DJI Osmo Action 4 - Best 4K Action Camera in 2023?

So this is the all new DJI Osmo Action 4, a DJI's flagship action camera which has been recently released and you can shoot 4K up to 120 FPS both the front and back side touch screens are available and the best thing is that you can shoot horizontally and you also get the option to record videos in vertical mode and there are a lot of features in this action camera which we will explore in this video because we also have to see how many differences have come in action 3 and action 4 and which is

the better choice between GoPro 11 and action 4 I will answer all of this in this video so let's get started and see if this action camera works. So before going into the video, let's do one thing that I have this adventure combo of DJI Osmo Action 4, let's unbox it and let me show you what you get in the box because there are a lot of accessories in this package that should come with an action camera so let's open the box once and let's see what's inside so as soon as I open the box, I see two

boxes here so on one box it is written Osmo Action 4 and on one it is written accessories apart from that, there is a stick at the bottom of the box so basically you get a 1.5 meter extension rod which you can extend like this and this stick can go around 5 to 5.5 feet it is very good, the build quality is looking good, the grip is also very good, it is a texture grip and here is the holder where you can put your action camera so let's keep it aside and first open these two boxes let's see what

's inside first is this Osmo Action 4 box, so let's open it and here I can see two things let's see this one first so here is our Osmo Action 4 action camera I will explain it in the video later so let me show you an overview in B-roll how this camera looks on the left side, if I slide it here so here is the option of battery and card on the other side, we get this slot here is a C-type charging cable which you can use to even put a microphone there is an on and off button, on the top side is th

e power button and on the back side is the LCD screen you can change the settings by using this, you can watch the preview it is a good thing, there is a screen on the front side too we will talk about it later let's take out the second thing in the box which is going to be very useful for you because this is our case so this is a plastic case which is basically like this in this, your action 4 will slide here one second, yes this way, this action camera will go inside and here on the top side,

we get this lock which I can slide like this and lock now what is the use of this first of all, it will keep your action camera secure but this is not its main use the main use is on this side, on the other side this is the mount in which you can put your accessories like this or you can use the camera on a vertical mount so now let's come to the second box which is the accessories one for which I was very excited because when I have already opened the box I saw that there are a lot of things in

side first of all, this is your magnetic clamp but this is another unit there was only one unit in the box which is this one the second one, if you look at it comparatively is a little extended because of which you can use this mount in longer sticks or in such places where your distance will be a little more from the action camera after that, I get these two locking screws here which I can use obviously with these mounts where if you want to put it in any other accessory then you can use these

screws after that, here is our C type to C type cable which obviously we will use to charge the action camera then I see something else here ok, so this is a curved adhesive stand which you can put in your car, bike or anywhere where you basically want to stick so you get this after that, the most exciting thing in this box and one of the last things is this charging case which I found very good first thing, if you see the width of my thumb is very compact here I can press the button and see how

much the battery level is so inside this box, you get two extra batteries actually there were three batteries I have already put the third one in the action camera so in total, you will get three batteries in this combo which you can use you can charge all three batteries from this box and if you are traveling, you can carry this case and you get an extra lens cover in the box so by chance, if you already have a damaged lens then you get a spare back up in this so this was a quick unboxing now

let's continue with the rest of the video now one thing which I found very good in action 4 was also there in action 3 that is magnetic clamp and this is a very good thing let's assume I want to put some accessories in this I want to use this DJI action stick so I can use it horizontally like this I have to clip it directly it is magnetic so it clips on itself and let's assume I want to do vertical orientation so I will put my action camera directly here it will lock, you will hear a click and y

ou will get an idea that it is secure and I can shift vertically to horizontally like this so I liked this thing you can see this in normal action cameras the two sticks that come out at the bottom in which we have to put extra accessories it happens somewhere that in many places in many cameras, they break and when there is heating in the camera it gets very hot somewhere I actually liked this mounting system and I think in the coming action cameras this is the way forward but let me tell you o

ne important thing if you want to use action 4 vertically then you have to use this case which is available in this box with the action camera because there you have the option of vertical mounting which I think is good because your camera also remains secure and you can easily shift vertically to horizontally now whether it is Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts almost every social media platform prefers vertical videos and this thing is great in action 4, you can shoot vertically straight out of

the camera as I told you, it is a magnetic mount so I will put it like this whenever I record with my action camera I don't have to enable any setting separately I don't have to turn on any mode I will keep my action camera vertically like this I will record and I will get a vertical video directly out of this camera so let's shoot some samples and see how the output comes so I can shoot a vertical video directly from action 4 in this way if you are watching in the camera in BTS I have held act

