DJI Osmo Pocket 4 vs Pocket 3: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

Good day folks. Shawn here from Air Photography. In today’s article, we’re going to primarily do a video comparison of the new DJI Osmo Pocket 4 against the Osmo Pocket 3. Before we get into the side-by-side comparisons, I just want to go over some of the main upgrades and main selling points of the Pocket 4 to help those who are on the fence whether it’s a worthwhile upgrade.

Just like a lot of technology, upgrades and new features that we get from generation to generation have slowed down quite a bit. For some people, this might be a worthwhile upgrade. For others, they’re going to be completely happy with their Pocket 3.

Physical Design and Accessory Compatibility

To get started here, you can see the physical attributes of both devices are pretty well the same. There hasn’t really been much in the way of changes that way. That’s actually a good thing because a lot of the accessories for the Pocket 3 are fully compatible with the Pocket 4, and that includes the action mount. If you have this, it will work with your Pocket 4 with no issues at all. Same goes for filters. If you have any ND filters or the wide-angle lens, all of those filters are fully compatible.

The Pocket 4 Creator Edition does not come with a battery handle. This is now a separate purchase, but the one from the Pocket 3 is fully compatible. I don’t know if that’s officially from DJI, but I have tested it out. It connects with no issue. When I have it attached and check the battery information, it’s listed there, and it is charging up the Pocket 4. So again, I don’t know what the official specs are or the official response from DJI is, but just from my testing, the battery handle from the Pocket 3 does work with the Pocket 4.

Enhanced 1-Inch Sensor and New Capabilities

Now, to go over some of the key features of the Pocket 4 and some of the upgrades over the Pocket 3 before we get into the comparisons: they both still have a 1-inch sensor. There’s a 1-inch sensor in the Pocket 4, however, it is a new enhanced sensor that allows for some extra capabilities, including the ability to capture in 240 frames per second while filming at 4K. That’s pretty impressive for a device of this size.

With the new sensor, it’s also going to offer better zoom capabilities. The Pocket 4 offers two times lossless zoom. It’s capable now of 14 stops of dynamic range. You get an extra two stops when filming in the night mode compared to the Pocket 3. It also features D-Log M, so for those who want pro-level color grading, that is now available on the Pocket 4. It’s capable of 37 megapixel photos compared to 9.4 of the Pocket 3.

ActiveTrack 7.0 and Subject Profile Feature

It has better tracking capabilities. It now features ActiveTrack 7.0 compared to 6.0 on the Pocket 3. On top of that, with the tracking capabilities, it has a new profile feature that you can add yourself as a subject, which works well if you’re tracking in a group of people. It knows who it’s tracking. As long as you have yourself added and selected, it’ll make you the priority when it comes to tracking.

New Buttons, Joystick, and Storage Upgrades

Under the screen, we now have two new buttons. We have a dedicated zoom button, and we have a new customizable button that we can set to perform various tasks. There’s a door over the memory card — just a small subtle upgrade, but a nice addition. There’s a new upgraded joystick that gives you a lot more precision, has a better tactile feel, and it allows you to zoom in, zoom out, or adjust the gimbal angle with a lot more precision and speed. You can adjust the speed depending on how far you push the joystick.

It has 107 GB of built-in storage. It has faster file transfer speeds, both when it comes to wireless and when it’s wired, and that can be really important if you’re transferring large files.

New Film Tones, Gesture Control, and Audio Enhancements

It has new film tones if you want to get a little bit creative. It features gesture control, and it has some new enhanced audio capabilities, including audio zoom. When you’re using the zoom feature and you’re zooming in on something with audio, the audio will get louder. It also now features four-channel audio, so if you’ve got two wireless mics paired to it, it’ll also use the built-in microphones to give you four channels to help capture ambient sound. On top of that, it now also features spatial audio.

New Fill Light Accessory for Vlogging

The Pocket 4 also now supports a new fill light that comes with the Creator Combo, or it can be purchased separately. This is really going to help for those who are using the Pocket 4 for vlogging in dimly lit interiors. It’s got different color temperatures that you can adjust depending on the situation, and it has different brightness levels.

Side-by-Side Video Comparison Results

With all that said, I headed out to do some comparisons. As you can see in the footage, both cameras do an incredible job. There’s not a huge upgrade when it comes to video quality in my opinion. In some scenarios, especially in that cabin interior, you can see the dynamic range of the Pocket 4 was better. You could see through the window to the details outside of the window a little bit easier than you could on the Pocket 3. I think some of the night shots were a little cleaner. There wasn’t as much noise.

It’s really hard to tell when you’re watching these types of videos back on YouTube. Everything gets compressed and it’s a very small screen, so sometimes it’s really hard to notice a difference. But when playing back each one full size, the original files on my iPad, there is a noticeable difference in a lot of the footage. It just depends on the situation. In some situations, there’s almost no difference. There’s nothing really different you can see. In other situations, you can see a subtle difference.

Is the Pocket 4 Worth the Upgrade?

Whether it’s a worthwhile upgrade is going to be up to the individual user. Some people like to keep their equipment up to date. They like to use the latest gear. So, it’s going to be up to the individual user whether they think that some of those features are a worthwhile upgrade, or if they’re just going to wait to see what comes next.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this article and found it had value. Thanks a lot for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.

This article is based on a video by Shawn from Air Photography. You can view more of Shawn’s work on his YouTube channel and read his other articles on his DroneXL author page.