DJI’s next action camera has an adjustable aperture for better low-light performance

The DJI Osmo Action 6 tin amended grip utmost airy conditions. | Image: DJI

After initially launching it exclusively successful China past week, DJI has announced a planetary merchandise (not including the US) for its caller Osmo Action 6 enactment camera. The camera is not a extremist departure from the carnal plan of past year’s model, but DJI is introducing immoderate innovative caller functionality. For example, it features an adjustable aperture that uses a mechanical iris (rather than relying connected bundle tricks) and a larger quadrate format sensor that offers much flexibility erstwhile you privation to harvest footage to assorted horizontal and vertical facet ratios.

As with galore of DJI’s launches implicit the past year, including the caller Neo 2 selfie drone, the institution hasn’t confirmed if oregon erstwhile the Osmo Action 6 volition beryllium disposable successful the US. Chinese pricing starts astatine 2,998 yuan, oregon astir $422. In Europe it starts astatine €379, successful the UK it’s £329, and successful Japan it’s ¥61,270, oregon astir $396. 

Last year’s Osmo Action 5 Pro, similar enactment cameras from DJI’s competitors specified arsenic the GoPro Hero 13 Black, utilized an aperture fixed to f/2.8. The aperture connected the caller Osmo Action 6 tin beryllium opened to f/2.0 to fto successful doubly arsenic overmuch airy and amended the camera’s quality to seizure high-quality video successful low-light conditions. The size of the aperture tin besides beryllium narrowed to f/4.0 to trim the magnitude of airy coming into the camera. That increases the extent of tract and brings much of what’s successful framework into focus, and tin besides destruct the request for utilizing darkening neutral density filters erstwhile conditions are excessively bright.

The Osmo Action 6 uses a caller 1/1.1-inch CMOS sensor that’s larger than the 1/1.3-inch sensor recovered successful the Action 5 Pro, but its quadrate signifier is akin to the square sensor Apple present uses successful the front-facing selfie camera connected the iPhone 17 lineup, which lets the iPhone seizure scenery photos and videos without rotating the phone. The Osmo Action 6 offers akin shooting flexibility, but the advantages of that quadrate sensor particularly travel into play during postproduction, making it easier to harvest and reformat videos into assorted facet ratios, including vertical formats for smartphones and societal media, portion inactive keeping the enactment successful frame.

The camera tin seizure up to 4K/120fps videos successful a 4:3 facet ratio, but its slow-motion capabilities amended to 240fps with the solution reduced to 1080P, and tin beryllium boosted to up to 960fps utilizing interpolation to make further in-between frames. Internal retention gets a tiny bump to 50GB that tin beryllium expanded utilizing a microSD paper up to 1TB successful capacity. 

DJI claims the Action 6 tin grounds for up to 4 continuous hours utilizing its 1,950mAh battery, but support successful caput that the company’s investigating is done successful perfect conditions portion video is lone captured astatine 1080P/24fps. Battery beingness volition beryllium reduced erstwhile capturing astatine 4K and higher framework rates, oregon portion utilizing it successful temperatures that driblet good beneath freezing. DJI says the camera tin relation decently astatine temperatures arsenic acold arsenic -4 degrees Fahrenheit, and it remains waterproof to depths of implicit 65 feet.