When I look at the DJI Osmo Mobile 6, old Queen CDs called The Very Best come to mind. That is, the greatest hits of the past gathered under one roof. The only difference is that the OM 6 additionally has some new features, big and small.
However, despite its rather high price, don’t be fooled – it’s a smartphone stabiliser for social media and entertainment. Not for shooting short films or commercials. And I’ll explain why, don’t worry.
Thank you to https://vlogsfan.com for submitting the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 stabiliser for review.
Market positioning
The price of the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 is $160, or somewhere just over UAH 7,000. This is for the standard kit. There’s also the Vlog Combo kit, for as much as $500, which includes an extra set of peripherals and two DJI Mic microphones. Which, yes, cost more than the stabiliser.
A soft-light clamp is also available separately for $60 and two variants of hard cases. The front light clamp is cool, it charges via Type-C, can hold up to 3 hours of use… And would really like to have it in a separate kit – say a DJI Osmo Mobile 6 Combo. Like the rings. About which a little bit later.
Package contains
However, the standard package contains the stabiliser itself, plus a tripod, carrying bag, USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, 1/4″ threaded tripod, as well as a magnetic clamp and basic instructions with warranty. The in-depth instructions are available by downloading the DJI Mimo branded app.
Appearance
On the outside, the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 looks very stylish. Grey matte plastic, robust and high-quality, very intuitive interface, ergonomic handle – well and the fact that the stabiliser folds up for transport.
Here I’ll tell you straight away why I mentioned ‘The Very Best’ at the beginning. DJI in the Osmo Mobile range does not discard good ideas and features, but adds new ones. For example, the folding design is taken from the OM 3. Magnetic mounts – taken from the OM 4. The telescopic retractable system is from the OM 5.
And that’s all that’s left in DJI Osmo Mobile 6! And even more cool features have been added. For example, a control wheel on the left and an LCD display on the front. This is in addition to the power button, the shooting button, the change button at the front, and the trigger at the back.
Another cool feature is auto-connect while unfolding. In addition to auto-connecting to DJI’s proprietary Mimo app (which unfortunately only works on iOS, though), it cuts down on prep time. Especially when you think of the detachable magnetic clip.
Which you balance once in the stabiliser – and that’s it, you don’t need to move anything until the clip is removed from the smartphone. So instead of a few minutes to get ready to shoot, you’ll even need two seconds on the go. Is it cool? Hyper cool!
Magnetic mounts
What’s not cool? The DJI Osmo Mobile 4 also came with special rings that glued directly onto the smartphone. I was expecting them here too – but there aren’t any. What’s more, not only are they off the market on the official website, but they’re off the market altogether. Fortunately, on AliExpress there are custom, universal ones for any model and even with MagSafe support.
Let me also say briefly about the telescopic feature. The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 extends to a maximum of 23cm, and if you attach a tripod as a handle as well, you have another 13cm of extra length. So for social media vlogging with a front-facing camera, it’s a dream come true!
Technical specifications
The stabiliser weighs 310g and is compatible with smartphones weighing from 170g to 290g, 6.9mm to 10mm thick and 67mm to 84mm wide. Maximum angles, in degrees: tilt left-right from -101 to 78, turn left-right from -120 to 211, tilt forward-backward from -161 to 173.
So you can’t shoot vertically upwards or vertically downwards. I’ll come back to that later. Bluetooth version 5.1, the battery is lithium polymer, 1,000 mAh, enough for 6 hours of use at most. Type-C charging goes up to 84 minutes via the 10-watt unit.
Operational experience
As you have already realised, the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 experience starts out almost perfect. The stabiliser can be set up hyper-fast, the controls are intuitive, and the modes of operation are sufficient. Namely…
Follow mode is stabilisation with position change. That is, you can twist and tilt the stabiliser and it will listen to your movements while absorbing shakes and vibrations.
Tilt Locked provides motion tracking with a left-right tilt block, and is ideal for capturing subjects moving actually left-right. It’s also useful for shooting with the subject circling around. The ability to tilt the stabiliser up and down also contributes greatly to this.
FPV mode ensures full and fast hand-eye tracking, follows both tilts and turns, and is perfect for dynamic shooting at unfamiliar angles. And the SpinShot mode with the joystick allows you to shoot even motion from below in a circle.
So, as you can see, there are plenty of shooting options. Plus – I note the Active Track 5.0 system, which allows you to highlight an object on the screen, and the stabilizer will automatically follow it. The new version, compared to 4.0, has learned to work with the front camera as well, and more steadily tracks objects at long distances.
I also note that, say, the shooting button has a small plastic protrusion, so you can’t tactually confuse it with anything else.
Disadvantages
Now for the software. I can’t honestly remember what I said in the DJI OM 4 review about DJI Mimo, but I’ll say this now. It’s basically DJI’s proprietary camera software, which supports all the physical button controls, supports a bunch of extra capture modes like the vertigo effect, lets you adjust the speed of the controls, update the firmware and the like.
It’s also absolutely the weakest aspect of the stabiliser. And what makes it the weakest is the fact that you can’t control the shooting settings in any of the modes. That is, ISO, shutter speed, white balance are all automatic. EXCEPT focus and zoom, because you can control them with the side wheel on the stabilizer.
With this, however, the problem is different – due to its tiny size and inability to adjust the sensitivity (as opposed to the speed and sensitivity of the joystick control), you’ll find it quite difficult to control either zoom or focus, EXACTLY.
And I would forgive all that to a stabiliser like the Hohem iSteady v2, which costs almost three times as much. But not the $160 model. The DJI Mimo even has a minimum of picture quality settings – one frame count and two resolution settings.
However, this is my opinion, and for me a smartphone stabiliser has to work on a commercial basis. That is, to shoot either a promo for a social network, or to shoot a stable footage without brightness jumps. That’s actually why I respect Zhiyun Smooth 5 so much. to each his own. And in the bottom line, you’ll see what it’s all about.
Rescue?
There is, however, one tricky thing. It’s called Filmic Pro. It’s the most powerful video shooting software on Android at the moment, even better than my personal favourite, HedgeCam. What does it have to do with DJI? Well, it has hardware compatibility with stabilizers, including most Osmo Mobile models.
Except for the first ones… and, in fact, Osmo Mobile 6. Support for the latter should appear in the latest update, and if the update is as I think it will be – then all the hardware stabiliser features can be used in software that you can use to actually shoot quality video in any situation, not just in the daytime in the sun.
There are two points here, though. The first is that the software is not free. And it costs a lot. I bought it back when it cost $20, but now it’s a subscription, so the price will be even higher. Well – I don’t guarantee that with the upgrade you will get support for ALL the buttons in the program, similar to the DJI Mimo. That would be ideal and obvious, but not 100% guaranteed.
Summary of DJI Osmo Mobile 6
This stabiliser has been designed from the outset to be a compact, mobile, and as convenient accessory as possible. Not as the equivalent of the DJI Ronin for smartphones. But essentially as a toy for people who are active in social networks. The toy is certainly not cheap, it is of high quality, it is great, it is comfortable, and it has potential for the future.
But I can’t guarantee that the potential will justify the investment. Buying a DJI Osmo Mobile 6 for professional photography is unlikely to be worth it (yet, anyway). But for family life, for simply capturing your life, it’s almost ideal. So… I recommend it!
DJI Osmo Mobile 6 video
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