DJI OSMO ACTION 5 PRO Camera

[Nikolausz]

A new contender is DJI Action 5 Pro. It looks actually not that bad. I found a review with lots of underwater scenes in it:

 

[Davide DB]

It seems a solid upgrade.

The audio seems fantastic and the possib6to pair it directly with their external mics.

Underwater video seems good. BTW sharks clip @13:35 isn't natural light but I think is an edit mistake.

 

P.S. 

And many kudos to the snorkelist 😁

 

[bghazzal]

It does look good - not mind blowing revolutionary-good to the point that I would feel the need to buy it, but certainly a worthy, solid contender.
Wonder what the UW footage would look like with a filter and manual white-balance in post, as always...
 

Out of the 3 main acion cam brands, I'm partial to DJI.
I've been thinking about switching to their action cams in the future since the Action3, seems a little less gadgety - for lack of a better word - and maybe a little better thought-out than GoPro and the Insta360 (but of course their is some serious confirmation bias at play here 😉), and in softer price range than GoPros.

But as shocking a denial of the GAS syndrome as it may sound, I haven't felt a radical urge to upgrade my GoPro 7 blacks yet (although the swelling batteries are really starting to drive me nuts...).

Last action cam purchase was my already obsolete AOI wide lens a few months back. When the GP7 are finally put to rest (and they are getting there after years of use), big chance I will become a DJI user

Edited September 20 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

Another test (no underwater) among the bazillions review.

He was able to record a single clip for 203 minutes at 4K with BT and external mic enabled 

 

 

[homodelphinius]

Quite interesting is the "depth"sensor which add this info at the metadata.

Usefull for marine ecology / biodiversity studies at shallow waters.

Not clear if it will work also when you use the housing (assume no).

[bghazzal]

Interesting - Paralenz's depth sensor was used to adjust auto-WB based on pressure / depth for instance.

[Nikolausz]

11 hours ago, Davide DB said:

It seems a solid upgrade.

The audio seems fantastic and the possib6to pair it directly with their external mics.

Underwater video seems good. BTW sharks clip @13:35 isn't natural light but I think is an edit mistake.

 

P.S. 

And many kudos to the snorkelist 😁

 

Number one rule for successful underwater youtube channel: you need a good looking snorkelist

[Nikolausz]

The long battery life sounds really good. I would be happy with 3 hours 4K, so I don't have to think about some extra battery solutions for my GoPro.

It seems to be compatible with the Action 4 housing, which means that AOI adapter and lenses are also available for Action 5 Pro

[Nikolausz]

In addition, it has a colour temperature sensor; which might help in underwater footage

[Davide DB]

1 hour ago, Nikolausz said:

It seems to be compatible with the Action 4 housing, which means that AOI adapter and lenses are also available for Action 5 Pro

 

On Potato Jet video he is using a Smallrig frame that I think is for the Action 4.

[eLzUb]

I read many interesting features for diving compared to GoPro…

 

also weatherproof at 20 mt it’s good for snorkeling, free diving and spearfishing.

and I think will give more protection in case flooding during a dive.

and I’m Really curious to check video in low light.

 

This new dji made me thinking about to sell my gopro11..

when I read improved battery but with compatibility with the old one… I laughed at GoPro new batteries! 

 

[Antoñito]

It's a great camera that I hope to try soon....

[bghazzal]

If planning on using it with a 3rd party wide angle lens like the AOI UW-03, please check this post:
 

Some field of view issues need to be looked into, as the DJI Action 5 - in wide mode at least - is wider than the GoPro Wide fov for which these lenses were designed for, which seems to introduce corner distortion when coupled with the wide lens as shown in the tests.

It remains to be determined if other fov / crop settings can be used to neutralize this corner distortion.
Another aspect to look into would be if the position of the DJI Action 5's "color temperature sensor" has been taken into accound - if wide and other accessory lenses cover the sensor, then the camera will not be able to be used in auto-wb / auto-color. More info on this here

Edited October 14 by bghazzal

[Nando Diver]

With the new firmware released to OA5 Pro, Brent Durand made a side-by-side comparison with Gopro 13 underwater.

 

 

[bghazzal]

yep... Too cropped on the dual screen format in to judge corners, colours at depth are terrible on both to be fair, which is expected on cameras unable to understand / process the underwater environment

 

 

I wish we had some reviewers actually working, even basically, on the footage, showing ungraded flat footage and quickly graded results, and when I say graded I especially mean white-balanced footage for instance.

It's not difficult, and would give an idea of what is actually possible, when one is not crippling the camera's potential by forcing it to do things it will struggle with in such an environment (= auto wb, auto colors underwater)

In a way, these auto-settings reviews are the equivalent of photographers comparing camera models by shooting photos in P mode or iA mode "because that's what most people will use"...
Anyway 😅
 

Other than the wider fov, the DJI seems to handle low light better, that's what stands out the most

 

Edited October 20 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

7 hours ago, bghazzal said:

In a way, these auto-settings reviews are the equivalent of photographers comparing camera models by shooting photos in P mode or iA mode "because that's what most people will use"...
Anyway 😅

 

 

Exactly.

