Review: DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro

DJI’s new Osmo Action 5 Pro is here to compete with the new GoPro Hero 13 Black. The company’s latest action camera is smaller and lighter, has 47 GB of built-in storage, and has battery life that GoPro owners don’t even dare to dream about.

Throw in a new, higher-resolution image sensor, improved low-light capabilities, subject tracking, and out-of-the-box support for the DJI Mic 2 wireless microphone, and you have a camera that’s not only capable of getting that shot but has the battery life to keep getting the shot long after the competition has shut down.

Go Longer

The Osmo Action 5 Pro stands out from the rest of the action camera market for its battery life. It can shoot well over two hours at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, which is far and away the longest run time of any action camera I’ve ever tested (and I’ve tested a lot). I mention this first because something that often gets lost in reviews and spec comparisons is the simple fact that any footage is better than no footage.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

To provide a concrete example, I don’t love the color rendering of the Osmo Action 5 Pro in 10-bit Normal color mode, but I’ll take it over no footage at all, which is what the GoPro Hero 13 would offer me after the 1-hour-and-45-minute recording mark when its battery would die and the camera would shut off. Battery life matters, and in the case of action cameras, given that all else—sensors, stabilization, ergonomics—can be so similar, it might be the most important factor in getting the shots you want.

The Osmo’s camera design hasn’t changed—the body is lightly textured, making it easy to hold, and it remains the same size, retaining the magnetic mounting system. (I’ve always liked that the cage for the Action series allows both vertical and horizontal mounting.) While I don’t have any accessories other than some neutral-density (ND) filters, everything that fits your Action 4 should continue to work with the Action 5. And the more capable battery? It’s backward compatible with the Action 4.