We’ve been using the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal for some time now, and we’ve just released the full video review of the device on the Tech Travel Geeks YouTube channel. You can watch it below, or continue reading for the written review.

You can buy the Osmo Mobile 3 Combo on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2X1HQkY

Video stabilisation

Let’s just start with what this product is and why you might need it. It is a mobile phone gimbal, which provides one of the best video stabilisations for your phone. It will allow you to take some buttery smooth footage while filming on the move. 

Here’s a sample video we filmed near Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland, using the Osmo Mobile 3 and the Huawei P30 Pro:

There’s a spring-loaded tension grip where you put your phone and keep it there securely. Luckily, there’s some curvature, so unlike some other devices or phone handles, it won’t press your power or volume buttons by accident.

It should fit most devices without a case or with thin cases on them, but thick gaming or rugged phones like my Doogee S95 Pro might not fit securely, so be mindful of that - it should work with phones of up to 9.5mm.

Before each use, you should balance it to get the best stabilisation of your footage, just make sure it’s nicely centered.

The footage comes out great, as you can see in some test footage. Everything is smooth and very stable, it’s best in class at the moment.

It’s great that you can use it both to film yourself, vlog-style, as if you had a stabilised selfie stick, or film your surroundings, at a flick of the switch.

Build quality

The gimbal is much smaller than I expected, especially when it’s folded. The fact that it folds is one of my favourite features - large size is the main reason I don’t use my large Zhiyun Crane gimbal for my main camera.

You can easily notice its weight at 404 grams or 14 ounces, but it makes it sturdy and very solid. Overall, despite it being made of plastic, I really like the build quality and the fact that it fits nicely with the DJI design language.

Hardware controls

When it comes to hardware controls, make sure you check the unboxing video, which you can find embedded below. We went there through all of the controls on the device like the joystick and the buttons. With those controls, you’ll be able to tilt, zoom, record, switch between camera positions, all without touching your screen. The controls are really handy and allow to focus on filming. It’s also great that you can configure the speed of response to get more cinematic footage. Plus, the battery life is fantastic - 15 hours should last a few days of shooting, plus it even lets you charge your phone, so you basically get a free powerbank included, great stuff.

Software

The Osmo Mobile 3 comes with the DJI Mimo app, which is a bit of a mixed bag, especially on Android. Interestingly, DJI released a major software update as we were finishing this review, so my device is actually better now than it was just a few days ago.

One of the issues was to do with frame rates and slow motion. Up until recently, you could only shoot 30 frames per second and there was no slow motion option. After the release, some phones now should have 8 times slow motion support - it works on my Huawei P30 Pro, but not on the Samsung S9+, which should support it as well. Similarly with 4K 60 frames per second, which my Samsung should support, but all 60fps options are greyed out. On Huawei, I can select 60fps options in FullHD, but since the phone itself doesn’t support 4K60, no luck for me there. 

When supported, slow motion functionality can be quite useful, so I hope DJI continue working on improving the app.

The other major issue is that there’s no support for wide angle camera, you can only use the main lens. That’s a major bummer to me as well, since wide angle cameras are really cinematic in modern phones.

In addition to the video mode, there’s also photo mode, which can be useful for group photos - just enable gesture control and you can snap a great photo of yourself or with others. 

Functionality of the app depends heavily on the phone you have - in addition to missing slow motion, my Samsung S9+ didn’t have the night mode, HDR video or video bokeh, but to be honest, I’m not sure I’d be using any of them with the gimbal, since they have better equivalents in native camera apps.

However, the panorama mode is actually really useful with a tripod, so it’s worth checking out. It combines 9 photos into one, as per the example image below.

Timelapses are great and allow you to select up to four points which the camera will follow, as per the lovely shot of a swan which you can see in the video review.

There’s also hyperlapse, which is a moving timelapse or a video in fast forward. Stabilization helps a lot in this case. You might have seen it already in our sample footage, it’s really great.

Story Mode

So far, all the functions before are common in other camera apps, but two are quite unique to DJI Mimo. The first is the Story mode. It allows you to create short video stories, which follow a certain theme. There’s plenty of them to choose from, all with musical background and some transitions in between shots. Just follow the on-screen instructions and record between 3 and 6 quick shots, and the rest will be done automatically. For people who don’t have the time for video editing, this might be very useful. Just be careful - templates with text will actually add the text in, so you might end up with some random quotes like I did. What’s more, the default resolution is 720p (or HD),  so you have to change that yourself, and you might also want to remove the Osmo watermark. Luckily, you only have to do it once.

On the positive side, you can customize the templates or create your own, so if it’s something you’re into, it’s worth trying.

ActiveTrack 3.0

The main reason to use the DJI Mimo app, however, is the ActiveTrack 3.0 functionality. If you’ve used other DJI products like their drones or the professional Ronin stabilizers, you might have seen it before. Just draw a rectangle around a target and the gimbal will do all it can to keep it in the center. It works really great. On a trip in the hills, I actually tried to lose the tracking, but it kept up really well. 

You can also use it for filming yourself. Maybe you want to start the best cooking show ever from your kitchen, but don’t have anyone to keep the camera aimed at you? No problem, Osmo Mobile 3 will move the camera and ensure you’re always in the centre of the frame. Or maybe you want to stream a heavy metal concert on Twitch, from the same kitchen? Sure, that’s also easy, just make sure you don’t drop your amp from the stove. The possibilities are endless.

Overall thoughts

Overall, I really enjoy using the Osmo Mobile 3. I was a bit hesitant to start it, but once I learned how to use it properly and got to know all the features, I was sold. The image stabilisation is excellent and there’s a lot of great functionality to expand your filming toolkit. The app still needs some work, but other than that, I have no complaints. 

Thanks for checking this Tech Travel Geeks review!