DJI Osmo Nano: Is this the best camera for YouTube?

Is the DJI Osmo Nano the best camera for your YouTube videos? 

I'm unboxing and first impressions reviewing this camera, so you can see exactly what it's like straight out of the box. 

What's it like in a real-world setting? What are the accessories in the standard combo? 

I share my honest first impressions: including a couple of things that surprisingly frustrated me. 

Also showing how to set up the camera, how to pair it with the DJI Mimo app and my DJI Mic 2, and what the footage looks like from a walk in the park with my dog Casper (Spoiler: I try the camera on his dog harness...). There's also comparison sample footage of the DJI Osmo Nano VS. DJI Pocket 3. Plus, as I paid for this myself and I'M NOT SPONSORED, this is an honest review.

DJI Osmo Nano: Is this the best camera for YouTube?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

This is the DJI Osmo Nano camera. Is this the best camera for you to make videos on YouTube? I am opening up this camera on camera in real time so you can see what it's like straight out of the box and I'll also set up the camera in real time so you can follow along. You can avoid any of the mistakes I make along the way. We'll have a look at the accessories that come in the box. And I'll even take you on a walk with me and Casper in the park just to show you some different settings just so you can see what the footage looks like straight out of the camera. I'll also be pairing this with the DJI Mimo app, which is a faff and a kerfuffle. And I'll also be pairing it with this the DJI Mic 2 that I got from my Pocket 3 camera. We'll be pairing this to see how easy that process is and also see how the camera sounds with the internal microphone as well as wireless DJI microphone. By the way, I paid for this camera with my own money. I'm not sponsored by DJI, unlike many, many other videos out there. This is an honest first impressions review. I got this DJI Nano here in the UK from John Lewis, uh my favourite store. I'll break into this box as quickly as possible, but just give you a quick tour of the box so you can pause and uh read the writing on the packaging. It's really small. The box is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It's about 3/4 of the height of my hand. I bought the standard combo bundle standard in French. And I've got the 128 GB version of the DJI Osmo Nano. Did I mention by the way that I paid for this with my own money? And in the wrapping in the packaging, it's it comes magnetized already. That's nice, isn't it? Holds it together. Let's open it up. Ah, the camera itself. Uh, so here it says, "Contacts and slots may become hot during use. Avoid prolonged contact." Yeah. Don't burn your fingers is what it's saying. And then on the lens here, it says, "Tighten the lens protective cover before taking in water." So, it's just a reminder here. Oh, that uh you should make sure that this is screwed on tightly before you go dunking it in the bath. Let's take this off to reveal the contacts and the two grips for the monitor. They don't call it a monitor. What do they call it? This is the multi-function vision dock. And just give you an idea of the size in my hand. On the top here, it says, "Do not use the multifunctional vision dock underwater." Uh, okay. So you can splash it when it's attached to the camera. And oh, that's lovely. And I did try to buy protective screens for this camera. They're not quite out yet cuz I've got this the day after release. I'll just give you a tour of the multi-function vision dock. What wasn't clear on many videos was how how these grippers work. They are metal from the from the feel of it. And obviously if you push the buttons either side, that's what releases the camera. And there are these pins and like a gripper. It's like a rubberized gripper either side of it to help hold it in place. So if I bring it onto the camera for the first time, what happens? You can just push it down. You don't need to press the buttons to fix the camera to the multi- vision multifunctional vision dock. Excuse me. And saw a little glimmer of power. Should we power it up? I'll just give you a quick spin. The camera does remind me of the latest Well, it's not the latest, the mic, too. Uh, should I take it off? Just compare it with a microphone, a DJI. Well, you can't hear me now. I'll point it towards me. A DJI microphone. And forgive me, I'm sitting at a really weird angle, which is really tripping off my benign essential tremor. And it comes with uh some power in here already. If I touch the screen, it actually comes out of the box with 55% battery in the multifunctional vision dock and 75% in the camera. Then there's another box of bits. Let's empty it out. Ooh, it's a quick start