DJI Osmo Action 4: Honest Unsponsored Review - Should You Buy It?

Am I going to notice after switch my few years old hero 4to action 4 bought last week ?😂😅

Hi Rob! Did you made any adjustment on video quality? Or its just straight from the cam? The quality is so great!

Well Rob why don’t you tell us what your opinion is. You’re the expert. That’s why I came on here.

Great video very nicely presented. I want some good shots of city night lights and was going to save for a second-hand black magic 6k pro, the quality looks great on your video, I would like an opinion from someone about whether it would be worth waiting to get the black magic ? p.s. I need to get some good stills and know the blackmagic has better resolution and higher pixels than the action 4 for stills.

Thank you! Regarding the sound, wind noise in particular, do you think the action 4 can be improved by adding some foam at the mics holles? Because from what I've seen on other videos, with bikes and speed, the action 4 captures horrible wind noise compared to action 3. Fact mentioned repeatedly in the comments of those videos as well.
I'll be using it in high speed applications and this is the single puzzle I have regarding which one to choose.

good review the 436 thumb up is mine - one thing nobody makes is a test about quality differences between wide mode and portrait mode and I mean making the lens less wide I know it is possible and I know it is a digital close up but it would be interesting to check how much of the quality remain in a video.

At this point the only notable upgrade I'd expect in Action 5 would be cinematic mode with bokeh (blur) effect!

The Action 4 camera beats the Go Pro 12! Easily

Is there any actioncam that has 10x optical zoom and great low light performance?

What about the ND filters, are Osmo action 3 Nd filters compatible with 4?

Could you please advise if DJI Osmo Action 3 ND filters are compatible with Action 4?

Thanks for the detailed review. It was very helpful💯

Also, what mount do you use on your motorcycle? I'm planning to use it for my weekend rides😎🏍

You didn't say nothing.

Just placed my order for the Action 4. Buha-bye GoPro...

The 3 looks better

I have version 2, is the 4 really that different for an upgrade? I don't do night videos, only soccer games on a tripod...

Deeper is always better

Uhhh sigh. Ok I'll buy it.

Ngl if you're new to action cams I'd get dji or insta 360 go pro has sucked for so many generations now.

Definitely going to buy the action 4. Now if they could just update the Insta360 one rs 1 inch and I’d be set

@robHK great video. I have been looking to pick up an action cam to film my padel and tennis games as well as film myself on the efoil. I am deciding between the insta360 go 3 and the new DJI action 4. Your recommendation on which one to pick would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I'm seriously looking at this camera, I have the Pocket 2 but for some reason (and I have tried) I cannot for the life of get on with it. I just can't seem to manage the form factor when recording. I had a really cheap action camera when I first bought one in the normal form factor and got on with that 10x better than I do the Pocket 2. Not a fan of the GoPro just because you need the media cage for an external mic.

How does it compare to iPhone 14 pro? GoPro are basically out of my considerations, had 3 different generations failed me on random freeze, shut down, and terrible battery life while skiing, I just lost faith on GoPro, where the Action 1, Insta360 one r and X3 never failed me. That low light quality and white balance sensor are attractive since I will be doing night skiing, but that alone can’t justify the purchase. After all it requires extra step to export the footage. I’m using iPhone with Insta360 flow for the most time to filming my family(no need export), and Insta360 X3 as action cam(extra angle of view). So far that combo works great for what I need, but if the action 4 footage is a lot better than iPhone, I may be willing to get one after the new iPhone release this year😂

Is 1/1.3 inch sensor larger than 1 inch?

