GoKawiilFirst they came for the drones, and now the vlogging cameras. DJI’s Osmo Pocket 4 is the first of its compact steadicams not to launch in the US, following a string of DJI drones also missing the US market.
The good news for American buyers is that the Pocket 4 is mostly an evolutionary upgrade, and there’s little it does that the Pocket 3 doesn’t (it looks like the rumored dual-lens Pro version will be more of a reinvention). The good news for everyone else is that those evolutions run throughout the Pocket 4, from the camera sensor to the controls. That makes this an unmistakable improvement over the previous generation.
Stand the Pocket 4 next to 2023’s Pocket 3 and you might not spot the difference. It’s about the same size (only slightly larger and 10g heavier), with a similar rotating screen for both portrait and landscape filming, a control stick and record button beneath that, and an identical gimbal at the top to house the camera.
The two new buttons are welcome, though you’ll still have to navigate a lot of small touchscreen menus.
The only real physical difference is a pair of additional buttons underneath the screen, revealed only when it’s flipped horizontally. One is a shortcut for the camera’s zoom controls; the other can be customized to trigger three actions of your choice, locked to a single, double, or triple press. This is oddly and arbitrarily limited, though — only the triple press can be used to change gimbal modes, and that’s the only thing you can set a triple press to do. A little more flexibility would be welcome. It feels fiddly to navigate menus using the 2-inch touchscreen, and better customization could help me do that a whole lot less.
The gimbal hardware is one of the few things that hasn’t changed since the last generation.
DJI has also upgraded the camera’s sensor, including its dynamic range, slow-motion capabilities, and low-light performance. Those hardware upgrades are bolstered with new built-in film simulations. Battery life is substantially improved too, and there’s now a generous provision of internal storage in addition to an SD card slot. It’s a more capable, user-friendly camera in almost every respect, even if it looks a lot like what came before.
The sensor is the same 1-inch type size as on the Pocket 3, but has otherwise been overhauled. It shoots at a larger resolution, with still photos now at 37 megapixels, way up from 9.4 megapixels before. Video is still capped out at 4K, but the extra pixels means it can now crop into 4x zoom without dropping from 4K, whereas the Pocket 3 was limited to 2x at that resolution. Switching to portrait recording still drops you down to 3K, though.
The new sensor has 14 stops of dynamic range, up from 12, and a doubled low-light ISO ceiling of 25,600. Combined, those make for impressive video quality in most lighting. Even in dimly lit London streets close to midnight, the Pocket 4 handled itself well. Direct lights were blown out, and the darker shadows lacked detail, but this would be perfectly usable video for most purposes.
The Pocket 4’s stabilization hasn’t been improved as significantly. There are some software tweaks, but it has the same underlying gimbal hardware as the 3. It remains excellent given the camera’s size. It’s easy to get steady handheld video, boosted by effective subject and face tracking, including a Spotlight Follow mode that prioritizes registered faces. It’s great for vlogging, able to keep footage fairly stable when walking about, though this isn’t designed to be an action cam; even a light jog results in pretty shaky video.
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