The DJI Osmo Mobile 8 is one of the most practical and convenient options for on-the-go creators. Building on the progress of all DJI’s previous phone gimbals and on the strong competition from Hohem and Insta360, the Osmo Mobile 8 is a solid gimbal for most phone shooters. It’s a more complex story than you might have thought, though. Let’s start with the basics and dig into the details.

Meet the Osmo Mobile 8

This is a light gimbal that folds down small and can fit into a pocket — like the Insta360 Flow and the Home iSteady V3 Ultra, and much lighter than the heavier-duty Hohem M7. I’ve been using it for the last few weeks, including on a real-world shoot, and it’s been reliable and effective.

If you’re already familiar with the Osmo Mobile 7P, key improvements include:

• 360° (unlimited) pan axis
• Cat and dog tracking with the Multifunctional module
• Extended support for low-angle shots by tilting the pan axis forward
• DockKit
• Optional magnetic clamp
• USB-C power and counterweight mounting hole on the roll axis

Like the Hohem M7, the Osmo Mobile 8 includes an analog joystick that allows fine control over positioning; a big upgrade over the simple digital joysticks on the Insta360 Flow Pro and Hohem iSteady M3 Ultra. Even better, the joystick here can work in both horizontal and vertical dimensions, or be locked down to just one at a time. This makes it really easy to pull off smooth pans or tilts, with gentle stops and starts, with no chance of accidental sideways movement to ruin the shot.

Osmo Mobile 8 also integrates a tripod (plastic, but not flimsy) and a telescoping central arm. This design pattern has become common across many lighter gimbals and it works well here.

While this gimbal isn’t quite as flexible as the M7 in terms of tilt flexibility, it is possible to reposition the top part of the gimbal (above the telescopic pole) and then hold the gimbal in a different orientation to enable a wider tilt range (improved over the 7P). Happily, I didn’t have any issues with my phone flipping around as I did with the Hohem iSteady M3 Ultra.

The weight limit here is 300g, and if your phone is top-heavy, you can help the balance by screwing in counterweights to a newly added mounting hole near the roll axis.

Controls are simple to learn and familiar to users of previous Osmo Mobiles. The M button cycles through four modes: Pan-Tilt-Follow, Pan-Follow, FPV and SpinShot. The Pan axis can now rotate through 360°, and the basic stabilisation functions are solid.

After pairing, the record button can start or stop recording in any app, and the “switch” button swaps between front and back cameras with a single press — even in the Camera and Blackmagic Camera apps. A double-press of the same button switches between portrait and landscape. These features are a step up from the Insta360 Flow Pro, which defaulted to portrait, and which had a less flexible hardware record button.

Like the Osmo Mobile 7P (and recent Hohem gimbals), the Osmo Mobile 8 includes a Multifunctional Module with a tracking sensor, a fill light and wireless microphone connection. The module itself can face either forward or backwards, and of course it needs to point towards your subject. It clicks in with magnets to help with positioning, and releases with a button on the back.

The strength and color temperature of the light can be controlled using a wheel on the side of the gimbal, or with buttons on the side of the module. While the light will help when filming in very low light conditions, it’s of course no replacement for a full-powered external light. If the module isn’t connected or the light is off, the wheel controls zoom, and again, this works in the Camera and Blackmagic Camera apps.

We’ll come back to the mic support later, but for now, let’s focus on tracking.

Tracking flexibility

This gimbal supports three different types of tracking, and using each strategy has pros and cons, but using the Multifunctional module for tracking your subject usually gives the best results.

Multifunctional module tracking works with any app, and can be started or stopped with a tap of the front trigger or a hand gesture. From a filmmakers’s point of view, the best feature is that it’ll keep your subject in the same part of the frame, no matter what app(s) you prefer to use.

Given the huge choice in alternative camera apps (Kino, Final Cut Camera, Blackmagic Camera, OpenCam and many more) it’s great to be able to track someone without being tied to just a single manufacturer’s app. Just press the front trigger once to activate or deactivate tracking, then use the joystick to reposition.

Positioning freedom is a key benefit of this module. When you activate tracking with your subject (or yourself) in frame, it’ll start with that subject dead-centre. But if you use the joystick to place your subject’s eyes top-left or top-right rule-of-thirds-grid intersection, and that’s (pretty much) where they’ll stay put. You’ll use the DJI Mimo app to control the speed of this tracking (and other preferences) but otherwise you can use whatever app you prefer.

Slow tracking is likely to feel more controlled in a narrative situation, but faster tracking is pretty responsive, and could work well in a sports context. With 360° pan support, your subject has the freedom to walk wherever they want.

Tracking with the module and reframing with the joystick works pretty well, but if your subject is near the edge of the frame, they can move quickly out of tracking range — keep movement on the slower side if you want off-center framing. Also note that the module only recognizes and tracks people; you won’t be able to automatically orbit around an object with this.

If you don’t want to use the multifunctional module, you can use DockKit tracking on iPhone. This interprets the video feed in almost any video app, tracking the person in shot without any extra hardware. We saw this first on the Insta360 Flow Pro, and it’s similarly useful here. It’s not as flexible as the multifunctional module, and there’s no way to re-center your subject in the frame because the joystick is deactivated when DockKit tracking is active.

