I love creating content, but when I am on the go, I am less motivated to do so if I have to lug a lot of gear. Travelling light, especially when I am alone, makes me a much more agile creator. While phones have become amazing at video, you may actually want to use yours as, I do not know, a phone sometimes. Action cams are small and light, but they are not designed for vlogging. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4, the latest in DJI’s line of handhelds, is compact, lightweight, high-quality and user-friendly, making it a perfect camera for on-the-go shooting.
As with all DJI cameras, you can purchase it in multiple bundles. We tested the Creator Combo, which includes the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, a DJI Mic 3 transmitter, an attachable fill light, a wide-angle lens, the Osmo Mini Tripod and a carrying pouch for all of it, as well as the accessories that come with the standard combo: a handle with a 1/4-inch thread and a gimbal clamp.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is built for perfect, one-handed operation, with everything right at your thumb. Flipping the 2-inch touchscreen turns on the camera and reveals the zoom and multifunction buttons. Flipping the screen back to horizontal changes the orientation for horizontal shooting, but can also turn the camera off if you choose. The record button and joystick are always available, letting you shoot and control the gimbal’s movement in a very run-and-gun fashion.
“The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is compact, lightweight, high-quality and user-friendly, making it a perfect camera for on-the-go shooting.”
The camera has three built-in microphones, designed for capturing audio and providing high-quality noise reduction. In most cases, if you are using the camera for personal vlogging, it is more than enough to capture broadcast-quality audio without the included transmitter. The DJI Mic 3 transmitter is best used when the subject is farther from the camera or when you want to use the Mic 3’s 32-bit float while recording safety audio.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 has an improved 1-inch CMOS sensor that can shoot 4K at 60 FPS or 30 FPS in low-light mode, with 2x lossless zoom. It is also capable of 4K/240 FPS for slow-motion capture. It has a 20 mm-equivalent lens with f/2.0 aperture and a 14-stop dynamic range to give you the light levels you need under almost any conditions. You can shoot in 10-bit D-Log, an upgrade over the Pocket 3’s D-Log M, giving you amazing colour information so you can have the best control over your image in post-production.
The actual quality of the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is outstanding. I would say that it comfortably looks as good as a mirrorless camera like the Sony ZV-E10 with a simple lens. Good glass on a mirrorless or DSLR is always going to make the difference when it comes to the highest quality, though. But at an incredibly lower price point than the mirrorless or the lens on its own, you are getting something more portable that produces an image you could not have conceived of even a couple of years ago.
“The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is built for perfect, one-handed operation, with everything right at your thumb.”
A huge part of what makes the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 so great is its three-axis gimbal. In addition to the stability it provides when you are walking around doing a vlog or trying to capture good slow motion while on the move, ActiveTrack is the biggest game-changer. By tapping on a subject on the screen, you can lock onto them, and it will follow them anywhere within the gimbal’s range, with 293 degrees of pan and 190 degrees of tilt.
You can also save faces to the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, allowing ActiveTrack to instantly recognize you when you appear on camera and lock on. It is only really useful if the face, or faces, on camera are ones that are saved. Otherwise, it tends to edge other subjects out of the frame. With all the tracking you will be doing, focus needs to be top of mind, and DJI’s Intelligent AF is fantastic. I have experienced no focus breathing when moving around, just subjects that stay in perfect focus.
To capture the highest-quality videos, you have plenty of storage, as the Pocket 4 supports a microSD card up to 1 TB. The camera also includes 107 GB of internal storage for times when even your SD card isn’t enough. You can also transfer at up to 800 MB/s, so you can use that internal storage and quickly transfer to another device without ever needing an SD card.
Battery life is the one place where I am not fully satisfied. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 has a 1,545 mAh battery that will drain quickly if you are shooting a lot at the highest resolution and frame rate. The good news, great news, really, is that the battery can be charged to 80 percent in as little as 18 minutes, but sometimes I cannot afford any downtime. I wish the battery were removable and that, like the Osmo Action series, the camera came with multiple batteries in a charging case so you could swap batteries and keep shooting.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Creator Combo comes in at US$609, with the Standard Combo costing US$477. For what the Creator Combo gives you, you are getting value. The DJI Mic 3 transmitter and fill light alone are fantastic tools, but the camera on its own is worth the money for every creator who is trying to maintain high production quality in a form factor that you can toss in a bag, or, obviously, your pocket, and be ready to shoot at any moment. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 will be the best content weapon in your arsenal.
