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Action Cameras Don’t Suck Anymore. But Which One is Best for MTB? GoPro Hero 12 vs. DJI Osmo Action 4 [Video]
It’s taken years but action cameras finally don’t suck. So why not compare the two best ones on the market & see which one is best for mountain biking? I’ll do an in depth review & comparison of the GoPro Hero 12 vs. the DJI Osmo Action 4 from the view of a mountain biker filming mountain biking. My biggest takeaway from all the time I spent with these cameras making this video is that action cameras have finally, after over a decade, actually gotten really really good. Both of these cameras are easy to use, fast, the batteries last a long time, the audio situation is figured out, the footage looks amazing and overall the user experience has gone from annoying to enjoyable. The evolution of good technology is something I will always love. Lastly, major thanks to DJI for helping out our channel and allowing us to be ourselves, stay authentic and craft content the way we want.
If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!
I think my biggest takeaway after using
both of these cameras a lot lately is
that action cameras have finally after
more than 10 years millions of software
updates and several versions from all
these different brands actually gotten
really good not just that good quality
footage but they're reliable and the
usability is finally dialed and nice and
they're kind of convenient and work
really well these are the two best
action cameras on the market and I've
been on a mission to determine which one
Reigns Supreme in this case the latest
and greatest GoPro Hero 12 and the DJI
osmo action 4 you could really get into
the weeds of these cameras and what's
different and little intricacies between
them but today I'm going to focus on
specifically what's important for using
them when mountain biking and what
mountain bikers should care about when
deciding which one of these cameras to
buy let's start with the basics you'll
need to buy the camera and a chest strap
for GoPro the hero 12 plus a chest strap
that'll run you 440 bucks for the osmo
action 4 from DJI plus their chest wrap
that'll run you 345 bucks speaking of
chest wraps since that's a very
important piece of the puzzle here the
GoPro chesty has a mount like
so one little slot
in pretty
cool nothing special uncp it like that
it meant it was supposed to be kind of
boring the DJI chest strap is one of the
better ones I've ever used for a couple
reasons it's got a little quarter turn
me mechanism making it super easy to get
the camera on and off also change angles
depending on what you're doing and most
importantly this is a brilliant
idea for shots like
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so on top of this little quarter turn
mechanism
let's talk about how this camera
actually mounts to this the GoPro still
uses that traditional style mount it has
been using
for ever unscrew
it goes like that little things fold in
it does have a/4 20 thread on the bottom
which is pretty convenient for people
who use tripods that was a really nice
touch good job GoPro the DJI has gone
into the future with these magneet IC
mounts which is pretty amazing how nice
these things work that's it it's mounted
um Clips on and off it's super
convenient to use when you're switching
mounts and when you want to go vertical
these cameras kind of act differently
DJI uses this little cage slip this cage
on adds a touch of weight but not much
and now this cage can click into your
Mount vertical so then you can just
basically with this cage switch it's not
just only for vertical this cage does
both of course so vertical to horizontal
just like that um the GoPro films in
those aspect ratios sort of natively
depending on how you adjust the settings
on the camera or you can have it shoot
in 8x7 which is nearly a giant square
and then you cut out either that
horizontal 16x9 or that 9x6 vertical um
or you can just adjust manually if you
don't want to do that in post production
if you want want it to be 16x9 or 9x6
the downside to that is because of the
size of that sensor and the way that
that works if you adjust it to shoot in
9x6 having the camera horizontal like
this it limits you to only the wide mode
for the lens it doesn't allow you to
change to the hyperview or linear or
anything like that so it's kind of a
limiting setting um whereas this doesn't
do that because you flip the whole
camera um which of course you could just
leave this in horizontal and flip the
camera but there's no mounting situation
for this to actually be vertically
mounted pros and cons there but yeah
once you get used to this magnetic Mount
situation this is an amazing setup
that wow yeah just speaks for itself the
audio on both of these cameras the
onboard mics are nearly identical from
all my testing that's what I found in
all of the videos I watch that test the
onboard mics of the these cameras back
and forth basically indistinguishable
here's a little audio test here's a