ion 4 vertically and in this way, this vertical video is coming directly out of the camera so this thing is great you don't have to change any setting just press the record button and now you can start recording a video vertically by the way, I am shooting at 4K 30fps you can shoot up to 120fps but because I am making a talking video there is no need for 120fps now one thing is good that there is a display on both sides in DJI action 4 but along with the display, both screens are touch screens s

o I liked this thing even in GoPro, I saw that the front screen is there but not the touch screen but here in action 4 there was a touch screen in action 3 but here too, I can change my resolution by tapping like this how much wide angle I want I have to change the manual settings zoom in and zoom out even if I want to preview the file, that can also be done from here and if you want to change the mode that too 118 00:07:28,001 --> 00:07:27,977 from the front screen basically you can do it so wh

ile shooting, it is not like you have to go to the back screen again and again and then have to change the settings you can easily change things from the front screen now DJI is actually calling this action camera an advanced top of the line action camera why? Because if I go to the color profile I get the D-Log M color profile here in which you can record video in 10 bit if you have no idea basically normal video is in 8 bit and if you are doing in D-Log M you will get video in 10 bit in which

basically the dynamic range is better you can control the colors better according to your editing and the difference between highlights and shadows can be recorded better in the sensor so I found this to be a good thing and if I talk about the sensor then in action 4, there is a bigger sensor than GoPro 11 which is 1/1.3 inches if I talk about Hero 11 then it has a 1/1.9 inch sensor which is comparatively smaller than this so now let's talk about its stabilization and quality of photo and video

first of all, if I talk about the stabilization then already last year the stabilization was very good in action 3 but I think it has improved more in action 4 especially its rock steady and rock steady plus like you saw the footage of running so there is hardly any shake there it's just like you are walking with a gimbal camera so if you are looking at the stabilization action 4 is performing very well now it has a horizon steady mode in which basically I can rotate the action camera as much as

I want my footage will be very straight let's try it start recording so basically what happens if you see this way I am rotating this action camera so as long as you are rotating it to 45 degrees left or right if you see the final output my video is not moving at all but actually I am rotating my action camera in this way so if you are going to shoot more action like running videos or trekking, you are going to shoot in such uneven surfaces so this mode is very good especially when you are shoo

ting such a video where you want to shoot a lot of action and your action camera is going to move more than 45 degrees so you can use this mode there but yes, you should know one thing if you are going to use this horizon steady mode although 4K resolution goes up to 120 but in this mode you can only go up to 4K 60 if you are recording in 120 in 4K then this mode will not be enabled it will be disabled and will go to normal stabilization mode okay so now I am recording this sample at 4K 30fps it

is ultra wide so you can see the widest angle of view possible is this option and I think it is good it is quite wide I can show you the location let's say I want to show you the back side that I am at this location we are shooting in the park so this is its widest angle of view and I want to do an audio test here so you can hear my audio directly from action 4 you can also use a mic I will show you later how but the audio you are hearing now is directly from action 4 so you will get an idea of

how the audio is coming let's do one thing let's test the other angle of view and resolution so the video that is being recorded at 4K 30fps I have chosen the ultra wide angle which is the widest angle of view and let's see in the park light situation the sun is right behind me so it will be interesting to see how the dynamic range is capturing this because when I tested it earlier there was not as interesting dynamic range of action 3 against GoPro 11 but here I would like to see how the dynam

ic range is being recorded you can also comment and tell your views so now it is ultra wide let me go to wide and see the difference and now I have switched to wide angle which is a little narrow so you can see less wide but still this is also quite wide because if I talk about the angle of view so the first ultra wide was at 155 degree which is a little wider than GoPro and now this is wide angle so let me switch to narrow once and let's get an idea of how the output is now in 4K you get this n

arrowest option it is written as D-Warp by doing standard but this is the standard angle of view and you will get an idea of the dynamic range but all over I have to see because this is the angle of view where I am going to use this camera mostly because there is not much wide angle and it is not too narrow so it looks good especially if you are vlogging I think this is the best suited option which you get in this camera the audio that is coming now is coming from the internal microphone of acti

on 4 so I wanted to see this too because a lot of people have come here to roam in this park so how is it taking this noise how is it controlling it, that too you have to see you will get an idea and one more thing you should know if you are going to shoot in 4K 120fps then you will not get the option of ultra wide 4K 60fps is the option of ultra wide so now I am shooting in 4K 60 so that you get the option of ultra wide but as soon as I switch to 120 then it does not come ultra wide, it comes w

