Disclaimer. I'm totally new to gimbal camera of any sort. My current camera is a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 with OIS and 4K@30 and I was considering getting a gimbal for that when I caught the announcement for the Osmo Pocket. I got the OP just in time for my trip on Dec 13th and I just returned home after spending almost a month in Asia.

I watch a bunch of reviews on Youtube but a lot of them was from the POV of a Vlogger. My perspective for this review is more from a casual traveler's POV.

The biggest advantage of the OP compared to a traditional digital camera is the size/weight, aperture and boot time.

Lets talk about size/weight. It's smaller and half the weight of a compact DC. I carry it in my jacket's pocket and I don't even feel it was there most of the time. The small size/weight also means that you can shoot in crowded area just by holding it up above your head. Like the time that I walk into a subway station only to find a bunch of kids performing Xmas carols. There are already a gathered crowd but I was ablo to just hold the OP above my head and shoot pass all the people in front of me. good luck doing that with a mid size DC. The small size also means that most people don't even know that you're shooting (was able to use it in a few places that does not allow camera without being notice). It also avoid a lot of stares that you see in a lot of vids while using a gimbal setup. The only drawback is the lack of a zoom (even digital would be nice). The few times that I want a closer view, I just use my phone, set it to 2x and shot the vids. At the end of the day, although I brought my FZ1000 on the trip. it ended up just staying in the hotel rooms for the whole trip.

Now onto the F2.0 aperture. This gives you so much better low light performance than most DC short of a full size DSLR and even most action cams. This came in really handy on my trip as we try to get to as many places as possible and the sun start setting at 4PM in some area.  I was able to shoot quite a bit of vids in fairly dim light like those inside museums/temples/castles and the results are quite good. Even nighttime outdoor vids with just ambient lights are quite acceptable (yes, there are video noise but it wasm't bad enough to distract you from watching the vids in most cases). Overall, noise level is much lower than my FZ1000 at F2.8.

  However, there is a drawback to the large aperture. We're blessed with really nice weather most of the trip which means bright sunlight during the day. This can be a problem even at the highest shutter speed in some situations (not even considering trying to lower the shutter speed to get the proper motion blur on videos). I was lucky to receive the the PgyTech 4 ND/PL filters set just in time for the 2nd part of my trip where a lot of shots are outdoor bright daylight when there were times that the color was just on the edge of washing out due to the bright sunlight and I was able to snap on a ND Filter and get it back under control. If you do a lot of outdoor daylight shots, I would say a ND filter set is a must.

Finally, let's talk about the boot time. To me, this is probably the feature that impressed me the most. I can have the unit out of my pocket and ready to shoot in about 15 seconds. If I'm in an aera where I expect to take video and have the case around my wrist. I can be ready to shoot in 10. With the fast bootup, I was able to catch a skilled couple dancing at the new Dance Dance Revolution machine in a Tokyo, a New Year parade on the street of Osaka, Shinkansen arriving at the station and a motorcycle gang riding through the main intersection at Shibuya. Shots that I would probably have missed at least some part if I'm using a traditional camera unless it's already powered on in my hand.

Basically, I'm really happy with the OP. It's a perfect travel camera with great festures. It's not perfect, it can focus on the wrong thing at times (which can happen to the best non fixed focus camera). The exposure can be a bit sensitive in some lighting condition and with a lot of lights being LED nowadays, you will sometimes get a plusing effect that would make it through the anti-flicker and those thing are hard to detect on the small screen and you won't notice till you watch it on a larger screen later. I would recommend hooking the OP up to your phone for important shots.

I already have a few vidoes from the earlier part of the trip up on my youtube channel and I'll be uploading some of the other videos over the weekend. I'll provide the link and descriptions here once they are up. All videos are unedited RAW as I think this would give potential buyer a better idea on what they can expect from the OP right out of the box.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClK1ghB9KNLTW-KLifwarLQ?view_as=subscriber

Hello and good day Wiz33. Thank you for sharing your experience with your DJI Osmo Pocket and thank you for your support.

one newer vid is up, Caught the sunrise in between 2 layers of clouds during my descent into HKG.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Exterior shot of Taipei 101 and surrounding area.

Walking around a street market during the day in Taipei

Thanks for sharing

Lake Yamanakako (Swan lake) beneath Mount Fuji, This is where a zoom feature (even digital) would be nice as the Swans are far away. This is shot with a ND32 filter attached.

Barely made it to 5th Station (highest level accessible by car) on Mount Fuji before closing time but managed to catch a beautiful sunset. This is shot with a ND32 filter attached

It was so cold at 5th Station that we retreated back to 4th Station to try to watch the complete sunset.

Thanks for your posts! Great to see what can be captured while travelling. I have a trip to Vietnam coming up in a few weeks and this is exactly why I bought my OP.

It has gotten so cold even at 4th Station that we retreated further back into the car to try to watch the complete sunset. But it was closing time and staffs were getting everyone out. Shot with ND32

great review

Visited Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) at Kyoto in the morning, perfect weather.