guide. This is a magnetic lanyard and the camera, I guess, sticks to it like this. Now, if you had a DJI Action 2, I will be comparing it in many of my videos because I love this thing. The lanyard for this was a lot smaller. I'll just compare it. Again, only if you if you've had this before. And you don't have the part that falls off and you got to call DJI to buy another one. I love the fact that this is just a single lanyard. And there's some warnings on it. And you can also put the the hats clip on it as well. Talking of which, it's tucked into the case here. This is the magnetic hat clip. Now, I've been looking at this on videos online trying to work out how it works and how grippy it is. I was kind of hoping there'd be like a super powerful hinge, but it just looks like a clip. It's just folded round uh plastic material by the feel of it. And I was hoping this would be like more like a bulldog grip or hinge, but it isn't. It just kind of slides on. So, I wanted to attach this to my dog's harness just to see if we can get a dog cam shot. I'll see if I can do that by the end of the video. The mount swivels on the hat clip clip. It kind of pivots forward and backwards. And it kind of implies on the lanyard that you can put the clip on like this and use this as a tilt to get a more precise angle, which would be really handy for my bike rides. If you just put it straight onto the lanyard, it just points forward. So, if you attach the the clip, it can not only get a more fine angle, but you can also remove it and clip it to something else. Ah! Oh my goodness. Do you see that? Look, I've injured myself. Whoa. That is powerful. There's no warning sticker for that. Ow. Quick, let's open some more stuff while I can while I still have the ability. This is very kind of DJI. They have learned the lessons of the DJI Action 2 where I had to send these out after release. So, this is a protective cover. It does just push in and you can see there's some pins inside. Uh, so if I push this in like that, goes in very easily. That is a really welcome because I do drop these things a lot. And then the multi-functional vision dock can clip to it just as easily as it clips to the camera. Really, really nice touch there. So good not having to have to go buying things from third party suppliers quite yet. So that's good. Then there is the dual direction magnetic ball joint adapter mount. It is the longest title for a a mount. Dual direction magnetic ball joint adapter mount. Oh, this is great because the Action 2 came with this but without the suction cup. Look. Oh, you can. Again, no reviewers mentioned this. Uh, the suction cup can come off. So, you can put this onto any kind of normal tripod thread. That is fantastic. So, I put that on a a normal tripod or any accessory that that has that like a magic arm. This means that I can put this onto my favourite hand grip. Or crucially, you could have a buoyant hand grip. So, if you did drop it, Whoa. If you did drop it into the sea, it would uh float. Oh, that that is really helpful. I didn't realize the ball cup came off. And what's great about these grips, I've not gone into DJI action cameras, so you're probably used to these if you have, but I love how it doesn't come off unless you click the buttons. But really satisfyingly, all you have to do is just push it on and it clips really easily. So that's a really lovely, lovely touch there. That just screws in there. And maybe I could use this with some other accessories as well. Oh, I love that. Really great stuff. Finally, there's a beautiful USB C to USB-C cable. It looks like 50 cm. Now, I... I know what you want. I know that you want me to switch this thing on. So, we'll do it. I promise we'll do it. So, let's go back down. I'll clip the multi-functional vision dock to the camera. And you can turn it on, apparently, by pressing this button or this button. So, shall I press this button? See what happens. Oo. language, English, just trees. Now, some people have an issue with this, and this is a really big thing for this camera. It happened with the Pocket 3, too. Happened with my Action 2. To make the camera work, you need to pair it to the DJI Mimo app, and I'm going to do that on camera with you. DJI only allow you to skip doing that five times. So, you can only power up the camera five times without connecting it to the DJI Mimo app where it'll update the firmware. It does all lots of good things, but some people quite rightly feel uh aggrieved. They feel it's not good that you need to be data mined in order to use a camera that you've bought. On the other side, it just means that it is kept up to date all the time. And I... I found it difficult. It says on Amazon for the Pocket 3, it said lots and lots were returned. And you can see in