DJI OM 5 Review

The DJI OM 5 is the latest incarnation of the OSMO Mobile designed to stabilise your smartphones video footage. For this update, DJI has gone for a complete redesign, sliming down and losing the bulk of previous generations. The new slimline design is a little more consumer biased than professional.
But don’t worry the new consumer OM is true to DJI usual technological advancement, and is by no means a step back in quality and features. The smaller sleeker design and inclusion of shot guides gives more to the filmmaker than any previous generation.
The OM 5 is smaller and lighter and without a doubt, more convenient. Essentially, the OM 5 will have far wider appeal, but, now goes head to head with many of the cheaper and exceptionally good mobile stabilisers out there.

The design and build of the OM 5 take this latest update to the smartphone gimbal stabaliser in a slightly different direction than previous versions. It’s smaller, lighter and sleeker than the OM4, but it’s also more of a consumer model, more akin to other smartphone gimbals on the market.

That in itself is not a bad thing and is more in tune with the marketplace. The style and design also reflect the mainstream look of these devices, as do the colour options. Sunset white is the slightly peculiar white, it’s also happens to be the colour of our review sample, and then there’s the much more attractive Athens Grey.

The build quality of both colour options is thankfully the same, but the white does give a slight impression of cheapness. As ever, the build and ergonomic feel of the OM 5 are reassuringly solid, despite the impression given by the colour; there’s no dismissing the quality that you’re aleays assured with from a DJI product.

Comparing the OM 5 against the OM 4 and the design differences are instantly apparent, the smaller size and weight of the new model will appeal to many vloggers who want a small gimbal. The more compact design also means that it can be easily stored in a backpack side pocket or bag.

The weight of the DJI OM 5 comes in at 100g lighter than that of the OM4, although the magnetic clamp is a couple of grams heavier.

Size-wise compacted down the OM 5 measures 174.7×74.6×37mm compared to 163×99.5×46.5mm. This might not seem a great deal on paper, but it makes a huge difference in the real world when you try tro stuff on in a jacket pocket.

As you look through the specifications and features, you see other signs that DJI aims the OM 5 at consumers. A much smaller battery takes the max usable time to 6.4 hours from 15 hours; that’s over a 50% cut.

When it comes to phone size and weight for the payload and fit, these values all remain the same: 230g +/- 60g, 6.9 – 10mm phone thickness and 67-84mm phone width.

In this test, I’ve used the Apple iPhone 11 Pro with a case weighing 237g. As before my iPhone case is best removed before use.

The other big feature of the new design is the telescopic pole that extends to a length of 215mm. This has been added to help you capture more impressive selfies.

What’s in the box

First of all, there’s the magnetic clamp; this clamps onto your phone and then attaches to the OM 5.

The clamp’s all-metal design and the magnet’s firm grip mean there is little to no worry that the clamp will accidentally release in use. The clamp also has a slight indent that helps everything align perfectly.

The main gimbal arm features a joint that unfolds when unpacked and enables the compact form. Holding onto the main grip of the gimbal and pulling the articulated arms up extends the telescopic pole.

The mechanics of the telescopic pole are much the same as I’ve seen on other gimbals, but the quality is far superior. A nice touch here is that there’s a tilt hinge so you can fine-tune the selfie angle.

The main grip is ergonomically designed and fits both left and right-handed users equally well.

By the index finger is the usual trigger, on one side is the power and zoom switch, and on the other side is the USB Type-C charging port. On the front is the joystick, record and direct orientation change button.

On the base of the grip is a 1/4-inch thread into which the mini tripod can be screwed.

The physical part of the OM 5 features the typical DJI build quality, even if there’s something a little more streamlined and consumer about this new product.

Of course, no DJI device would be without the supporting App, and this is as ever Mimo for an OSMO product. The App has come on leaps and bounds since the original version, which was alread good.

We’ve covered the Mimo App extensively in previous reviews, so here I’ll dip into a few of the key features.

The first is ShotGuides: These are ingenious, and essentially give you a video tutor in an App. The guides work by showing you a short film and then get you to film the same composition and shots of your own.

