Simon Wyndham has been using the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 since it was first released a year ago. How does it stack up over the long-term? Spoiler alert: it has its quirks but all in all it's pretty good.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 was launched to great reception in the latter half of 2023, and has gone on to be the best selling video camera of them all in Japan since. With its 1-inch sensor, surprisingly good image quality, built in gimbal and seamless connection to the DJI Mic 2 system it has proven to be one of the most popular cameras of recent times.
My camera of choice for filming reviews until I bought a Pocket 3 for myself was my trusty Panasonic S1. Despite its increasing age, I've been hard pressed to find an alternative mirrorless camera that produces as pleasing a video image, but it has one drawback. Self shooting video involves the use of what I used to consider to be a dirty word: Autofocus.
The S1 is hopeless at video autofocus, with hunting occurring almost continuously, so it was difficult and unreliable to use for self-recording myself speaking to camera. I had to manually set the focus on the lens using focus peaking on a Ninja V monitor, and hope that I sat back down in the sweet spot. Recording reviews was becoming a high stress activity.
And that brings me onto another issue of using the S1. I needed to take bigger tripods with me, the Ninja V monitor system, my RØDE wireless mics etc. All had to be charged up and unpacked, and when you're self shooting rather than filming other people it all gets a bit much. Indeed to rid myself of the faff so I could focus on the filming rather than worrying if I was getting a reliable recording, I wanted something much lighter, much more compact, with much less battery and kit requirements.
While I love the image out of the S1, for self-shot product reviews and other similar output, outright top-class image quality isn't needed. By that I mean that it isn't super important to have ultra-shallow depth of field with Alexa levels of dynamic range. Instead, it's much more important for me to get shots with less stress. It looked like the Pocket 3 would be just the thing I was after.
At the time of purchase, the Pocket 3 was in huge demand and therefore difficult to get hold of. But, Drone Safe Store came through and I managed to get the Creator Combo, which came with a battery power base, wide angle lens attachment and importantly, the glue that would hold my world together, a DJI Mic 2 transmitter.
The only potential drawback I could foresee with the system was the lack of weatherproofing, although I had seen people using it in the rain without any apparent ill effects. Although it's doubtful that DJI would recommend doing it!
So far I have shot multiple review videos using the Pocket 3. It's an incredibly easy to use device, although it does have its occasional quirks. For quick setups and portability I have found that I can attach the Pocket 3 to an extendable selfie stick, and then attach a solid compact tripod base to that. This still has a little bit of bulk to it, but I can still slide it into the outside pouch of a small backpack, or just carry it around.
Because the Pocket 3 is a gimbal based camera, I don't need to be concerned about levelling the tripod too much, and so far it has worked pretty well. I've also been using a Smartta compact motorised slider for product shots, utilising the object tracking of the Pocket 3 to keep the product in shot.
Tracking on the Pocket 3 has proven to be hit and miss. Sometimes it's very good, and at other times it falls short. In the product shots I have found that it often allows the device I'm filming to get to the edges of the frame before it begins to properly follow it, so I end up having to account for this with my initial framing. Likewise, if I'm tracking myself in a shot using the Mimo app to control it, it can easily lose lock if I move too far away or go behind an object. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, so it can end up being a bit of frustrating trial and error.
Related to the tracking is the eagerness at which it follows objects. The speed of tracking can be selected, but I have found that the camera is often too keen to follow a person with every micro movement, so it would be nice to be able to dial down it down a bit more. For example, if I'm talking to camera and I simply change the weighting on my feet, something that results in a small movement, the camera will follow me when it would be better for it to simply stay put until I moved much more to the side of the frame.
Of course, you don't have to track everything, and some of the best shots come when the camera is static. The Pocket 3 can be set to lock focus once it has begun recording. So for example, if you wanted to capture a hiking shot close-up of your boot going past the camera with the background out of focus, you can set the camera up to focus on the rock or ground you'll be stepping on and begin recording; the camera will then stay focussed on that point.
In other circumstances you'll want to take full advantage of the autofocus, and it's here that the Pocket 3 shines quite brightly. It was, after all, one of the main reasons I bought it. Aside from one shoot where I accidentally asked it to focus on the wrong point, resulting in me recording an entire camera review that turned out to be entirely out of focus, it has generally worked flawlessly.
If I just leave it to its own devices it focuses on me very accurately, with no hunting that I can detect. There's also a product focus mode that I often use, which allows me to hold the device I'm reviewing close to camera, and it will effortlessly and quickly focus on that.
Easy to use wireless audio was another reason I bought the Pocket 3. It can connect to two DJI Mic 2 transmitters. Once paired, the camera will very quickly connect to the microphone without delay. My only gripe is that the Mic 2 can only be paired to one device at any given time. So, if I want to use it with a DJI Action 5 Pro, I have to re-pair it with that device, and then again if I want to go back to using it with the Pocket 3.
The quality I've been getting from the Mic 2 to the Pocket 3 has been impressively good. Remember, it's not using Bluetooth, but DJI's own proprietary system, which transmits and records 24-bit 48Khz sound. For vlogging and reviews it's perfect.
A feature that greatly interested me about the system was the prospect of internally recording a 32-bit float backup to the Mic 2 itself. 32-bit float gives the freedom to record audio without worry about peaking and overload. It needs to be set in one of the Pocket 3's menus, but once done, each time you press record on the camera the mic will automatically record it's own on-device 32-bit float audio backup.
