DJI Osmo Action 6 Long-Term Review: My Top 8 Favorite Features and Upgrades

Good day, folks. Shawn here from Air Photography. The DJI Osmo Action 6 has been out for about three months now, and I like to do follow-up videos going over my user experience once I’ve had more time to use a product. I’m going to do this long-term review a little differently than I normally do — I’m going to walk through my top eight favorite features and upgrades, the ones I think make the Osmo Action 6 a worthwhile upgrade for myself and perhaps for others as well.

In my opinion, you’re not going to get much of a video quality increase going from something like the Action 5 to the Action 6. Perhaps in low light there are some slight improvements due to the variable aperture on the Action 6, but both cameras have very similar video quality. For me, it’s more about the usability and the features — things that can really enhance productivity and overall user experience.

1. The New Square Sensor

The first upgrade that is really important to me is the new square sensor. It’s a 1/1.1-inch sensor, and what makes that significant is it allows me to capture in a square aspect and then crop it into either a vertical or horizontal format later during editing, depending on what platform I’m uploading to. That saves a lot of time — you don’t have to make that decision out in the field. Film in square, crop it later.

All the tools needed are built right into the DJI Mimo app. I actually made a tutorial on how to do it, and it’s really easy. You can perform the crop while you’re downloading the footage. Because the sensor is square, you can set a vertical or horizontal aspect right in the software. So if you primarily want to film vertically but then want to switch to horizontal, you can do that in the settings without having to remount the camera. A very useful feature.

2. The New Lens System with Auto-Detection

The second important feature is the new lens system. Alongside the Osmo Action 6, DJI released a wide-angle lens, a new boost lens, and a new macro lens. Both lenses work extremely well — I covered that with lots of samples in my initial review. What really makes these different from the previous generation, though, is that they are now auto-detected. As soon as you attach a lens to the camera, it knows it’s there and automatically adjusts all the settings.

That saves a lot of time and hassle when you’re out capturing. Just attach the lens you want to use and the camera is ready to go. For me personally, the wide-angle lens is more beneficial and something I use on a regular basis. The macro lens is a nice addition — not something I’ll use a lot, but it will definitely come in handy from time to time. Probably my second favorite feature overall.

3. 8K Recording (Added via Firmware)

My third favorite feature is the new ability to capture in 8K. Interestingly, this was not available at launch, so I didn’t mention it in my initial review — it was added later with a firmware update. Most of the time, probably 95% of the time, I film in 4K. Video quality is really good in 4K, file sizes are manageable, and it’s easier on the camera thermals. 8K can really increase file sizes, be more difficult to edit, and generate a lot of heat, but it comes in handy for certain scenarios — especially when you want a lot of flexibility while editing.

4. Auto-Upload to Cloud or NAS (Also Added via Firmware)

My fourth favorite feature was also added after the initial release via firmware, and that’s the ability to auto-upload to a cloud service of your choice. You set it up in the settings inside the DJI Mimo app, and when you plug your camera in to charge after a day of shooting, it automatically connects to your Wi-Fi and starts uploading to whatever cloud service you chose. On top of that, it supports NAS — you can auto-upload directly to a NAS system.

That’s actually how I have mine set up. When I’m done filming for the day, I plug the camera in to charge and I know all my content is going to be safely uploaded to my NAS. That lets me go in later, organize everything, delete what I don’t want, and have it ready when I’m ready to edit. A really practical workflow improvement.

5. Natural Wide Field of View

My fifth favorite feature is the new natural wide field of view. When I’m filming on an action camera, most of the time I’m shooting wide. The problem with a wide field of view is that you’re going to introduce distortion. With the launch of the Osmo Action 6, DJI included a new field of view option called “natural wide” that significantly reduces that distortion. It’s a welcome improvement for anyone who relies on wide shooting most of the time.

6. Gesture Control

My sixth favorite feature is gesture control. A lot of people see gesture control as a gimmick, but I actually find it quite useful — especially when the camera is mounted away from you. Of course, voice command is also available on the Action 6, but not every situation works well with voice. With gesture control, you just make the gesture, it’s very accurate, and it will automatically take a photo or start and stop recording. A practical tool that earns its place.

7. Reversible Magnetic Mounts

My seventh favorite feature is the new reversible magnetic mounts. Magnetic mounting has been around since the Action 2, but in the past the mounts could only be connected one way. If you needed to reverse the camera to get a reverse-facing shot, you had to undo the thumb screw and flip the entire mount. Now, with reversible magnetic mounting, you don’t have to do that at all. Switching camera angles is faster and easier, with no thumb screws to mess with. It’s a minor improvement, but definitely one of my favorite new additions.

8. Lossless 2x Zoom

My eighth and final favorite feature is the lossless zoom. When zoomed in at 2x, you get higher quality video compared to a standard digital zoom — and that can really matter in certain scenarios. I don’t use zoom a lot since most of the time I want a nice wide field of view, but there are moments during handheld filming where getting a bit closer is necessary. Being able to do that while maintaining higher video quality is a great upgrade.

Those are my top eight favorite features of the DJI Osmo Action 6 after three months of use. I’m really curious what your favorite features are — if you’ve upgraded, what do you like best? You can check out more of my content on the Air Photography YouTube channel, and find my other articles here on DroneXL via my author profile.