It's Really quite phenomenal how good top-tier smartphones have gotten for shooting video in recent years, no matter whether you’re shooting insanely high resolution 4K video or 240-frames-per-second slow motion video. What hasn't changed though is us as camera operators, and jittery, shaky video is still the norm for amateur home videos. DJI, a company best known for its aerial drones, has taken the image stabilisation smarts from their drones and put it right into our hands and the result is the DJI Osmo Mobile. Available in black and the silver variant I’ve tested, the Osmo Mobile promises to change the way you shoot video with your smartphone, albeit for a pretty penny.
Before you mention it – yes, this does look a lot like the selfie sticks that have become a permanent eyesore at most popular tourist destinations but to liken this piece of technical wizardry to a selfie stick would be a real disservice. You see, atop the handle, DJI has packed in a Zenmuse M1 3-axis gimbal, which is essentially a cradle for your smartphone that detects any shakiness and vibration and counters the effect of that movement, keeping your smartphone level and vibration free. This is the same tech that has been stabilising their drone footage for years, so no surprise DJI opted for this proven approach.
Setup is easy — all you need to do is mount your phone and switch the device on. It’s rated to handle phones with as large as the larger iPhones, and the device calibrates itself to handle the size and weight of your phone so that a big phablet is as stable in use as a petite flagship. It requires 3 hours to charge, and battery life is rated at 4.5 hours, which I reckon is longer than most smartphones will manage when connected to the Osmo Mobile.
It connects to your smartphone over Bluetooth, and uses the DJI Go app to control settings. You also need the DJI Go app to use the Osmo Mobile’s special photo/video modes, including sweeping panorama shots, long exposure shots and a neat time-lapse mode, and each of these modes (activated by a trigger button on the handle) can be used with your phone’s rear or selfie cameras. The most useful feature, called ActiveTrack, allows you to choose an object on your phone screen and the Osmo Mobile will follow it as you move around, rotating the smooth smoothly to keep your target (you, a pet or a kid, for example) in the frame. It’s mostly foolproof when coupled with app’s facial tracking features, but once in a rare while the app loses its lock if you move too fast or if there’s too much activity in the frame.
The results, particularly when shooting video, are nothing short of amazing. You need only the minimal amount of effort to familiarize yourself with the device, and you can start turning out ultra-smooth, professional-looking videos almost right away…and it’s a no-brainer that DJI’s image stabilization tech works! Whether you’re a budding Spielberg or just want to livestream memorable videos of the kid at play, the Osmo Mobile truly delivers, and rather inconspicuously at that. Just keep in mind that the picture quality, frame rate and colors are really a function of what the phone
Guest Author
The author is Technology Columnist and Program Manager in Bengaluru, India
_20241105050347_original_image_18.webp)
 (1)_20241105032513_original_image_28.webp)
_20241102174200_original_image_49.webp)
