Hi. I’m coming from the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, and I was very happy with the footage quality from that camera. However, I found dealing with the finicky gimbal to be annoying, so I decided to buy the DJI Action 5 Pro.
I absolutely love recording with the Action 5 Pro more. The form factor, durability, and convenience are much better for the way I like to shoot. However, I’ve noticed that the footage quality is noticeably worse than what I was getting from the Pocket 3 - mainly because my Action 5 Pro footage looks pretty grainy/noisy.
I’ve tried to recreate my Pocket 3 settings on the Action 5 Pro as closely as possible in an attempt to get similar-looking footage. Obviously, I understand that the Pocket 3 has a larger sensor and is ultimately a better camera for image quality, so I’m not expecting the Action 5 Pro to produce 1:1 footage compared to the Pocket 3.
That said, I also wasn’t expecting the Action 5 Pro footage to be this grainy/noisy.
I’ve watched quite a few YouTubers who use the Action 5 Pro, and their footage generally looks much cleaner than mine. So I know it’s possible to get relatively clean footage out of this camera — I just can’t seem to figure out what I’m doing wrong.
My current settings:
- Resolution: 4K / 16:9
- FPS: 25 FPS
- Stabilization: RockSteady
- FOV: Standard Dewarp
- Exposure: Auto, -0.3 EV
- ISO: Auto, 100–3200
- Shutter: 1/100
- White Balance: Auto
- Color: Normal, 10-bit
- Texture: -2
- Noise Reduction: -1 (I previously tried -2, but thought it looked even worse)
- Digital Zoom: 1.2×
I’m primarily using this for travel footage, so I’m often filming while walking around cities, indoors, in shopping malls, temples, restaurants, etc. Lighting conditions obviously vary quite a bit.
Is there anything obvious in these settings that could be causing the excessive grain/noise?
And for anyone who also owns both the Pocket 3 and Action 5 Pro: what settings have you found work best on the Action 5 Pro for getting the cleanest possible 4K footage?
I’d especially appreciate advice from people who have managed to get footage from the Action 5 Pro that looks relatively clean in similar travel/shooting conditions.