It all works seamlessly... Or so it seems, until you try and sync up the audio in the editing system. There doesn't appear to be any kind of accurate time syncing going on between the Pocket 3 and the Mic 2 transmitter, and you soon discover that after only a minute or so the audio goes out of sync. Unfortunately, it's pretty much impossible to get back in line without a frustrating amount of effort. It's a problem that has been brought to DJI's attention frequently, but it's an issue that has yet to be addressed in a firmware update, if it is indeed possible to do at all.
Therefore, I have always used the audio that has been transmitted to the camera. That said, having the Mic 2 with its own recording system means that if you want to go out and record sound effects or environment tracks and room tone, you can do so without the need to use the Pocket 3. Just hit the record button on the side of the mic, and you'll record 32-bit float audio for any effects you don't need critical sync for.
A small, but important convenience feature of the Mic 2 is the included magnetic 'button'. As anyone who has used any form of clip on mic knows, not all clothing is conducive to allowing good placement. The Mic 2 comes with a magnet that can be placed behind clothing, and then the microphone sits on it on the outside of the material. It doesn't work for thick garments like down jackets, but for jumpers and t-shirts it works very nicely. It's also worth noting that a traditional 3.5mm lav mic can also be plugged into the Mic 2, making for a very compact and lightweight transmitter setup with a much less intrusive looking audio pickup.
Audio levels are currently taken care of with auto-gain. For more control over the audio capture you can plug a DJI Mic 2 receiver into the USB socket of the Pocket 3. This will also allow you to use headphones for audio monitoring.
In most conditions, the Pocket 3 produces an incredibly high quality image. Far better than it really should be capable of on paper! For reviews and walk-and-talks I have found that it gives enough shallow depth of field to appear like a more expensive device. If I need to add more, I can combine it with Resolve's superb background defocus filter.
The most impressive thing about the Pocket 3 is that it maintains a high quality, low noise image even at high ISOs, so it's possible to use it in quite low light and still achieve a great image. Not just a usable one, but a very good one. Because the Pocket 3 is on a gimbal, it's possible to slow the shutter speed much more than you would be able to do on an action camera, and still retain perfect stabilisation further enhancing its ability to work well in lower light levels.
There is a dedicated low-light mode that can be used, but in the main using the Pocket 3's standard video mode gives much more acceptable results to my mind. In most scenarios, setting the camera to a detail setting of -2 and reducing the noise reduction to -2 gives the least processed look.
D-Log M is a mode that can be used to capture very gradable shots with a high degree of dynamic range. Standard mode is also capable of some great results, and in some scenarios can be the better bet. Both record to 10-bit colour precision, and HLG is also available for output directly to HDR displays.
The standard colour profile often does a better job when it comes to shooting in difficult light, such as bright backlit and sidelit conditions, due to the deft use of tone mapping. Luckily, unlike some of the more recent cameras, the tone mapping on the Pocket 3 is quite natural looking and gives a great result straight out of the camera. If you're using D-Log M in the same scenarios you might need some manual setting intervention to balance things out properly. If you're in a static situation speaking to camera, you might need to consider some light bounce if you want to expose faces properly without blowing the background out, although if we're talking about keeping things compact, that might not be practical. Just normal video lighting considerations! But, it is worth being aware that the Pocket 3 definitely looks and performs much better with the light in some directions rather than others.
Battery life has proven to be exceptionally good on both the Pocket 3 and the Mic 2. The battery base provides for an easy way to charge while still being able to use the camera, and you can plug in your own powerbase if needed for extra juice. You'll rarely need it, though.
One thing to note is that the battery base will continue to provide power to the camera even if it's turned off. Early on, I would leave the battery base connected to the camera when it was switched off, and then be rather puzzled when I found the base had no power left in it! So, the lesson here is to only connect the battery base if you actually want to charge the Pocket 3.
So far, the Pocket 3 has done everything I need from it. There are limitations, such as the lack of weatherproofing, but for the purposes I bought it for it has worked very well. Going forward to a potential Pocket 4, it might be nice to have some sort of optical zoom. The digital zoom on the Pocket 3 works remarkably well, albeit with the occasional bit of aliasing, but I have used it quite extensively. An optical zoom, even if it was limited, would give a few more creative options.
For some users, perhaps an HDMI out might be useful. I know some people who have rigged their Pocket 3s up a bit, which for me somewhat defies the purpose of a compact system. But, I can see how being able to look at things through a larger monitoring system might be beneficial in some circumstances.
It's possibly too much to hope for an eND system, as found in some Sony cameras, due to patent issues. But, someday that's something I'd like to see so that shutter speed can be used as a creative tool rather than the main way of adjusting exposure along with ISO. You can use physical NDs, and a couple of companies do make vari-NDs, albeit with the expected vignetting issues, but having an eND built in would be the Holy Grail.
Other than those minor niggles, for what the Pocket 3 is designed for it works very well. The image quality from it is incredibly good, and the ease of using it makes it fun to use. I'm no longer having to dread the thought of the amount of stuff I need to take with me for simple self-shoots, and it's a system that has been extremely reliable for me so far.
The DJI Pocket 3 is priced at £489 for the basic device, and £619 for the Creator Combo. Other packages are also available.