Square sensor, variable aperture, 10-bit D-Log, the DJI Osmo Action 6 has it all

DJI Osmo Action 6 is the latest iteration of DJI’s celebrated action camera range, and when it comes to use, functions and features, it’s quite a step up from the Osmo Action 5 Pro I looked at last year.

Instantly, one of the things that really stands out about this new model is a few of the new features, including the brand-new square CMOS sensor, the variable aperture, a first for an action camera, and the building of an ecosystem around the Osmo Action that takes it well beyond just being used as a go-anywhere camera to capture the Action.

With all of these action cameras, we’re now settling into a groove with a yearly release and small but significant upgrades in features. While the upgrade between the Osmo Action 4 and 5 was incremental, I have to say that while using the Osmo Action 6, there was something a little bit more than I’d seen in previous iterations. The fact that it now features that 1/1.1-inch square sensor does make a big difference, especially when it comes to low light performance – and the fact that you can now film in both landscape and portrait orientations at 4K at the same quality makes it a far better option for social media editing and follows the trend for how people are now shooting video.

The other point here is the full integration with the Mic transmitter, which just makes recording decent vlog audio that much better. So, if you’re filming for Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, then the Osmo Action 6 is a superb choice.

Then there’s the feature that really interested me at the outset, which was the industry-first variable aperture. This is not something that you’d usually get on an action camera. There are several reasons I found the variable aperture quite as exciting as it is, primarily, as I was looking forward to seeing how it affects the depth of field.

In the past, almost all action cameras have featured a fixed aperture lens. This means there’s no control over depth of field, and in bright sunlight conditions, ND filters were a major part of any action camera setup. However, now that we can adjust that aperture in bright conditions, we can close it down to balance the exposure, and in low light, we can open it up, letting in more light.

However, it’s worth saying that because of the wide-angle lens, you’re never going to get the depth of field control you get with a dedicated camera or even through your mobile phone’s camera app, but still, it’s a step in the right direction. DJI have countered this issue by offering a macro lens. Once this is screwed into the front, then the characteristics of the lens change, and finally, you have an action camera with some serious potential.

In the box alongside the action camera, I also took a look at the macro lens, which simply replaces the standard 155° field-of-view lens with either the macro or the FOV boost lens, both of which give a different perspective to the footage you’re shooting. Of course, as well as the new lenses, you have the range of filters, including ND, CPL and mist.

Once again, the DJI Osmo Action 6 takes on the usual action camera form of a small rectangular block that makes it extremely portable and easy to attach to almost any object you want, from a human to a bike, vehicle or even a plane. With the range of accessories it now comes with, poles and handy grips make it far easier to use for vlogging and content creation than ever before.

One of the features the Osmo Action started with is that it has a screen on both the front and rear of the camera. So, if you are shooting at the camera for some vlogging content, then you can at least see where the camera is composed. Compared with previous versions, these two screens do seem larger than before and, through the test, proved to be exceptionally easy to see, although I will state we are in the UK autumn and it is mainly raining. On the one sunny day we’ve had in the several weeks I’ve had the camera, it was still easily viewable, even in slightly brighter conditions.

The camera is fully waterproof, so if you drop it in water, it’s going to make no difference whatsoever. All doors are properly sealed with protective locks to stop you from accidentally opening them. As before, we have USB and microSD card slots for expansion storage, although interestingly, it does offer 50GB of internal storage, which, while small, is great to see and can get you out of tricky situations.

One of the features that I really liked was the reworking of the magnetic mounting system, which is now dual-direction, so you don’t have to worry about making sure that the camera is facing the right direction before you click it into the mount. For a large part of this test, I was using the locking handle, and this just made the whole process far easier when I had to grab the camera out of the bag at an event to do some filming. There’s no faff around making sure I put it on the right way round.

Overall, the camera is nice, small and relatively lightweight, or at least far more lightweight than a dedicated camera, coming in at 149g, meaning that not only can you attach it to any objects, but if you are helmet mounting, it’s not going to cause too much of an issue with unbalancing.

Likewise, when it comes to size, it measures in at 70.5 × 44.2 × 32.8 mm.
If you’re familiar with the Osmo Action cameras, then you’ll know just how well the user interface has been designed. Once again, there are a few tweaks to that design, but ultimately, it’s really quick and easy to find your way around – swipe onto that OLED touchscreen to quickly access options, settings and playback for the video you’ve just shot. It also enables very quick pairing with the DJI Mic system if you want to record professional-level audio.

Through the interface, some of the new features include the ability to now adjust the aperture from wide open at f/2.0 through to f/4. Not a huge amount of adjustment, but it’s a start for the action camera genre.

