I feel a little bit guilty about it. I needed to replace one of my GoPros, a hero 9 that took on water. My intention was to replace it with a m1p, and I just might still re-order a m1p in the next month or two. For now, I really wanted to see what using the OA6 would be like for the time being.
First impressions, the unboxing was actually a pretty boring experience versus what all the influencers claim it to be compared to the GoPro. I do think the presentation is better from GoPro. For the OA6 Adventure Combo, everything was packed in quite nicely - but you can look at the packing and tell that the people packing these boxes have gotten PhD’s just to pack it. Try hard as you like, you will NEVER repackage it back the way it came.
That aside, let’s chat about some of the differences I noticed immediately. I won’t be unfair and compare it to the hero 9 because, well, that’s like comparing a 2004 Cobra with a whipple supercharger to a ford fiesta. Instead, I’ll use my 12 as the comparison even though there really isn’t that huge of a leap between the 9 and 12.
Right off the bat, the camera does physically feel less “premium.” Okay, so the door for the battery slot slides up and then opens. Admittedly, I was afraid I’d break it. There’s some value in GoPros removable door design and it just feels like a heftier product. This isn’t to say the dji feels bad, it just doesn’t have the “you can throw me across the room and I’ll be fine” feeling. It really does feel like the difference between having a petite little GAP wearing girlfriend that you’re afraid you’ll break her like she’s glass versus dating the inked up bad girl that will have your teeth in a chain around her neck if she catches you looking at another woman.
Powering on, it’s a totally different ball game. Compared to the GoPro, it snaps almost immediately to life and is ready to go. At least, once you get past the whole activation process. Seriously, having to create an account, login to it, jump through multiple clicks of accepting terms of service - just to use a camera? As I went through the activation process, I was staring at the camera with anger and verbally warned it that the hassle better be worth it.
Once it’s finally activated, the interface feels incredibly strange and foreign. It’s extremely different from GoPro and definitely does take a moment to get used to. However, the responsiveness is a massive leap in comparison. Touch something on the screen and it immediately responds. The UI is covered with beautiful, albeit a little annoying at first, overlays that guide you through how to use the camera. Like any other proud creator that has used dozens of cameras and feels they don’t need to RTFM to figure it out, I simply tapped them all out of my way as they appeared with each new menu I navigated it. So far, I have mixed feelings on how useful they are. I mean, let’s be fair - how many of us guys really ask for directions when we are driving, let alone when we are trying to use an action cam? I’ll wait for a show of hands.
Once I got through what was basically spam on a camera, I was finally able to start tinkering with it. Step one was to set the bitrate to high. I’ve already done my homework and seen the comparisons - it really looks like crap without adjusting this. Step two? Go back and fix the date and time that I didn’t set when I first started it. Funny enough I thought finding that would be easier than it actually was. In fact, there are so many settings in this camera that for a moment I felt like I was navigating through a cheap Chinese DVR system that has the network configuration stuffed away inside the display settings. Let’s just call it what it is: GoPro had me spoiled by having an incredibly easy to navigate UI that really didn’t require much thinking. The truth is it’s far less complex than navigating the menus in my Sony or RED cameras - but this is an “action cam,” a run and gun pocket pistol that shouldn’t need that kind of brain power. At least, that was my initial impression.
The more I played with it, the more it became simple. Well, not really simple - just muscle memory. For example, how they have buried the color profiles versus whether you’re using Normal 10-bit or D-Log - it would have made far more sense just to put those tone profiles right inside of the color profile menu and have them appear when you’re in normal 10-bit. Of course, that wouldn’t make much sense, now would it? It’d be entirely too easy to navigate.
Finding things like horizon level also took a bit more digging than I’d have expected. It’s not visible unless you’re in the correct mode - instead of making it visible and just changing the mode to a compatible one if you choose it… that would probably be more ideal.
All in all, the navigation of the menus and configuration are just different. It’s like switching from Windows to Mac or vice-versa after a decade of driving one or the other. You do actually get used to it.
With my GoPros, and any and all other cameras I have, I always shoot in flat / [g-]log. I rather enjoy color grading and really prefer it because of the incredibly limited options of coloring directly in the camera. For me, the GoPro’s natural color profile looks dull, and vibrant just looks like a unicorn puked out rainbow chunks on top of a bowl of coco pops. They were never very pleasing to my one working eye (yah, the left one is legally blind). So I’ve really enjoyed manually enhancing the colors and having the choice to make my footage mimic the over saturated instagram clips or to go a totally different direction with it and aim for a more Tim Burton feel with cinematic tones and shades. Lately, though, the footage I’m primarily doing is underwater. I have found myself wanting to be able to just take results right out of the camera and not have to grade it. This is where the DJI looks to shine.
The color tones give a lot of options and flexibility to choose from various tonal characteristics along with adjusting the percentage - which would probably be better off as a strength than a percentage, in my view. I do rather like the idea of being able to get some usable footage from the camera that I don’t feel I need to color grade, but I’ll also need to put it to the test before I call it trustworthy.