Completely useless

[Nando Diver]

On 10/20/2024 at 1:27 AM, bghazzal said:

yep... Too cropped on the dual screen format in to judge corners, colours at depth are terrible on both to be fair, which is expected on cameras unable to understand / process the underwater environment

 

 

I wish we had some reviewers actually working, even basically, on the footage, showing ungraded flat footage and quickly graded results, and when I say graded I especially mean white-balanced footage for instance.

It's not difficult, and would give an idea of what is actually possible, when one is not crippling the camera's potential by forcing it to do things it will struggle with in such an environment (= auto wb, auto colors underwater)

In a way, these auto-settings reviews are the equivalent of photographers comparing camera models by shooting photos in P mode or iA mode "because that's what most people will use"...
Anyway 😅
 

Other than the wider fov, the DJI seems to handle low light better, that's what stands out the most

 

Ive tried in Gopro Flat profile and sometimes its too much extra-work for color grading 

Ive tried Gopro Vibrant and the high saturation color is too vivd 

Im using Gopro Natural Color and this is what worked best (for me)  and i get the same result of the flat-profile after color graded.

 

Heres a example:

Depth 20 meters

Time of the day 10.00am 

Visibility - Green water (Sesimbra....Not bali, Mexico or Thailand -:) 

Only One dive light setup to 3750 Lumens CRI96 5600K 

UWL-03 

No color grading 

 

Gopro Natural color 

5.3k 60fps

WB Auto 

ISO Max 800

10-bit 

Wide

Profile Standart

 

File size 606Mb (transfer link available for 7 days) dropbox and google chrome they compact the original file. 

 

https://we.tl/t-GgI0vlP9GF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21 by Nando Diver

[Davide DB]

Hi Nando, the best option is to upload the file to YouTube. Just leave privacy options to "unlisted" 😉

 

 

[bghazzal]

8 hours ago, Nando Diver said:

Ive tried in Gopro Flat profile and sometimes its too much extra-work for color grading 

Ive tried Gopro Vibrant and the high saturation color is too vivd 

Im using Gopro Natural Color and this is what worked best (for me)  and i get the same result of the flat-profile after color graded.

 

Heres a example:

Depth 20 meters

Time of the day 10.00am 

Visibility - Green water (Sesimbra....Not bali, Mexico or Thailand -:) 

Only One dive light setup to 3750 Lumens CRI96 5600K 

UWL-03 

No color grading 

 

Gopro Natural color 

5.3k 60fps

WB Auto 

ISO Max 800

10-bit 

Wide

Profile Standart

 

File size 606Mb (transfer link available for 7 days) dropbox and google chrome they compact the original file. 

 

https://we.tl/t-GgI0vlP9GF

 

This is really huge - best uploaded to youtube as Davide suggested.

That said, I'm curious - when/if you have time, do you think you could shoot an ambient light 10 second clip in flat (WB native, GoPro color) followed by one in the same place/conditions in Natural color (I think the new gopros have options to change settings easily, right?)

Just ambient light (if you use artificial lights as a dominant light source it's best to set to the kelvin of your lights), properly exposed, reasonable depth for ambient light your locale (say 15m?) one in flat (WB native / GoPro color) the other one in Natural color. If you can have some sort of white balance ref (sand, tank, bubbles, slate...) it would be great.

I don't expect much without a filter to help balance in post, but I'm really curious to give the flat clip a spin, so how what data is on there with the technological advances, and also how flat results compare to the natural color one, especially with the increased colour bit rate and everything.
Just keep it small (10 seconds each) as I'm on an old laptop.

There must be a lot more information to work with, and regardless of the locales, I'm really interested in how the data behaves compared to what I have on the GP7, and also how graded re-white balanced results compare to baked natural color profile.
(and on a purely selfish note, I'm also curious if my laptop can still handle the files....)


On water colour, where I was in Mexico (Gulf of California / Sea of Cortez) is generally green water as well btw - it does clear up some months (and temperatures do rise to 29°C in August before dropping), but otherwise heavy planktonic and generally green.

Japan is a mixed bag, but water is generally surprisingly blue despite being temperate like Europe or colder in the north.
Where I was working (Hachijo) had a mixed subtropical environment, including underwater like you can see here, with some hard coral (thanks to the Kuroshio, water temp doesn't drop below 17°C in winter) but also more temperate characteristics. Volcanic, and characteristics somewhat closer to Macaronesia

I have some old GoPro4 Mediterranean clips (from Hyeres, so somewhat greener water) in flat somewhere, but not accessible here unfortunately...

cheers
b

Edited October 22 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

Halloween Sorcery 🧙‍♂️

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB0UUnsox11/?igsh=MWN0aGE0Ymt6ajgx

 

 

 

[bghazzal]

oooooh wowzers 🤩

Now who will be the first Waterpixels wizard to replicate this mind-blowing demonstration to 12m with a colour checker / Macbeth?

Edited November 1 by bghazzal