DJI’s new Osmo Action 6 comes with a headline grabber: a square 1/1.1-inch image sensor reminiscent of the keynote-grabbing iPhone 17 front camera trick—allowing creators to frame once and submit vertical or horizontal later.
Strangely enough, action cameras are beating Android phones to this sort of sensor concept in a mass-market device—bolting it onto another rarity (variable aperture) for increased control in challenging shooting conditions.
Why a Square Sensor Makes a Difference for Creators
Conventional action cams, in contrast, are bound by a 4:3 or 16:9 sensor, making users choose which way they’re going to shoot before hitting record. The square CMOS on the Osmo Action 6 flips that algorithm. By capturing an almost symmetric field, it saves more image data for reframing, offering vloggers and athletes a seamless path to post on both short-friendly vertical and cinematic landscape without shooting twice. Apple put a similar concept for versatile selfie fields of view in the iPhone 17 front camera, too, and the logic translates well for action footage.
GoPro was the one who made it a thing, with those 8:7 sensors in the Hero 11 and Hero 12, but DJI’s move to a genuine square readout should provide even that extra bit of flexibility when you’re exporting to 1:1, or 9:16, or even bacon-and-egg-your-landscape-loving-parents by sending your footage out at some squashed-sprocket ratio wider than sensor width. The asterisk, as imaging engineers will be quick to point out, is that cropping to traditional 16:9 still crops rows of pixels and so low-light gains won’t necessarily match the bump in raw sensor size. DJI claims that the larger format gathers more light in general; you’ll see how much that helps real-world dynamic range and noise as creators begin to crop in more aggressively, DJI’s processing pipeline notwithstanding.
Variable Aperture Arrives for an Action Cam
Next to the square sensor, the Osmo Action 6 also throws in a swing-out aperture that ranges between f/2.0 and f/4.0—quite rare for action cams, which often have a fixed f-stop.
Opening up to f/2.0 comes in handy under dimmer conditions and potentially when you want a little subject separation; stopping down to f/4.0 will help dim highlights, provide more depth of field at base ISO levels, and grab closer subjects without adding those heavy ND filters to your bag burden. It’s a shooting style we’ve seen on phones such as the Huawei Mate 50 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Ultra, now translated to use with helmet mounts and handlebars.
DJI rounds that out with some useful own-brand optics: a Macro Lens dramatically drops minimum focus distance—from around 35 cm on the previous model to about 11 cm—meaning you can get lovely, clear shots of your gear, dashboard, and even a trail’s-eye view, too.
The FOV Boost Lens attachment extends the range from a default 155º view of the world to a 182º wide-angle, ideal for FPV drone racing videographers who want to relive every stomach-dropping moment as they skim treetops and dart through gullies, or look great on an enduro ride with your mates.
Video Specs and Stabilization Upgrades Explained
The camera records up to 4K at 120 fps, with a 4:3 crop at that ceiling, and supports D-Log and 10-bit video for richer grading headroom. And, importantly, you can get a preview of what LUTs will look like before you hit the roll button, removing any unwanted surprises in the edit. It uses the high readout for a 2x lossless zoom that crops without losing quality in 4K delivery, and there’s a new portrait mode for simplified vertical capture.
Stabilization is still RockSteady 3.0, but it’s now available at 4K resolution and up to 60 fps—an important step up from previous limitations that should be appealing for any action shooter who wants footage that’s easier on the eyes without having to lower resolution. On the practical side of things, the internal storage specification gets a nudge up to 50 GB from 47 GB, which is useful as a backup in an emergency once your card is full. Audio should be better as well: a three-mic array records in stereo ambience, and the camera partners with DJI’s wireless mics for dual-source recording on set.
Context for Creators and Phones in Modern Workflows
The switch to square capture mirrors how content is consumed. YouTube has said that Shorts are attracting a few dozen billion daily views, and vertically oriented services will still reward any footage that can be tidily reframed. By offloading aspect ratio to post, DJI is codifying a kind of “open gate” workflow that phone makers have nibbled at with sensor-crop gimmickry—though not too many Android phones actually use square sensors on the hardware level. With Apple looking to go there on the iPhone 17’s front-facing camera, the Osmo Action 6 points the way to where handheld imaging is headed next.
Price and Availability: What Buyers Should Know
DJI has released the Osmo Action 6 worldwide but hasn’t given details on international pricing. Pricing for the camera in China begins at CNY 2,998 (converted to about $422 with current exchange rates), but as usual, regional pricing can vary. The company has yet to finalize availability details in the US. With sensor and aperture changes being so critical, early adopters and pro creatives will be watching carefully for rollout details as well as third-party accessory support.