the comments, it was for that very reason that you have to pair it with the DJI app. I went through that process with my Action 2. So, I've kind of got over myself with it. But I can completely appreciate that this might be an obstacle, a hurdle as to whether or not you want to buy this thing. Now, it's giving me a quick start guide. Covers open cover at bottom of multifunctional vision dock. So, that is this thing here. It just pulls up. You You literally there's no button or anything. You just force it up to break the clip seal. And you can see there's a gasket. There's like a rubber ring here. And that keeps this area splashproof. And uh inside there's a space for a micro SD card slot and the USBC charging port and data port. So I'll just click that back on. Tap to check battery level. You can tap that little battery icon there. On the video settings, we can tap to set stabilization mode and field of view. So, if I click on that, got from wide to dewarp. I really like the dewarp. Uh, it's sort of I think it stops that sort of fisheye kind of look. And then with the stabilization, you can have rock steady, you can have it off, you can have rock steady, which stabilizes the footage, and then horizon balancing, which is great because you can kind of move it around like this, and it'll always keep the horizon steady. And I do that when I'm wearing it or when I'm holding it and I'm kind of winging my hand around. So, if I turn it off, oh, it says swipe down. I'm recording at the moment, but it says here, swipe down to set length of time before screen turns off. Now, that'll be in the settings, but that's great that you can do it straight from the front screen. Hello. This is the first video, by the way, on my DJI Nano. I set the screen to turn off after a few seconds if I'm wearing it because then I don't have people staring at me with this big big monitor. So, I just use the monitor for long enough to frame it and then I just carry on recording and the screen goes off. But anyway, wow, I am really pleased with this. Uh, it's so easy to hold. Let's bring this camera up. So, it's a a bug bear with vlogging cameras. Let's move this camera back. It's a bit of a bug bear that cameras claim to be vlogging cameras. And for me, a vlogging camera is something you can hold at this distance, just comfortably with your arm, not stretched out, and for all of your face and your surroundings to be in the in the picture. What is strange is that I'm holding it at arms length and my head is in the middle of the frame, which I don't really like. Yeah, it is. Do you know what? This is really odd. I don't know if this is some kind of AI setting in the camera, but I'm holding it and it's my head is in the middle. It's censoring my head and I have to really turn it down. I don't like that. That is really irritating. However I position the camera, it's centering my face in the middle of the screen and I want it in the top third. That is really strange. However much I move this camera, it centers my face in the middle. I wonder if that's a setting I can turn off. So, this is the horizon balancing. If I turn it left and right like this, it keeps the I'm really turning the camera a lot each way and it's keeping it's keeping the image stable. And I wonder if it's that that's making my face appear in the middle of the screen. I'm trying to tilt down. Right. So, that's that's how I want it to be framed. And it's still it's moving my face to the middle. Let's turn horizon balancing off. Well, that's tuneful, isn't it? Now, I have 1080p, 25 frames per second. And this is rock steady. And again, this is this is a real shock for me that the camera keeps centering a face in the middle of the screen. Now, some people don't mind that. They seem to think that's a great feature of the Pocket 3. I think it looks appalling and I want my face higher, but do as much as I can like that. It's I have to hold the camera at a really strange angle. No, it's it's it's AIing my face to be in the middle of the in the middle of the screen. And that is that is not good. That is really not good. Let's turn stabilization off. Maybe that could be the answer to this. So, this is with stabilization turned off. And let's have a look. Yeah, I can. No, it's it's still putting Look, it's Casper. It still seems to be putting my face in the middle of the screen. Leave me a comment if you're having this situation with your DJI Osmo Nano. What's going on? What is it? Do you not like the centering of the faces in the middle of the screen? I've worked in TV for over three decades. And one of the first things you learn in TV, and maybe I don't know, maybe vlogging is is seen differently. One of the things that makes a an image comfortable to watch is that the the head is like this, not like