Planning to buy my first ever action camera, but I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the options. I haven’t looked too deep into the specs yet, but I’m hoping to find something that can shoot 4K widescreen video with stabilization turned on and can last for many hours. Does anything like that exist?
The Osmo Action 4 or Action 5 Pro with the 1950mAh battery lasts around 4 hours. If you add the multifunctional charging handle, you can get about 10 hours.
https://store.dji.com/product/osmo-action-multifunctional-charging-handle?vid=170361
What do you mean by widescreen 4K? If you’re talking about the standard 16:9 aspect ratio, most action cameras shoot in that by default. The resolution is just the number of pixels (e.g., 3840x2160 for 4K), but the quality also depends on the bitrate—the higher the bitrate, the better the quality.
Any high-end action camera like the DJI Osmo Action series or GoPro Hero 7-13 Black will have built-in 4K stabilization. Newer models have even better stabilization.
For battery life, DJI wins with the Action 5 Pro—up to 2 hours on one battery. If you’re planning on recording for 8 hours, you’ll need multiple batteries or external power. Also, keep in mind that 8 hours of 4K60 footage will take up around 400GB of storage.
@Payne
Thanks for breaking that down! I’m used to filming on my phone, and I’ve noticed that the quality drops and the widescreen option disappears when I turn on stabilization. That’s what I’m trying to avoid. I want something that keeps the high-quality widescreen look even with stabilization on—and with long battery life. Do any action cameras handle that well?
DJI action cams can do that if you use a large enough SD card and plug into an external power bank. I’m planning on using mine for night sky timelapses, and a power bank keeps it going all night.
Lol
I get about 20 minutes per GoPro battery, but if you plug into an external battery, you should be able to record for hours.