The style of tracking is quite different too. While tracking with the multifunctional module is smooth and consistently responsive, DockKit tracking tends towards periods of no motion followed by quicker movement. This may be what you prefer, but it’s not something the gimbal has control over; this is Apple’s algorithm, and it behaves in the same way on the Insta360 Flow Pro.

Lastly, your third option for tracking is to use ActiveTrack in the DJI Mimo app, which supports more advanced tracking modes (including dragging a box around an object) without the multifunctional module. A subject can also be repositioned and will stay in the same part of the frame.

Special shot types are also supported here (including hyperlapse) as well as firmware updates, gimbal calibration and a good collection of tutorials. DJI Mimo also allows you to use the wheel on the side of the gimbal to control zoom or focus, which is nice, but there’s no Log support, with or without HEVC. (While both the Hohem and Insta360 support Log in ProRes, neither support Log with HEVC.)

Without Log to deactivate oversharpening, I suspect many video professionals will use a third-party app for general shooting and rely on the multifunctional module’s tracking powers. 

In some ways this is understandable. Gimbal makers aren’t going to be able to match the options in Blackmagic Camera, which is why these app-independent sensors are becoming popular in the first place.

Besides the tracking and the light, the Multifunctional Module also enables a connection to DJI’s wireless lapel microphones.

Microphone and power support

The DJI Mic 2, Mic 3 and Mic Mini can all be paired directly with the Multifunctional module. If you then connect the module to your phone with a USB-C cable, you’ll get a clear wireless audio feed with no additional receiver needed. Even better, the module can also provide power to your phone from the gimbal, enabling much longer shoot days.

Sound quality was good in my tests with the Mic Mini, and because it’s not connecting to my iPhone directly with Bluetooth, quality isn’t compromised.

Power is a big deal here too. Normally, if you’re using a phone’s only USB-C port for power, there’s no way to connect a USB-C microphone, but with this daisy chain, you get both — just be sure to activate pass-through power with a double-press of the M button.

Even without the Multifunctional module, there’s a USB-C port that can provide power just behind where the phone attaches. This allows you to run a cable that’s less likely to snagged on the gimbal, no matter how it’s oriented.

Why wouldn’t you want to use the Multifunctional module? If you don’t care about tracking or audio and you want the quickest possible mounting setup, you can remove the claw mount and the multifunctional module from the gimbal entirely. With the thin Magnetic Mount fixed with MagSafe on your phone, it can then snap quickly into place on the gimbal. 

As a bonus, part of the magnetic mount folds out and acts as a phone stand — clever!

I got very used to the click-on magnetic setup on the Insta360 Flow Pro, and if you end up using the gimbal on and off several times during a day out, this can be a big time saver. If you want to do a piece to camera with a microphone, you’ll need to use the claw and the module for mic support, but for smooth b-roll, the magnetic mount is clean and simple.

In this mode, you’d plug directly into the gimbal if you need power, and if the gimbal’s running low, just plug a power bank into the gimbal.

One thing that’s a bit tricky with all the lighter gimbals is using an external recording device — and remember, if you want to record to ProRes RAW, this is required. Weight limits are tight on smaller gimbals, and there’s not really anywhere to mount an external SSD. Your best option might be a CF Express Type B reader and card connected directly to the phone, which will stick out a bit. However, this can work. 

If you do plan to go this way for ProRes RAW, be aware that without any stabilisation from the phone, a handheld gimbal may not be enough to produce a stable image, especially on the longer lens — consider placing the gimbal on a tripod.

Competition

The small gimbal market is more crowded than ever, and each one has its own compromises. Each of us will place different levels of importance on specific features — not everyone values tracking, or an analogue joystick, or cares a lot about weight.

What about Hohem? While the removable screens on the Hohem gimbals are excellent, the unwanted flipping on the iSteady M3 Ultra was a problem, and the M7 is too heavy for a casual day out. If you can work past these issues, they’re solid options.

The Insta360 Flow Pro is a good gimbal with a couple of minor issues (including a stubby handle and a flimsy tripod) and while I believe most of these issues were fixed in the more recent Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, I haven’t tested that model myself. As far as I can tell, the joystick is still small and digital, though.

Conclusion

As a gimbal for casual filmmakers, the Osmo Mobile 8 gets a lot right. The analog joystick (with a smooth start and stop) gives much more control than smaller gimbals with digital joysticks. This is a big deal if you plan to mount a gimbal on a fixed tripod and use the joystick for repositioning while recording, and none of the other gimbals in the same weight class can do this.

In terms of flexibility, the Multifunctional Module brings a lot, but it’s a shame that it’s not compatible with the magnetic mount. It’s hard to go back to a sprung claw setup after using magnets, but that’s a sacrifice worth making to get power, audio and stability all at once. As a light and portable gimbal that’s quick to set up, the Osmo Mobile 8 is recommended for anyone needing smoother or more stable shots from their phone. The competition is tight, but if you, like me, value a proper analogue joystick, the Osmo Mobile 8 is the pick of the bunch.

If you live in the US, this gimbal is not expected to be available through all normal channels [UPDATE: but is showing up at some US channels anyway, for about US$149]. For the rest of the world, try a local dealer or head to the DJI Store.