that. And this is a bit of a shocker actually for me. This was just meant to be a simple unboxing, but I might as well go off on one now. There are two features why I wanted to buy this that are absolutely fantastic for me. Mind-blowing that we have this technology. The monitor, the multi-functional vision dock is completely, so I'm doing this in bright sunshine, is completely detached from the camera, and yet I can uh look at what the camera is seeing straight from the vision dock, the the monitor, which is absolutely incredible. I'm going to use this a lot, I think, because having to get out your phone and fire up the DJI Mimo app to check your framing if you're wearing this thing. I could just slip this monitor into my pocket. To me, this is absolutely mind-blowing sci-fi. So, I'm really grateful. This is where things get fiddly. So, I'm going to start up my DJI Mimo app, and I'm going to show you how I'm pairing it so that you can you might learn from my mistakes. So, I'm going to turn on the camera. Oh, I've got low battery in the vision dock. I might need to connect a cable. Right. So, it says Osmo Nano already disconnected. Power on camera and place close to multi-functional vision dock. Where's the camera? What have I done with the camera? And I'll hit connect. And then it goes through the the opening menu again. So, we'll choose English. Whoa. And as if by magic, it Oh, it it found the camera. I just hit the camera icon at the bottom there and I didn't even have to use the QR code. It just found the camera. So, if I hit connect, that's incredible. Check verification code on DJI device. Well, that looks similar. So, I'll hit accept on the camera. Then we have the terms and conditions where, you know, we hand over everything everywhere for all time ever. Agree. Activate Osmo Nano. Activate your Osmo device when you connect it for the first time to receive warranty. So, I choose allow access, then hit next. I don't want to show you my email address, but I've hit the activate button. DJI Care. Don't want that. I'll skip that. Which is quite a bold move given how many DJI cameras I've broken. Uh, questionnaire. Don't want to do that. Activation successful. Fantastic. So, I hit get started. Enjoy live view in DJI Mimo. Is it Mimo or MIMO? I ask that in every video I make. Manage files with efficiency. And there's uh tutorials for advanced skills and update firmware regularly. So now we are downloading firmware. I'll speed this up now to download to 50%. We can choose to install. I I'll uncheck this box cuz I can do it off the uh off the mobile. Says device not connected. So, I'll hit connect. Now I can continue installing the firmware. Update. Success. That's good. So, I'll hit done. And now it reconnects to the camera. You can see on the screen here it says updated. There we go. So, it can see the the files on the phone. They have a date of 1980. I'll click back to live view on the camera and I'll click the camera button here. And just like the multifunctional vision dock, I can I can see myself on the on the phone. So I can record using the Mimo app. Now we have updated the camera. Let's see if I can attach my DJI Mic 2 to this. The first time I'm doing this, so learn from my mistakes. We'll swipe down from the top and then I'll choose the mic option in settings. And then I'll select TX1 transmitter 1. And it says power on Osmo and audio and pair. So I'll turn this on. Let's hold down this button again for three seconds to see if I can get it to flash blue. It's flashing blue. So now I'll hold down the link button for 3 seconds and then I'll let go. And it's connected. So I had I had a bit of trouble linking that. I think you just got to do it again and again until it links. I'll hit confirm. So now if I speak into this, you can see it's peeking red. But now I have the mic 2 connected. So if I put the the windshield on and if I start recording on the Osmo 2, I am now speaking to you. Let's pull out this power lead. I'm now speaking to you on this the DJI Mic 2. It looks like I'm well in the red there. Should we go to the park? Let's go to the park at 50K. No, at 4K 50 frames per second. Do you want to go to the park? Should we go to the park? Yeah. Should we go to the park? Come on then. This video is only meant to be a first. Oh, Casper. Just I thought I'd uh come and take the camera out with me for a walk with Casper and I'll do lots of talking so you get to see lots of DJI Osmo Nano footage. I better clean this up first. This is 4K 50 frames pers. The stabilization is on rock steady. So there is some stabilization here. And the field of view is set to wide. So this is the wide option. And uh I'll just do a little bit more talking just so you can get a sense of uh what this footage uh looks like and sounds