footage later on in the video. So after taking a look at
04:43the
04:43design and the menus, obviously these cameras are looking quite similar, if not identical,
04:48but I'm actually curious how well does it perform? So let's go take this out, get some shots and see
04:55how these two cameras stack up. One thing's for sure is that the weather is beginning to cool down
05:00and it is so nice to be able to be outside and perfect for today's test to see just how
05:06close
05:06they are. I'm also shooting on the default settings on both of these cameras. So no adjustments,
05:12everything is automatic, white balance exposure. So really it is just up to the camera to determine
05:18what is the best image and this is what you get. All right, I'm going to put this down because
05:24I
05:24don't want to get arrested. Okay. So we have both cameras here side by side. Can you notice a
05:42difference in the image quality? Take a look at the exposure, color, maybe sharpness difference.
05:49When I'm looking on the back of the screens, the image looks pretty similar. So I'll
05:54look at this footage later, but let me know in the comments down below if you notice any sort of
05:58difference. You know, for being such a nice day out today, there's not a lot of people out,
06:09but I actually kind of prefer that because I can just focus on this video. But looking at the image
06:14quality side by side, it's really hard to judge the difference between them. If you guys can spot any
06:20difference, let me know in the comments down below. But when I adjust the exposure, everything looks
06:26pretty much the same. So I'm beginning to believe that the Extra Muse may in fact be the Osmo Pocket
06:333.
06:34But let's keep testing. Okay, so it wouldn't be a fair comparison unless we did a stabilization test.
06:40So right now I'm handheld video. Looks pretty smooth, but I've got to do a run test to really stress
06:45this out.
06:54So how did that perform? That's with active tracking. So trying to keep my face framed up,
07:00which made it really easy. Now a feature that made the Osmo Pocket 3 so popular is the active track
07:06mode. And the Extra Muse has the exact same tracking feature. We're testing out side by side to see
07:11which one is smoother. And when I'm looking at displays, it's following me pretty much identically.
07:17I see the same box. It's doing a pretty good job at both. I'm not a big fan of this
07:23active track feature.
07:24Call me old school, but I prefer to lock off my shot. But it is super nice to be able
07:29to, again,
07:30find your composition, move around if you want to. It's pretty neat. Now you also might be wondering
07:35about the crop mode that was introduced to the Pocket 3 that allows you to get a 2x zoom. Well,
07:41there actually is a little button on the Extra. I have no idea what the image quality is like,
07:45so let's test it out. Okay, so we have both modes enabled. It looks like the Pocket 3 is slightly
07:51tighter compared to the Extra, which is kind of interesting. But here's the crop modes. Is there
07:55a noticeable difference in the sharpness or the image quality? Let me know what you guys think.
08:01Now the feature I just had to compare is the log color profiles. So on the Osmo Pocket 3,
08:07we have D-Log M. And on the X-Muse, you guessed it, we have X-Log. They actually look
08:13pretty similar,
08:14as you can tell. I'm really curious to see how this grades and if there's any differences.
08:18I'll let you know my thoughts later on in the video. But this is how both of these look.
08:37So far in this video, you've been listening to the DJI Mic Mini connected to the Osmo Pocket 3.
08:43Now, the Extra camera does not have the same connectivity. So I want to do an audio test
08:49to hear the built-in microphones. So let's go ahead and switch over to the built-in microphones.
08:54So I switched over to the built-in microphone on the Osmo Pocket 3. It's about a foot and a
08:59half
08:59away from me. And this is how it sounds. Now we're going to switch over to the Extra Muse
09:04microphone. There's a lot of wind noise, a lot of tree noises. So this is how it's going to sound
09:09in this sort of environment. Let's switch back to the Pocket 3. Can you guys hear a difference
09:14between these microphones? Let me know in the comments down below. Honestly, these have better
09:18built-in sounding microphones compared to other cameras on the market. And that's a good thing
09:22because you're going to have to most likely rely on the built-in microphone on the Extra Muse
09:27unless you want to plug in a USB-C microphone. Now, if you find yourself doing a lot of social
09:31media
09:32or vertical video, well, both of these have a vertical filming mode. It is limited to 3K, which is,
09:39you know, it's going to be fine for social media. You don't get the full 4K resolution,
09:43but this is a great feature to have. Plus, I'm using the tracking mode. So if you are
09:48a solo vlogger, social media person, these cameras got you covered if you want to film
09:54some vertical video. And for those who are curious about battery life, they look just
09:58about the same on both. So quite similar there as well.