ith a wide option which is a little narrow but still it is wide enough so in the video a little while ago I talked about the microphone and I said that you can also put an external mic so the good thing is if you have a DJI mic or you are planning to buy it so if you want to use an external mic, wireless so in this way you can put this DJI mic so the audio you are listening to now is not coming from action 4, it is coming from DJI mic which I found quite good because I already had a DJI mic so b

y putting it in this action camera I can shoot my audio more crisp and better and one more thing let's say I hold the action camera Usman, hold it once so let's say I want to go a little distance and make a video so in this way, because the mic is with me so the level of audio will be the same as when I was near the action camera so now I am almost 10 feet away from action 4 still my audio is coming crisp and clear because here I have put a microphone in my t-shirt because of which the audio wil

l be absolutely correct and I get a creative freedom that I can record audio even at a distance now if I talk about audio so one thing again I found quite right in action 4 is that you get two options for audio one is front where only the front audio will be recorded but now I have kept it on stereo so what is the benefit of stereo there is a microphone in front and also on the top so basically if you are talking from the front like I am recording from the front if I turn it to the back so even

now the audio should be better because it is recording stereo audio where basically there is a microphone on the top and also in front so you get an immersive sound experience in the video one thing I found a little different is that there is a microphone in front and also on the top and not in the back so when I am talking from the front so the audio is very good but when I am talking from the back so the audio is a little weak compared to when I am talking from the front so that point is not a

drawback but it was a feedback that I wanted to share now sometimes let's say you shoot in 2-3 fixed situations sometimes you keep 4k 60fps sometimes you keep it at 1080p 120fps so in this action 4 I found a good thing that you can make custom presets for your settings if I swipe from the top there is the first option where you can create custom preset for the setting you have set and like this whenever you change the mode the option of video to photo you will get options like C1, C2, C3 where

you can select the custom option and that setting will automatically come on your screen and this is very good specially if you use different settings frequently you can make it custom and keep it in action 4 now let's talk about the battery performance battery backup does brand blame 160 minutes but you can take roughly 2-2.5 hours if you are shooting in 4k you can easily shoot 2 hours which is actually good, I have seen in many action cameras battery lasts for 30-45 minutes but practically you

can shoot 1.5-2 hours on a safer side but the best thing I found is the charging time you can charge it fully in 50 minutes or maximum 1 hour which is actually very impressive it has fast charging which you can use for travelling you can charge the battery in 30-60 minutes which you can get in action 4 and another thing when I am recording a video I can see 1x here so if I long press on 1x and move the wheel like this I can zoom in up to 2x this is digital zoom but you still get the option this

is 1x normal which is wide angle I can zoom in 2x and zoom in video so this way you can turn on or off the video recording with voice command in action 4 let's try stop recording stop recording stop recording so this problem was in action 3 it is happening in 4 as well we tried 2-3 times it stops recording only when you say stop 2-3 times it starts recording in the first try when we were taking photos you can take photos in photo mode which is also working fine but the stop thing is a problem b

ut this is a good thing if you are keeping the action camera at a distance or if you want to start recording you can use voice command to start and stop the video now the action 4 combo pack which I showed you in the unboxing it also has "this extension stick which has a height of 6'2" which is a little more than 5.5 feet so it is a little more than that and the good thing is if I want to shoot something like a fake drone shot or if I want to shoot from a distance or from a height it is a lightw

eight and at the same time it has a good height you get this extension stick in the box you get this combo in the box otherwise you will have to buy it separately if I talk about the video quality dynamic range, I personally liked it a lot when the sun was behind me the colors were good the sky was good so if you shoot outdoors you make travel videos you will get a good dynamic range and the best thing is the face is distorted especially in the ultra wide mode I didn't feel that in action 4 the

face is maintained well the distortion in the backdrop which should be there in the back is well maintained considering that it captures the video in a wide angle if you want to shoot a slow motion video in action 4 you can shoot in 4K up to 120 fps and in 1080p you get an option of 240 fps and actually the footage is very smooth and the good thing is the stabilization is very good so the running shots you are seeing you can easily capture in slow motion apart from that, it is a very good action

camera you can use it horizontally I liked the mounting system very much the magnetic mount I can move it horizontally to vertically the stabilization is good the performance is good even the photos were good the resolution was good the dynamic range is good the colors are balanced so I think the price if it is under 40,000 then it is a very good option it can be a very good competitor of GoPro 11 what did you think? Comment below and another question that many people have that GoPro 11 has 5.3

K and this has only 4K so what is the difference? The first thing is your machine should be strong enough to edit and the upload speed is it 5.3K? Because most of the social media platforms do 1080p or 4K so I think you will shoot in 4K the sensor size is different which is comparatively bigger than GoPro 11 so the quality of the information will be better I will see you in the next video.