Lastly, a worthy GoPro rival

DJI is a significant participant within the digicam market with its drones and gimbals, so why hasn’t it had the identical success with motion cams? The reply is straightforward: GoPro. The corporate’s Hero lineup has provided superior picture high quality and stabilization. The identical goes for Insta360’s motion cams, which have caught the general public’s creativeness.

Now, DJI’s taking one other shot at its rivals with the $350 Osmo Motion 5 Professional, which is maybe the largest improve but on this sequence. Practically every little thing on the within has modified, from the sensor to battery life and storage. Nonetheless, it appears to be like similar to its predecessor, the Osmo Motion 4.

Video high quality solely goes as much as 4K on the brand new mannequin although, in comparison with 5.3K for the newest GoPro Hero 13 and 8K for the Insta360 Ace Professional 2 launched final week. Nonetheless, the Motion 5 Professional surpasses its rivals in a number of key areas and it’s simply DJI’s finest motion digicam but.

Lengthy battery life and inside storage

The Motion 5 Professional now boasts the longest battery lifetime of any motion cam and it’s not even shut. Due to the higher-capacity 1,950 mAh battery (up from 1,770 mAh), it will possibly shoot 4K 60p video for nicely over two hours and 1080p for 4 hours. By comparability, the GoPro Hero 13 can solely go 88 minutes at 4K 60p with a similar-sized battery. One other rival, the Insta360 Ace Professional 2, can run a bit greater than 90 minutes on the similar decision.

With the elective charger (accessible within the $400 Journey Combo with two further batteries), it takes about half-hour to completely replenish a battery. Three batteries must be sufficient for most individuals to shoot a complete day at 4K 60p with out recharging — fairly spectacular for an motion digicam.

One other huge improve on the Motion 5 Professional is the 47GB of inside storage, in comparison with zero earlier than, on high of a microSD slot. This lets you nonetheless seize a further hour or so of 4K 60p footage while you refill your reminiscence card. Neither the Hero 13 nor Insta360’s Ace Professional 2 have any inside storage.

At 5.15 ounces, the Motion 5 Professional is a bit smaller and lighter than the Hero 23, which weighs 5.6 ounces. On high of that, the Motion 5 Professional is waterproof all the way down to 66 ft by itself, which is double the Hero 13’s restrict. If you actually need to go deeper, DJI’s waterproof case extends the utmost depth for this system to just about 200 ft.

DJI elevated the rear OLED show’s dimension from 2.25 to 2.5 inches by shrinking the bezels — a small change that makes the touchscreen menus simpler to make use of. The 1.4-inch entrance OLED panel can be barely greater than earlier than. Each screens are sharp and simple to see in daylight with as much as 800 nits of most brightness.

The Motion 5 Professional’s textured physique supplies a agency grip, and the report and energy buttons are bigger and fewer stiff than on the Motion 4. Settings might be modified from the rear show by swiping up and down or aspect to aspect, although it may be arduous to recollect the place settings are. You too can join your smartphone utilizing the Mimo app to function the digicam and achieve entry to modifying options. An fascinating addition is the brand new stress sensor that exhibits how deep you’re diving or your altitude when climbing — a helpful characteristic that rival cameras lack.

One factor I’ve liked about DJI’s previous few motion cameras is the magnetic mounting system. It helps you to immediately clip the Motion 5 Professional to just about any accent, together with automobile, bike, helmet and chest mounts, with out the necessity to fiddle with screws or clumsy brackets. That stated, GoPro lastly carried out its personal magnetic mount on the Hero 13 and the Ace Professional 2 has an analogous system as nicely.

DJI has fallen behind its fundamental rival within the space of optics, although. GoPro’s Hero 13 now helps elective detachable lenses, letting you alter from a typical extensive angle area of view to ultra-wide, macro and extra. Whereas they’re pretty costly, it’s a pleasant choice in order for you one thing aside from the standard motion digicam look.

Sharper video and topic monitoring

With a brand new 1/1.3-inch 40-megapixel sensor, the Motion 5 Professional has a sensor that’s the similar dimension as its predecessor however is sort of 4 occasions sharper. It’s a lot bigger than the GoPro Hero 13’s sensor with greater than double the world. That further dimension helps the Motion 5 Professional produce clearer photographs with extra element, particularly in decrease gentle.

