DJI OSMO POCKET 3 Review | A Content Creator's Best Friend?

0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. I had the good
0:12
fortune to be on a trip for a Sigma
0:15
announcement of some new products in
0:17
Japan back in late February and had the
0:19
chance while I was there to network with
0:20
a lot of other creators. I believe it
0:23
was Gordon Lang that said to me,
0:24
"Dustin, don't you have a DJI Osmo
0:27
Pocket 3?" And at that point, I looked
0:29
at them a little bit blankly because I
0:30
really it hadn't been on my radar at
0:32
all. But I started looking around and
0:34
sure enough, it seemed like everybody
0:36
was using these handy little devices for
0:38
getting B-roll content, for getting on
0:41
the-go footage, for even filming
0:43
segments to release to their audience.
0:45
And so I began to do a little bit of
0:47
research after I got back from the trip
0:48
and begin to work at trying to source
0:51
one. challenge was at the time is right
0:53
during the middle of uh all of the
0:55
tariff confusion and for a while there
0:57
the prices on them skyrocketed.
1:00
Fortunately, I was able to source one
1:02
recently and get one from Gland Photo in
1:04
Montreal. So, here I am a little behind
1:07
the times obviously, but after spending
1:09
a little over a month with this handy
1:11
little device, I'm here to report on
1:13
whether or not this actually is a
1:14
content creator's best friend or if
1:17
those guys didn't know what they were
1:18
talking about. Let's dive in and let's
1:20
take a look. I want to thank Goslin
1:21
Photo for hooking me up with this review
1:24
unit. I had the great opportunity to
1:26
spend time with France from Goslin when
1:29
I was in Japan and he and I built a
1:32
friendship while we were there and so
1:34
when I was running into a brick wall
1:36
trying to find source of retail unit, I
1:38
reached out to him and he helped to set
1:40
things in motion. Goslin Photo has a s
1:43
series of actual brickandmortar camera
1:46
stores that are located primarily in the
1:48
Montreal area but in other places in
1:50
Quebec as well. However, they also have
1:52
a great online presence and they happen
1:55
to have a good number of the Osmo Pocket
1:58
3 units. So, if you're looking for the
2:00
Osmo or really anything else photography
2:03
related, check out Goslin Photo online.
2:05
I'll throw a link in the description
2:06
down below and you can see if they have
2:09
what you are looking for. Thanks to
2:10
Goslin. Now, let's jump into the review.
2:13
The Creator Combo is really a triumph of
2:15
packaging, and it's one of the things
2:17
that I really love about all of this.
2:18
First of all, it includes obviously the
2:22
the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 itself along with
2:24
the protective case. Included here also
2:27
is a wide angle lens that you can just
2:30
pop on there magnetically and then also
2:33
magnetically store here as well in the
2:36
case as well. Now, this doesn't come
2:37
with the quick release plate on there.
2:38
something I've added on there. It is a
2:41
just simply a kind of an extender that
2:44
you can attach on there and it also
2:46
gives you a little bit more to hold onto
2:49
and also you can gives you another USBC
2:52
charge port here. I have put on the
2:54
quick release plate because that allows
2:55
me to throw this quickly onto a tripod
2:58
but that can store inside of there.
3:00
Also, you have the battery grip which is
3:03
great. This adds a significant amount of
3:07
power on there, which we'll talk about
3:09
in just a second. Also, there is their
3:11
little tripod foot, which is just kind
3:14
of a standard little uh tripod that
3:16
works like this. Not going to give you
3:18
any kind of adjustment. You're going to
3:19
have to handle that all from within the
3:21
gimbal itself. But I even like using
3:23
this just to give me a little bit more
3:26
space in uh grabbing on and extending
3:29
further out.
3:31
Likewise, there is room for the
3:34
microphone in the creative kit. More on
3:36
that in a moment. And then also room for
3:38
your accessories. That can include a
3:40
wrist strap, the USBC cable, and then
3:43
obviously the dead cat um wind reducer
3:47
that you can pop on there as well. Now,
3:50
the battery within the Pocket 3 is a
3:52
1300 mAh battery capacity. They say it
3:55
can run up to 166 minutes in total run
3:59
time. Now they are estimating that
4:01
shooting at 1080. You also can use the
4:05
battery grip here which is nice because
4:09
