billkoep
lvl.1
United States
Offline
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Just received my OSMO direct from China via FedEx this morning. Nicely packaged -- almost Apple-like in the design aesthetic, and everything that was supposed to be in the box was there. I got out the battery and charger first to juice it up while I looked over the rest of the bundle. The instructions are the same as those found on the Downloads section of the support page for OSMO, minus the more detailed User Manual which is online only. Quality of the manufacturing appears to be quite good -- about what you might expect from Sony. The case is nicely padded, custom formed to the OSMO with the mobile device holder attached, but there is no space for the charger, power cable, or a spare battery.
Once the battery charger lit up green, I installed the battery into the handle, and noticed the balance of the unit improved with that lower weight. I have an iPhone 6 in a Speck case, and it easily slipped into the mobile device holder. I was worried I might have to remove the case, and relieved when I found it could stay on. Now the total weight increased to the point that I found holding it one-handed could get a little tiring after a few minutes. Supporting the phone helps. Still, it is far lighter than any of the other stabilization rigs I have tried in the past with their passive gimbals and weights.
I followed the reccommended procedure to unlock the gimbal, and found that very straightforward. Next I powered on the OSMO, and the LEDs on the handle lit up. I then went to the Wi-Fi setings on the iPhone and easily found the OSMO in the network list. The default password 12341234 worked. Launching the DJI GO app, the OSMO was already on screen. I had to follow the instructions to activate the unit through my DJI account, and all that went very smoothly. I then had picture on my iPhane, and was ready to start testing.
The smooth-tracking mode is on by default, and it worked very nicely right off the bat. However, I noticed that the picture was tilted on the iPhone screen. I went into the settings and found an adjustment for the Horizon. With a little trial and error I got the camera level with a setting of +3.8. I then tried recalibrating the gimbal, and it put itself back into the original tilt, requiring me to manually return to my +3.8 horizon adjustment. EDIT - I don't know why I was getting that initial error, but a gimbal calibration fixed the problem.
Lock mode works perfectly, keeping the camera pointed in the same direction no matter what you do (within the limits of the gimbal).
The only problem I have found with the OSMO so far is in the smooth-tracking with the roll axis (again, the horizon). If I turn around to point the camera 180º (panning with my body) the image will be skewed with the top tilting in the direction of the turn. After about 6 to 10 seconds of holding the OSMO still the image will level itself out. I can only attribute this to a torque reaction in one of the gyroscopes, and hope DJI will come up with an adjustment to help compensate for the unwanted roll, as it will make certain walk-around-an-object shots wind up canted. It wouldn't be so bad if the return to level happened in sync with the other smooth-tracking compensation with all motion settling at the same time. EDIT - This problem was also fixed by returning the horizon offset back to zero and doing a gimbal recalibration. Works perfectly now. (Thanks, mikewang!)
My first 4K video recording looked comparable to footage from my Hero Black, but it was indoors under LED lighting -- not the best way to judge. I much prefer the field of view in the OSMO lens. There was more grain that I expected in what should have been decent indoor conditions, and the AWB had a warmer cast than I would have hoped for. Moving in for a close-up under 2 feet resulted in a blurry image. Some exterior shots tomorrow should offer a better chance for analysis.
Battery life seems a little shy of the advertised 65 minutes, but I wasn't clocking it. I'm sure a spare will be a good thing to have. It does recharge in about an hour, and you will see a recharge count in the GO app.
The gimbal itself is fairly quiet -- nothing you would hear from more than a foot or two from the OSMO in a very quiet room -- but the little fan inside the camera head whirs with an audible tone that might become a problem in some situations. That was a complete surprise to me -- I didn't read anything about a fan in there -- but the electronics in that little orb seem to get pretty hot, so it must be necessary. As I will probably record separate audio for any serious projects anyway, the on-board will mic will only be used for post-production audio syncing, so it's not a big deal for me.
Intiial conclusion: I think this will be a very useful tool once a few first-version kinks get worked out. The price point seems reasonable for the quality of manufacturing. It would be nice to have some explanation of the DJI GO app's controls (as they apply to the OSMO), but most of what you see on screen is fairly intuitive. I hope DJI can tame the roll/tilt issue when moving the handle in a horizontal arc. EDIT - Not a problem after the gimbal recal. Works great! And I'm really looking forward to trying the extension handle for jib-arm shots once that and the extra battery I ordered arrive.
If other users are NOT experiencing the tilt/roll issue when moving the camera in a horizontal arc, I would appreciate hearing about it. Maybe my unit has a slight flaw. EDIT - No flaw -- user error. Thanks for all the help below!
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