Hi All,
If you guys don't mind, I would like to share my thoughts and my first attempt with the DJI Osmo
Some background;
I haven't had much experience in shooting video and most of my shots in the past were done with my iPhone.
I do have a Sony A7 and a NEX7 which I use mainly for stills. Although they both take nice looking video, moving shots were very shaky even with OSS lens. Panning shots were still acceptable especially when using an iPhone 6 Plus but any shots in which I have to walk was really bad. Although thing is the A7/NEX7 aren't really great for video AF and i get a lot of blurr looking video clips when there's a lot of movement.
Was actually looking really hard at various 3-axis gimbals and was leaning towards something which can either mount my iPhone or a GoPro before I discovered the DJI Osmo. Always had the atmost respect for DJI after seeing their Phantom and especially their Inspire series Drones. After a quick consideration, ordered on on the 12th of October and received it on the 29th October (9 business days. Within their 10-15 business days commit to me )
Played around with it for a little while on Thursday night and Friday afternoon before I took it for a spin on Saturday.
First impression was the unit was very well built has excellent finishing. Does not feel like a cheap toy to me. DJI shipped the unit with a uncharged battery so I had to charge it before using it. Its a pitty that the bag does not have any space for another battery
Second, the fan noise is very noticable in my quiet room and the unit runs hot. However, it did not in anyway overheat or hang during my messing around with. However, when you are moving around with it, the unit does not heat up as much. I suspect it has a radiator type air vent so needs moving air to effectively cool.
I also switched the unit to use the 5 Ghz wifi frequencies as 2.4 GHz bands tend to be very crowded and I feared it will affect performance. Moreoever, 5 GHz has more bandwidth and in my thinking, should (?) improve live view performance.
Third, the Osmo is really easy to use. As someone who hasn't used any stabilzation rig before and watched videos of folks fumbling to setup their 3/5-axis rigs, this was a great relief for me. As I use both Android and iPhones, I downloaded the app onto both and played around with it. Interestingly, app performance on the iPhone 6 was a lot better on my ZTE Z7 Mini. On the Android phone, the UI was occasionally unresponsive and the live video choppy. I'll try again the Android app when I get my Nexus 6P.
Lastly, this is going to be a pretty boring video as its just me running after my kid on foot as he uses his kickboard along the beach. I shot the video at 1080p at 50 FPS, the C1 gimbal settings (I have no idea what makes up this setting but it was shipped to me set at C1), iPhone 6 connecting to the Osmo via 5 Ghz. I held the Osmo with my right hand and supported the iPhone 6 with my left and did my best not to rock it too much. Occasionally, I held down the trigger on the Osmo to shift my position or used the thumb joystick to shift the camera.
Here it is:
Basically I'm very pleased with the stabilization effect of the Osmo. When I shared this video with some of my friends without sharing what I used to shoot it, a couple of them immediately picked up that something unique was used to shoot the video. The stabilization was that good! For causal video shooters who just want to take family videos, especially of the kids running amok, I think this is really great.
I'm also pleased that the Osmo is really easy to use. I'm currently looking at how i can improve upon the video quality and improve my shooting technique. As you can see from the video, the sky is really blown out. If anyone has suggestions on what can be done to address that, I'm all ears.
I should point out that the microphone on the Osmo is really soft. Interestingly, it appears to be quite resistant to wind noise!
I do have some items which I hope DJI can address. Off the top of my head after 1 real shoot attempt;
1) When holding the trigger down to lock the gimbal position, can there be some kind of visual indicator on the point the Osmo will rotate around?
2) Any possiblility to add some object tracking functionality?
3) Option to power off gimbal when viewing videos. This will help to conserve power especially when doing transfers of the video to the phone
4) Option to change the speed and the distance moved for the thumbjoy stick. Maybe a smooth pan option?
5) Ability to do panning timelapse? The capability is there but software is needed to make it work.
6) Dual battery charger please? I'll love to buy more batteries (already ordered another spare battery, tripod, universal mount, etc)
7) LOG or other picture profiles. Would seriously love to get more dynamic range via colour grading. (I have to admit I have no idea how to do colour grading at the moment but will learn if it makes videos much better)
I'm looking at possibly getting a DJI Osmo for an upcoming trip, in this post you say you're getting a Nexus 6P soon. But acording to the speficiations the phone holder for the Osmo only fits 5.5 inch screen phones, with the Nexus 6P phone being 5.7 inches does it fit in the holder and if so how well? I wouldn't want to buy the product and then find out my phone doesn't fit in the device.
Thanks for your positive feedback.
Below are some answers to your questions:
1) When holding the Trigger, the gimbal will move according to the handle's movement while locking the shooting direction of the camera. In this way, the Joystick can't control the movement of the gimbal. Well, you can't still rotate the camera's movement in the App by pressing your finger on the screen until the yellow circle appears, but the camera's direction can't be locked.
2) Our engineers will consider this "object tracking" feature in the future, please pay attention to the official website for any update.
3) When viewing the videos in the Playback, the Osmo should be connected. To save the power of the battery, you can copy the videos from the SD card directly by plugging into your PC or mobile device. To prolong the duration of the Osmo, you can also change to use the Battery Extender, for more information, please refer to: http://forum.dji.com/thread-49176-1-1.html
4) You can go to the Gear icon->Gimbal settings and set the appropriate Smoothtrack Speed, Deadband, Accel. for the 3-axes. By pressing the screen, a yellow circle will hop on the screen along with your finger's movement, there will be a white dot in the starting point, the farther the yellow circle is from the white dot, the faster the gimbal will move, and the direction of gimbal's movements are consistent with the direction of the yellow circle to the white dot.
5) If you're referring to the pre-programmed panning timelapse, I'd say it's a reported feature and our engineers will take serious consideration. Please pay attention to our website for any further update.
6) Thanks for your support to DJI products. There'll be a quadruple battery charger, please learn more relevant information in: http://www.dji.com/newsroom/news ... h-with-the-osmo-raw
7) Please tap the Camera icon on the screen and find the Color profile, there's already many typical color settings for you. Please check.
If there's any other issue, please contact us freely.
lvl.3
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DJI team
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lvl.2