4 Reasons Why I Choose The DJI Pocket 2 Over The GoPro Hero 10

I've been asked, quite a lot recently, whether I film more with the DJI Pocket 2 or the GoPro Hero10. So in this video, I share four of my reasons for choosing the DJI Pocket 2 over the GoPro Hero 10. That's not to say that the Hero 10 is bad and I don't like it, I still think it's a great camera on its own, but overall I find myself using the DJI Pocket 2 more because I find it to be the better camera for various filming situations, for these four reasons.

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⭐⭐ EDITING SOFTWARE & MUSIC ⭐⭐

*** VIDEO CHAPTERS ***
00:00​ - Intro
01:03 - Stabilisation
01:55 - Low Light
02:19 - Video Quality
03:44 - Audio

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#djipocket2 #goprohero10 #djipocket2vshero10

[PlanetDoug]

(Part 1 - I wrote too much to fit into one comment 😀)

The Pocket 2 is definitely a great little camera. I have both the Pocket 2 and the GoPro Hero 9. But I guess my needs and video-shooting style are different from yours, because I'm the exact opposite when it comes to choosing a camera. As much as I like the Pocket 2, when I head outside to shoot video, I always reach for the GoPro first.

In case you or anyone else is curious (and just for fun), I put together a list of some reasons off the top of my head why someone like me might skip the Pocket 2 and choose the GoPro instead when going out for the day:

1. The Pocket 2 doesn't have a replaceable battery. The Pocket 2 battery dies very quickly, and when it does, I'm stuck. I can't do anything until I plug it in and wait for it to fully recharge. For that reason alone, I can't use the Pocket 2 at all. My days are too long. I prefer a GoPro because I'm able to change the battery three or even four times in a day and just keep filming. I can't do that with a Pocket 2.

2. The Pocket 2 gimbal is delicate and has to be protected. Once I start using the Pocket 2, it's glued to my hand out of necessity. I can't put it down anywhere on a market table or on a store counter or on the ground if I need my hands free for a minute or two. I can't tuck it between my knees or under my arm either. It's so easy to jam up the gimbal motors and they go a bit nuts and start whining and vibrating. With the GoPro, you can do whatever you want. There is no delicate gimbal with its sensitive motors to protect. When I'm in a store, I just plop the GoPro down onto the counter. In a cafe or restaurant, I can just put it down on the table. If I'm grabbing some snacks from a street vendor or at the local market, I tuck the GoPro between my knees or under my arm. I can't do that with the Pocket 2.

3. I can't just toss the Pocket 2 into my knapsack when I need to put the camera away temporarily. Every time you want to put the Pocket 2 away, you have to fully shut it down, make sure the gimbal is in the right position, and then put it away in its case. And THEN you can finally put it in your knapsack or pocket. Then you have to do the reverse to get it out again and turn it back on. It's a hassle and it takes a long time. With a GoPro, you just toss it in your bag. That's it. It's not going to get damaged in any way. You don't even have to turn it off.

4. I can't mount the Pocket 2 on a scooter or bicycle. You can't really mount the Pocket 2 on anything that is moving or shaking. That alone is a dealbreaker for me. A GoPro, of course, is designed for that. I can take a GoPro and use it in every situation I might encounter during a regular day whether I'm riding a scooter or walking or in a busy and crowded market or cafe or hanging out on a muddy village farm or checking out the local waterfall or cave. The Pocket 2 is very limited in terms of the situations where it can be used safely and easily.

5. The Pocket 2 isn't waterproof. So, I can't use the Pocket 2 if it starts to rain even a little bit. With a GoPro, I DO have to put away whatever external microphone I'm using and reattach the battery door to make it fully waterproof, but I can keep using it even if it's raining. That's particularly important when filming on a scooter trip or bicycle ride. And, of course, you can go swimming with it or take it into rivers and waterfalls and caves and through wet forests as you go hiking. None of that is possible with a Pocket 2.

6. The Pocket 2 LCD screen is far too small to be of any use to me except for changing settings in the menus. I can't see anything on the tiny LCD screen. I have no idea what I'm filming unless I hold the camera right up to my face, and I'm rarely doing anything like that. I usually have any camera on a selfie stick or grip relatively far from my face, and I can't see a thing on the Pocket 2 LCD screen. With a GoPro, I can see everything very clearly on both the front and the back LCD screens. They're nice and big and bright.

7. The Pocket 2 gimbal mechanism itself is difficult and complicated to use. I find the gimbal controls are awkward and fiddly. You have to devote so much time and energy to thinking about what the gimbal is doing, what mode you're in, what mode is best, how the modes differ, where the gimbal is pointing, and what it's doing. It's tiring and annoying for me after a while to have a machine and a piece of software between me and where the camera is pointing. And I often have no idea where the camera lens is pointing or what it is recording, and then I find out at the end of the day that it was pointing in the wrong direction most of the time. With a GoPro, it's simple. There's nothing between you and the camera except your own arm and hand. You just aim the camera at whatever you want to film, and that's it. It's simple. And I can see exactly what I'm filming on the large rear screen and even the smaller front screen.

