DJI’s Osmo Could Revolutionize Your Filmmaking

Many wedding videographers rely on Glidecams or bulky stabilizer rigs to keep footage steady as they move. DJI, well known for their drones and Ronin line of stabilizers, has a new and very innovative stabilizer that lets you record high quality, highly-stabilized video in a very compact and affordable package.

It’s called the Osmo.

Rather than mount your DSLR or mirrorless into a double handlebar rig, the Osmo is an all-in-one solution that features a camera and 3-axis stabilizer in one portable package.

The handle has controls for positioning the camera and changing shooting angles. It offers a panorama mode that will pan the camera in 360 degrees and stitch together the resulting image. You can lock it in place or shoot underslung or in flashlight mode, with the camera pointed straight ahead.

The handle has a tripod mount and a smartphone holder, which you can use as a viewfinder for the camera. Using the DJI Go app on your mobile device, you can change camera exposure settings as well as position the camera with the swipe of your finger. You smartphone doesn’t have to be attached to the Osmo for remote control, either. According to DJI, a mobile device can control the Osmo camera from up to 25 meters away via Wi-Fi.

The handle also features a stereo mic and a 3.5mm audio jack and DJI will offer several accessory mounts for the Osmo.

The camera that ships with the Osmo–the X3– features 4K video recording (4096×2160), 12-megapixel still image capture and a 94 degree field of view. The sensor is 1/2.3 inches in size. The camera can also record HD video at up to 120 fps. There are long exposure and time-lapse modes as well.

The camera is interchangeable too, and will work with any model in DJI’s Zenmuse line. If you want to improve the resolution, you can upgrade the camera to the recently introduced X5 and X5R for more cinema-quality features.

The Osmo features a removable battery rated for about an hour of use and stores footage to microSD cards.

The camera and stabilizer will retail for $650 when they start shipping next week. We’ve dropped a few more pics of the Osmo below the video.