Store
DJI Pocket 3 vs Sony A7 IV // Can you spot the 4000$ difference?
In this video I compare the DJI Pocket 3 and the Sony A7 IV + DJI RS3 Mini with a lot of test footage. Can you spot the 4000$ difference in image quality?
🔗 DJI Osmo Pocket 3 https://geni.us/dji-pocket-3-creator
🔗 Sony A7 IV https://geni.us/sony-a7-iv
🔗 DJI RS3 Mini https://geni.us/dji-rs3-mini-gimbal
► WATCH NEXT
- Sony A7 IV Review https://youtu.be/54Ym0qk8mIc
- DJI Pocket 3: Astrophotography https://youtu.be/2KNR-b9O_QE
- DJI Pocket 3: Initial Review https://youtu.be/_2HBqGK6tVA
► COME SAY HI!
https://loicbellemarealford.ca
► GEAR I USE ON YOUTUBE
https://loicbellemarealford.ca/gear
#djipocket3 #sonya7iv #dji
► CHAPTERS
► MY MUSIC
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/iu5gau/
hello everyone can you tell the difference between this tiny $500 DJ osmo Pocket and this $4,000 Sony mirrorless gimball setup I bet you can't let's get started by Rolling the intro for those of you who new to this channel I'm L mford A Young photograph and filmaker on a journey to become better at this side I'm going to label these two cameras A and B but won't tell you until the end which one is which definitely stay until the end to learn the answer [Music] the two cameras we have for this comparison are the DJ osmo Pocket free with its 1-in sensor 20 mm field of view and it's 4K at 24 frames per second I'm also going to use a dlog picture profile and has a built-in gimbal inside of the camera the second camera we have here is a son a74 with its fullframe sensor I'm going to film at 4K 24 frames per second with the slog picture profile we also have a Tim on lens at 20 mm in the DJ RS3 mini [Music] gimbal if you're buying a DJ Pocket free it's probably because you're looking for a good vlogging camera what is very important with vlogging cameras is having nice Bouy so that's the blue you get in the background of these cameras what is also very important is that the face is perfectly in Focus so both of these cameras should be doing a pretty good job at keeping my face in Focus the Sony might have a slight Advantage with its eye tracking inside of it how do you feel being filmed by two cameras two cameras yeah it's too much [Music] attention another very important thing about both of these cameras is that stabilization must be very good the DJI pocket 3 has really good stabilization with its built-in gimbal on the other hand the Sony actually has to use an external gimbal to get more simple shots it does have dig digital options to stabilize the image but they're definitely not as good as using an external [Music] gimbal [Music] now to really test both of the gables in their stabilization let's do a little running test so let's go 1 2 whoa it was a little bit money here [Music] W while we have a beautiful sunset background let's talk about dynamic range of both of these cameras because that's pretty important the Sony should have much better dynamic range than the DJ Pocket 3 but with its new sensor it might be catching up and produce results that are very similar to the Sony camera here if you don't know what dynamic range it's basically how much information is kept inside of the highlights so the brighter parts of the image and the Shadows the darker parts of the image the more information can have in both of them without looking too grainy the better dynamic range is on the camera while the Sens is completely disappearing in the background let's talk about one of the biggest difference between these two cameras the DJ ASO bucket 3 is super simple to use you simply flick it open it starts recording right away and you're good to go the menus are also super simple to use and pretty much anybody could use this camera on the other hand right here it's much harder to use this Sony camera with the gimbal first of all you have to assemble the Gimbal and there's a lot more moving parts to get get this working then there's buttons all around the camera and it can be really hard to decide what to do with all of them and also the menus on the camera are pretty complex to [Music] use [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] wow [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we made it to Kenan Beach here on the Oregan coast and I decided to come out to do some little tests at night I wasn't expecting to see anything from both of these cameras I was expecting the image to be way too dark but the only light we have here is actually the Moonlight and the buildings in the background but the buildings are not actually offering that much light at all but both screens actually show perfectly my face which is very impressive I am using the low light video mode on the DJI osmo pocket 3 so that should help a little bit the video here but overall it seems very impressive I do want to know which one you think looks better here uh I'm very curious to see how dope of these results are going to compare I'm going to continue go taking a little bit more of test shots and also take some few pictures and videos of the stars because they should be shining bright [Music] tonight it's crazy how much I see you it makes no sense oh my goodness I only we have the Moonlight which is uh close to full I know it's very [Music] bright careful careful careful remember out of nowhere save my life I'm happy I got it on the [Music] video sir are you googling on how to use a Canon camera yes I thought I thought your menu were so easy to use you know on my soon I know how to do it it's very easy okay okay okay I got it look autofocus then somewhere here number two Focus mod autofocus manual focus that it's very [Music] dumb this was a very close call I almost completely got soaked in the foot I'm goingon to have to be a little bit more careful when filming this [Music] video [Music] [Music] [Music] now let's talk about photography because here we have a clear winner the DJ Pocket camera used to have some pretty photography modes actually the last one had a 64 mapel raw photo mode which was very useful in some cases but here they cut down pretty much everything there's still an option to take some Raw photos but they're only 9 megapixel and the other ones are kind of a gimmick like your 180° Panorama view or free by free panoramas on the other side the Sony a74 is an amazing photography