10:07All right, so we have a ton of test footage. Let's head back to the studio and share my final
10:11thoughts on these two cameras. So after shooting and comparing footage from both cameras, I've come
10:17to realize why this camera is so strange. It's because it's not trying to beat the Pocket 3,
10:23it's trying to be it. When looking at the image quality, it is shockingly similar. Both are sharp
10:29and have very similar looking colors, if not the same. And when color grading the log footage,
10:34I actually just copied and pasted the same exact adjustments between clips and they looked identical.
10:41The color science, the dynamic range matched so closely that I really had a hard time telling these
10:46two cameras apart. In terms of the functionality and performance, both handled great. It had very
10:51smooth tracking, solid stabilization, and they also share those higher frame rates like 4K60
10:56if you want to slow down your footage. On paper, both of these cameras are nearly identical in terms
11:01of capability. There is one large difference that affects this practically if you plan to use this
11:07as your main vlogging camera. And that is the Extra Muse does not support wireless microphones. So you
11:13are limited to the onboard mic or plugging in an external USB-C microphone. The way I got around
11:19this is by using the DJI mics mini receiver and plugging that onto the back of the Extra Muse
11:24camera. And while it works, it's definitely not the most convenient setup. It adds a lot of bulk.
11:29You also have to think about bringing that extra receiver, which you don't have to worry about with
11:33the Pocket 3. There's one more difference, and that is the price, which might be a factor depending on
11:38who you are and where you're from. Right now, you can get the DJI Pocket 3. The list price is
11:43$799,
11:46which is definitely an increase since tariffs and regulations and all that other jazz. But at the
11:51time of recording this video, you can find the Pocket 3 on Amazon for $630 for the standard combo.
11:57The price for the Extra Muse gimbal list price is $700, but you can typically find it on sale for
12:04around
12:05$500, which is what we picked it up for. So at most, the difference between these two cameras is
12:11$130, which is not a massive amount of savings and kind of begs the question if it's even worth it.
12:17And the answer to that question is going to really depend on where you are. Do you live in the
12:21US or
12:21outside? Because if you're outside the US, chances are you probably have a better chance of picking up
12:27the Pocket 3 at a more reasonable price. In that case, I would highly recommend just sticking with the
12:32Pocket 3. Having that mic compatibility, I think definitely tips you over that edge. Now, if you
12:38live inside the US, this is where it gets a little bit more complicated because in many cases, you can't
12:44actually get a Pocket 3. It's just not available. Or if you can, it's at a really high price, like
12:50$800
12:50for just the camera. Whereas right now, you can buy the Extra Muse from Amazon for around $500 and get
12:56it shipped directly to you in a matter of a couple of days. And so if you are needing this
13:01type of camera,
13:02I could see the Extra Muse being nice. If you want to get the Pocket 3 and almost have all
13:09of its
13:09functionality and image quality, this could be a good option. Now, there's actually merit to the
13:14speculation that the Extra Muse is actually DJI. And this is a shell company because we've seen DJI do
13:21that before. And if this is a way they can get us these cameras at a more reasonable price and
13:27get
13:28them shipped out and avoid, you know, different legal issues. It is a very interesting and weird
13:34camera to exist right now. I do think it would be a better sell if it was even cheaper, maybe
13:41around
13:41$400, $450. If there's a larger gap, as well as having its own microphone capabilities, then I would
13:49recommend it a lot more. But for right now, if you can get a Pocket 3, just get that even
13:55if it's a little
13:56bit more expensive. But also for these price points, you might consider just shooting with
14:00your iPhone. And if you are curious to see how the Pocket 3 compares to the iPhone 17 Pro when
14:05it
14:05comes to shooting video, subscribe for when that video comes out and I'll catch you in the next one.
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