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DJI Osmo Pocket Review (1 year later): Best vlog camera? Who should buy it & cinematic test footage
New! DJI Osmo Pocket must-have accessories review: https://youtu.be/t8So16gZjbw
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I bought the DJI OSMO POCKET just over a year ago and decided to make a review of what I think of this camera one year later (in 2020). I cover the picture quality, the different modes (including video up to 4K, slow motion, hyperlapse & motionlapse), the low light performance, the must-have accessories, the DJI MIMO app & much more! Between every talking sequence, I have example cinematic footage to show what you can achieve with the camera. This is my honest opinion based on my usage of the camera that I use almost every week. I end the video by answering one important question: who is this camera for? Is it best for vlogging, capturing B-ROLL, as an action camera or simply as a replacement of your cellphone camera? Watch the video to get the answer!
Timecodes
0:00 Introduction
1:10 Size & Ease of Use
1:42 Build Quality
2:14 DJI Mimo App
3:10 B-ROLL
3:30 Face Tracking (Vlog mode)
3:52 Internal Audio
4:22 B-ROLL
4:44 Image Quality
5:31 Shooting Modes
6:32 B-ROLL
6:56 Autofocus & cold eather
7:46 Frequent firmware updates
8:17 B-ROLL
8:33 Accessories
8:48 B-ROLL
9:26 Low light performance
9:54 Who should buy this camera?
11:30 Conclusion
Osmo Pocket Accessories: https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/osmo-pocket-accessories
PGYTech Cover: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L9BL7N9/
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https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo https://geni.us/dji-pocket-2-combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card https://geni.us/sandisk-extreme-128gb
- Canon 6D Mk https://geni.us/canon-6d-mkii
- Google Pixel 4a https://geni.us/google-pixel-4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM https://geni.us/canon-lens-24-105
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-16-35
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-70-200
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD https://geni.us/vanguard-veo-265cb
- DJI MAVIC AIR https://geni.us/lba-dji-mavic-air
MY PERSONAL WEBSITE
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:10 Size & Ease of Use
- 1:42 Build Quality
- 2:14 DJI Mimo App
- 3:10 B-ROLL
- 3:30 Face Tracking (Vlog mode)
- 3:52 Internal Audio
- 4:22 B-ROLL
- 4:44 Image Quality
- 5:31 Shooting Modes
- 6:32 B-ROLL
- 6:56 Autofocus & cold eather
- 7:46 Frequent firmware updates
- 8:17 B-ROLL
- 8:33 Accessories
- 8:48 B-ROLL
- 9:26 Low light performance
- 9:54 Who should buy this camera?
- 11:30 Conclusion
hey everyone good to see you all again just about a year ago I bought the DJI Osmo pocket and I've been using it weekly since then in this video I want to talk about what is good about this camera what is it that's great and who is it for let's jump right into it photos don't know me yet I'm like Belma Alfred a young photographer and filmmaker on the journey to become better at this art if you want to learn more about the DJI Osmo pocket be sure to subscribe right below because I'm gonna be going more in depth in the next video about this camera now let's go back inside because it's getting pretty cold and the winners coming up [Applause] [Music] my favorite thing about this camera is how small it is like the name indicate it's meant to be in your pocket so you can bring it with you where you go another thing I like about the camera is how easy it is to you so you simply press this button to power it up and just a few seconds later you're ready to shoot by pressing this button now you're recording if you want to change the shooting mode it's simply one swipe out ways you can come on the side here and change your shooting mode if you want access to more advanced settings it's also super easy press the screen here and you have access to all your more advanced settings and this is great because you don't want to be losing time in the field when you need to change a more advanced settings or when you want to change the shooting mode another great thing about the camera is the build quality I who dropped it a few times on concrete and also dropped it in the snow few times today and it came out perfectly okay one thing that happened is that the lens got scratch in my pocket with my keys so I will highly suggest buying a PGI tech cover to put on top of the Lightning's to protect it when it's in your pocket or somewhere else I'm gonna put the link for this cover in the description down below I will be releasing a video about the must-have accessories for the DJI Osmo pocket so be sure to subscribe below if it's something that interests you you think I appreciate a lot about this camera is the app that comes with it so there's actually a few different ways you can connect to it you can use the little plug to plug it in you can use the wire and you can also use the wires module like I'm doing right now the wiles module is great here because you can control the camera wirelessly so you can control pan and tilt of the camera you can acts have access to more advanced settings so here I have zebra on I also have gridlines and you can access all the different shooting modes from here there's another thing that I really liked about the app and it's the active track functionality so here if I draw a rectangle around my face it's such going to start checking my face and if I move around my face it's gonna be following my face around and this is a really handy feature when you're filming yourself because you can simply draw the rectangle around and you can have the camera move with you so this is actually something we'll be using in the Bureau of this video where I just walk around and the camera follows me automatically [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is what the front-facing camera looks like it actually has really great face tracking so it follows my face even if I turn around the camera and if I want a little bit bigger field of view because some people say it's a little bit too close I simply just use a small little job' tripod to make the field of view a little bit wider let's start by talking about audio lebay so you're hearing right now the on-board microphone of the camera which is pretty decent if you're close to the camera so I'm about a feet two feets away right now but if I move back a few feet you probably won't even hear the audio anymore so this is why I decided to buy a lavalier microphone because it just has a way better audio I really hope in the next generation they're gonna have better audio onboard because that's one of the features that's really annoying having to have a second microphone all the time [Music] overall I'm really pleased with the images I'm getting out of this camera damages are sharp and detailed the colors are not true and they give a little good does a good job excluding the shots if you want to get more scenic result I would highly suggest getting ND filters and using the DC light picture profile stay tuned for a video where I'm gonna give more tips and trick to use this camera I also look at the nice background I have right behind here [Music] on the flipside the camera is packed with features so there's 4k up to 60 frames per second there's time lapses motion lapses hyper lapses slow motion and much more I'm probably do