camera I highly suggest you go check out my review if you want to learn more about the photos coming out of the Sony a74 [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] we had like a shadow in the water was very [Music] cool one very important thing with gimbals is that you need to have really good autofocus that is reliable you cannot be manually focusing while operating the gimbal so you want to make sure your camera can stay in Focus all the time the DJ Pocket 2 has much improved autofocus compared to the previous versions but I don't know if it's really going to be good enough to rival the Sony a74 they both have similar options where you can have the screen to focus on an object but the DJ osmo Pocket 3 also have an option where you can use a project showcase so you can just put a product in front and it's going to focus on that on the other hand the Sony a74 just has way better AO focus in general it's super sticky on the eyes and offer really solid autofocus in all kinds of [Music] situations [Music] I'm not the biggest fan of using slow motion but this is actually a place where the DJ awesome pocket free might have a small Adventure AG at 4K 60 frames per second there's basically no limitation at 4K 120 frames per second you cannot use dlog or the active track mode and there's even a mode at 240 frames per second at 1080p on the other side here the Sony has a crop at 4K 60 frames per second and 120 frames is only available in full HD now let's talk about some unique features of both of the these setups the DJI osmo pocket 3E has an active track mode where you can double click on any subject it's going to find it start tracking automatically which is great when you're alone because it allows to get some camera moves that are basically impossible to get with most of the other cameras and gimbals another great feature of the DJ osmo Pocket 3E is that it has really good audio directly inside of it it's actually the audio I'm using right now here and it sounds great and you don't have to use any external microphones if you do want to get better audio the Creator combo kit come with a maress microphone that you simply power on it's going to connect to it and offer better audio it's much harder to get the same type of audio using my Sony camera because I have to buy some microphones that cost a few hundred one great thing about the Sony camera is that you have a lot more control in general you can easily switch lenses or Zoom with them to get exactly the shot that you want with the DJI osmo pocket camera you're fixed at one lens which can cause some issues because you might not get exactly the framing that you want and you have to crop digitally afterwards which will affect the picture quality another great thing with the Sony camera is that pretty much any button can be assigned to anything so once you know how to use it it's much faster to switch settings on the Sony camera then on the D osmo pocket free I'm about to reveal which camera is which so now is the time to let me know in comments down below what is your guess if you haven't already I didn't want this video to be very technical so instead I wanted to get a bunch of camera footage in real world situations so you could compare and decide which one is better for you for your use cases now for the big reveal the camera a was my Sony a74 with the DJI RS3 mini gimball and Camera B with the DJ osmo Pocket free did you get this one right I think it's very impressive that a camera that's almost on10th of the price of the other one actually produces footage that's very similar to a much more expensive camera but both of these are tool so depending on the situation one tool might be better than the other one to get the results you're looking for if you enjoyed this video please let me know by hitting like button below and definitely subscribe to the channel if you want to learn more about the DJ osmo Pocket free I first of all have a in-depth review that's coming soon a full Vlog of my trip in shamoni par and Zat and also we'll have a comparison between the joso pocket free and my phone but instead of talking about specs we're going to talk about different scenarios and we're using the joso pocket free is better than the phone see you in the next video
What is this video about?
I put two cameras to the test: the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 ($500) with its built-in gimbal and 1-inch sensor, and the Sony A7 IV ($4,000) paired with a DJI RS3 Mini gimbal. The question is simple: can you actually spot a $4,000 difference?
For vlogging—which is probably why most people buy the Pocket 3—both cameras handle the essentials well: bokeh in the background, reliable face tracking, and smooth stabilization. The Pocket 3 has it built-in, while the Sony relies on the external gimbal. I ran through the stabilization and tested them in various lighting conditions, including some moody nighttime shots at Cannon Beach where moonlight was basically our only source of light.
The differences start to show in other areas. The Sony has genuinely better dynamic range and more control overall—any button can be customized, you can swap lenses, and the autofocus is noticeably stickier. The Pocket 3, meanwhile, is stupidly simple to use. You flip it open and start recording. No gimbal assembly, no complex menus, no external microphone hunt.
There's also the unique stuff: the Pocket 3's active track mode lets you double-tap a subject and it will follow automatically, which is impossible to achieve alone with other cameras. The Sony crushes it for photography with a full-frame sensor, while the Pocket 3 dropped its raw photo modes to 9 megapixels. For slow motion, the Pocket 3 edges ahead at 4K 120fps without crop, whereas the Sony crops at that frame rate.
What surprised me most is how similar the footage actually looks in real-world scenarios. Both cameras produce solid, usable video. The Sony feels more like a complete creative tool—more expensive, more complex, but with more options once you know what you're doing. The Pocket 3 is a focused, purpose-built device that does its job without fuss.
So did you spot the difference? Watch the full comparison and I'll reveal which camera shot which footage at the end. Spoiler: the answer might not be what you expect.