[size=14.6667px]Hello! So I want to make hiking+timelapse videos as a hobby and interested in the Osmo Plus. I have the DJI Mavic and absolutely love it; I want to love the Osmo, but I've read so many mixed reviews & major flaws (mainly amazing hardware BUT is the software is very glitchy+unuseable[size=14.6667px]) of the Osmo. I have a few questions:

[size=14.6667px]1) I use to fly the DJI Mavic with my Android Nexus 6p; the Go4 app constantly crashed. Now I use an ipad mini and no issues. That being said, do other Android & Apple users have any issuses with the Go4 app & Osmo?

[size=14.6667px]2) I've heard connecting your phone via wifi (or is it bluetooth?) with the Osmo is very unreliable & slow.

[size=14.6667px]3) How's the battery when shooting 4k? A lot of people have complained that in reality, you ONLY get ~8 min of 4k footage per battery.

[size=14.6667px]Your help would be much appreciated; the footage from the Osmo Plus seems very impressive, however, it seems like a hassle just to get it to work as how it is advertised. I honestly have no idea which reviewer to trust, it really seems 50/50 to me, thus I'm skeptical with dropping ~$600-700 on the Osmo Plus.
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I have an Osmo+ and have used it both with Android and iOS.  It's a great little toy but not for professional shooting.  Doing hiking timelapse etc it would be awesome.  It's super light weight and can do things no other camera in the world can do, particularly at this price point.  But go in with your eyes open and know that it's also terrible in ways that no other camera in the world is terrible.

Here are some answers to your questions and what I wish I'd have known before I bought ....

Battery life is decent, about an hour with the high capacity battery. The 9min+/- limit in 4K (18min+/- in 1080) is the record run you can get in one continuous uninterrupted clip.  It's actually tied to the 4G file size limit not battery life.  When the Osmo hits 4G it starts to write a new file and in the process loses about a 1.5 seconds of footage.  No other camera in the world that I'm aware of has this glitch.  If you're doing short clips or timelapse you'd probably never have to worry about it.  If your recording some kind of event it's terrible because your footage will glitch at this point.  There's also a hard stop at 30mins where the camera will stop recording and you have to hit record again.  It'll obviously glitch there too.

Osmo is bad in low light and doesn't have great resolution (don't be fooled by 4K specs).  However it is about what should be expected picture-wise from a camera with this size chip and this type of lens. In full sun it's perfectly acceptable and with the proper manual settings, a ND filter set, and some skill, people do get decent looking images out of it.  

The software is glitchy but keep in mind DJI is having to write sophisticated code that will play well with hundreds of different devices in hundreds of different configs.  In my experience, the iOS version is much more stable and more capable than the android version.  The biggest base functionality advantage from my perspective is that DJI Go iOS allows you to zoom while pan/tilting, while the android does not. You'd use the DJI Go app not the Go4 with the Osmo.  And evidently, there are issues going back and forth between the two.

Wifi connection isn't super robust, but not terrible if you turn off all the other phone/device wireless functions and apps and toggle the wifi between 2.4gHz and 5gHz to find what works best for any given location you're at.  Interference from other devices and other apps running simultaneously on the phone/tablet undoubtedly causes many of the connection issues people have.

I (and others) find the Osmo to be frustrating because it could be great but there are just too many flaws in the implementation.  For a someone wanting an interesting little camera to play around with as a hobby, it might be worth it depending on what you want it to do. For a pro or semi-pro doing professional work it's not reliable enough except for maybe a few niche uses. Although I've not used it myself in a hiking-timelapse capacity, theoretically that would be a perfect use for it.  

I have both the Osmo Pro and Osmo+. The Osmo Pro is super reliable and takes great shots. I love almost everything about it except that it doesn't have a wide angle lens (also a strange, loud, click at the start of almost every recording). But to help with the wide-angle problem, I have the Osmo+.

For me, that thing is a disaster. It's completely unreliable. The wifi cuts in and out and mostly stays out, meaning I can't record anything and I'm left with a blank screen. If it begins to work, it's only, literally, seconds later it goes out again. And I've played with the bandwidth to see what's the cause and I've also used it both in NYC and in the middle of the woods where there would be no other signals trying to interfere with it. I'll contact DJI's support in hopes I just have a faulty camera that just puts out a weak wifi signal, but as far as I'm concerned, I bought a paperweight. If they find nothing wrong with it and this is how it's supposed to work, I'm going to sell it or try and use some sort of buyer protection from my credit card to help me since I literally can never use it.

With new crop of camera, Panasonic GH5, GH4, camera shake can now be resolved. Proper camera gives you the reliability and ease of use. Osmo on the other hand, needs to put everything in place before it is operational. You need to attach your smart phone, plug in your external mic and link up your wifi. These all can represent you with an issue when you are pressing for time to take that important shot.

DTK Posted at 2017-5-14 19:08
With new crop of camera, Panasonic GH5, GH4, camera shake can now be resolved. Proper camera gives you the reliability and ease of use. Osmo on the other hand, needs to put everything in place before it is operational. You need to attach your smart phone, plug in your external mic and link up your wifi. These all can represent you with an issue when you are pressing for time to take that important shot.

In camera stabilization will never replace mechanical stabilization such as a gimbal, the camera you mentioned all require mechanical stabilization such as a Ronin or Movi1 to get similar shots in terms of stabilization quality, picture quality is of course much better with the cameras you have mentioned.

If you factor this is, setting up an osmo is 10x quicker, as those types of gimbals/rigs are not easily set up and are often accompanied by a number of extra accessories.

the price tags of larger rigs escalate very quickly