Walking from Nara park to Todaiji temple with deer roaming the street

I also took a week for an overses travel with OP after its launch. Despite its imperfection, the strong points such as handy size, fast wake up time, video quality via mechanical gimbel etc. is the reason why I like it. The improvement I expect are better focus/exposure controls when running the stand alone body.

Nice channel you have!
I subscribed
Here is mine.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJGfq16FGXekfaqQ2DhoWQ?view_as=subscriber

Wiz33 Posted at 1-12 16:24
It has gotten so cold even at 4th Station that we retreated further back into the car to try to watch the complete sunset. But it was closing time and staffs were getting everyone out. Shot with ND32

https://youtu.be/xnHjYr-vQOg

Is that you walking around?

Wiz33 Posted at 1-13 10:11
Visited Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) at Kyoto in the morning, perfect weather.

https://youtu.be/V-e4y_Un-sA

A very nice video!

Wiz33 Posted at 1-13 17:49
Walking from Nara park to Todaiji temple with deer roaming the street

https://youtu.be/vO2erNwUsBA

Cool video!
Looks like a lovely place

Montfrooij Posted at 1-13 23:51
Is that you walking around?

Nah, that was one of the park staff trying to kick everyone out ;-)

Todaiji Temple Nara Interior late afternoon, light level is pretty low so you can see that it was late afternoon and we had to take the ND Filter off once inside the temple but it gives you a idea what to expect from the OP in low light condition. I would say the results are pretty good as it was fairly dim inside the temple.

Wiz33 Posted at 1-14 07:17
Nah, that was one of the park staff trying to kick everyone out ;-)

Hahahahahahaha.
Ah ok!

Hemiji Castle in Japan after the renovation, one of the few original castle left in Japan that was not damaged during the war (unlike the one in Osaka which is a replica). Really worth making the trip.

Caught part of the New Year ceremony inside Ikuta Shrine in Kobe

Walking around Nijo Castle at Kyoto Japan.

Wiz33 Posted at 1-10 22:01
one newer vid is up, Caught the sunrise in between 2 layers of clouds during my descent into HKG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b52z4ZbrYM8

Good job sitting on the wing....lol

Exterior Ghibli Museum (Miyazaki Hayao) Mitaka Japan. 30 minutes from Shinjuku. Really worth the trip if you're a fan of Japanese Anime. be sure to get advance tickets as that's the only way to get in as same day ticket is no longer sold. (Castle in the sky, My neighbor Totoro, etc)

Everyone was lining up to take photo with the robot from Castle in the Sky

Even on Jan 6th, There's quite a bit of people at Meiji Shrine for the New Year Celebration

Here you can see how some of the LED sign is causing a pulsing effect but they are hard to see on the tiny screen and was not noticed till I play back on a larger monitor.

Shibuya crossing Japan

1/7 scale Statue of Liberty at Odaiba Tokyo. It's a replica of the French Statue of Liberty from the Île aux Cygnes that was on loan to Japan between 1998 and 1999. It was so popular that they requested permission to produce a replica for permanent  display.

One of the main attraction around Odaiba is the 1:1 scale Gundam Unicorn from the Anime at Diver City. I saw the RX-78-2 a few years ago but this is the first time I visited Japan since the Unicorn was constructed. Stands 19.7 meters tall, pretty impressive.

Daytime transformation is every 2 hours and last 1 minutes. Evening transformation will be longer along with lighting effect and video projection and up to 4 minutes long. But it's just too cold and windy to get there in the evening.

I already posted this video on another thread to answer some questions but I figure that I'll include it in this thread as well since it's pretty much what you can expect to see from the OP in a worst case scenario.

Probably one of the worst condition you can shoot at. Low light test in a restaurant's private booth with very little contrasting color other than the Chef and the plate in front of the camera so there're quite a bit of focus bumping. This is where the wireless module would have come in handy as I would have move the rice bowl and plate or set the OP further back but the depth of field was not as bad as I feared even in such low light condition.

What I should have done (this was suggested from a reply on another forum) is to use the focus tracking feature which could also solve this problem.

Going through all my clips, I notice that I have basically left out those shot in Osaka which is actually our arrival point in Japan so here they are



Same area after dinner:

Good stuff!

You probably said and I just missed it, but were you shooting with just the OP in hand the entire time? I.e., you didn't have it on a stick or attached to your phone?

rjwPhoto Posted at 1-20 11:40
Good stuff!

You probably said and I just missed it, but were you shooting with just the OP in hand the entire time? I.e., you didn't have it on a stick or attached to your phone?

OP in hand only, direct upload from SD card, no editing or color correction.

An example where the fast boot time of the OP helps to catch a moment. Came upon a couple playing with the Dance Evolution Arcade, they seems pretty good but they are finishing up on a set so did not start filming, then when it seems they're having another go, I manage to get the OP out and start filming almost at the beginning of the routine.