There’s a lot to like about the DJI Osmo Action line of action cameras (well, maybe a little less about version 2, but that’s a different beast). They don’t do everything exactly the same way as the GoPro HERO Black editions, but they’re clearly aiming to be head-to-head competitors. And DJI has the chops and street cred to mount a real challenge.
I own all of the DJI Osmo Action models, and I shoot with them alongside my GoPros. Each system has its own strengths and weaknesses. There are areas where the DJI cameras hold the edge: larger sensor, better color rendition particularly underwater, higher resolution.
But one of my persistent gripes with the Osmo Action cameras when it comes to shooting still photos is that they haven’t had a burst mode to shoot rapid sequences of photos. It’s a feature I find very useful when shooting fast action, and it’s something that has been standard on GoPros for a long time. But it has been conspicuously absent on the Osmo Actions.
But with the brand new Osmo Action 5 Pro, DJI has finally rectified that.
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Well, sort of. The good news is that it adds a new burst mode for shooting photos. The less impressive news is that the available selection of framerates isn’t going to knock your socks off. A maximum of 3 frames per second is, frankly, pretty slow. But it’s at least a step in the right direction.
The available frame rates are:
| Mode | Frames | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 2p1s | 2 frames | 1 second |
| 3p1s | 3 frames | 1 second |
| 6p3s | 6 frames | 3 seconds |
| 9p3s | 9 frames | 3 seconds |
These are available whether you’re shooting in JPG or RAW (which is technically RAW+JPEG). And regardless of the image size, right up to the maximum 40MP.
DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro vs GoPro HERO13 Black: Burst modes
On my GoPros, I find the burst mode incredibly useful for fast-moving action. GoPros are not the most responsive cameras–the shutter is a bit sluggish, and there’s a lot wait between shots–and framing the shot can be a bit of a challenge. So the fast burst mode gives you a much more forgiving option for grabbing just the moment you want.
While it’s still not perfect by any means, the GoPro’s burst mode is both much more capable and also smarter.
By more capable, I mean that there’s a much larger range of available frame rates, as well as much faster ones, all the way up to 30 frames in a second. This, for example, is the list of available combinations on the GoPro HERO13 Black.
| Mode | Frames | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Up to 30 frames | 1 second |
| 30/1s | 30 frames | 1 second |
| 10/1s | 10 frames | 1 second |
| 5/1s | 5 frames | 1 second |
| 3/1s | 3 frames | 1 second |
| 30/3s | 30 frames | 3 seconds |
| 10/3s | 10 frames | 3 seconds |
| 60/6s | 60 frames | 6 seconds |
| 30/6s | 30 frames | 6 seconds |
| 60/10s | 60 frames | 10 seconds |
By smarter, I’m referring to the Auto framerate. That works a little differently, in that rather than assigning a fixed frame rate that might result in underexposed images because the shutter speed has to be too fast in order to accommodate the frame rate, it calculates the optimum balance of frame rate and correctly exposed images. It’s most useful in lower-light situations.
And, technically, on the GoPro you can also use the frame grab from video feature if you need even higher frame rate. That won’t give you the same maximum resolution, and there can be some image quality penalties, but it works in a pinch. But that’s a topic for a separate post and I’ll cover that in more detail separately.
