- Fitri Aiyub
DJI Osmo Action 3 Review : An Adventure Companion
So if you happened to watch our Best Of Cameras 2022, in the Best Action Cam category, I didn’t include this DJI Osmo Action 3 as an honourable mention on the basis which I would like to cover in this video instead.
So in short, Is it a good action cam alternative to the GoPro and Insta 360’s ONE RS? Well the answer to that is.. Yes. BUT it does falter ever so slightly from the other two, provided that all these 3 cameras do have a unique stance for representing themselves for their own brand, but I personally think DJI was VERY close to having me choose this over the GoPro or the ONE RS.
Design
According to the way it’s designed though, I’m still a little confused about whether this is following up from their Action 2. Because if I’d remember correctly, that was built on a whole different approach – representing something more modular and I’ve gotta admit, I was more enthused seeing the Action 2 than this familiar design of their first Osmo Action. But again, I could be completely mistaking it for a completely separate Action cam lineup, and probably a sign for DJI to name things a little differently next time?
Either way, my guess is that they decided to ditch the modularity aspect due to overheating issues and pretty much stuck to the older design and played it a little safe to meet the standards of a proper action cam. But again, I could be completely wrong as they left out the word “Osmo” in that model.
Nonetheless, DJI claims this will be resistant up to -20°C and waterproof up to 16m. I mean, I imagine anybody who plans to use this at -20°C would probably be wearing thick gloves and fiddling around with the touchscreen could be a little cumbersome. It does however come with a front 1.4” touchscreen and I think it’s just a trend now for these action cams to come with dual screens. I’m glad they do, cause in any case you plan to use this as a quick and less intrusive way to vlog or to simply monitor your framing, then yeah I welcome it very much.
But as a unique selling point to this Osmo Action 3 is the Quick Release mounts, which lets you set it to horizontal mode or vertical mode, thanks to this protective case which acts as another layer of drop protection but also houses the second magnetic mounting point. Which I think is playing it very deep into DJI’s ecosystem to their DJI Mimo app for quick shares from camera straight to your phone, knowing how everything shot vertically is just the in-thing now.
I personally don’t like vertical videos, but hey.. You gotta give people what they want right?
Specification
As for the camera sensor itself, it has a FOV of 155° and a 12MP f/2.8 1/1.7" sensor, which made me believe that it would have performed better in low-light than the ONE RS which came with a 48MP sensor or the Hero 11 Black that came with a 27MP sensor. Considering lower megapixel counts theoretically helps in absorbing more light, but doesn’t seem to match the numbers from these examples of me horrendously placing the cam at an incorrect angle driving yet again on the track. So in the end, I just ended up capturing the track more than any of the racing action.
Battery Life & Price
But I personally think the battery life of the Osmo Action 3 is far superior as DJI claims to run up to 2.5 hours (which they call Extreme Battery) while also supporting fast charging which gets you up to 80% under 20 minutes. Now you could opt for just the camera itself that's priced at $329 or you could opt for the Adventure Combo which includes 2 Extreme Batteries, a rechargeable battery case, and a very long 1.5m Extension Rod, all at the price of $429.
So yeah a $100 extra, but I think getting the charging battery case alone would be something you want with action cams, just because you’ll burn through it fast enough despite the 2.5 hour running time.. Sometimes, having extra batteries is just something you need and having it charged up while swapping it out with another one, will be worth the few extra bucks.
Final Thoughts
Tying things back from the stuff I said earlier about why I considered the Osmo Action 3 to essentially take 3rd place when compared to the Hero 11 Black and ONE RS, is the fact that yes, GoPro were the pioneers for action cams in general, dating back all the way to the early 2000’s and a 20 year accumulation of research and development. So yeah, without a doubt they’d be the one to beat.
But surprisingly, Insta360’s have been just purely innovative in the way they’ve made their cameras lately and it challenges the status quo for what's possible. Yeah it has its own pros and cons just like every camera does, but they didn’t just make bold moves, they also had the results to back it up. I could go on comparing all of them together, but I don’t want to take away how the Osmo Action 3 is still a great action cam. Especially with all the extras you get if you buy their Adventure Combo which comes with everything you could possibly need for your.. Well adventure!
Written by Fitri Aiyub