DJI Osmo 360 II in hand: 8K60, 4K240, more editing tools

It must be said that the 360 ​​camera is an extremely special recording device: shoot first and choose the next angle, one shot for many angles, the ability to follow up and never lose track and much more...

When using a 360 camera in general, my psychology is much more comfortable, with less common worries such as guarding the angle, placing the cam, capturing the moment.... Shooting once, you have four or five six angles. When I get home, I choose which angle to take, how long to take, and how many frames to take. No need to frame while filming, no need for expensive accessories to get a strange perspective. Perspective is a matter of editing.

For example, the shot of me playing soccer with the Tinhte brothers: I just needed to hold the camera to film very basic angles, walking on the street, going to the field, placing the camera between me and Teo during the warm-up. Just one take and then you can choose which guy is highlighting, which guy is moving fast, this corner or that corner, you can go home and choose again later.

Actually, there is no need for generation 2, generation 1 can already do the same tasks, but in generation 2, DJI has added a lot of AI features, quick editing, making using the device easier and faster.

Spotlight Follow

The first thing I want to mention is Spotlight Follow, which is quite similar to the spirit of Follow on Pocket: click on the face, the machine frames itself and follows you back and forth, back and forth. The difference is that the 360 ​​camera does not need a rotating gimbal. Put the camera down, turn on Spotlight Follow, remember to put the lens facing the face or opposite the thing you want to get, because the most beautiful area is still as close to the center of the lens.

Activities that require a lot of movement such as cooking, DIY, cutting wood, playing billiards alone, taking photos, etc. will be easier to record videos.

Actually, you can set the camera up to shoot 360, then go to DJI Mimo and press tracking, then keyframe yourself, but if you go back and forth a lot, keyframing becomes a lot of work, not fun. Spotlight Follow will do that part for you. In the video, I have a demo of how this feature works, you can see more.

Dual Recording: one file, two sides

Dual Recording is a feature in post-production, this mode allows quickly combining two frames next to each other, so that the viewer can see both before and after the frame.

In my videos, I use this feature quite a lot, in shots of playing soccer, walking, vlogging and talking, or recording videos and editing photos with both screen capture and my portrait, it's all okay.

In the editing section of DJI Mino, you will see the Dual Recording section, you can choose 2 frames next to each other, or frames in a window frame, many options to explore.

AI One Tap Edit

One Tap Edit was previously available on DJI Mimo, but this time DJI has upgraded faster processing speed, deeper intervention and analysis capabilities, and more templates and styles for you to choose from.

In the video, I have a demo of how to use it, basically after selecting the "One Tap edit" mode, then selecting the recorded video sources, and waiting a bit for the device to return the results.

After getting the results, you can choose other templates, other editing styles, other music, other sources,... as you like.

I played 2-3 matches first, then sat down to rest a bit and turned on One Tap editing, waited a bit for the video to appear, so at the end of the session everyone had a video to take home.

Going out in a group, one person holds a 360, and at the end of the session presses edit and the whole group has a commemorative clip. Not everyone wants to sit down to keyframe, adjust little by little, then add music, insert text,... what you want is someone to edit for you, right? This feature does not replace the real editor, but it solves the exact laziness that the 360 ​​camera was born to solve: filming a lot, coming home and not wanting to touch the file.

Notable upgrades

In addition to some differences in appearance, the hardware of the device also has a few notable differences as follows:

It can be seen that DJI is focusing more on user experience, post-production features, applying AI more to producing videos that are fast, easy to use... Rather than continuing to pursue higher hardware. However, DJI Osmo 360 II is still upgraded with 8K60 recording ability, in addition to improving dynamic range to 14.5 stops and very impressive slo-mo recording ability.

Slow motion on a 360 camera is worth the money

If a shot requires slow motion, then certainly, that shot will need more budget than regular shots. Because slomo requires a lot of resources, camera hardware, techniques and especially careful preparation before shooting.

For 360 cameras, it's different, slow motion combined with the ability to choose an angle after filming has turned super complicated slow motion into a lot simpler. So slow motion on a 360 camera is extremely valuable, shots with strong action such as jumping off a bridge, free falling shots, balls flying into the camera...: at that time no one could watch the shooting angle accurately to capture the moment.

360 plus slow motion was new at that time, but users were often afraid to use it because previous 360 cameras were not good at recording slow motion. DJI Osmo 360 II, when recording in 8K60, can use AI Super Slomotion on DJI Studio to pick out slow moments. In the video, I have a demo of many shooting scenes, hitting the ball, picking up the ball, and the ball flying into the machine... you can see more.

14.5 stops dynamic range: +1 stop is small, but in the right place

To be honest, distinguishing 13.5 from 14.5 stops is quite difficult. At first glance, the naked eye can barely recognize it. I have to stop the video and watch carefully to see the difference. It's not much, but it will silently upgrade the quality of your video.

I tried filming a section going out from under the bridge, where it was very dark, and then going outside, it was very bright, where the sensor would have to work at its maximum to process the image. Looking at the photo, you can see that at the same time, generation 1 was still quite burned, generation 2 had finished processing. Looking out from the tunnel, there is almost nothing left of generation 1, while generation 2 still retains quite a bit of detail.

Shoot at night

It must be admitted that night shooting is always the weakness of 360 cameras, it has to process a large amount of information, and in low light conditions this is extremely difficult. The sensor is small, the viewing angle lens is too wide, causing night sources to often lose contrast, dark areas have a lot of noise, and bright areas will easily burn out details.

DJI Osmo 360 II is no exception, but DJI has made quite a few improvements, one of those efforts is Super Night 2.0. The sources from Osmo 360 II have a clear improvement compared to generation 1, the dark areas are cleaner, the building parts are bright, not too blown out, so the lens quality is more stable, no detail is burned out, leading to better image processing quality.

Conclude

Using a 360 camera for me is first and foremost a matter of taking advantage of its unique advantages: shoot once, then choose the angle when you get home, but also choose many angles. This upgrade adds Spotlight Follow, Dual Recording, One Tap Edit, 8K60, slower slo-mo, better dynamic range, stronger stick, cooler looking shell.

The new software correctly solves the tasks that previously had to be done in keyframes. The new hardware slightly adds 8K60 upgrades, AI Super Slomotion mode, 16K timelapse... Admittedly, there aren't many hardware upgrades that make me wow, but in terms of software, DJI is trying to make it easier for users to produce more videos, faster, beautiful videos and better editing... They are getting better and better at it. How do you feel about using a 360, and specifically the Osmo 360 II? Please discuss with me in the comments section below. Those interested in the product can see more here. Thank you VJShop for accompanying me in this article.