Alongside the DJI user interface, you can also utilise Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to link into the Mimo app, so you can get more functions and features directly from your mobile phone. That also means you can get a full live view, which is again really handy in certain situations.

When it comes to onboard controls, there is, of course, a large record button on top, which is pretty standard, and aside from that, you have the power button on the side.

I’m always surprised by the amount of features they can pack into one small action camera body, and here DJI have really taken a step up with introducing the first variable aperture lens, with a range of f/2.0 to f/4.0, giving you, for the first time, genuine control over aperture, exposure and depth of field, rather than the more usual f/2.8 fixed aperture lenses that we’ve seen in the past.

The other big feature is, of course, that 1/1.1-inch sensor with 2μm pixels. It’s been tuned for high dynamic range and low light use, something that action cameras have always struggled with.

There’s also a new 4K Custom mode that records a master 4K frame, which you can crop later for use as either 16:9, 9:16, 3:4 or 4:3 social media output, without any quality loss – again, all due to that 1/1.1-inch sensor.

When shooting low light, there’s a Super Night mode with manual f/2 selection, aimed at handheld cityscapes, trails and nighttime Action, where most other action cameras really start to fall short.

One of the features that most interested me was the ability to add additional lenses. In this test, I had the FOV boost lens and the macro lens. This automatically forces the camera to f/8 for shallower depth of field and really does give you a lot more creative control over the look and styling of your imagery. It’s great for social media content, looking far better than you can shoot with most smartphones.

Once again, we see the tight integration of the Osmo audio ecosystem, which allows you to pair up to two DJI Mic transmitters. There are also some adjustments you can manually make on the camera itself. This essentially means that if you’re in an interview situation, then you can actually use the DJI Osmo Action 6 for professional-looking video interview capture.

A few years ago, electronic image stabilisation was a nice feature to have, but you’d only switch it on in extreme circumstances. These days, it’s an always-on feature, and the stabilisation it enables is absolutely outstanding. When you see unstabilised footage, it just looks terrible in comparison. RockSteady is DJI’s native image stabilisation and features horizon levelling, which, with the inclusion of that square sensor, once again takes another step up.

Essentially, if you’re out mountain biking and take a steep corner where usually the horizon would go off at an angle, here, with the DJI Osmo Action 6 and RockSteady horizon levelling switched on, that horizon will stay level. It’s quite peculiar when you look back through the footage and actually takes away some of the excitement, but it’s nevertheless impressive, and of course has its place.

This is obviously a product with huge compatibility across the Osmo line of products, including the Action, the 360 and the Nano. So if you do want to use multicam, batteries and workflows, then that’s perfectly possible across the board. I’ll actually be having more of a look at the multicam options at a later date.

While most enthusiasts want an action camera for capturing mountain biking, skiing, swimming and many other sports, and now vlogging and content creation, the inclusion of templated D-Log M recording also makes this camera appeal to the professional market. Essentially, a small compact form and high-rate capture enable it to be integrated seamlessly into a professional-level workflow.

From the outset, the DJI Osmo Action 6 initially feels just like the DJI Osmo Action 5, just a little more refined in design. But then, as you start to use it, you can see where all of that innovation and development has gone. First and foremost, it feels once again nice and robust, but the fact that the mount improvements now enable you to place the camera directly onto the mount either way just makes it far easier to use, especially with the handle and many other smaller accessories.

Getting started with the Osmo Action 6 is as straightforward as any other. Once again, you do need to activate the camera before you can fully access all of the options and settings. However, once done, you’re into the user interface for Osmo products, and if you’ve seen these before, there won’t be too much difference from previous iterations.

The big difference here is, of course, that larger 1.1-inch sensor. Unless you use the camera for the most part, you don’t really notice the difference between this and the Osmo Action 5. It’s only when you take that through to editing that you can start to see the quality difference. I will bring you a side-by-side comparison between the DJI Osmo Action 6 and 5 very shortly. The fact is, you can shoot with your camera mounted in landscape – as it’s intended, say, on a mountain bike handlebar- then edit it in portrait mode without needing to lose any quality through the crop, and that’s a major factor.

The other point with the larger sensor is you’re getting a full 13.5 stops of dynamic range, or at least that’s the claim, but in the real world, it’s still extremely impressive. In the lower dull light of the English autumn, going through trees into lighter patches of bloom, the highlights and the shadows were all well catered for. When it comes to low-light performance, this was an extremely good test.

