I’ve been running this blog on my phone.
It mostly works. But it kept missing the thing I actually wanted. I’d get home, scroll through the day, and the shot wasn’t there — the walk between two places, the street on the way back, whatever was happening while both my hands were busy with food. I had plenty of pictures of the food.
So I bought an action camera.
This isn’t a review. I’ve had it about a week and I’ve taken it outside once. This is just what I bought, why I bought the cheap version, and what it cost.
Why the cheapest one
DJI has since put out the Action 6, which is great news if you’re shopping for an Action 5. The price dropped.
I got the Osmo Action 5 Pro, Essential Combo — the basic box, no spare battery, no accessory bundle. ₩460,000, about $336.
It’s my first action camera. I don’t shoot professionally and I honestly don’t know yet how much I’ll use it. Paying more for the loaded version felt like getting ahead of myself. If I end up loving it, I can buy batteries later.
What’s in the box
Essential means essential. One battery, one cable, the frame case, a mount adapter with a screw, a lens cover, some sticky pads.
It’s lighter than I expected. Holding it bare is no problem at all — the issue is that the footage looks like someone holding a small thing at arm’s length, which is exactly what it was.
The memory card was a gamble
SanDisk has a newer line called Creator, and when I went looking for reviews there was basically nothing. I bought it anyway. 128GB for ₩44,000, about $32.
Storage has gotten expensive enough lately that this felt like a fair price. Whether it actually holds up while recording, I can’t tell you yet. I’ll update this once I’ve filled it a few times.
I skipped the case and got insurance instead
The frame case in the box is fine. My problem is practical: to swap the battery or the card, you have to pull the camera out, do it, and put it back in. On a trip, that’s the kind of small hassle that makes you just not bother.
So I started looking at third-party cases. Then I noticed DJI Care Refresh — you pay part of the cost and they fix or replace it — was ₩45,000 for two years, about $33. Roughly what a decent case costs.
I signed up about a week after buying. Between a case that annoys me every time and coverage on the camera itself, I went with the coverage.
There’s a deadline for signing up, and it’s tighter than people expect. I’ve written that up separately. Here it is — including what to do if you bought used.
Turning it on
Card went in, camera found it right away.
Two things worth knowing. This camera has 47.8GB of storage built in, which is genuinely handy if you forget your card. And the 128GB card shows up as 119.1GB — that’s normal, you never get the number on the package.
The tripod ended up being my favorite purchase
I got DJI’s Mini Extension Rod because people kept recommending it. ₩41,000, about $30. It’s a grip with legs that fold out into a tripod.
I didn’t use it for my first video. Just carried the camera in my hand. It was awkward and the angles were bad, and holding it differently didn’t help.
With the grip on, the whole thing gets pretty heavy — heavier than I expected. But it holds still, it stands on a table, and it works as a selfie stick. Out of everything I bought, this is the one I’d buy again.
One walk at night
I took it out once, at night, around my neighborhood. Didn’t touch the settings. I just wanted to see what it does on its own.
I liked it. Fair warning on that, though — I haven’t put the footage on a computer yet, so I can’t really tell you anything about image quality. What I can say is how it felt: light, easy to carry, nothing about it made me want to leave it at home. I think I get why so many people have one.
Before the next trip I’m going to sit down and actually learn the settings.
Next up
First real trip with it will be Da Nang, and I’m looking forward to it.
Not for better photos exactly. It’s that I’ll get to keep a trip as video. When I look back at our last morning in Macau, I’ve got the photos and I remember the day fine. I’d rather have the walk.
I’ll come back and update this after that trip — what worked, what didn’t, whether the card held up, and whether I cave and buy that second battery.