HAS THE SELFIE STICK JUST EVOLVED?
Selfie sticks have been making people look like idiots in public for a few years now. There is a reason for their success, though, and that is the trade-off of a moment’s social awkwardness for a higher quality picture that – as the saying goes – will last a lifetime (longer, if you store it on a cool crystal memory). The bane of concert goers and sports fans, there is no doubt that the selfie stick has a place at the table.
But Chinese firm DJI have spotted a gap in the market and have swooped in. They are offering up the Osmo Mobile for pre-order now, The Verge reports. This is a 3-axis gimbal based auto-stabiliser that works with your phone. What do you mean you didn’t understand a word of that? Of course you did! Perhaps an easier way to imagine this is to say that it’s a Steadicam on a stick, because – well – that’s pretty much what it is.
The Osmo Mobile can shoot in landscape or portrait as well as ‘underslung’ for cool looking shots that come from a low angle that you wouldn’t normally find yourself at unless you were greeting the Queen of Sheba. The final mode, of course, is front-facing (ie – selfie) mode.
But wait, there’s more! Far and away the coolest feature of the Osmo Mobile is its tracking mode. Set up an active zone on your phone and the bundled app will activate the hardware to track and follow you wherever you go. Bear in mind this is consumer software, so don’t expect performance to be flawless, but if you are using the device for something standard like a piece to camera, this thing is essentially an automated cameraman.
The downside to such technical sorcery is the price. At €339 (and presumably much the same in dollars) the Osmo Mobile is not cheap. It will also be limited by what your phone can do. If (like me) your phone is a relic from a simpler time, then you will not witness miracles at work, but if you pair this bad lad with a high quality camera phone then you’ll be able to see a real difference.
DJI are onto a winner with this one. The Osmo Mobile is pricey but not exorbitant, so every aspiring YouTuber will be able to persuade themselves that this is the device they need to make their channel really take off. Since ‘being a YouTuber’ seems to be the life dream of every tween I have spoken to in the past two years, I can see this thing being a hit.
Clearly aware of their target audience, there are social media integration tools bundled with the unit. You’ll get YouTube and Weibo integration (DJI are Chinese, so that makes sense) and the firm hope to add Facebook integration once the rules around that are relaxed enough for that to happen. Battery life is quoted at 4.5 hours, which is reasonable given how this device will be used.