As camera technology continues to shrink, the bold idea that you can have a cinema ready camera in your pocket is becoming closer to reality. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4P is the closest I’ve seen to that reality as it promises to deliver professional-grade filmmaking capabilities in a device that barely weighs more than your average smartphone. But does it actually deliver on that hefty promise, or is it just another gadget destined to gather dust in your top drawer? Let’s take a closer look.
Where We Started
To understand why the Pocket 4P exists, we need to quickly rewind. DJI pioneered this entire category of stabilised handheld cameras back in 2015 with the original Osmo. By 2018, they managed to shrink that technology down to the first Osmo Pocket. The goal has always been simple, give everyday creators and professional videographers a tool that bridges the massive gap between a basic smartphone camera and a heavy, complicated cinema rig. The Pocket 4P is the latest in that evolution, designed specifically as the ultimate content creator’s camera for those who refuse to compromise on quality just because they want to travel light.
How It Works and What It Does Best
The real magic of the Osmo Pocket 4P lies in its brand-new dual-lens setup.
The primary wide-angle lens features a massive 1-inch CMOS sensor, which is the secret ingredient for capturing incredible detail and performing exceptionally well in low light. It boasts an unprecedented 17 stops of dynamic range, which honestly brings it dangerously close to cinema-camera territory. When combined with DJI’s 10-bit D-Log 2 colour profile, the camera captures over one billion colours. So you can film in a dense, shadowy rainforest with bright streaks of sunlight piercing the canopy, and the camera will perfectly preserve the deep greens of the ferns and the bright highlights of the sky without turning everything into a muddy mess.
Then there is the new 60mm medium-telephoto lens. Featuring an f/1.8 aperture, this is your classic portrait lens. Unlike smartphones that rely on aggressive AI to artificially blur the background (often chopping off half your ear in the process) this lens does it optically. It pulls the background closer to your subject and blurs it out beautifully, giving you that authentic, high-end cinematic look.
Storage: Keeping Your Workflow Seamless
Let’s talk about one of the most frustrating aspects of modern content creation: storage management. We have all experienced the sheer panic of realising you left your tiny MicroSD card sitting on your desk at home while you are miles away on a shoot.
DJI has brilliantly addressed this by including 107GB of built-in storage right on the device as well. You can take it out of the box and start shooting immediately. When it comes time to edit, the workflow is incredibly fast. Thanks to USB 3.1 support, you get wired transfer speeds of up to 800 MB/s. You can dump massive 4K video files onto your laptop almost instantly, entirely eliminating the need to fiddle with tiny cards and slow adaptors.
Battery Life: Built for the Long Haul
A portable camera is only as good as its battery, and this is where the Pocket 4P genuinely blows me away.
If you are out shooting all day, the last thing you want is a dead camera holding you back. When fully charged, the Pocket 4P gives you an impressive runtime of up to 210 minutes. That is three and a half hours of continuous shooting. But the real lifesaver is the fast charging capability. If you do manage to run it flat, plugging it in will rocket the battery from 0 to 80% in just 18 minutes. You can literally plug it into a power bank while you grab a quick coffee, and by the time you have finished your drink, you are ready to shoot for another couple of hours.
The Extra Bells and Whistles
Beyond the lenses and battery, the Pocket 4P is packed with features designed to make life easier.
- ActiveTrack 8.0: This autofocus and tracking system is incredibly good. It easily locks onto faces, pets, and vehicles, keeping them perfectly centred in the frame even if you push in to a 12x zoom.
- Insane Slow Motion: If you are shooting fast action, the camera can capture 4K video at a blistering 240 frames per second, giving you buttery smooth 8x ultra-HD slow motion.
- 37MP Photos: It is not just for video. You can snap incredibly detailed 37-megapixel photos that allow you to heavily crop and reframe during editing without losing quality. This is a huge step up from the quality of images seen on previous DJI Pocket cameras.
- Fill Light: As if an included light wasn’t enought, this clever add on automatically adjusts its brightness and colour temperature based on the current scene, eliminating the need for frequent manual adjustments.
Taking It Into the Wild
Testing the Pocket 4P in the real world is where it truly shines. Taking it into a dense, shadowy rainforest would usually be a nightmare for a small camera due to the high-contrast lighting piercing through the canopy. Yet, the dynamic range handles the shifting light effortlessly, preserving the deep greens of the ferns and the bright streaks of sunlight.
Down at the beach, the physical 3-axis gimbal proves its worth. Running across the sand to track a subject usually results in aggressively shaky footage, but the Pocket 4P’s mechanical stabilisation (combined with the upgraded ActiveTrack 8.0) keeps the subject locked perfectly in the centre of a silky-smooth frame.
Connectivity and Accessories
One of the smartest design choices is the simple connectivity. It pairs seamlessly with the DJI Mic series, meaning you can record crystal-clear, wireless audio without fussing with adaptors and cables. Plus, it doubles as a remarkably high-quality webcam, instantly upgrading your next video call.
DJI has also rolled out a suite of clip on accessories that twist snap pretty well onto the front of the lens:
- Wide-Angle Lens: Perfect for vlogging, allowing you to capture yourself and a massive chunk of the surrounding scenery without having to stretch your arm out of its socket.
- Black Mist Filter: What I love about this is that it takes the digital “edge” off your footage. It softens harsh light sources and gives skin tones a lovely, cinematic glow. It is highly recommended for portrait work.
- ND Filters Set: Think of these as premium sunglasses for your camera. If you are shooting at the beach on a glaringly bright day, an ND filter allows you to keep your camera settings perfectly balanced without overexposing your shot. The inbuilt features of the camera do a good job on this, but there’s nothing quite like that ND assistance and although I’m not in love with the clip on design compared to the magnetic attachments of previous models, you can see why they chose to go down this path and it works.
The Competition
How does it stack up against what is already in your bag?
The latest high-end smartphones are incredibly convenient, but they still rely heavily on digital processing and lack physical mechanical stabilisation. Taking a smartphone for a run down the beach will result in jarring, jittery footage. The Pocket 4P’s 3-axis mechanical gimbal makes running footage look like it was shot on a Hollywood dolly track.
On the flip side, action cameras like a GoPro are vastly more rugged and waterproof. However, they simply cannot match the optical depth of field, the low-light performance of the 1-inch sensor, or the beautiful natural portraits from the 60mm lens. The Pocket 4P trades extreme ruggedness for pure visual quality.
The closest device on the market is Insta360’s Luna series and over the next few weeks I’ll be doing some comparisons, so look out for that. One thing the OSMO Pocket series immediatly have over opposition though is the abilty to use it as a web cam, this is such a powerful feature that I use every day. In fact, I’d recommend anyone in the market for a new webcam, looks for a second had older model Pocket instead.
Final Verdict
At AU$959 for the Standard Combo and AU$1099 for the Vlog Combo, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P is a serious investment. However, if you are a creator, traveller, or hybrid worker who wants to capture breathtaking video and 37MP high-res photos in a genuinely pocketable form factor, there is simply nothing else quite like it. It is versatile, powerful, and an absolute joy to use, oh and it comes in two colours. I reviewed the black which looks great, but that white one looks immaculate. Highly recommended.