it adds an additional 950 mAh and they
4:12
claim up to 3 hours additional run time.
4:14
I'm not quite sure why smaller capacity
4:16
would give you longer run time than a
4:19
larger capacity in the Pocket 3 itself.
4:22
That's one of the mysteries that is
4:23
unresolved from their website. However,
4:25
what is clear between these two that you
4:27
could pretty easily run for five plus
4:30
hours. And of course, if you're someone
4:31
that is a high volume use, you could buy
4:34
additional ones of these and so you
4:35
could hot swap and extend your run time
4:38
even longer. Now, the Pocket 3, it runs
4:41
around a 1 in CMOS sensor. There is a
4:45
2-in OLED touchcreen and all of your
4:48
various controls are going to be
4:49
accessed through swiping in various
4:51
directions including playback and any of
4:55
your other options that you choose
4:56
there. I've currently got it in the pro
4:59
mode here and so that I can access
5:02
things like the log or I can put it back
5:04
into normal and HLG some of the
5:07
different options that are available
5:08
there. Now, the actual focus comes via a
5:12
full pixel phase detect system. It
5:14
includes options like their active track
5:16
6.0, a product showcase if you want to
5:18
put something up closer to it. So,
5:21
here's a look at how stable the Osmo is
5:24
when I am walking along. I'm not making
5:27
any particular efforts to try to move
5:29
smoothly, just walking along. testing to
5:32
see how well the gimbal does along with
5:34
the autofocus tracking as I move along
5:37
through uneven ground and uneven
5:39
territory. And so, let's see how stable
5:41
the footage is. And while we're at it,
5:44
let's see how good the audio is from the
5:46
microphone that I'm using at the same
5:48
time. So, while the autofocus system
5:50
obviously can't match a that of a
5:52
high-end professional camera like the
5:54
ones that I own, it does have some
5:56
things for solo creation uh that they
5:59
don't have, and you're seeing one right
6:00
now. And that is the ability for it to
6:02
continue to track a subject once that it
6:05
has detected it. Even if you are moving
6:07
around, not just on screen, but moving
6:10
all the way around rotating to about
6:12
270°
6:13
and we'll find its limit to hit just
6:15
about here. So obviously that is going
6:17
to be a very very useful option if you
6:20
are looking to do solo content creation
6:23
and you want to move around a little bit
6:24
on camera. the ability to continue to be
6:26
tracked as you move in a wide range of
6:29
motion is extremely useful. Now, one of
6:31
the clever things they have is really
6:33
great uh integration with their own
6:35
microphones, not only the included one
6:37
here, which their mic 2, but also their
6:39
mic mini. And so that you can very
6:41
easily sync that up and you know within
6:44
just a few seconds you can get your
6:46
video footage. One of the things that I
6:48
also really really like is that if
6:50
you're, you know, off camera, you can
6:52
click this button here and you can
6:55
remotely trigger recording beginning and
6:58
ending. That was really handy when I was
7:00
doing a review of a treadmill and
7:02
actually launching segments while I was
7:04
running on the treadmill. Uh, which
7:06
would have been really hard to do if I
7:07
had to get off and go over to the
7:09
camera. The fact that all of these
7:11
accessories fit into this little case,
7:13
which can easily go into just the same
7:15
slot that like a lens would go to in my
7:17
camera bag, is obviously extremely
7:20
useful.
7:21
This is a DJI Osmo Pocket 3.
7:25
DJI
7:27
drone.
7:28
Yeah. So, let's talk about the various
7:31
shooting modes you have available to
7:32
you. You can go all the way up to 4K
7:34
with options at 1080, then I believe at
7:37
2.7. If you're shooting in vertical, you
7:39
can shoot at 3K. And at 4K, you can
7:42
shoot in the normal range all the way up
7:44
to 4K 60. That's obviously useful at 4K
7:47
60, particularly if you're going to
7:48
involve movement. The ability to slow
7:50
things down and smooth it all out can
7:52
really give you that highly cinematic
7:54
looking footage. You also have the
7:56
option of shooting at 4K 120, but only
7:58
if you're shooting in the slow-mo
8:00
option. And what that will do is that
8:02
that footage is automatically going to
8:04
be slowed down in camera. And so, you
8:06
can shoot at 4K120. Yes, but that is
8:09
with the qualification that you're not
8:10
going to be able to control the speed of
8:12
that footage separately. But obviously