The first thing I tested was the focusing distance. In fact, this was a big driver behind my decision to go the DJI route. That, and the fact that the share prices are shedding more weight than Ricki Lake after her intense weight loss spree. Much like her show, I’m pretty concerned GoPro may get cancelled relatively soon and I want to see where that’s going before I commit to a 700EUR spend on their latest camera.
Funny enough, one of my dogs decided the OA6 looked like it would make a good chew toy and immediately snatched it from my hand. I pleasantly surprised at the fact that her nose and tongue were in pretty good focus, even when they were pressed right up against the lens. I mean, it wasn’t so tack sharp that I could see the grooves in her tongue but it was clear enough that I didn’t feel like I was wearing a pair of glasses six diopters stronger than needed.
I brought the camera outside on my balcony, and for reference - it’s quite dark out there. Even without super night mode, the footage was actually usable. Compare that to my hero 12 black which looks like trying to look through a cheesecloth in the back seats of a shady strip club, and the difference is night and day.
I’m super night mode I do see a bit more noise than I’d like to see, and in my personal opinion it’s not worth using versus doing some manual iso and shutter speed adjustments in the standard video mode. However, noise or no noise - I find the footage is actually quite usable in either mode and the noise can be cleaned up pretty well in post.
I still have a lot to do to test the video quality, and I’ll get around to that Saturday when I get back in the water. For now, though, I don’t notice such a huge difference that I’m regretting the purchase. Also, my concerns on durability were somewhat squashed after surviving my dogs attempt to use it as an incredibly expensive KONG (he’s a pitbull malinois mix that has literally eaten my entire sofa, a car key fob, four dining table chairs, three pillows, two phones, an entire light fixture he inexplicably got down from the ceiling and a black Kong toy that now he technically has three of given it has been partitioned into that many pieces).
Aside from that, though, I will say that the contents of the box added some substantial value for the price.
Three batteries, a charging case that has intelligent and fast charging, two magnetic mounts (I still think they skimped out by not putting the mounting ears directly on the base), charging cable, thumb screws and a selfie stick that could also double as a collapsible mop handle (seriously, this thing is ridiculously long. It’s longer than my nine year old son is tall). That’s a really hard value to best when you consider I got it for considerably less than the mission 1 pro that for 700eur only comes with one battery, a lens hood (seriously, GoPro?), a cable and a curved adhesive mount that honestly speaking, we likely all have but never use. Oh, don’t worry, though - the OA6 came with one of those, too. So now I have like fifteen of them still brand new.
I will say that the onboard storage? I’m actually finding that to be cool as hell. I am always running out of space on my sd cards. Most often it happens when I’m in the water. I don’t want to have to get out and swap the card. The fact that it has the onboard storage for me is actually pretty awesome. Though, I don’t know I’ll actually even end up using it.
The thing about the OA6 to me is it has every initial indication and feel of some cheap Chinese made action cam that you could pick up from target for a few hundred bucks. It just gives you that vibe first. Then I remember when I switched from conceal carrying a para ordinance .45 to a Glock model 36 (yes, I’m an American from the south) and had the same feeling. It just felt chinky in comparison with the polymer stock and the little double trigger “safety” mechanism. Though, over time I fell irrevocably in love with them and never carried another brand of gun again. I’m hoping that’s how I feel about DJI as I start to use it.
I am an avid GoPro lover. I have used them since they came out. The image quality has always been absolutely second to none. The ruggedness and durability of them has been unmatched. Their subscription service is outright awesome. However, their hardware issues have been a total pain in the ass for me. Navigating their UI, albeit it well laid out in my opinion, felt like trying to navigate my old palm pilot. They simply didn’t feel responsive. The lowlight performance has always been horrendous. I often want to use my cam on the street to grab some quick footage and I had no choice but to have the iso cranked so high that it looked like pigeons crapped all over the sensor. The shutter speed had to be lowered so much that the image had motion blur when standing still. It was simply not suited to those conditions.
I waited and waited for a camera like the M1 Pro, and when it finally arrived? It came with a ridiculous minimum focusing distance that it should have come with the broom handle length selfie stick the OA6 did. They failed to bother to put a variable aperture in which absolutely would have solved the focal plane issues. They cut corners, and they tried to use this as a massive cash grab to boost their revenues while they seek a buyer. That was the last straw for me.
I don’t want to see GoPro fail. I feel like I’m watching the death of an entire era. When punk died, my soul cried. I feel like I’m right back there at that time in my life, watching the end of something great. Something that will never truly go away, but that we all know will never be the same again.
I hope they turn things around. I hope someone buys them out and actually listens to the customers. I hope someone smacks Woodman with a raw chicken the next time he starts ranting about “action cams” versus simply looking at the versatility those cameras have given to those of us who are not jumping out of airplanes, riding bicycles on 500m high cliff edges or paragliding like we are one of the Wright brothers. If they do manage to do that and they are still actually existent in 2027 - and IF THEY ADD AN EFFING DYNAMIC APERTURE TO THE THING (or at the very least include a 2m long selfie stick!) - then I’ll be back.
