I’ve come to the conclusion that I almost like filming this stuff as much as I do flying it. And having the best quality footage possible has always been a top priority for me personally, not for everyone I understand but I love ripping around beautiful places and having beautiful footage to look at afterwards (shoddy flying notwithstanding!)

I’ve bought as many cameras as I have quads tbh. I loved my GoPro 7s, unfortunately I annihilated the last one in the… incident.  Fortunately, GoPro subscription / replacement service rocks and they’ve replaced them both times, no cost. Last time though, they sent me a Hero 9 and my immediate reaction was wooohooo! But - it’s a brick tbh - is upwards of 150g. I’m also not a fan of the latest flavour of Hypersmooth, it’s just too… something. And really can’t quite handle what FPV needs it to imho. So I’ve kept looking, I punted £50 on a Hero 4 a few weeks ago for a recent trip to Wales and it’s ok but is a bit dated now. (The image quality is still far better than any non-brand ‘4K action camera’ you’ll get anywhere though)

I’ve looked at the SMO4K, the Walnut, the Peanut etc, I’ve also tried… RunCam Split and RunCam Thumb Pro V2 and whilst they’re ok (Pro V2 is a nice camera) there’s a lot of post flying faff with Gyroflow (awesome open source piece of software btw) to get something looking decent.

So, basically I want… small form factor, 4K, 60FPS, stabilisation, good build quality. I’ve been thinking about doing a Naked GoPro 7, but they’re getting hard to get hold of so now the cost of camera, BEC board and case etc is north of £150 in the U.K.… and if you smash it (and you’ll smash it), you’re a bit stuffed.

Enter, the DJI Action 2. I think it bombed in the standard action camera market as it’s got known overheating problems, and is fairly limited in terms of onboard storage and battery life. The latter doesn’t seem to be a problem to me (yet!) - 25mins of 4K 60FPS before its internal available 22GB memory is full and the battery lasts about the same time. That’s 4-5 packs so for a standard ‘session’ I reckon that should just about cover it. You can stick about 20% power in it in 5mins though if you want to give it a boost. Funnily enough, it also doesn’t seem to overheat when going 50kph 

The price in the U.K. is also now half what it was when released which makes it still expensive, but I think is now very reasonable in terms of quality of the build and the features it’s got. It’s a well-built chunk, but has a big ole glass lens on the front and a beautiful little OLED screen on the back  so some protection is a must (lots of TPU mounts / cases out there for it) - also I found DJI offer a similar smash and replace policy to GoPro - that’s a lot cheaper than the GP one so that was a no brainer.

I’ll let you judge the (fairly boring!) footage - just a quick lap around one of my favourite spots.

All in all, am super impressed. It’s a third of the weight of the GoPro at 53g and is comparable image quality to the Hero 7/8, and is half the price of the newer GoPro models.

Shot at 4K, 60FPS, auto everything else.

For larger 4" and up drones, the Action 2 is a nice all-in-one camera and has a great ultra wide FOV. For smaller setups, and smaller budgets, a naked Gopro 8 is still a very good alternative.

If you want to do post stabilization on your Action 2 footage, DJI has added gyro data logging to their latest firmware and it works quite well in Gyroflow.

I didn't realise the price had come down that much. That's a pretty solid deal now.

Can you now turn the temperature protection off on the DJI Action 2 in the EU/UK now or is that option still locked out? There was a lot of noise about that when it first got released but I haven't kept up to speed with any new firmware releases to know if that restriction has since been removed.

One other thing to be aware about for anyone thinking of buying one, all of the functions are done via the touch screen on the back so if you manage to smash up the screen in a crash and you don't have the second detachable screen for it you are then stuffed.

(23-May-2023, 09:58 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Can you now turn the temperature protection off on the DJI Action 2 in the EU/UK now or is that option still locked out? There was a lot of noise about that when it first got released but I haven't kept up to speed with any new firmware releases to know if that restriction has since been removed.

One other thing to be aware about for anyone thinking of buying one, all of the functions are done via the touch screen on the back so if you manage to smash up the screen in a crash and you don't have the second detachable screen for it you are then stuffed.