8:15
that's going to be very useful. But you
8:16
have other things available to you as
8:18
well for capturing content. You can
8:20
automatically shoot things like
8:22
panoramas or vertas which is really
8:25
intriguing in this because the gimbal is
8:27
controlling all of those and then
8:28
assembling those pieces together. And I
8:30
got some interesting looking shots by
8:32
utilizing that. You also have the
8:34
ability to access things like um along
8:38
with like time-lapses for example, you
8:40
can shoot hyperlapses. You can shoot
8:42
motion lapse where you can uh program in
8:45
certain movement to add into the
8:47
time-lapse segment. Now, I will offer up
8:49
one kind of uh caveat to know or maybe a
8:53
tip, and that is that when you're
8:54
accessing all of these for the first
8:56
time, be careful to check what
8:58
resolution setting you're at because it
8:59
tends to default to the lowest looking
9:01
setting. And so, you may end up with
9:03
less desirable results if you don't
9:05
scale up that output to get you a uh
9:08
higher resolution in result. Bottom line
9:10
is that there are a number of different
9:12
ways to capture content, which is all
9:14
really, really useful in something that
9:17
has a gimbal attached to it and so you
9:19
can really get that stabilized footage
9:20
at the same time. One of the things I
9:22
like about this camera the most is that
9:24
it can do all these things. You know,
9:25
frankly, a lot of times I would do some
9:27
of these things similarly on my iPhone
9:28
in the past, and an iPhone is a nice
9:31
B-roll tool in a lot of ways. This is
9:33
better, however, because it's got the
9:35
gimbal option and it's going to be able
9:36
to produce better looking footage in a
9:39
wider variety of conditions because it
9:41
does have a larger sensor than what my
9:42
iPhone does. Another great option for
9:44
content creation is the fact that this
9:47
can be used to directly live stream from
9:49
to both YouTube and to at least one
9:51
other platform. On top of that, if you
9:54
connect it via USBC to a computer or
9:56
laptop, it can give you an option to
9:59
instantly become a webcam and pretty
10:01
much guaranteed that it's going to give
10:02
you better quality than what your
10:04
current camera that you have attached to
10:06
it will. On top of that, of course, the
10:08
fact that it does have the ability to
10:10
follow you around as you move, even when
10:12
it's used in this mode, is going to add
10:14
additional flexibility to that whole
10:17
creation process. This is a really
10:19
useful device in a lot of different
10:20
ways. Now, in the content creator kit,
10:23
you do have this little wide- angle lens
10:26
that you can attach to the camera. It's
10:28
easy to just attach it magnetically on
10:31
and off, as you can see here. One thing
10:33
to bear in mind, however, is that this
10:35
is going to add some additional
10:36
distortion. And if I pan up and down, as
10:39
you can see here, it does add some
10:41
pretty obvious distortion. And if I do
10:43
it, do the same footage and motion
10:46
without the wide angle lens converter
10:48
lens on there, you can see that it
10:50
doesn't have that degree of distortion
10:51
on there. So that's one thing to bear in
10:53
mind. Another option for capturing
10:56
footage is that it does have a digital
10:58
zoom. And so it will take you from the
11:00
standard one times up to two times. And
11:03
but you can see here as I zoom in and
11:05
out looking at Ferrari that there's
11:06
definitely some loss of quality. This is
11:08
a digital zoom. It's not an optical
11:10
zoom. And so you are going to have to
11:12
accept some compromise. And so I would
11:14
recommend if you're going to use it, try
11:16
to use it not all the way at two times
11:18
because that's where you're going to
11:19
have the greatest deterioration of
11:20
footage. I've talked a lot about
11:22
different things that I really do like
11:24
about the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. How about
11:27
some things that I am less crazy about?
11:29
One thing that I will critique is that
11:31
this microphone by modern standards is
11:34
pretty huge. Now, you do have the option
11:36
to purchase separately, however, the uh
11:39
the DJI uh Mic Mini, and that is a much
11:43
smaller footprint and is going to be
11:45
preferable. I'm probably going to
11:46
purchase one myself for use in the
11:48
future because I find this a little bit
11:50
clunky. Another thing that I don't love
11:52
