The Osmo Pocket 3, a small handheld gimbal with a camera from DJI, comes with a larger 1-inch CMOS sensor, longer battery and plenty of new tricks. After more than 2 months of testing and over 600 video clips later, the Osmo Pocket 3 slowly became one of my favorite gadgets this year.
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00:00The idea of owning an Osmo Pocket, a tiny camera on a gimbal, always intrigued me.
00:07But it was always sort of on a nice-to-have list and it was kind of hard to justify spending
00:12money on it.
00:13Between my drones and GoPros and personal cameras and work cameras, the Pocket line
00:18felt unnecessary and I was never really impressed with the image quality of the Pocket 1 or
00:242.
00:25As a major one-inch sensor, I thought I would give the Pocket 3 a go.
00:32I took it with me on all my recent trips.
00:35I brought it skiing, on everyday walks, I brought it to the beach, I told my friends
00:42and yep, that is Becca with an Emmy.
00:45So if you have not congratulated her yet, please do so.
00:48And I even filmed the former president with it.
00:51And to my surprise, the Osmo Pocket 3 became my favorite gadget of the year.
01:00This tiny little camera kept surprising me with some of the clips I was able to get.
01:04The videos look rich in detail without being over-sharpened, D-Log M gives you enough dynamic
01:09range while also being flexible to edit in post.
01:13And it is a tiny little camera on a gimbal.
01:15You can get shots that you normally wouldn't get with a different camera.
01:19Quick disclaimer, I did not have ND filters for it, so don't judge too hard if you see
01:23some of these clips do look a little stuttery.
01:26NDs are on their way and the best part of it is they all attach magnetically to the
01:31camera, just like this wide-angle adapter.
01:33That's also the reason why most of the clips you'll see here are at 60 frames per second.
01:38So before I get too deep into pixel peeping, we have to take a second to talk about who
01:42this product is for.
01:46I'm reviewing this as a photographer, videographer, content, creator type.
01:50I'm prioritizing performance, or image quality, versatility, and reliability.
01:56The other use cases for it are one, as a travel camera, and two, as a vlogging camera.
02:01In that case, you're probably prioritizing simplicity, and the Pocket 3 nails all of those
02:06use cases.
02:07Okay, back to image quality.
02:09The low-light performance is also really solid, but it's nothing to scream about.
02:14There's a dedicated low-light mode, which is helped by the larger F2 aperture.
02:18That F2 aperture also allows for some nice background separation.
02:22And this camera does have some AI features, so I wouldn't be surprised if DJI is sort
02:27of exaggerating that one a little bit.
02:29Take it as a compliment.
02:31So the AI feature that I mentioned, it's called Glamour Mode, and it can basically just beautify
02:36your skin.
02:37So let's go through a list of things you can do with it.
02:40You can smoothen out your skin.
02:44You can slim down your cheeks, your whole face, which makes it kind of pointy.
02:51You can change the size of your eyes as well.
02:56Change your nose appearance.
02:57It can be a little bit slimmer if you want that too.
03:01And some more weird ones like lipstick, and eyebrows, and blush, and things like that.
03:06You get the point.
03:07And also, here's what happens if you turn on all of those things to 100%.
03:13You're welcome.
03:15Okay, I can't believe I'm only getting to this now, but the screen is fantastic.
03:26For one, it is OLED and it looks great.
03:28I mean, it is a tiny 2-inch screen, but it is large enough so you can frame your shots
03:33better and change your settings on the fly.
03:36And it's small enough not to be cumbersome.
03:39For the most part, I kept my settings on auto, but for some of the shots where I wanted to
03:43dial in settings, getting to the menu is just a few more swipes away that I would have liked.
03:49But more importantly, flipping the screen to turn the device on or off, or changing
03:55filming orientation is such a clever way of interacting with this device that it just
04:00made it fun to use.
04:01So considering this is a gimbal, my hope was that the camera itself would just flip on
04:05its side for true vertical filming.
04:08Sort of like what DJI drones do, specifically the Mavic 3 Pro and the Mavic 4 Mini.
04:13Instead, the pocket crops the sides.