DJI has the mimo phone app, you can control the camera with your phone over wifi. The stop recording on overheating has a standard/high setting (not sure if it is different in the UK), but for drone use don't imagine overheating would be an issue?

Yup - everything can be done via the app - which is a lot more stable than the GoPro equivalent which is buggy as hell.

Re temperature - this is what I have on the EU/U.K. version. But tbh, overheating isn't a problem at 50kph 

I've flown with it a few times this week. Liking it - a *lot* Battery does go super fast, but tbh it's not been too much of a pain sticking on the power brick bit for a few mins between flights. Additionally, I've got a couple of the iFlight 5v USB leads that can power the GoPro from the LiPo balance lead, am going to use one of those and I have a design for a case that I'll print in TPU which contains placements for a couple of power pins so I can keep it topped up in flight.  

(22-May-2023, 08:42 PM)davejavu Wrote: Shot at 4K, 60FPS, auto everything else.

Did you stabilize in the Action 2 settings or did you do it in Gyroflow?

Also, I can't find any information on de-cased (naked) DJI Action 2. Anyone know if it can easily be done?

That was using Rocksteady on the Action 2. I didn’t do anything with Gyroflow on this one. Tbh, I’ve spent so long faffing with it with other cameras it’s really nice to see some decent in camera stabilisation.

(29-May-2023, 04:35 PM)Mike C Wrote: I can't find any information on de-cased (naked) DJI Action 2. Anyone know if it can easily be done?

I've now found something. Unfortunately he does not go so far as removal of the internal batteries so it's unclear it can easily be done. Also, in the comments someone says that the camera didn't work after detaching the screen. Anyhow, it's interesting enough so I'll be regularly checking the second hand market.

Stabilization with Gyroflow is much better than Rocksteady IMO. Also the Action 2 gyro is synced in camera (like Gopro 8 and above) so no need to fuss with syncing at all. Just select the look you want and render.

The Action 2 comes in such a nice package, it is kind of a crime to decase it. I've stripped a handful of Gopros and never felt bad ripping off the case, but I don't think I could ever do that to the Action 2 unless maybe it was already all smashed up. If you want a Naked Action 2, you can simply get an O3 unit and get free HD transmission too.

(29-May-2023, 11:42 PM)mstc Wrote: If you want a Naked Action 2, you can simply get an O3 unit and get free HD transmission too.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with de-casing a second hand Action 2. In regards to 03, for me it's easier to move action camera's between qauds than it is to move an air units. The option of installing 03 Air Units on all my quads I want to record video with is way to expensive.

There are people who install the O3 on a sled and simply swap it around quad to quad (not just for planes). Of course it adds some extra weight, but all you need to do is strap down the sled and connect one plug.

Super interesting. I was tossing up between O3 and the DJI Action 2 for a while and came down on the side of the Action for two reasons, portability and overall cost. I also can't afford multiple units to swap from one to another. I've seen the sled type mounts that people are making but the O3 needs 9v and 1.8A and whilst you can pull that off vbat I couldn't find any info on whether the FC on the Crux would take the amp load so didn't want to risk it. Hence it was the Action for me.

(30-May-2023, 01:51 PM)mstc Wrote: There are people who install the O3 on a sled and simply swap it around quad to quad (not just for planes). Of course it adds some extra weight, but all you need to do is strap down the sled and connect one plug.

Hmm, interesting. Never thought of that. I can't see it weighing too much. I'll look into it, thanks!

(30-May-2023, 04:08 PM)davejavu Wrote: Super interesting. I was tossing up between O3 and the DJI Action 2 for a while and came down on the side of the Action for two reasons, portability and overall cost. I also can't afford multiple units to swap from one to another. I've seen the sled type mounts that people are making but the O3 needs 9v and 1.8A and whilst you can pull that off vbat I couldn't find any info on whether the FC on the Crux would take the amp load so didn't want to risk it. Hence it was the Action for me.

Crux AIO only has 5v, so you would connect the O3 (or vista as comes on the HD Crux) directly to vbat. For 2-4S lipos this is fine, when you get up to 6S then going through a BEC maybe safer.