DJI OSMO Action 5 Pro Review and Sample Footage

by Gunther MachuToday

It is that time of the year again when a new generation of action cams is announced from DJI and GoPro. It is also that time of year when I am heading into the Austrian Alps with my trusty mountain bike crew. What better place than the Alps to test and review the new DJI OSMO Action 5 Pro? Curious to hear my thoughts? Then read on …

Well, same procedure as every year. I am picking up the new DJI OSMO Action 5 Pro camera from the
CineD headquarters in Vienna in early September. DJI sent the adventure combo, which includes two additional batteries, and there is also a selfie stick I’ll take along on the trip.

Please have a look at the video first, and find below a summary of what is new/different. A bonus feature of the video is related to shooting with ND filters and the artifacts that can appear.

The camera body & battery

First observation of the camera body, which is the same size as last year’s OSMO Action 4 – the rear screen is bigger, now reaching almost to the edges:

Both the front and rear screens are now OLEDs. The feel of the Record button has vastly improved, and the diving capability is now better than previously – now 20m vs 18m without an additional case. When I insert the battery, I notice the bigger size – now 1950mAh- instead of the 1770mAh of the previous generation Action 4 camera.

OSMO Action 5 Pro Camera settings
Nino shares the instructions from DJI to install the special Mimo app for camera testers, and
using the app, I am downloading the latest and greatest firmware (01.00.06.09 as of today).

The next step is looking at the camera settings. Switching to Pro mode, using D-Log M 10bit gamma curve. Aha, there is a new +/- slider for “texture,” aka sharpness and “noise reduction” – very nice! In
previous generations, these were not accessible to the user. I keep both at “0” for now.

Next discovery: in 4:3 mode, using the full sensor height, you can now shoot up to 120 frames per
second in 4K mode! Very nice, as the Action 4 cam only allowed 60fps in 4:3 (it offered
120fps in 16:9 mode, though):

Also, I am setting the cam to “Rocksteady+” mode, which crops further into the image, thus reducing the resolution but offering superior stabilization, which will be needed riding on the rocky trails. While still debating with myself if a 128GB miniSD card will be sufficient for the trip, I discover the internal storage: 47.8GB of internal storage is available for shooting! That can be a very nice backup if you run out of card space.

Now, I am ready to head out into the Austrian Alps.

DJI OSMO ACTION 5 Pro Review – field observations

First, let’s talk about battery life: not only have the batteries gotten bigger, now the processor is using 4nm technology. Hence, I could shoot around 30 minutes of footage throughout the entire day and still have 60% of the battery remaining. This is a vast improvement!

Image quality: Second, it looks like the dynamic range of the 1/1.3″ sensor has improved. Never before was I able to pull shadows like this on an action cam (again, using the official DJI D-Log M to Rec709 LUT):

Also, the auto exposure in-camera manages to maintain a nice balance between shadows and highlights without clipping:

Unfortunately, the bitrate has dropped massively compared to the OSMO Action 4, which is rather surprising.:

• in 4K 4:3 30p mode the Action 5 Pro only shows ~60Mbit/s where the Action 4 shows 130Mbit/s
• in 4K 4:3 60p mode bitrate increases to 80Mbit /s (Action 4 stays at 130 Mbit/s)
• only in 4K 4:3 120p mode the bitrate reaches ~110 Mbit/s

This low bitrate is definitely not enough, as compression artifacts show up in darker sections of foliage and meadows or grassy areas. They become very muddy and lack any detail:

We reached out to DJI, and they were very responsive, but up until now, we haven’t gotten a factual reply on the bitrate other than their intention is to “optimize file sizes.” Hopefully, a future firmware update will resolve this, restoring the 130 Mbit/s bitrate of the previous generation Action 4!

The front and rear OLED screens are much easier to read in bright sunlight, and the Rocksteady mode on rough trails is really, really good.

Also, the sound quality has vastly improved. Previously, sound on action cameras was basically useless. You can hear yourself in the video, and I find the audio quality much improved, with less sensitivity to wind noise than before.

Additionally, you can now connect two DJI mics directly to the OSMO Action 5 Pro (without a receiver) and enable in-camera audio backup, which records an additional stereo track from the built-in camera mics.:

This feature is very handy for recording proper sound in an interview situation, for example. Well done, DJI!

Summary

All in all, I enjoyed riding my bike and shooting with the OSMO Action 5 Pro! There were no quirks, no hang-ups of any kind – the camera just felt solid and very reliable.

I do hope the low bitrate can be improved in a future firmware update because this is the only sore point I have with the camera.

Are you considering purchasing the OSMO Action 5 Pro? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.