I’m quite new to video creation. Whilst I’ve been writing articles on the internet for over 10 years, I’ve only just started creating videos for my own channels as of January this year. For my TikTok and Instagram, I’ve primarily been using my iPhone 14/15 Pro to record videos and almost always shooting in portrait mode, which is why the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 has been an absolute game changer over the last month or so.
The biggest difference here is the screen, which people had a fairly big issue with in the Pocket 2. The Pocket 3 has a 2-inch OLED touchscreen that is not only larger than the one in the Pocket 2, but it can now be rotated into both portrait and landscape mode.
This works super well and doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, instead it was allowing me to frame my videos a lot better and quickly switch from shooting in portrait to quickly get shots in landscape as well.
The Pocket 3 has a 1-inch CMOS sensor that is capable of shooting in 4K/120 FPS and I was really impressed with the quality of the footage that I was shooting, whether it was indoors, outdoors or in low light. For those that are serious creators, you’ve got full D-Log M and 10-bit/HLG functionality as well.
I’m more of a stable shooter than someone who vlogs on the go, but the stabilisation provided by the 3-axis gimbal and Active Track 6.0 might change that for me. with Face Detect it was able to pick up my face instantly and follow it around without it feeling like it was yanking the shot around or feeling nauseating. Similarly, you’re able to flip the gimbal with the quick tap of the button to put it into selfie mode and there’s a 4x digital zoom.
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Whilst I’m not a huge vlogger, I am somebody who shoots products a lot, with a shooting style that is fast-paced and sweeps across products on a table and also use a lot of zoom walking towards or away from products so the stabilisation on offer here was massively helpful.
There’s also a really great Product Showcase mode (similar to that found in Sony’s ZV camera line) that quickly brings products into focus and pushes them out again when they’re out of the line of sight for the camera.
There’s a number of shooting modes including SpinShot which spins the camera around 180 degrees smoothly, motionlapse which is great for capturing events that take place over a long time and panorama.
There’s three microphones in the Osmo Pocket 3 and I was really surprised with how good the audio quality is, but if you’re wanting to interview someone or position the camera a little bit away, the Pocket 3 is compatible with the DJI Mic and the newly revealed DJI Mic 2 that comes with the Creator Combo.
I was really amazed with how well this goes with the Pocket 3. It was super easy to pair with the device, showed me levels on the Pocket 3 itself which was super helpful and synced the audio up perfectly.
The great thing with the Mic 2 is that it has onboard storage as well, so you if you want to just record audio, you can do that using the mic itself and then plug it in to get that footage off. It also has a new transparent design and whilst I didn’t have an original Mic to compare, it did look to be smaller.
The greatest compliment that I can give the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is that everything just works and works really well, and I’d highly recommend getting the Creator Combo for an extra $280 as it has a bunch of great accessories that make the experience that much better.
You obviously get the Pocket 3 itself, but you also get the battery handle which not only makes for a better grip, but almost doubles the battery charge of the device itself (even though it can be charged to 80% in less than 20 minutes). You also get a Mini Tripod, a wide lens, a carrying back and protector for the camera itself and the DJI Mic 2 transmitter (the receiver is built into the camera).
To use the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, you’ll need to connect it to an iOS or Android device and the DJI Mimo app which is required during setup. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it actually is a really useful app allowing you to connect directly to your device to access the footage/photos or just use the larger phone screen to change settings or use it as a viewfinder.