another video to talk about the details of these modes because there's so many to cover here is a small motion lapse I captured yesterday [Music] slow motion is actually the worst picture quality I don't know if you notice it in the b-roll of this video but it's actually only 1080p which I don't really mind but there's a 1.4 or 1.6 crop which makes the image a lot softer and also reveals a lot more noise which for sure isn't great but it's still pretty cool effect so I still use it quite a lot in the videos now let's go down the slope [Music] [Music] my biggest complaint about this camera is actually the autofocus system it works perfectly fine when you're in autofocus mode and you get this nice blurry background which is great when you're vlogging but when you're in debtor modes sometimes it doesn't work as well so for example last week I went skiing and I got this shot that's totally blurry I cannot use it at all and when I went back inside the waited for the carrot to heat up it actually worked perfectly fine afterwards so I realized that the cameras probably just not good for the Canadian winter because whenever it gets cold the camera just stops working totally which is kind of a problem for me here in Canada [Music] [Music] another thing I like about this camera are the freakin firmware updates so just a few weeks after they launched the camera the added support for 24 frames per second and also manual exposure control on the camera in the middle of a sermon added a hyper lot and just a few weeks ago they added the support for unofficial lenses this is really rare that a camera company updates that much the camera during the first year and they always update a camera based on the feedback that people gave them which is really great from the camera company [Music] another thing I realized last year is that if you want to use a camera to the full potential you actually need to buy accessories in the accessories can add up really quickly and cost as much as a camera in the end so this is one thing to keep in mind if you're thinking of buying the DJ a small pocket now let's go back inside before your Sun Goes Away and talk about who this camera is for [Music] [Music] [Music] the Sun is gone so it's good equation to test the low-light performances of the camera it's actually pretty decent for the type of camera about with a tiny sensor there's a lot of noise and that's to be expected but it's still usable footage which is pretty good but the one thing together keep in mind is that dota focus is going to stop working a certain point it just cannot focus without enough light as any other of the focus system now who is this camera for let's start by talking about who shouldn't buy this camera if you're looking for the best image quality or the best alike performances I wish to suggest the king of something like a mirrorless or a DSLR camera also it doesn't have a fourth axis on the gimbal so it's not the best game ball out there because when you're walking around it's gonna move a little bit and it's actually gonna make the image move up and down a little bit also if you probably wanna shoot sports I would recommend sticking with action cameras like the GoPro and Osmo action if that being said it's still possible to get great results out of this camera and when I went to Whistler for the first time I used it to capture my memories if you want to see that video it's gonna be linked right here and I highly should suggest watching it because it gives it a good idea what the image looks like straight up the camera I didn't use any accessories during that day so it was just the camera like this without anything on it and I didn't apply any color correction in post-processing I would recommend buying this camera if you want to get better video quality than what your smartphone offers but still wanna have a nice portable size but I personally think this camera is best for people that I want to start vlogging the small form factor makes it less awkward to use in public places the front facing camera with tracking makes it dead simple to capture yourself and the advanced features like active track make it better to get cinematic shots I have been using the DJI Osmo pocket as my main flagging camera for it last year and also brought it along every chip and adventure you need to know the shortcomings of the camera but once you get to know them it's actually a really good camera and you can get really good results out of it I would highly return this camera if you're starting a vlog or if you want to get better b-roll content I hope this video was useful to understand what's good and what isn't with the DJI Osmo pocket I really like this little camera because it's so powerful in such a small little format and I bring it with me on every shoot these days if your own one please let me know what you like about it in the comments below and if you don't let me know you have any questions you want me to answer the next videos I will be posting more videos about this little camera in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe if you want to be notified when they come out also as usual leave a like if you like this video and see you the next one bye
Video Links
- New! DJI Osmo Pocket must-have accessories review
- Osmo Pocket Accessories
- PGYTech Cover
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
I've been using the DJI Osmo Pocket almost every week for the past year, and I wanted to share my honest thoughts on this little camera. It's small enough to fit in your pocket, powerful enough to shoot 4K video, and surprisingly fun to use—but it's definitely not for everyone.
What I love most is the size and simplicity. You press a button, you're recording. The gimbal keeps things steady, and the front-facing camera with active face tracking makes vlogging genuinely effortless. The DJI MIMO app gives you wireless control, and you can adjust everything from gridlines to manual exposure without fumbling through menus in the field. Plus, DJI has been genuinely impressive with firmware updates—adding features like 24fps, manual controls, and even unofficial lens support within the first year.
The build quality is solid too. I've dropped it on concrete and snow more than once, and it bounced back fine. That said, the lens scratches easily in your pocket, so grab a protective cover.
But there are real limitations. The onboard audio is weak unless you're close to the camera—I ended up buying a lavalier mic. Autofocus struggles in cold weather, which is a problem here in Canada. Slow motion only shoots at 1080p with a crop that softens the image. And the gimbal has only three axes, so there's a slight up-and-down bobbing when you walk.
Image quality is sharp and detailed with pleasing colors, though the tiny sensor means low-light footage gets noisy. If you want cinematic results, you'll want ND filters and some time in post-production. The camera can also get expensive once you start adding accessories.
So who should buy it? Not if you're after the best image quality or professional-grade video—get a mirrorless or DSLR for that. Not ideal for sports either. But if you're starting a vlog, want better video than your phone can deliver without sacrificing portability, or need solid b-roll content, this camera is genuinely excellent. Once you understand its quirks, you can get really good results. I bring it on every shoot now, and I keep coming back to it because of what you can accomplish in such a small format.