8. The Pocket 2 field of view is still a bit too narrow. And in order to use a wider field of view, you have to manually attach the wide angle lens adapter. And you can't leave it on permanently. You have to put it back on every time you turn on the camera and then remove it every time you want to turn the camera off and put it away. Plus, the magnet holding it in place is so weak that even the smallest touch makes it drop off. I don't dare use the wide angle adapter, because it falls off every single time I use it. It's only by extreme luck that I haven't lost it completely yet. I've had to go back walking a long ways and scanning the ground to try to locate it each time it falls off. A GoPro has many FOVs built into it, and you can go from Narrow to Linear to Wide to SuperView. And no adapter is required.

9. The Pocket 2 has no custom presets. You have to go into the full settings menus every time you want to change something. The GoPro offers multiple presets that you can set up and customize for any number of conditions. And then you can jump from one to the other at the touch of a button and instantly change all the settings to match what you want to film or the lighting conditions.

10. The Pocket 2's single tally light is too small and dim. There's only one tally light on the Pocket 2 on the front, and it's so small and dim that I can't see it during daylight. I often have no idea whether the camera is recording. I have to hold the camera right up to my face in order to see if the recording light is on or not. GoPros have one tally light on the front and one on the back, and both are large enough and bright enough to see clearly. I use them all the time to quickly confirm that the camera is recording.

[psoon]

Agree with all your points on the OP2. It’s a tiny beast of a camera, shows that DJI is the undisputed champ in the drone and handheld camera category

[LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian]

I've used the pocket 2 for my 2nd channel for a year now. I like it. If a pocket 3 comes out I'll buy it immediately. Thanks for the video Tamara. Great comparison. Lots of sample footage made this very informative. Have a good day. 😎

[SwaveeyLive]

Your channel is super underrated I just discovered your channel today and love your content so much, definitely hope your channel reaches out to more ppl and wish u all the best with your content creating I’ll also definitely be picking up the pocket 2 for vlogging thanks for helping me make up my mind between the 2 😊🙏🏾

[andrewjditton]

I love my pocket 2! I gave up with Go Pro after too many software glitches and freezing up - something that, touch wood, I’ve not had with DJI. Cheers TG! 👍

[jimcano]

You were one of the youtubers talking about the Pocket 2 that helped convince me to get one. I do not regret getting the pocket 2 at all. Thanks!

[PlanetDoug]

(Part 2 of my comment)

11. The base Pocket 2 does not have its own speaker or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capability. For any of that, you have to get the Do-It-All Handle. Without the special handle, you can't even hear the audio of your own video when you review it, because the base model doesn't even have a speaker. The GoPro has all of this built into the camera itself with nothing extra needed.

12. Video playback and review on the Pocket 2 is extremely limited. The LCD screen being so small, it's really hard to judge anything about the video quality or even if you framed it right. In bright daylight, I can hardly make out anything. Plus, there are no video playback controls at all. You can pause and play the video, and that's it. Video playback and review on the GoPro is much better and far more advanced. You can see your video clearly on the bright and large LCD screen. Even better, there are playback controls and tools. You can add hilights as you view the video. You can view videos in slow motion or regular speed. And best of all, there is an excellent scrubbing tool to allow you to quickly move through the video and view any portion you like. EVERY camera that claims to be a "vlogging" or even a video-oriented camera should have a scrubbing tool in video playback, and it astonishes me that almost none of them do. This is an incredibly useful and powerful tool of GoPros that never gets mentioned.

Those are the points that spring to my mind right now, but I have to say that I'm not entirely in agreement with most of the points that you made in this video either. I have both cameras and I've tested and compared them both quite a bit, and I don't see a difference in the stabilization. Both have excellent stabilization. Of course, the Pocket 2 is superior in low light. With its bigger sensor and gimbal-based stabilization, it still performs well in low light. GoPros are known for being bad in low light, and the stabilization fails completely. Luckily for me, I almost never film in low light. And when I do, I don't use either the Pocket 2 or the GoPro. I would use any camera that has at least a 1-inch sensor.

My experience is also the opposite of yours when it comes to video quality. The video that my Pocket 2 records is quite dim and grey and drab and kind of boring. The colors straight-out-of-camera are faded and dark. I far prefer the bright, punchy, saturated colors I get from the GoPro. The normal GoPro video looks great to me. The video from my Pocket 2 is flat and kind of dull. I can't even mix clips from the two cameras in one video because the sudden change from bright GoPro video to dull Pocket 2 video is too jarring.