I'm a very upset owner of an Action 3 that I purchased 5 weeks ago. DJI is one of those companies that will neither announce their upcoming product release nor significantly discount the previous model. It used to be (when companies at least pretended to care about customer loyalty), you got a choice before a major upgrade: get a bargain with the old model or wait for the new one. Now, they just suddenly drop a new model after pushing sales of the old model during the spring and summer, catching poor fools like me unaware. A week earlier I could still have returned the Action 3. Anyway, In the interim I discovered all the flaws of this camera that the Action 4 now (mostly) addresses. And the release of the Action 4 means that there very probably won't be a firmware update for the Action 3 getting us, at least in software, up to date. Because I agree with you that the manual sharpening and noise adjustments, along with the standardized D-Log and gyro data saved to the video file, are what the Action 3 needed to produce even adequate video quality. The Action 3 is, in retrospect, a prototype for the Action 4. Good design, lousy video. Until a couple of days ago, I was hoping these feature requests we've been clamoring for would be implemented; now I know we've been abandoned. Please don't keep referring to it as, would you upgrade. There is no upgrade path. It's, would you pay another $500 for the camera they should have provided you in the first place. I contacted DJI and there is no upgrade/trade-in path for recent Action 3 owners. I am never buying anything from this company again. No one should, unless you have money to burn.

When will reviewers learn to stop doing overheat tests using 4K30. Its pointless. Do 4K60 or GTFO

Your video is the first that looks good and smooth to me. Lowered sharpening to minimum?

Processor same with Action 3?

Great video!!👍

Màu sắc của DJI rất tuyệt

It looks grainy and crappy, why can't they put iPhone like sensors in a small little box like this.. Rubbish junk

Looks nice but like some others, I want to wait till next month and see what the GoPro is going to bring. The leaks for the Hero 12 look amazing, however unbelievable.

Imagine GoPro fanboys trolling this and then found out new GoPro only changed small spec and still overheats haha

Will it record while being recharged?

Hi RobHK, Is there any difference between the battery of action 3 and 4?. can the battery of 3 be used in 4?. thanks for the answer.

For a very honest review, see DCrainmakers review. Action 4 isn't worth it!! Hope I saved someone some time today.

I'm an action 1 user.
Honestly, at same price with GoPro 11, action 4 cant compete with GoPro 11.
GoPro 11 has better value for money.

Image quality better than the Action 3. But still not as good as the GoPro 11.

Was just looking into the Action 3 but was unable to find it. Got the notification yesterday Action 4 was available for order and have it in hand today already.

As an owner of the Action 1' which I hardly use, mainly because of it's lack of horizon balance' and poor stabilizing capabilities, as well as bad low light performance, and the fact that my phone camera actually captures better videos' I was contemplating for quite some time whether to upgrade to the Action 3' but with this Action 4, I'm pretty sure I'll upgrade. It checks all the boxes that I was looking for in an upgrade

Looks like great product. Cannot wait untill Action 5 came out to buy that at a bargain price. Beta testers - you can start throwing your money at DJI, GO!

The new Action 4 is very impressive. I’ve never owned a DJI Action camera, but do have the Pocket 2. I just saw the leak the new Hero 12 will feature a one inch sensor. Great review, and thanks for sharing.

I have the OA3 and I’m interested to see if a lav mic is usable on the OA4? If not then for me it’s not a worthwhile upgrade for motorcycle use

Wondered why this video is familiar just realized it's same as with go go hero 11 comparison...

I N T E R E S T I N G... in your comparisons between OA3 vs OA4, I actually preferred the colors on the OA3. Blacks are black and it has that contrast-y look that I really like.

I had been watching a lot of your videos in anticipation of a trip I’m taking to Hawaii in a few weeks and was trying to decide which camera would be the best for me. I ended up ordering the Insta360 X3 because I thought the footage looked unique and with me being a complete novice, I like that it will capture a wide field that I can hopefully find decent footage from. And Costco having a killer deal on an adventure bundle that included a selfie stick, lens cover, microSD card and spare battery for less than the price of just the camera anywhere else made it a pretty painless decision.

But your lowlight video walking through the woods convinced me to get the Action 4 as well. My wife and I will have fun seeing what kind of shots we can get with these.

How does this camera stack up against the GoPro hero 9 & 10 models? I have lost loads of shots from the two GoPro’s I own. During a 600 mile cycle trip I took last year, some Images were unreadable, both cameras locked up regularly and the hero 9 continued to film after of stop button was pressed creating huge files to sift through.

Great video, seen other action 4 nighttime videos. Most the night time footage I have seen is usable. It's definitely not a night time camera yet.

compare to gph11 it is a 50-50 on low light
compare to a3... yes it has better low light... but not worth $400
its a no upgrade

Everybody saying " unsponsored review" anyway, go pro wins again