It’s all step by step, walking you through close-ups, mid shots, Bridging and continuity editing without using any terminology. It’s video painting by numbers, and it’s excellent.

DJI has worked tirelessly to ensure that there’s plenty of content in this section, and it’s great fun with family and friends filming all the shots you need to create a piece.

Likewise, StoryMode follows a similar path and gives the user tips and suggestions based on templates.

Further options give budding filmmakers plenty to play with, including CloneMe, Spin Gimbal Movement, Dynamic Zoom and Timelapse, Hyperlapse and Motionlapse, all worth investigating.

The App is solid in performance with plenty of options; the only downside is that it’s quite a big file size 685MB, so you may need to rethink your phone’s storage.

DJI has a solid track record when it comes to the quality of its products. Over the years, they have met the demands of their customers, listened to feedback and quite often launch a new product at such bewildering speed that your left with the new product you brough last week replaced and outdated the week after.

The OSMO Mobile, OM, on the other hand has had a more sudate lifeline.

It has followed a logical line of progression as a semi-professional smartphone gimbal stabiliser and slowely evolved. It’s been the serious product in a field of light-hearted and often unusable motorised selfie stick rivals.

Now DJI seems to have thrown the concept of the old OM in the bin and gone , if you can’t beat them, join them, attitude with the OM 5, but just done it better.

The result is a pure consumer lead product that meets the selfie, vlogger consumer who wants a high-quality product.

In a world where everyone has the potential to become a YouTube star, this makes sense, and the style of the OM 5 fits that genera far better than the old OM4.

It’s also more attuned to the general public, who now, after shooting thousands of images of their families and friends want to do the same with video.

Unlike stills, however, shooting video can be tricky to get right, and here is where DJI have got this product so right.

Power into the DJI Mimo app and the painting by numbers approach to video creation is inspired. Rather than showing people how to edit the footage they’ve already shot; the DJI Mimo app walks them through how to shoot the footage in the first place. It’s filmmaking for zombies.

What’s more, it works, and the App makes it incredibly simple. The guides and story modes almost make getting the OM 5 worth it on their own, especially if you have kids, as it will keep them amused for hours.

But then you have to strip back the OM 5 to the core use. Does it stabilise your footage? As the fifth iteration of this previously and continuingly excellent device and coming from DJI, of course, it does, but I have to say, it doesn’t feel quite as balanced as the older OM 4.

It’s smaller, lighter and far more usable than previous generations of OM, and despite the odd white colour of our review sample, it’s a superb piece of kit; I can even see a use for the telescopic pole.

As with the previous version, the ActiveTrack works incredibly well as do all the other features that have appeared on previous generations.

I also like the fact that when using an iPhone Pro, the zoom switches between the lens to ensure that you get optimum quality.

The fact that the battery doesn’t last as long as the OM4 also doesn’t have any real-world effect.

Ultimately I might not be as keen on the design as the old one, but I’m hard pushed to find anything negative against it, aside from personal preference!

I liked the old OM4; something about it made it feel like a semi-professional piece of kit even though it used a smartphone.

These gimbals can transform your smartphone footage and the new OM 5, with its smaller form, makes it even more convenient.

I don’t think the motion stabilisation is any better than the previous version, but it does one thing that previous OM’s haven’t, which is educate.

The new features of the Mimo App boost the usability of the gimbal and your smartphone as a way to document life. Give the OM 5 to anyone and tell them to film a sequence using the guides, and they’ll turn up something good.

Give them another gimbal and ask them to film something, and you’ll get a few seconds of them walking down the road. It takes away the difficulty of starting to think creatively.

OK, so everyone may end up shooting the same sequence as everyone else, but does that matter? This is about educating people on how to shoot video on the phones, and for that, it’s brilliant.

So then there’s the cost, at £139, that’s not a lot of money for what it gives you. You have a filmmaker tool that will enable you to easily shoot engaging video and teach you about shots, sequences and composition without realising it.

If you want to get into video or need a vlogging platform DJI with this complete redesign, has provided a close to perfect product, except the colour.