like. Oh, by the way, I've got my DJI Mic 2 attached as well. I'll I'll give you some footage with no wireless microphone so you can see how the or hear how the camera sounds. This is 4K 50 frames pers and ultra wide. So you should notice that you can see more of the park behind me, but if I point it towards Casper, he's he's run ahead, but he should be just a dot on the screen here. And um the stabilization is still rock steady. And I'll just do a bit more talking just so you can get a sense of uh how this looks. I will be quite upset, I think, if this camera is deliberately putting my face in the center of the screen. I... I just wouldn't frame things like that. And when I bend the camera down, it just seems to keep moving my head towards the middle of the frame. Not sure I like that if it's happening. This is ultra wide with horizon balancing. So, this has the horizon balancing. So, if I move the camera, it just I'm tilting it up. I'm rocking it. Um, but you won't be able to see that, I think, because it balances the horizon. So, however I move the camera, I still should be steady. Also, I don't know how my eye line looks because because I've got the monitor on. Obviously, I'm just looking at that all the time. And that means I break eye line from you, which is the lens down to there. So, it means I keep looking down there. Uh be interesting to see in the edit if that looks really weird. I'm trying to force my ey line onto the lens. Anyway, let's change again. We've come out of uh 4K and I've put it on the settings that I I prefer for all my videos. That's 1080p at 25 frames pers and I still have the horizon balancing on. So, and I'm out of breath. All All I'm doing is walking in a park and I sound like I've done a marathon. Uh things I do for this channel, I it's worth it. Exercise every morning. And so I don't know how how this is looking and sounding for you, but this would be pretty much my settings for most of the time. I think I like the horizon balancing because it does mean I can carry it around in my hand and not get the shaky shaky hands look. I've got an experiment that I want to do. Is this this could work, it might not work. I've brought out the the hat clip and I just wonder if Casper might play along with this. Come here. Come here, Casper. Come here. What I'm going to do, I'm going to clip. Good boy. I'm going to clip the hat clip onto his harness. I really do not want this to fall off, but that feels like a a good grip. Oh, no. Good boy. Good boy. And then I'm going to move the camera and I'm going to clip the camera onto onto his harness. Oh, hang on. Good boy. Okay, I really don't know if this this is going to work, but I've sent Gasper off. He's gone over there. I can see on the monitor there's something that's really irritating me already. I hope this gets changed in a firmware update or it's a menu setting I've not found yet. It's supposed to be a feature that when the camera tilts up, when you when you hold the camera portrait orientation, it records portrait orientation. And I I don't want that. I just want it to be landscape even if it's flipped to its side. And the action two let me do that. So horizon balancing works all the way around. Um so if you hold the camera like this for sort of demonstrate it would always it would always keep the the horizon but because Casper is moving around and the camera is moving up and down uh it's flipping into portrait mode and I don't know how that footage is going to look in the edit. Maybe it's just a display thing. I'm hoping that it's recorded all of this footage in landscape orientation. Now, I'm recording the footage you're seeing now on my DJI Pocket 3 camera, which I adore. I absolutely love the footage that comes from this, and maybe this is a good comparison for you. But the problem with it is that is so delicate. I've honestly I've had really bad uh moments of terror with my Pocket 3 and my Pocket One as well. I put this camera on the wall and it just fell off. It's Oh, no. The magnetism wasn't uh strong enough to hold it to the metal thing in the wall. It is so nice having a camera that I can just hold at this kind of distance. It doesn't have to be like that like my Sony ZV1. I can hold it like this and it it just feels really comfortable. It's so light. Um, if you want a hand grip, I'll put a link in the description. It feels so good. And it also feels good that I could just drop this. I I could hurl it into the grass and I know it'll be okay. I've got one other immediate first impression. It's a bit of a niggle. Let's turn the camera around. And it might just be the the suction cup holder, but this magnetic holder here with the multi-function view thing. I've forgotten what it's called now. Look, look at the wobble on it. It really wobbles.

