This is probably one for the DJI dev team.

The Insta 360 X3 has what it calls 'dashcam' mode. Basically it will record continously and then overwirte the recording at whatever your set intervals are e.g. 5 mins, 10mins, 15mins etc.. Often this type of recording mode is used in dashcams, but it's ctually a really good feature for actoin cams when you don't know when the action or a particular moement is going to happen.

I wonder if DJI has any plans for such a feature with the Action 3 camera?

Maybe not. Just continuously record.

Continuously recording completely misses the point of 'dash cam' mode. It also means filling up the memory card, and unnecessarily sifting through footage.

The Insta 360 X3 and the GoPro and others are used a lot on motorcycles, particularly off road. Not all of the ride might be interesting. Obvsiouly you can just record when it is, but sometimes things come where you think damn I wish I would have caught that. Like a buddy dropping his bike. haha. There are plenty of similar cases in sports and other events too.

Osmo Action 3 do have loop-recording so it can be used as dashcam.
https://www.provideocoalition.co ... oting-as-an-option/

"Loop Recording for continuous recording and overwriting according to a preset time."

Hello there Mikedefieslife. Good day and thank you for reaching out. On the camera view, please click the mode icon in the lower left corner > Video Mode > slide up at the bottom of the screen > click the "Loop Duration" setting in the upper left corner, set a non-"OFF" option, that is, enable the loop recording function. Then the DJI Osmo Action 3 can be used as  ”Dashcam Mode“. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-18 22:42
Hello there Mikedefieslife. Good day and thank you for reaching out. On the camera view, please click the mode icon in the lower left corner > Video Mode > slide up at the bottom of the screen > click the "Loop Duration" setting in the upper left corner, set a non-"OFF" option, that is, enable the loop recording function. Then the DJI Osmo Action 3 can be used as  ”Dashcam Mode“. Thank you.

I just got an Osmo Action 3, and the "Loop" mode does NOT behave like a dashcam at all. It appears to take only short video segments that total up to the loop time (+1 recording). If you set it to 5 minutes, attach it to your helmet, and go ride, instead of filling the card with 5-minute segments until it's full and then overwriting the oldest segment, you'll only ever get the most recent 5 minutes of video!

This is extraordinarily frustrating. The user manual offers almost no clarity on this whatsoever, and it definitely doesn't bother defining what "max" means, either. So I guess it's up to us who forked over our cash to buy one to just sort of try to figure it out ourselves through extensive experimentation and hope we connected the mystery dots together properly?

I'm sure someone can come up with a good use case for that kind of backwards implementation, but it makes dealing with recordings very different compared to a dash cam concept.

I really think DJI is missing out on what is legitimately very simple software tweaks that could make the Osmo Action 3 immediately stand out against the GoPro. Call it "dashcam mode" if you like, but there are only 3 tweaks to make. In Dashcam Mode:

1) Loop setting refers to how long the video segments should be. 1, 3, and 5 minute options.
2) New videos are produced until the card is full, at which point the oldest segments are overwritten. Even if those segments are from a previous "session" because the battery had to be swapped out.
3) The shutter/record button when pressed in Dashcam mode moves the current segment and either the one before or the one to follow to a separate protected folder (often called "RO" for Read Only) that does not get overwritten. It can still be powered on and off via the power button, and if left in Dashcam mode will pick up where it left off unless manually changing modes or using the Quick Switch button into something else.

PS The previous or next video segment is important because the action could have started before you pressed the shutter/record button, and if you're still in the first half of the video segment you may miss the beginning of it. Or if you're in the second half of the video segment then the action may be continuing into the next clip. So it just depends on if it's less than half-way through the current segment length in which case keep the previous clip as well, or if it's more than halfway through in which case also keep the next segment to come.

No hardware changes required.

It's legitimately not difficult, and for those of us who don't just use a selfie stick to film ourselves jumping into a pool #hashtag but actually ride with it on our helmets or spend all day with it on our chest, it would make it such a great option. The GoPro sucks at it, too, so if you do it right, you jump up DJI's stock.

Firekite Posted at 12-1 21:14
I just got an Osmo Action 3, and the "Loop" mode does NOT behave like a dashcam at all. It appears to take only short video segments that total up to the loop time (+1 recording). If you set it to 5 minutes, attach it to your helmet, and go ride, instead of filling the card with 5-minute segments until it's full and then overwriting the oldest segment, you'll only ever get the most recent 5 minutes of video!

This is extraordinarily frustrating. The user manual offers almost no clarity on this whatsoever, and it definitely doesn't bother defining what "max" means, either. So I guess it's up to us who forked over our cash to buy one to just sort of try to figure it out ourselves through extensive experimentation and hope we connected the mystery dots together properly?

For use as a helmet camera, you just use it as usual and let it fill up the memory card.
Or did you perhaps mean to have the option of being able to save if something has happened, e.g. in the last 1-3-5 minutes?
Sees that OA3 writes to a new file after around 4 minutes (4.3GB limitation).

