- Fitri Aiyub
DJI OM6 Review : Might Be The Last Of It's Breed
"If you cant see whats coming, how do you prepare for the future?" .. Is what most of us considers when it comes to asking about what lies ahead. But if you can only live in the present, the best you can do is to just do it anyways. While rivals such as Zhiyun and their versions of mobile gimbals has risen in popularity, does DJI have major competition in 2022? What if someday, mobile gimbals wont have to exist at all.
After some experience running around like a kid in the park with the new iPhone 14 Pro, results were astounding to say the least and even though its capped at 2.7K30fps, it's still a matter of time before 4K catches up with this kind of stabilisation. Although I commented on this issue very late in the video example above, it might just really depend on how fast everyone else catches up for it to be commercialised before it sees its final hay day.
But all credit is given where its due, coming with a newer aesthetic update, the new display screen still looks a little comical for my liking yet also looks futuristic as well. Kinda like a Robocop of the future...no? just me? Also the-ever-so-practical Extenstion Arm is back in this version too and a likely design addition to continue being implemented which was first introduced in the OM6.
Either way, it's still very useful for lower or high shots but still requires practice if you're unaware of the motor arm getting into some camera angles. But with some slight tweaks in Premiere, it's far more than useable. I guess I really have to declare that I'm no engineer and the people at DJI has thought of every way possible so far to figure out the best way to stick a phone onto a gimbal.
Although this might sound a bit of wishful thinking, maybe some tweaks in the DJI Mimo app could be very helpful when it comes to assuring the user to determine whether the phone is centred and 100% stabilised. Something you get like in most mirrorless cameras today which indicates on green when it's levelled. The likelihood DJI would take my feedback as a constructive opportunity to implement this is beyond me, but lets just keep our fingers crossed cause it wold make this DJI OM6 just a little bit cooler than the rest.
Other fun features such as the dolly zoom effect is a nice feature to give a little room to play for something different, its nice in how it removes any input from the user except for moving backwards. This does require a little space to get the best effect and a subject for Active Track to kick in -- only then you'll get the best results.
Even when priced at RM759 or $159, its still your best bet at a good gimbal thats available on the market. Being able to hold up across cross-state motorbike rides, or just catching some skaters at the park doing what they do best, DJI still manages to improve on the OM6 even while it's still considered to be very incremental this year around. Probably thats the cycle of any aspiring company or individual when it comes to "Do the best you can" and maybe I'm just a little too cynical.
Maybe the title for this editorial might be a little dramatic, but tech as we've seen will inevitably move faster than we know it. In less than two decades, we've managed to cram everything in the smartphones of today which was once individual items and now the mobile gimbal is just another extension which would get smaller and smaller over time if EIS becomes our future. Do I need to mention GoPros to make a point? Maybe in another review.
Written by Fitri Aiyub