While the 360 camera market has seen a lot of entries from established names like GoPro and Ricoh, as well as upstarts like Insta360 and Kandao, there's one industry giant that's been notably silent: DJI. That may about to change.
Photographer and YouTuber Joseph Blake highlights photos from DJI's regulatory filings on the new camera, which will likely bear the moniker "OSMO 360" and talks about where such a camera would fit in the current landscape of 360 cameras.
While regulatory filings can reveal the form factor and overall design of the camera, there's no information from the company about specs and release date. What can be determined, though, is that the camera borrows more from the squarish design of the Kandao QooCam 3 and GoPro MAX 360 than it does the bar-shaped Insta360 X5. That could mean any number of things, but more than likely it means that it's not going to be a higher-end 1" sensor camera like the Ricoh Theta Z1 or discontinued Insta360 ONE RS 1-inch 360 edition camera. While that's unfortunate, it probably makes more sense from business perspective to dip a toe into the water to gauge market reaction to a new company entering the 360 space.
If it can at least shoot 8K resolution (or even more, considering the competition already does that) and offer higher resolution still photos (72 MP for the Insta360 and 96 MP for the latest Kandao camera), then perhaps it stands a fighting shot, especially if the price is right.
Where DJI can really make an impact, though, is where other camera companies can't: the drone space. Given that DJI has practically cornered the market on drones and image stabilization, having an in-house 360 aerial drone solution would be an amazing offering from the company.
All that said, at the current time, the only thing that is known is that the company has filed regulatory paperwork for the camera and that it sort of looks like current cameras out there. Check out Blake's video for more musings on how the company's offering could look, and if you have thoughts on features the camera should have, leave them in the comments below.