I have not tried Loop Recording before but now I did. I believe the purpose of the Loop Recording was not a Dashcam mode but a Loop Recording mode and people who used dashcams may confuse the two.

If you are a nature enthusiast and you see a frog sitting on a rock and you want to record the moment the frog jumps into the water, why waste the space on your memory card for recording for 2 hours when the frog might not even jump? So you put it into Loop Recording mode and the camera keeps recording small segments, overwriting the oldest segment.

However, I am not sure if anyone tried the Loop Recording mode, it does not actually create a 5 or 20 minute segment recording. Instead, it creates smaller segments that TOTAL the loop time you selected. In my case, I used 1080p recording. When I selected a 5-minute loop and run the recording for 11 minutes, I had five 1-minute segments on the card. (And there was a sixth recording which was a partial recording in progress when I happened to press the shutter.)

However, when I selected the next interval (which is 20 minutes) and recorded for 21 minutes, the camera recorded ten 2-minute segments.

So there's some sort of logic as to how long the individual segments will be based on the loop time and (possibly) the resolution you select. Because as you can see it from my test, a 5 minute segment will NOT be a single 5 minute file but five 1-minute files.

It's interesting though that when I look at the recording on the camera, it does show a single 5 or 20 minute recording. But on the memory card those are all separate files (5 and 10 respectively).

get a gopro then. preformance modes,  they are.

    maybe DJI can make a  profile called dashcam, then they should start making that  nightlapse one as well.  vehicle  light mode , painting mode.  etc.  I rather see them . allow us the ability to write a profile of our own name then C1 , c2 etc

osmonauta Posted at 12-1 23:48
I have not tried Loop Recording before but now I did. I believe the purpose of the Loop Recording was not a Dashcam mode but a Loop Recording mode and people who used dashcams may confuse the two.

If you are a nature enthusiast and you see a frog sitting on a rock and you want to record the moment the frog jumps into the water, why waste the space on your memory card for recording for 2 hours when the frog might not even jump? So you put it into Loop Recording mode and the camera keeps recording small segments, overwriting the oldest segment.

Yes, that frog on a rock concept appears to be what "Loop Recording" was intended for. The documentation is nearly non-existent for it, but that does appear to be its intention.

Since there's no documentation, I've had to just experiment extensively to see if I can find a worthwhile mode. It appears that having Loop Recording enabled and set to "Max" is the closest thing. It seems to produce a continuous series of 3-minute videos at ~2GB (4k60 normal video H264 with Rock Steady enabled) until the battery runs out or the card is full, which is essentially what I was hoping for.

The only thing missing is the ability to use the shutter/record button as a "mark" button to move those selected videos to a read-only status/folder so that they don't get overwritten later. For now, using as large a card as possible (256GB in the case of the Action 3) is the best hope for avoiding overwrites before you can offload the videos.

Fishycomics Posted at 12-2 05:22
get a gopro then. preformance modes,  they are.

    maybe DJI can make a  profile called dashcam, then they should start making that  nightlapse one as well.  vehicle  light mode , painting mode.  etc.  I rather see them . allow us the ability to write a profile of our own name then C1 , c2 etc

They're not mutually exclusive. It would be very easy for them to make a small software update to allow naming of custom modes, which would be great.

I don't know what "painting mode" and the others are or would be, but it sounds like you're being sarcastic and dismissive of a very important use case for an action cam, which is to record continuous activities such as on-road or off-road motorcycling, car drives or track days, and so on.

Firekite Posted at 12-2 09:05
They're not mutually exclusive. It would be very easy for them to make a small software update to allow naming of custom modes, which would be great.

I don't know what "painting mode" and the others are or would be, but it sounds like you're being sarcastic and dismissive of a very important use case for an action cam, which is to record continuous activities such as on-road or off-road motorcycling, car drives or track days, and so on.

I think he refers to "light painting" mode.

Firekite Posted at 12-2 09:05
They're not mutually exclusive. It would be very easy for them to make a small software update to allow naming of custom modes, which would be great.

I don't know what "painting mode" and the others are or would be, but it sounds like you're being sarcastic and dismissive of a very important use case for an action cam, which is to record continuous activities such as on-road or off-road motorcycling, car drives or track days, and so on.

not sarcastic look it up with gopro. if they can make a  profile setting  then DJI can do the same

osmonauta Posted at 12-2 09:22
I think he refers to "light painting" mode.

thank you  i did not say it right sorry

Ah, right, yes there are a few different modes that would be good. The dashcam stuff is really close.

I think there are really only two changes to be made:

1) Overwrite recordings from previous session.
2) An option for the Quick Switch or Shutter/Record button to be short-pressed to take the current recording(s) and move them to a Read Only subfolder or otherwise "mark" them in some way to ensure they don't get overwritten. Ideally a photo of that moment would be captured as well.