little audio test also amazing compared
to past action cameras like they now can
get bass and just good sound and it just
they sound amazing however when you
start getting wind and all sorts of
outside background noises just like any
sort of on device mic that's where they
both kind of fall apart and don't really
sound all of that great what's so cool
that I've fallen in love with is this
yes it's an extra $99 but this is a DJI
mik 2 transmitter and you can connect
just this via Bluetooth to the osmo
action 4 and this guy sounds so so good
it picks up even more bass it's much
more sort of isolated on your voice and
because it has this little dead cat on
here it works amazing in the wind which
makes your bike sound really good and
not hear all of the wind noise when
you're actually moving and when you talk
to it it's sounds incredible you can see
that right now all right here's what it
sounds like when I'm talking to the
Bluetooth microphone at a casual speed
but now I got a big headwind coming down
this hill and I'm going to start going
really fast cuz this is a steep ass
shoot with a big headwind blowing right
in my face my bike's making all sorts of
sounds my God this does not seem safe to
be talking to a camera while riding your
bike down something like
this in that video I had this just
clipped on to the chest strap Flawless
good setup this also works with your
iPhone or any other camera uh really
good useful product right here the GoPro
you can hook it up to airpods and you
can hook it up to other bluetooth mics
but they don't make a wireless Bluetooth
microphone such as this and the other
ones that I've seen I haven't really
bothered to buy or test cuz they're
either well over 200 bucks or from super
random noname Brands but either way like
I think most people if you're not making
YouTube videos or narrating to these
things you're not going to need a
Bluetooth mic and in which case the
onboard mics work amazing and you can
hear some examples of that now that
one's DJI that one's GoPro here's a
little audio test for the DJI osmo
action 4 the GoPro hero2 here's a little
audio test for the DJI osmo action 4 the
GoPro Hero 12 no external microphones
just the on camera mics no external
microphones
just the on camera
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mics when it comes to the actual video
that both of these video cameras
produce I don't have any great news for
you both of them are absolutely
fantastic and they both have slightly
different color science the DJI matches
the color science of all of their drones
which is super convenient if you have a
DJI drone GoPro has a nice look to it as
well that's gotten a lot better and
refined over the years I've watched a
lot of videos comparing these back to
back um I've done it myself you can see
some of it on screen now I can't really
say that either one is all that dis
distinguishable from the other in a
sense that like one is better or worse
than the other the stabil stabilization
out of both cameras is fantastic um they
kind of are a feature parody with this
stuff you can film and dlog if you want
to color grade it to your own heart's
desire and post but when you just turn
them on and put them in 4k 30 they're
both incredible the DJI does have a
slightly bigger image sensor which is
supposed to help it better in uh in low
light conditions seems kind of the same
to me versus the GoPro um some of the
videos I saw where you're actually
full-blown like if at nighttime driving
and filming with a car it looks a lot
better I don't know riding in the
evening it's kind of a tossup I think
both of them are amazing I'm just
shocked at how good the footage is from
both of these cameras one of the main
differences is that the GoPro can film
in
5.3k if you want to mess around with
that that's a massive file I guess you
can take stills from it better or you
can punch into it more and POS post but
I don't know I'm just using videos for
YouTube and Instagram and I don't really
mess with that nor do I want to edit
some of those things and post so footage
wise both of these are fantastic you can
kind of be the judge and see on screen
right now and see what you think
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least but not last some other key
important things battery life both of
these cameras battery life seems
basically the same you could pretty much
use them almost an entire day on a
single battery it's quite amazing
honestly especially considering how bad
battery life was on action cameras just
a handful of years ago they both have
this feature where you can leave them
off and just hit the shutter button and
it just immediately turns the camera on
and starts recording in like 2 seconds
and then you hit it again and it turns
the camera back off so you don't need to
have the camera always on you can just
tap that one button starts recording tap
it turns off that's an amazing feature
both of them boot up super fast which is
great I prefer the sounds of the DJI
because it has more distinguishable
