Besides being a fantastic tool for capturing silky smooth hand-held shots, the DJI Osmo is also a powerful gimbal camera/system that can produce astounding hyper-lapse videos as well. The evidence is the video below produced by the time-lapse photographer and adventure filmmaker Rufus Blackwell exclusively shot for DJI.
It’s noteworthy to mention the way Blackwell managed to capture the French colonial architecture of Saigon. He mounted the Osmo on his bicycle and utilised similar approach on a boat ride. Obviously, the Osmo was able to keep a steady image by delivering fast-moving, smooth shots along with excellent low light performance. But before we delve into the technical details, let’s first see the video itself.
As Rufus Blackwell explains to Mike Wilkinson from Fstoppers, the time-lapse photographer shot the whole piece in video mode of the DJI Osmo by following the rule according to which the exposure time should be half the interval time when filming. To make it look like an image that was shot every 4 seconds, Blackwell took 2 seconds of video and blended the frames to form a single exposure.
So the time warping process involved frame blending of 2-second chunks that make up each frame of the overall time-lapse sequence. If done correctly, this method should result in perfect motion blurred images as the ones captured in the video above. The stabilization capabilities of the DJI Osmo were another important aspect of the process. To learn more about the work of Rufus Blackwell, check out his website or follow him on Vimeo.
Meanwhile, if you are already a DJI Osmo owner you can now upgrade your single hand gimbal camera/system by installing the latest firmware v1.5.2.0 from DJI, that brings loads of new features to the unit such as:
- Consumption reduced, increasing Osmo battery life to 90 minutes for a total recording time of 70 minutes (80 minutes with Wi-Fi off)
- Fan turns off automatically when recording video. To keep the fan off during video recording, tap Mute Fan in the Audio Control menu. When activated, the fan will only restart to prevent critical overheating.
- Video downlink optimized for enhanced live streaming.
- Added Digital Zoom Control when recording video at 720p, 1080p and 2.7K. Put two fingers on the screen and pinch to zoom in, open your fingers to zoom out, or switch on Digital Zoom Control for fine control.
- Control of Osmo tilt and pan axis simultaneously added by setting the joystick control direction to Free.
- Added Portrait option to optimize portrait photography
- Optimized D-Log and D-Cinelike colors
- Continuous photo capture by holding down shutter button added
- Added a key combination to turn on/off Osmo Wi-Fi. Pull down the power switch while simultaneously pressing and holding the trigger then release the trigger. Wi-Fi is off when the system status LED blinks twice. Repeat to turn on Wi-Fi. The Osmo will operate for longer when taking time-lapse photos without Wi-Fi and more
You can find the full list of the latest implementations on the DJI’s official website.
B&H Order Link:
DJI Osmo Handheld 4K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal
Amazon US Order Link:
DJI Osmo Handheld 4K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbal
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