Uh I don't know if it's because of the weight of the stack, but if I put the camera straight onto this, it's it's pretty rock steady to use DJ eyes term, but this this is big. wobble wobble wobble that obviously you probably won't even see it on screen because of the stabilization but it's a little bit a little bit irritating if if I'm going to be really finikity and maybe should I give you a little comparison just quick comparison I'm going to make a whole video about this comparing the DJI Osmo Nano with the DJI Pocket 3 but just for the fun of it let's just give you a quick comparison So, I'm holding the two cameras side by side. I'll just give you a pan. Let's see if we can catch up with Casper. I'm holding the cameras in a really strange way. Just hold side by side just to give you as close a comparison as possible. So, this is the DJI Osmo Nano and this is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. Does it have the word Osmo in it? I don't know. the DJI Pocket 3. I'll just cut between them again. So, this is DJI Nano and let's run up to Casper. Casper, come here. Come. Good boy. Come. And this is the Pocket 3 just to give you a comparison. I'm sure there are settings in here that might be uh affecting things, but just as kind of a first glance cutting between the two, it'll just give you an idea of uh what the differences might be straight out of the box for the DJI Nano. Let's do some movement. Casper's not playing ball. Come here, Casper. Casper, good boy, Casper. Right, let's go. Go in.

Good boy. I'm now going to wear the DJI Osmo Nano hidden under here. I'm wearing the lanyard. And if I turn it round, it should just snap on without grabbing too many chest hairs. There we go. So, this is me walking around on Dwarp and horizon balancing stabilization. It's so steady. I'm like a human tripod. And this is how it looks to wear. It's a bit difficult to gauge from the different videos online of how big this looks. Does it look like a brooch? Uh, I'll let you be the the judge of that. This is how it looks to wear. And if I cut back to the camera, I mean, it's quite a boring. It's quite a boring shot, isn't it? Because it's so steady. And this is where the hat clip comes in. I've got the hat clip that's fresh from where Casper was wearing it. If I take off the camera, it's a really strong magnet. And then put on the hat clip and then clip the nano to the hat clip, I can now have some control over the tilting. So, if I cut back to the Nano, I've got a bit less sky now. So, that is a much better shot. I mean, obviously on my chest, the camera is protruding somewhat and it's wobbling as well because, you know, the the weight of it is now away from the lanyard and it's kind of pulling on my shirt. So, it is wobbling around. It's not very discreet at all. But if I cut back to the Nano's point of view, you can see that it's a much better framed shot. And if I tilt it down even more, I can tilt it down on the hat clip. So I can really focus on the on the path here. You've got some degree of controlling the the frame while you're wearing it. But it does look really stupid. Look at it. It's just wobbling around. Not that you could tell that from the footage. If I cut back to the camera, it's so steady. That's the rock steady stabilization. Wow, this is much more footage than I thought I was going to take. This was supposed to be just uh opening the box, first impressions review. I've I've tried to show you some things on the camera. So, what do you think? Is this something that you might use for your YouTube channel? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I just get these things out the box and start recording. So, I hope there's something in this video that you might find useful if you're deciding whether or not to get one of these. I've put all my DJI Osmo Nano videos into this playlist on screen now. And obviously, if you hit subscribe, you'll be able to see my updates. I'll I'll share how things go with this camera. Thank you for hitting the thumbs up button if you've made it to this point in the video and good luck with your DJI Osmo Nano.

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