DJI O4 Air Unit Series Announced – Two New Camera Systems Available for Custom FPV Builds

Drone News

by Jakub HanToday

DJI O4 Air Unit Pro and DJI O4 Air Unit bring new features for FPV drones. Focusing on minimal size and weight (8.2g/0.29oz), the standard version has a 1/2″ image sensor with up to 4K 60fps video recording. The Pro version has a 1/1.3″ sensor capable of 4K 120fps video, 10-bit recording in D-Log M, and more.

It has been slightly over two years since DJI launched the previous generation of the Air Unit – the O3. It became apparent that the Chinese tech company follows a clear roadmap with these products. First, the new air unit found its way into the company’s own FPV drone and their Osmo action camera, and a few months after that, it was released as a standalone kit available for other FPV drone builders.

This remains the case with the new DJI O4 Air Unit Pro – first, we saw the camera in the Osmo Action 4, then in the DJI Avata 2 drone, and now the O4 Air Unit is here as a kit ready to be used in various FPV drone builds. Let’s take a look at the details.

DJI O4 Air Unit series – two models for different use cases

This is the first time DJI has released two different Air Unit models, and they are designed to cater to different use cases:

• DJI O4 Air Unit – This model is designed mainly for freestyle and drone racing, so image quality is not the main focus. It only weighs 8.2g/0.29oz and has a 1/2″ CMOS camera with 117.6° FOV capable of 4K up to 60 fps video. There is 23GB of built-in storage but no support for memory cards. With its single-antenna design, the O4 Air Unit has a 20ms lowest video transmission latency, up to 10km range, and 1080p 100fps H.265 (up to 60Mbps) live view quality. It seems that this is the same camera module as the one used in the DJI Neo.

• DJI O4 Air Unit Pro – designed for the highest image quality, so it will most likely find its way into cinewhoops and other drones whose main purpose is producing FPV videos.

As we at CineD tend to use drones primarily for video capturing, I will focus on the more interesting Pro version in this article.

DJI O4 Air Unit Pro – Avata 2 camera system now available for custom builds

The DJI O4 Air Unit Pro is basically the same system previously used in the DJI Avata 2 (as was the case with the Air Unit 3 and the first DJI Avata). The weight of the whole system is 32g/1.13oz.

The Pro version features a dual-antenna design that enables sending a 1080p 100fps H.265 (up to 60Mbps) live video signal to the goggles with a latency as low as 15ms over the maximum distance of 15km (O4 video transmission).

The camera module features a 1/1.3″ CMOS image sensor with an ultra-wide FOV of 155°, which is capable of various recording modes (and yes, just like the Avata 2, the O4 Air Unit Pro does not support 24fps and 25fps modes):

• 4K 4:3 (3840 x 2880) at 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps
• 4K 16:9 (3840 x 2160) at 30, 48, 50, 60, 100, and 120 fps
• 2.7K 4:3 (2888 x 2016) at 30, 48, 50, and 60 fps
• 2.7K 16:9 (2688 x 1512) at 30, 48, 50, 60, 100, and 120 fps
• 1080p 4:3 (1440 x 1080) at 30, 48, 50, 60, 100, and 120 fps
• 1080p 16:9 (1920 x 1080) at 30, 48, 50, 60, 100, and 120 fps

The video files use an MP4 container and have a maximum bitrate of 130Mbps. For maximum color flexibility, the camera can also record the videos in H.265 10-bit color depth with the D-Log M color profile.

Just like with the DJI Avata 2, the camera can apply RockSteady electronic stabilization to the footage without stabilizing anything in post-production. For more control, the footage also includes gyro data, so it can be stabilized with Gyroflow software.

The O4 Air Unit Pro only has 4GB of built-in storage, but it has a slot for a MicroSD card (it supports SDXC cards up to 512GB). DJI made the camera enclosure the same as the one in Avata 2, so you can use the Avata 2 ND filters for the Air Unit Pro.

Goggles compatibility

When it comes to compatibility with DJI Goggles and controllers, both O4 Air Units will work with the following models according to DJI:

• DJI Goggles 2 + DJI FPV Remote Controller 2
• DJI Goggles Integra + DJI FPV Remote Controller 2
• DJI Goggles 3 + DJI FPV Remote Controller 3
• DJI Goggles N3 + DJI FPV Remote Controller 3

Price and availability

Both DJI O4 Air Unit versions are available now, and DJI said they have already begun to ship the units. The pricing for the complete sets is as follows:

• DJI O4 Air Unit (including a camera module, transmission module, 3-in-1 cable, and antenna) sells for $109 (around €120 including VAT in Europe).
• DJI O4 Air Unit Pro (including a camera module, transmission module, 3-in-1 cable, and two antennas) retails for $229 (around €250, including VAT, in Europe).

In addition to offering complete sets, DJI also made the individual components available for purchase separately.

Do you use FPV drones for your productions? What do you think about the new DJI O4 Air Units? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section underneath the article.