is that if I'm making a significant
11:55
focus change on camera, starting with a
11:58
close subject and then going to a more
12:00
distant subject, I feel like those focus
12:02
transitions are a little bit abrupt.
12:04
They're not quite as cinematic as what I
12:06
would like. And so that's one tweak that
12:08
I like to see see happen on it. On that
12:11
note, I definitely went in and needed to
12:13
tweak the controls for the actual
12:16
joystick itself. Without adjusting those
12:18
and slowing them down to make them a
12:19
little more cinematic, it definitely is
12:21
kind of jarring. So, you need to tweak
12:23
those settings and make sure that you
12:25
get them to where the movement you're
12:27
getting out of the joystick matches what
12:29
you're looking for in reality. One final
12:32
thing that while I I haven't had I don't
12:35
have any actual issue to point to, this
12:38
does this whole setup feels a little bit
12:40
vulnerable if you're not using the
12:42
protective case for it. Fortunately, at
12:44
this point, I haven't dropped it. But I
12:46
do know the reality is is that most of
12:48
my cameras at some point, despite my
12:50
best intentions, they are going to have
12:51
a drop off of a tripod or something
12:54
along the way. And hopefully when that
12:56
happens, this proves to have some
12:57
toughness to it because everything, you
12:59
know, with the rotation of the screen
13:01
and the, you know, obviously having that
13:03
motorized gimbal up there, it feels like
13:05
there are some vulnerable points on
13:07
this. Fortunately, there isn't any kind
13:09
of widespread hub on the internet of
13:11
people having theirs being damaged. So
13:13
hopefully it's tougher than what it
13:15
looks. Well, in conclusion, I'd like to
13:17
say that all of those content creators
13:19
were wrong, but the truth of the matter
13:21
is is it's pretty obvious that they were
13:23
right. This is a very very handy device
13:26
for capturing content in a wide variety
13:29
of ways. I certainly will use it for
13:31
getting B-roll footage, but also beyond
13:34
that to shoot vlogging segments when I
13:36
need to travel small and light. It's
13:38
going to be useful for that,
13:39
particularly having the ability to
13:41
easily sync up a microphone like this.
13:43
And even there's going to be moments
13:45
where I do talking head segments like
13:46
this where this may be the best camera
13:49
to use because often the best camera is
13:51
the one that you have with you. I think
13:53
the DJI has done something pretty
13:55
impressive here in giving us not
13:57
necessarily an action camera, but really
13:59
a content creation camera that doesn't
14:02
have a whole lot of compromises built
14:04
into it. Maybe it doesn't do everything
14:06
that I would like from an actual
14:08
professional-grade camera, but at the
14:10
same time, the footage looks good. You
14:12
do have a lot of professional level
14:14
options, and it just works, and it works
14:17
really quite simple. On top of that, you
14:19
have the ability to very quickly get
14:21
into capturing content and that in
14:23
itself could be the most useful thing
14:25
for it. It allows you to be reactive,
14:27
pull it out, flip that screen and be
14:29
recording already. And that's really,
14:31
really useful. So, at the end of the
14:33
day, I would say that if you're someone
14:34
that is doing content creation, and
14:36
particularly if you're doing solo
14:38
content creation, the DJI Osmo Pocket 3
14:41
is probably something you should add to
14:44
your own kit as well. Thanks for taking
14:46
this journey with me today. As always,
14:48
have a great day and let the light in.

DJI OSMO POCKET 3 Review | A Content Creator's Best Friend?

dustinabbott.net

Viltrox AIR 15mm F1.7 X-Mount Review (APS-C) | Budget Wide Angle Bliss?

LK Samyang AF 85mm F1.8 P FE Review - Did We Need Another 85mm?

LK Samyang AF 16mm F2.8 Prima Review | Does this Lens Make Sense?

Three Way Shootout Part 3: Angle of View, Distortion, and Bokeh

If I Cut the Cable TV Cord in 2024, I'd Do This!

I Canceled YouTube TV and May Never Go Back!

The Ultimate Guide to DIRECTV’s Streaming Service (2025 Update)

How To Make VIRAL Story Videos with AI Automation

My Driving Hasn't Improved - Dying Light: The Following

Video: Inside Rehearsals with Eden Espinosa and the Cast of LEMPICKA

The Most Cinematic Dash Cam Ever? | 70mai 4K Omni

There's a New 360 Camera King? QooCam 3 Review

Up next in 10

DJI OSMO POCKET 3 Review | A Content Creator's Best Friend?

dustinabbott.net