Frame rates are also once again impressive, but there isn’t really any improvement over the previous generation, with 4K at 120 frames and 1080p at 240 frames per second still as your slow-motion options. Once again, the quality of these is impressively good, although you will notice, as you ramp up that frame rate, the dynamic range does lower and you start to see some bleeding in the highlights and shadows dropping into complete black. But otherwise, just for short moments when you want to introduce some slo-mo footage, it’s exceptionally well handled. For the most part, you’ll find yourself now shooting at 4K 60 frames per second rather than 4K 30, because the sensor can handle it with good internal graduation across the frame.

So the sensor is one of the big features and a real improvement, both in terms of orientation, aspect ratio and low-light performance, greater than we’ve ever seen in previous iterations of the Osmo Action cameras, or in fact, any action cameras. This is now, at present, the best low-light performing action camera on the market.

The other notable new features are the variable aperture, which enables you to adjust the aperture between f/2.0 and f/4. There’s nothing in between, so the adjustment is quite small, enabling a half or doubling of light depending on your selection. It’s also not available in every mode, but still, now that you can adjust the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and then pop on that macro lens to help boost the background blur, it just gives you a far more creative camera than we’ve seen in previous iterations. When you couple this variable aperture with the Macro lens, however, you start to see the real effect of the depth of field, which again isn’t perfect for creative shots, but is a big step in the right direction.

To activate the manual aperture requires you to tap the settings on the right, then scroll to variable aperture, and then you can select from Auto (f/2.0-f/4.0), Auto (f/2.6-f/4), fixed (F/2.8) and starburst (f/4.0). If you switch to manual exposure, you can then access the Large Aperture (F/2.0).

The new features really make this camera, and for once, this feels like a really big leap forward for action cameras. Then the fact that it still has RockSteady, which has been superb for the last couple of iterations, and Osmo Audio, which enables that close connection to wireless transmission mics, just makes this a very valuable tool for both enthusiasts and professionals. Of course, it’s suited to families who just want to capture the best possible quality video, too.

There’s also the other point, the battery life has just accelerated from the days when you used to get about half an hour to an hour out of your camera. With this new battery, you can get a full four hours of shooting 4K video without any issue. That is an incredible amount of footage, so you won’t be let down by battery power at least. Of course, because it’s interchangeable, you can carry a couple of spare batteries with you just in case.

Alongside the microSD card slot, which is pretty standard for action cameras, there’s 50GB of internal storage. Initially, I used to find that I couldn’t really see the point of these cameras having their own internal storage, but over time, it’s actually become clear that 50GB is a relatively decent amount. So, if you don’t want to buy yourself a microSD card, then that 50GB will at least last for those four hours of battery life without too many issues.

Overall, Action 6 is once again an exceptional action camera. It has the ability to offer a wide variety of video file formats, making it an ideal option for both enthusiasts and professionals.

In every field they enter, DJI know how to really push the limits of the technology they’ve developed, and the DJI Osmo Action 6 sets a very high bar for all other action cameras to follow. It could even be one of the reasons that GoPro this year held back on the release of the much-anticipated GoPro Hero 14 Black, which usually coincides with the release of DJI’s younger upstart.

Once again, the Osmo Action 6 is impressive in almost every field of use as a straight action camera. The video quality is exceptional, with a real boost this time in low-light performance. RockSteady is just exceptional and on a par with previous iterations; although it does take a few steps forward, it’s not something you’d instantly notice. It’s just impressive.

The two new features really stand out. That 1/1.1-inch format sensor gives you far greater flexibility with your footage – being able to crop it any way you want while still retaining native 4K video quality. This means that if you need a camera to tie in with social media content or for broadcast, then a quick edit either way from that same video file will give you the same quality of visuals, all from one take, without having to reshoot.

Then there’s the ability to adjust the aperture. While using the standard lens doesn’t make a huge difference due to the wide nature, once you pop on the macro lens and with a bit of careful positioning, you can slightly kick out the background, which gives far greater creative control than any other action camera offers.

Then, when you tie in the ability to pair with wireless mics and shoot 4K 60p footage, 10-bit in H.265 and up to 120 Mbps, you have the data quality for editing – especially when shot in D-Log – perfectly matching with professional broadcast productions.

One thing I haven’t really covered in the review, as I didn’t want it to be too long, and which I’ll break out into a separate article, is the six distinct film looks that are available. These do give you a lot more flexibility over the grade of your footage before you take it to editing, a feature I really like. There’s also the new lossless zoom, which again appeared to work exceptionally well.

Having now reviewed every Osmo Action, GoPro and Insta360, I have to say that while initially the DJI Osmo Action 6 might not look like a huge upgrade, when it comes to usability and performance, especially with the addition of the macro lens, this is by far the best action camera on the market at present.