Perhaps if you shoot in log or D-Cinelike and color grade and all of that stuff, you can tweak the Pocket 2 footage to make it look better and to your liking. But I honestly don't see the point of doing that. If image quality is so important that you spend all that time color grading, then why use a tiny pocketable camera in the first place? The whole point of a camera like the Pocket 2 and the GoPro is that they are small and fast and convenient to use. Once you shoot in a flat profile and color grade the footage (and attach it to a smartphone to get a bigger screen), you've lost all the advantages. If image quality is the most important thing, then you might as well just shoot with a real camera with a large sensor in the first place. Why not use even a Sony ZV-E10 with its one-inch sensor or something like that? You'd get much better image quality than from either the Pocket 2 or the GoPro. And the Sony ZV-E10 would probably be smaller than the combination of the Pocket 2 and smartphone that you are currently using. It's certainly a lot easier to use with many more features.

And for me, audio from built-in mics is irrelevant. Even if you are shooting for YouTube, most people would attach some kind of external mic anyway. Few people would use the built-in mics on either camera. People who are fine with the audio of the built-in mics would likely not care much about the quality anyway, just as long as you can hear what people are saying.

And, to be honest, in the samples that you included in this video, I preferred the sound of the GoPro. It was louder and sharper and more pleasing to me, at least when it was playing over my laptop's speakers. Maybe my ears are weird, but the GoPro audio sounded fine to me, actually better than the audio from the Pocket 2. So, I don't see the built-in mics of the Pocket 2 offering any kind of advantage over the GoPro.

Obviously, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the DJI Pocket 2. It's a great camera, and I own one. But I think there is a strong case to be made that for a certain type of person and for shooting a certain type of video, it would make just as much sense to reach for the GoPro first instead of the Pocket 2. I definitely fall into that category. I tried very hard to use the Pocket 2 for my regular outdoor vlogging, but I couldn't get it to work for me or fit into my lifestyle or match my needs.

[Ozpeter]

Stupid YouTube... earlier today I was washing dishes and thinking "I guess Tamara is taking an extended break for family reasons" because YT hadn't been recommending your videos to me for some time, despite the fact that I was a regular watcher. But here you are, churning out videos as always, and very good ones too. OK, I give in - despite my resolve to keep my subs very limited, I am now a subscriber to your excellent channel. So I will only have myself to blame if I miss something.

Now I will watch this video!

[K-Observer-Walker]

Your videos are always very insightful! But what makes me always come back here, besides your clear review on this subject, is your English accent. :) I do understand it perfectly!! Thanks! (greetings from Brasil! 🇧🇷)

[Ozpeter]

As always you hit the nail on the head. Every time I'm away from the Pocket 2 having illicit affairs with a range of other cameras, I fall in love with the P2 all over again when I slink back to it, shamefaced. Last week I shot a jazz concert in a small club here in Melbourne using the Pocket 2 and the Pocket 1, and also Zoom H2N audio recorder - the picture quality was very good, despite the very high contrast of the stage lighting, and the audio sounded just fine from the Pocket 2, no need to use the H2N sound. If the performers are happy with it, it will appear on my channel. Because the cameras are so tiny, it wasn't distracting to the audience or players. I used manual exposure, about -2.7EV (exposing for the highlights basically) and the shadows did not seem noisy. I don't have a GoPro to compare, but I would be surprised if would have been better than the Pockets.

[GeetMadan]

I found your channel a few days ago, and I loving all the content you have. Great work. Really helpful videos.

[MichaelJamesNoggin]

Great comparison video! You mentioned some things not many other creators have mentioned (low light and stabilization) and that is much appreciated!

[PythonVs]

Love your content! Because of you I started my YouTube channel and now do reviews on my favorite equipment/ Fire arms.

[stevensonrf]

After watching your very thoughtful video, I am now reconsidering using the pocket two again. It’s been sitting on my desk for about a year. Thanks for your video😇

[JustYohannes]

Thank you for this video, I notice so much needed for the go pro. This video has made me buy a pocket 2. You are Beautiful by the way.

[Photomeike]

Well said! I have both of these devices and although I love my GoPro. I must say that the DJI Pocket 2 has It beat in a few key areas.

[davidvongries]

I chose the Hero 10 over the DJI Pocket back then and looking back I wish I had picked up the DJI Pocket 2 for all the reasons you‘ve mentioned. Great video, Tamara! :)

[burgundianambience]

Thanks Tamara, I've been considering a lot between go pro and dji pocket 2. After seeing your videos I decided to go for the pocket 2. It is compact and offers many options in PRO function. Thank you! 🌳💚🎬

[Icelandlover]

I had lost the Pocket 2 in my considerations to upgrade but now you convinced me with the low light and gimbal use. Thanks so much.

[shanebrennan]

Small world, same area as myself and looks like you may live in North guessing from where you are in the night shot, which is where I am. Great video!