Hands-on with the DJI OSMO Action Cam
Well, not my hands but the hands of Ash Ha, from DroningOn who has supplied a video of his unboxing that is going live at launch o’clock on sUAS News, thanks for that Ash! According to Ash, only 10 or so units were sent out into the wild for review.
In an almost DJI tradition, images and video have already leaked of the new action camera and even it’s specifications.
It has been a winding journey for DJI to reach this point, many would think we should actually be celebrating yet another DJI and GoPro product launch today.
When all is said and done it’s what DJI wanted back in 2014. So how did we get to today?
When the first Flame wheels and Phantoms flew people hung GoPro’s underneath them and it made sense that DJI CEO Frank Wang should reach out to GoPro for them to produce a camera for the rapidly expanding drone manufacturer.
Frank Wang claimed that GoPro wanted two-thirds of any profits! This is where the GoPro vengeance mission starts.
DJI formed a strategic partnership with Hasselblad in 2015 and quickly bought out their own improved cameras to fly under the Phantom range. In 2017 DJI bought out Hasselblad altogether and bought out the first 100mp drone camera.
Still, in 2015, 3DR released the Solo and that was designed to talk Gopro, there were delays to the gimbal that hung underneath Solo and the interaction between GoPro and 3DR was said among developers to be not the best.
At the same time GoPro were beginning to tease a drone of their own, the ill fated Karma. The name thought by many in the industry to be a dig at DJI.
Karma did not arrive until November 2016 it was a flop right out of the box, DJI had launched the Mavic 2 in September and it frankly made the Karma look so 2015. No amount of lipstick was going to improve this pig and in January of 2018 after battery issues, GoPro shuttered Karma.
So whilst 3DR and GoPro were cobbling together solutions from different vendors DJI quietly plodded on and masterfully released better products just ahead of their rivals. All the time improving in house technology.
Releasing a GoPro style action cam today must be very satisfying for Frank Wang and his team. I have no doubt it will be a piece of kit that will fly off the shelves and build energy for strong Christmas sales with this launch date.
With image stabilization built into this new camera I wonder if DJI will build a gimble free sub 250g frame around it just in time for Christmas?
Some specifications for those that care.
• Image stabilization system
• Dual LCD display
• 1/2.3′′ 12MP CMOS Image Sensor – Sony IMX377
• Ambarella H2 image processor
• FOV: 145° f2.8
• Shutter: 1/8000-120s
• Video specifications: 4K60p with 8x slow motion, 1080p video 120k
• HDR and automatic time-lapse photography
• Shooting mode: single, AEB continuous shooting, countdown shooting, multiple continuous shooting, interval shooting
Some more video from Ash
