Bit of background - I've had an Osmo Action 1 for a copule of years and have used it a lot for making mountain biking videos. It's been a great little camera, but sometimes you just fancy something newer and shinier that promises the earth, so I got a GoPro 11.

I actually took it back to the shop within 24 hours and exchanged it for an Osmo Action 3 - best decision!

I used a gimbal whilst mountain biking with the OA1, and wanted to slim down my travelling kit, so something with the latest, greatest stabilisation with the biggest bestest sensor was the answer - or was it? I tried the GoPro 11, and didn't like a lot about it.

Firstly, it felt cheap. The build quality feels poor compared to the Osmo Action 1.

Secondly, I am used to having a handlebar mounted phone to check the recording view, if it needs a battery charge, how much storage I have left etc. You actually can't do that with a GoPro 11. You CAN set up the filming, but once you hit the record button it cuts the camera display to the phone. Want that function? Buy the newer model - apparently.

Thirdly, I like to use an external mic to cut out wind nose when riding by having it close to my mouth. I had the Cyanova adapter for OA1 and that worked fine. Want to add an exteral mic to GoPro? That's another £80 plus postage thank you very much. Want to add my Rode wireless go 2 to Osmo 3? Plug it in with a USB C cable.

So how good is the 5.3K and big sensor in GoPro? Honestly didn't see a difference between that and the Osmo 1 in real life.

So Osmo Action 3 road trip today. My wife went to a school reunion and I went cycling round Bath to give it a bit of a test. Low winter sun right in my face, and the HDR mode produced excellent results. This was with a chest mount, HDR mode. Stabilisation worked very well, and the audio with Rode Wireless 2 was faultless. No wind noise, and weirdly no bike noise either! Just voice and traffic.

I went along the canal tow path and old railway towards Bristol, then turned round to come back with a hanlbar mount. Stabilisation worked a treat even though I was weaving around to see what it would do! The handlebar mount was great, but I sort of like the handlebars in shot sometimes. Still, another magnetic mount and I'm all sorted.

Coming back through Bath I wanted to see what it would do on Royal Crescent. Beautiful architecture, cobbled street. No gimbal - just handlebar mount and digital stabilisation. It did brilliantly. The cobbles rattled the mount so the camera was sliding forwards, but the image was rock solid. When I was going fast over the cobbles you can see some minor jitter, but when I was riding slowly no jitter.

Now here's a thing. My old OA1 would keep running until the memory card was full, and if I ran it on external power it would do just that. Would OA3 overheat and die?? Nope. It ran for 1.5 hours until the battery died. One continuous shot. OK, I was riding a bkie and it is November, but if it had been hooked up to my charging brick it would have ran for the entire 1 hour 45 minutes I was riding.

I'm not a DJI fan-boi. I was quite happy to switch to another brand. However, based on my requirements of something I can monitor the video from whilst filming, something I can plug an external mic into without spending a fortune, something that produces good stable video then my new camera is something I'm really pleased with and totally reccomend.

awesome to hear, why did you not up the game to the Action 4, that is hte better camera of them all.

Simply because I'd paid for the Osmo Action 3 with discount vouchers from my employer that weren't transferrable, so I had to use it on the range they stocked. They didn't have a 4 in stock, but did have a 3. I'm still really happy with the choice.

I sold my Osmo Action 1 on Ebay last night. Chatting to the guy, he said his friend advised him NOT to get a GoPro because of the overheating problem, so he's happy with his choice too.