sounds for the start recording stop
recording and turning off whereas the
GoPro just makes one sound it just beeps
that's it which is just and there's like
variations of how many beeps and then
there's like delays between beeps if
it's a really long clip versus a short
clip I don't know why it's super
confusing and it's always bugged me
about GoPro and they still haven't
changed
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that this has totally different Unique
Sounds for starts stop turn off and then
it even speaks when you change the mode
photo video time
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lapse photo video slow motion size and
weight oh sorry one last thing on
battery you can plug this in and fast
charge it I think to about 80% full or
something in like some 18 minutes or
something like that well put it on
screen that's really cool you can just
plug this camera in and fast charge it
uh this takes a lot longer to charge
which is super annoying but I don't know
not the end of the world most people
that use these things are probably going
to get enough footage on One battery
that that's all the footage they need or
if they're the kind of person that needs
more footage than that they're going to
have extra batteries regardless um so
size and weight the osmo action 4 is
smaller and lighter weight which is
actually really nice like I'm I know I'm
a weight weeny when it comes to bikes
and I kind of am when it comes to these
too because when you put one of these on
your chest or on your helmet every gram
actually really does count cuz the
camera like moves around more on your
helmet or bounces around more on the
chest strap and every little bit that
you can make these things smaller and
lighter is actually pretty meaningful so
Props to DJI for making it this small I
hope it gets even smaller than this
GoPro does make that whole other camera
that like is has way less features and
it's just like a tiny version of the
hero 12 that's another cool product to
consider when it comes to size and
weight let's see one other little things
that I want to go over touchscreens both
of these the touch screens work great
that was another thing that action
cameras just sucked at just only a few
years ago actually navigating the touch
screens on the back they're quick
they're Snappy they're almost as good as
your iPhone the DJI has a touchcreen on
the front the GoPro does not it's just a
sort of a dead a screen only having a
touchcreen on the front is extremely
convenient especially when mountain
biking because a lot of times mountain
biking you have this on your chest Mount
like this and it's facing this way and
it's really nice to be able to mess with
the screen like this and not have to
completely unjust and take the whole
camera off um speaking of that it
actually is a lot easier when you have a
magnetic Mount because then you can it's
like all in the saved spot last thing
you want to do is like undo the whole
Mount to adjust the camera and then redo
it and then have to like reset the angle
of the whole thing so front touchcreen
and the Magnetic mounts just make it so
much more convenient to use this camera
um on chest strap than the
non-touchscreen here and the traditional
style mounts let's see that's about it
uh the post filming experience you have
the quick app this you have the DJI memo
app to keep it up to date and make some
edits and then they also have a DJI
light cut app which you can edit videos
with both work really good simple little
cool video editors both apps have come a
long way over the years and yeah I don't
know pretty good stuff overall good
things good things from both these
Brands I'm stoked at the end of the day
both of these cameras are absolutely
fantastic and like I said in the
beginning of this video my biggest
takeaway from using both of these lately
is that action cameras have finally just
arrived in a way that they work as good
as you'd expect an iPhone to work
they're just great now and they have not
always been great I'm sure every one of
you watching this knows that they can
corrupt SD cards turn off randomly just
be unreliable and annoying to use
they're actually good now really really
good and both of these are utterly
fantastic the hero 12 and the osmo
action 4 I love them both uh recently I
have been gravitating more towards the
DJI almost entirely because of the
mounting the chest strap with the front
and back Mount and this microphone now
that you've seen this you'll recognize
this in tons of other YouTube videos and
videos around the internet cuz this is
such a good microphone that can be used
with your DJI camera or your iPhone or a
lot of other devices but not GoPros of
course um yeah both amazing cameras good
stuff please drop a comment below I'm
happy to answer absolutely any questions
you guys have it really helps us out if
you hit the thumbs up button or
subscribe if you're not already thank
you very much for watching see you guys
next
time stop recording
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