DJI Action 2 review

The 12MP ultra-wide camera with 155° FOV has the widest FOV on an action camera currently. The GoPro Hero10 Black has 150° FOV which is not far behind DJI’s but you can include a lot more in your frame with the Action 2. It’s also a very, very tiny camera. Way tinier than the GoPro. There’s barely any physical footprint of the camera. If you attach it to the magnetic lanyard and place it at the centre of your chest like Iron Man’s reactor, the thing is so tiny that it is barely noticeable.

I wore the magnetic lanyard while cycling and the camera stayed glued to my shirt the whole time. Rocksteady stabilization is DJI’s answer to GoPro’s HyperSmooth and to some extent, it works equally well too. We cycled through potholes and slightly rough terrain and Action 2 managed to capture the whole ride smoothly. The DJI Action 2’s RockSteady 2.0 stabilization is jaw-dropping for the size!

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Stuff Magazine India (@stuffindia)

In a nutshell, the Action 2’s stabilisation is great but still not better than the GoPro Hero10 Black’s stabilisation. The video in which we strapped the DJI Action 2 and the GoPro Hero10 Black on the dog’s back. You can see that both action cameras do a tremendous job of stabilizing the frame and shot but the GoPro is a wee-bit better. Getting stable footage from a camera strapped to a running dog is not easy for any action camera but both action cameras managed to deliver a crisp and usable video.

The highest resolution the DJI Action 2 can do is 4K at 120 in 16:9 or 4K at 60 in 4:3 aspect ratio. It can get really hot while shooting in 4K and you should ideally know what you’re shooting before taking the shot. RockSteady 2.0 also doesn’t work for Timelapse and slow-motion videos which is fine but in my opinion, that’s not a deal-breaker. The supported video and photo resolution are actually very good from something so small.

When it comes to stills, the GoPro again is sharper and has better exposure control. Again, the DJI is just hot on the heels of the reigning action camera champ. The DJI’s colours are a bit muted. Skin tones are more natural and the sharpness is a lot better on the GoPro than the DJI. It’s great that you can include a lot more with the DJI Action 2’s lens. Although if you want that 155° FOV on the GoPro, there’s GoPro Max Len Mod that GoPro sells separately and it can easily be swapped with the GoPro’s detachable lens.

The DJI Action 2’s camera performance is not bad by any measure. In fact, it’s a lot more fun to use than the GoPro. Of course, if you’re nitpicking to find a clear winner for camera quality then it’s the Hero10 Black. For everything else though, the DJI Action 2 has its own saga to tell.

For starters, the dinky size is absolutely mindblowing. It’s almost one-third the weight of the GoPro Hero10 Black. The DJI Action 2 weighs 56g whereas the Hero10 Black is at 154g. For the first time, I felt the GoPro was heavy. The GoPro slipped sideways on the dog mount due to the excess weight, meanwhile the DJI barely moved from its position no matter how vigorously the dog ran. The DJI Action 2 has the perfect size and weight for mounting on drones.

The magnets also have a clip with quick release to hook onto the modules and mounts. So not only it is magnetically snapped in place, but it’s also hooked down from the sides. It’s not going to come off easily if that’s what you’re thinking. Of course, you cannot slide down an avalanche and expect the thing to be strapped to its mount magnetically but if it manages to do so, we wouldn’t be surprised. 

The magnets are also hella strong so you can pretty much put them on any metal surface and it will stay. This means you can get interesting angles with literally no effort.

The accessories themselves are interesting. The ball joint mount with a sticky base is by far the most versatile and useful of the lot. Meanwhile, you also get the Front Touchscreen module that has some extra juice for the camera, a memory card slot and a USB Type-C port to charge the whole package. You cannot charge the camera module without this Front Touchscreen module, neither can you add additional storage without it.

The main lens module has a screen, a camera lens and 32GB of internal storage which will fill up very quickly. You will have to spend time moving content from the main lens module to the second module that allows you to add an SD card. The SD card slot and USB Type-C opening don’t have a protector so it’s exposed to the elements. That means only the main module with the camera lens is waterproof.

With a footprint the size of an iPhone 13  Pro camera module, the display is pretty much cramped for most people’s hands, never mind in the Great Khali’s. Swipe gestures are on all four sides and even the bottom corners are not spared. It’s not terrible but you don’t have the same freedom of movement as the bigger action cameras. It was a foreseeable drawback for shrinking the camera as much as DJI has done. Something which we quickly got used to.

DJI’s smartphone app is not as polished-looking as the GoPro’s but it’s definitely a lot faster and less buggy than GoPro’s. Files transfer wirelessly very quickly.

For all the comparisons we did with the GoPro Hero10 Black, we still think the DJI Action 2 is a very, very capable action camera. Although it’s for different reasons and uses than GoPro’s. The DJI Action 2 is tailored for more lifestyle use than strapping on a helmet and jumping off a plane. You can definitely do that with the DJI but a GoPro will be more reliable and less likely to run out of storage in those circumstances. 

The DJI also has an interesting set of accessories that make swapping, changing angles and shots a breeze, unlike the GoPro that hasn’t moved beyond the trusty ol’ screw.