04:15Nevertheless, you still get a decently wide field of view and footage looks good.
04:21But not all modes work in vertical, so there's no dedicated night mode, which that's okay,
04:27but there's also no 120 frames per second and it is limited to 3K resolution.
04:33Kind of bummed out about those two.
04:35Let's talk photos.
04:36So I really didn't use the Pocket 3 for still photos as much.
04:40They look fine, nothing wrong with them and it's nice that you can capture them, but I'd
04:44still rather reach for my more versatile phone with multiple lenses or my dedicated camera.
04:50With the Pocket 3, you can shoot square photos, 16x9 photos or panorama photos and that's
04:56about it.
04:57The default photos look nice, but the panoramic ones, they kinda tweak the color a little
05:01bit.
05:02They're just not consistent throughout, as you can see right here.
05:05Okay, here's a long list of other things I've noticed using this device.
05:10So the build quality and the accessory system is great here.
05:13The bundle costs $120 more, but it is worth it.
05:17You get a tripod mount, tripod legs, external battery, which is great, and this handy DJI
05:23Mic 2 microphone and a carrying case.
05:26The cover for the gimbal is well built and has a dedicated spot for storing your wide
05:31angle or mist filters, which is also magnetic.
05:34I love that touch.
05:35The battery life could be better.
05:37It won't last you for a full day.
05:39I kept charging it a lot, but what I will say is that it performed way better in cold
05:44weather than I expected it to, unlike some other cameras.
05:49And it also charges surprisingly quickly.
05:52Little over half an hour and you're good from zero to full.
05:55So if you use gimbals, you know that sometimes they do capture a swaying motion, especially
06:01going up and down, and you can notice that in the corners of the image.
06:05But I found that using DJI's ActiveTrack really helps to keep things extra stable and minimize
06:11that sway.
06:12It's still there, but it gets better.
06:14And ActiveTrack itself is really great.
06:17Not perfect, but my success rate with it locking onto people or things or buildings has been
06:22very solid.
06:23Distortion on the main lens is handled very nicely, but not so much with the wide angle
06:29adapter.
06:30The DJI Mimo app is really good and you can apply Rec.709 LUT right then and there.
06:37The only thing I wish DJI had is a cloud storage solution like GoPro does.
06:42I think it would be beneficial both here and especially for drone pilots.
06:47It's fun to use the webcam too.
06:49If you've seen webcams with gimbals, well, this one works exactly like those and follows
06:54your face around.
06:55Except it kept turning off for me when I was connected to my Mac, although it worked okay
07:01for Sean on his Windows.
07:03Hopefully it's a software fix.
07:05Might be a user error.
07:06We'll see.
07:07And good job on DJI for giving us software updates here as well.
07:11Initially, slow motion at 120 fps wasn't available in D-Log M, just normal color.
07:17But as of last update, you can now shoot at 120 fps in D-Log M, so keep those coming.
07:24Lastly, the boot up speed of this device is quite impressive.
07:29From the moment you flip the screen to being able to record is less than 3 seconds.
07:34It's such a reliable little device which won't make your friends wait on you.
07:38Come with us!
07:39You're in low-key filming.
07:41Digital zoom is here and I did not use it at all because I don't think it looks good.
07:48If DJI wants to make a Pocket Pro with optical zoom or two lenses, I'm all ears.
07:54Above all, I enjoy the Pocket 3 so much because of how simple and plain fun it is to use.
08:02It turns on quickly.
08:03It is easy to carry around.
08:05It has great image quality and has great sound quality.
08:09I didn't even mention that, but this thing has like 3 microphones all over the body.
08:13It has noticeable depth of field and I can get clips I normally couldn't get with my
08:17phones without a dedicated gimbal.
08:20It is a very versatile camera.
08:22DJI crammed in so much into this for so many different use cases.
08:27Typically I associated the Pocket series as just for vloggers, but now it can be used
08:32for a lot more.
08:34Even if you want to use it just as a webcam, I would recommend it.
08:37I hate myself for even going down this road, but the old adage says that the best camera
08:42is the one you have on you, and I found myself taking this one everywhere.