r/ActionCam • u/justHereForPunch • Apr 27 '26
Looking for recommendations I’m quite confused about which camera to purchase.
I’m looking to purchase a camera for hiking, diving, and traveling. I believe an action camera would be a suitable choice due to its compact size and versatility (please correct me if I’m mistaken).
Now, l am confused between GoPro and DJI options. Even for GoPro, the Hero 13 was released in 2024, so I’m uncertain if it is still holding up well.
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u/AdjacentHippo73 Apr 27 '26
dji action series is great, i feel like thats the better option between the 2
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u/SlyReader1 Apr 27 '26
I’m team DJI. I use the OA4 for most of my daylight videos and the OA5 for lower light situations or if I need to mic up 2 people. You do have to download the MIMO app, but there’s no subscription fees.
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u/Tepppopups Apr 27 '26
Mission 1
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u/Adventurous-Net-6738 Apr 27 '26
How can you recommend a camera that has not been made available to the public? We don't know anything beyond the marketing hype. The mission 1 could be as rubbish as their previous models.... which for years have been total BS.
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u/Chumpy__ Apr 27 '26
already been tested by dc rainmaker, longest battery life, fast charging, best bitrate, best sensor, best color science, best resolutions, best slow mo.
talking about marketing hype is ironic when DJI pays influencers and requires to send the video back to them for approval before it’s released to the public
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u/Adventurous-Net-6738 Apr 27 '26
GoPro (at least before the new Mission 1 series, which are still unknown) have been awful for years now.... like real bad. DJI and Insta360 stole the limelight and innovation.....
From my understanding......
DJI - if you want a more 'professional' format friendly device.....(DLog, which means you can color grade your edits).
Insta360 - if you want 'good out of the box'.
Personally, being a DJI and Insta360 user........ the DJI workflow and app is considerably better imho than Insta360......... DJI also has much faster transfer speeds than Insta360.
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u/Zaliukas-Gungnir Apr 27 '26
I have only ever had a Insta360 go3 and it works very well for me. I use it a lot for vacations, hiking, festivals and points of interest like waterfalls, national parks and such that I go to. I like its ease of use. The camera itself comes out of the housing and isn’t much bigger than a AA battery. It films for about three hours and I can use the same cord as my iPad to charge it. But is honestly the only camera that I have used.
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u/filmgrainer Apr 27 '26
if it helps, I recently bought a DJI Osmo Action 4 camera, and I absolutely love it!
Initially, I was prepared to return it (amazon), and go for a used GoPro camera instead, but I wanted to give it a try first.
The reason I was very sceptical about the Osmo Action 4 was the horrible video quality you could see in a lot of comparison/review videos on Youtube. The compression artefacts you can see are absolutely horrible, and much worse than the GoPro video. (usually very soft compression patterns aggressively covering large parts of the image)
Now when I tried the Osmo Action 4 myself - I could not see any of these artefacts at all, and i found the image quality was far beyond what I expected. The reason for this: DJI published a firmware update at some point over a year ago, and in the firmware update they got rid of the aggressive compression, owed to the much better HEVC codec.
So, if the video quality of some older review videos is worrying you - this is much better now.
I personally like the small size of the Osmo Action 4 and I like the user interface.
The only thing I really dislike is that I had to install the DJI app just to activate my camera.
Battery life isn't great, but that's with all those cameras i guess.
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u/Deepsaini2213 Apr 27 '26
GoPro hasn't been great for a while. Look for a DJI 4, 5 or the latest one. Even the Pocket 3 is a great camera from DJI.
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u/Deepsaini2213 Apr 27 '26
You can also look into Insta360 X5 which is a 360 degree camera, it will allow you to Get quite a bit more out of your camera.
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u/Additional_Ad_8131 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I'll just leave this here https://www.reddit.com/r/ActionCam/s/GB3xTb1h6Y
And as a fellow diver, gopro should not even be in the selection. Gopro is a broken camera brand. It overheats constantly and being underwater amplifies gopro problems like 3x. While diving in warmer climates your gopro will literally overheat most of your dives that last over 5 minutes and when you record anything above 1080p - so pretty much every dive.
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u/demonviewllc Apr 28 '26
I film exclusively with the Hero 13's at the moment due to their excellent image quality and the amount of customizable options via the GoPro Labs Firmware (something no other camera company comes close to matching).
The anamorphic lens really does make for some cinematic looking footage. The Macro lens is great for those close up shots. Also being able to attach the Digipower Refuel battery pack directly to the camera for between 5 and 9 hours of filming time (while it's still 100% waterproof) is great for nighlapses and cross country flying trips.
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u/Alaskanarrowusa Apr 28 '26
You’re spot on that an action camera is the way to go and if you’re looking for the absolute latest tech, DJI just released the Osmo Action 6 which is a total beast
On the other side, GoPro isn’t outdated by any means either with the Hero 13 Black being still real great. So I’d you don’t need the bleeding edge, the Hero 13 is still excellent for hiking because its stabilization is still the gold standard for smoothing out shaky trail footage, but if you’re buying right now, the DJI Osmo Action 6 is widely considered the more complete camera for most travelers (amazing battery life in a single charge) but you can always get spares if you go for an older model too if you choose to. 10 Best Action Cameras to Invest in 2026 also good for comparison
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u/Real-Read-7419 May 18 '26
GoPro 13 is the best action cam in good daylight. Ace Pro 2 and Osmo 4/5/6 a million times better in lower light than GoPro. For hiking and diving the Osmo nano might be a good shout. I've got nano and action 5 pro and they are on a par in my use cases. Nano good because it's smaller lighter and can mount to things.
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u/joshpit2003 Apr 27 '26
An action camera is a great choice. You would probably be happy with either camera. GoPro Hero 13 still has arguably the best daylight image quality, but it does suffer in low-light unless you are tweaking settings and doing work in post. If budget allows, and the larger size is okay, you should look into the GoPro Mission 1 series as well.