You possibly can shoot 4K at as much as 120 fps, or 1080p at 240 fps for tremendous slow-mo. There’s a brand new twist, although, with “open gate” 4:3 seize at 3,840 x 2,880 decision, additionally as much as 120 fps. That squarish body makes it simpler to crop vertically for social media whereas nonetheless retaining full 4K width. One other new characteristic is 10-bit help for normal video as a substitute of simply D-LogM as earlier than. Nonetheless, the GoPro Hero 13 helps sharper 5.3K video that permits for much more cropping choices in put up. And the Insta360 Ace Professional 2 can shoot as much as 8K 30p video or 4K open gate just like the Motion 5 Professional.

As with different DJI merchandise, the Motion 5 Professional shoots shiny and colourful video straight out of the digicam. Nonetheless, to my eye the colours look much less pure than on the GoPro Hero 13. Pores and skin tones aren’t as heat, and the colours are too intense for my style. The flexibility to shoot 10-bit coloration in common mode is an enormous assist, offering further room to edit with out taking pictures D-LogM, which might be difficult for rookies. My desire continues to be to shoot D-LogM then apply DJI’s LUT in put up. That yields extra pure, much less saturated colours and offers you as much as 13.5 stops of dynamic vary in difficult lighting circumstances, like taking pictures in a forest on a sunny day.

Due to the larger sensor, the Motion 5 Professional is superior to the GoPro Hero 13 in low gentle, with far much less noise and artifacts. If issues actually get darkish, the brand new Tremendous Evening Mode additional brightens video, however the aggressive noise discount utilized can create a synthetic look and scale back sharpness. Low-light high quality is just like the Insta360, as each have comparable 1/1.3-inch sensors. And whereas it’s not primarily a photograph digicam, the Motion 5 Professional can shoot 40-megapixel pictures in comparison with 27-megapixel stills for the GoPro Hero 13.

Video stabilization is paramount for motion cameras and an enormous purpose why GoPro has dominated for therefore lengthy. Nonetheless, the Motion 5 Professional is lastly as much as that degree with its newest RockSteady 3.0+ stabilization. I attempted it via a mixture of sports activities, together with biking, swimming and kayaking and it delivered secure photographs with not one of the minor weaving or jolting that I’ve seen earlier than. As earlier than, it additionally presents HorizonBalancing to maintain the picture degree even when the digicam tilts as much as 45 levels. One other mode, HorizonSteady, retains the picture degree even in the event you rotate the digicam 360 levels.

A key new characteristic on the Motion 5 Professional is topic centering and monitoring that lets creators shoot with out a gimbal. As with different DJI merchandise (like ActiveTrack on drones), it detects a topic’s place and dynamically adjusts the composition to maintain them centered within the body. Although it’s restricted to 2.7K decision, it labored nicely to border me close to the center of the shot throughout actions like biking and swimming.

Lastly, let’s speak about audio. On high of the built-in microphones that supply first rate high quality, the Motion 5 Professional connects on to DJI’s Mic 2 transmitters over Bluetooth (as much as two at a time). These mics enable top quality audio seize and robotically scale back noise, even in the event you’re filming motion like a mountain biker on a gnarly descent. It’s straightforward to arrange and must be a success with creators, given the recognition of the Mic 2.

Wrap-up

The DJI Osmo Motion 5 Professional prices $350, whereas the Hero 13 Professional and Insta360’s Ace Professional 2 are priced at $400. The DJI beats each by way of battery life and is on par with its rivals in relation to stabilization. The Motion 5 Professional additionally presents superior low-light and log footage, although I favor the GoPro Hero 13’s video straight out of the digicam.

Taking value under consideration, the Motion 5 Professional is a really engaging choice. It’s among the finest motion cameras I’ve used, with battery life nicely above rivals, a stable waterproof development and full help for DJI’s Mic 2. For those who really feel you may profit from the additional sharpness, then the GoPro or Insta360 is perhaps a better option. However, if low-light efficiency is vital, head straight for DJI’s Motion 5 Professional.