DJI Osmo Action 5 rumors – can DJI widen its technical lead over GoPro before the law comes knocking?

Alright, it's not much to go on, but Igor Bogdanov's tweet suggests an Osmo Action 5 Pro is in the works, and he's been right about these things before.

That's exciting because the DJI Osmo Action 4 is already top of our best action cameras list – beating out the more famous GoPro – even if Igor isn't exactly pouring with enthusiasm for the device (distracted as he is by the potential arrival of an update to the DJI Air 3 drone).

There is a lot to hope for in a potential Osmo Action 4 successor, especially in an increasingly crowded market. When it launched, the 1/1.3-sensor was the largest in the business, providing better low-light footage than the GoPro Hero 12.

It is still a great low-light performer, but since then the Insta360 Ace Pro has arrived with an even larger 1-inch sensor and boasting 8K video (the Osmo Action 4 maxes out at 4K).

The addition of the word 'Pro' in the rumor is very interesting here, as we've not seen it attached to a DJI action camera lineup before, and it seems to bolster expectations of a serious jump.

If DJI were to take on both the image sensor size and resolution of the AcePro (or, at the very least, reach the GoPro Hero 12's 5.3K option) then DJI might cement their position as not only the best GoPro alternative for most people but the natural choice.

Given that DJI has also already used a 1-inch sensor in the gimbal-based DJI Osmo Pocket, it shouldn't be much of a stretch.

Following the previous sequencing, an Osmo Action 5 sometime around August/September this year would be quite a good bet.

Should we be as excited by the rumor about the Air 3 successor? It's harder to be sure about that because just seeing photos of drones that look like the DJI Air 3 doesn't confirm a successor is in the works any more.

We recently reported on the DJI Air 3 clone which appears to be a licensed product, and we know DJI are licensing products after I interviewed DJI's Head of Policy to talk about the developments in Congress which, he suggested, risked turning the country into a backwater. (It is not known for sure whether any potential ban on DJI drones would also affect their cameras.)

In the meantime – though we cannot draw any conclusions from it – the Osmo Action 4, and indeed the Air 3 – seem to have appeared at lower prices more frequently than usual lately.