DJI Osmo 360: A New Approach to Panoramic Imaging
After venturing into drones and handheld imaging, DJI has extended its business reach to panoramic imaging.
On July 31, DJI's first panoramic camera, the Osmo 360, was officially unveiled. It features a 1-inch panoramic imaging system and supports native 8K 50fps flagship-quality footage. This isn't just a simple trial of a new product; it's a natural addition to DJI's outdoor imaging portfolio. With a specially designed sensor and large-scale ecological synergy, the Osmo 360 reflects DJI's vision for the next generation of panoramic imaging standards.
DJI uses the Osmo 360 to answer a question: What happens when 1-inch imaging technology is integrated into a panoramic camera?
Arrived Late but Packed a Punch
In the niche market of panoramic imaging, the triple drawbacks of image quality, user experience, and ecosystem have long hindered its entry into the mainstream.
Most panoramic cameras on the market are still targeted at niche audiences, mainly extreme sports enthusiasts and some self-media creators. Compared with flagship action cameras, their overall image quality and user experience are somewhat lacking, and the post-processing workflow is not smooth enough. For ordinary users, the experience is still not mature.
However, the demand is changing. The recording of travel and outdoor sports is shifting from flat to immersive. More and more users hope to use a single device to cover more scenarios—capturing first-person perspectives while skiing and complete spatial senses in city nightscapes or travel scenery. Especially for users of DJI drones and Osmo Action action cameras, their expectations for DJI's panoramic imaging are growing.
Market data confirms this latent demand. According to Frost & Sullivan, the global panoramic camera market was worth approximately 5 billion yuan in 2023 and is expected to reach 7.85 billion yuan by 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of over 11%, far exceeding the overall growth rate of traditional action cameras.
"We've noticed a trend from user feedback. People want more freedom in framing but don't want the added complexity of carrying an extra device," a DJI product manager told 36Kr. Meanwhile, DJI's strategy is taking shape: Its outdoor imaging product portfolio already includes drones, action cameras, and gimbal stabilizers, but it's missing a piece for panoramic imaging.
Panoramic cameras aren't entirely new territory for DJI. Its expertise in image processing, stitching algorithms, fisheye lens design, and the extreme stacking design capabilities of high-density miniaturized product hardware, accumulated over the years in its drone and handheld imaging product lines, can be naturally transferred to the software and hardware configuration of panoramic imaging.
"Four years ago, if you asked us if we could make a panoramic camera with flagship image quality, the answer would have been uncertain. But now, with the development of our imaging platform, power consumption control, and algorithm accumulation, it's the right time to enter the market," explained the DJI product manager.
A project to redefine panoramic imaging quietly launched in 2022. DJI completed the product planning within two years and made a crucial decision on the underlying structure of the imaging system. It adopted a new sensor form to break through the dual bottlenecks of image quality and structural design in traditional panoramic cameras. In 2023, the core components passed verification and lens matching was completed, and the prototype gradually took shape. In 2024, it entered the stage of component delivery and repeated laboratory refinements. In 2025, DJI finally introduced the Osmo 360 to the market.
"This was an orderly and forward-thinking design process. Instead of simply combining existing solutions, we first understood what users needed and then dissected the technical path."
Redefining the Limits
With the Osmo 360, DJI chose a seemingly difficult but pure path: to reexamine the "physical paradox" that has plagued panoramic cameras for years.
For a long time, image quality, size, and battery life have formed an "impossible triangle" for panoramic cameras. To speed up product iteration, traditional panoramic cameras generally use the common 4:3 rectangular sensors found in mobile phones and cameras. This design performs stably in daily flat shooting, but it's not efficient in panoramic imaging. Panoramic imaging usually only covers the central circular area, and although nearly a quarter of the area on both sides doesn't participate in imaging, it still adds extra bulk, power consumption, and heat generation.
This long-used solution is a compromise between efficiency and development costs in the industry.
"DJI didn't want to follow the existing path," recalled an engineer involved in the R & D. They realized early on in the project discussions that to truly solve this problem, they had to go back to the technical fundamentals: If this 25% ineffective area doesn't contribute to imaging, why not just remove it?
Based on this idea, DJI decided to develop a custom-made square sensor specifically for panoramic imaging. The square sensor eliminates all the ineffective areas on both sides, allowing the circular panoramic image field to fit perfectly inside the specially designed square CMOS. While ensuring a 1-inch effective image field, it increases sensor utilization by 25%, thereby freeing up space for optimizing size, weight, and power consumption.
From an industry perspective, this was a "thankless" decision. Customization means investing several times more in R & D cycles, manpower, materials, and financial resources compared to purchasing off-the-shelf sensors, and there are few precedents to follow. But in DJI's view, it's "a difficult but correct thing to do."
"If it can bring new vitality to the industry and provide users with a better experience, then the direction is right, and we'll spare no effort," a DJI imaging product line leader summarized the team's consensus. This is also DJI's consistent R & D philosophy across multiple product lines: When existing solutions can't meet user expectations, no matter the cost, it will start from the end goal and find the right way to solve the problem.
Thus, a complex system project began. To fully unleash its potential, the R & D team even redesigned the pixel distribution logic of the square sensor, increasing the number of vertical pixels from the traditional 3,000 to 4,000. This allows the Osmo 360 to record native 8K (4K + 4K) panoramic videos without any upsampling.
Finally, the Osmo 360 became the industry's first panoramic camera to support 2.4μm large pixels, 13.5 stops of dynamic range, and an f/1.9 large aperture. Whether in high-dynamic sunset scenes or low-light city nightscapes, it can preserve all the details and layers.
The R & D process started in 2022 and continued until component delivery was completed in 2024. DJI and its supply chain partners formed a joint R & D team, staying at the factory to tackle every technical challenge in the links, such as lens yield, pixel adaptation, and power consumption optimization.
The results are obvious. The Osmo 360 can not only shoot 8K panoramic videos but also switch to 4K/120fps ultra-wide-angle action camera mode with a single button press or directly capture 120-megapixel panoramic photos. All these features are packed into a 183-gram body, which supports 100 minutes of continuous 8K recording.
"We've been more aggressive in heat dissipation than many mobile phones," an engineer said.
In terms of heat dissipation, the R & D team spared no expense, using materials like graphite sheets, high-thermal-conductivity aluminum, and VC vapor chambers, which are typically only found in flagship mobile phones. Combined with an extremely compact stacking design and high-density circuit board layout, heat can be quickly and evenly dissipated.
This achievement wasn't made through a single breakthrough but through a systematic project. Almost all key modules, from the sensor structure, pixel distribution, lens module to the underlying architecture of the hardware circuit, were redesigned. DJI's experience in lens craftsmanship, stitching algorithms, and power consumption control, accumulated in its action cameras and drones, was also redeployed in this project.
The Osmo 360 proves that flagship image quality and extreme portability aren't mutually exclusive. They can coexist in a single device if you're willing to refine every technical detail through in-depth customization and systematic design.
From Hardware to Ecosystem: Making Creative Freedom a Reality
After the Osmo 360's launch, DJI isn't satisfied with just breaking the limits in hardware. It aims to improve the entire user experience in creating panoramic content.
In outdoor shooting scenarios, users often face difficulties in device switching, mixed media usage, and fragmented editing processes. Many people find that after shooting, the color styles of action cameras, drones, and panoramic cameras vary significantly, requiring a lot of time for post-production matching and calibration. This is one of the most common and time-consuming steps in multi-device content creation.
Relying on DJI's ecosystem, the Osmo 360 offers a more systematic user experience. The unified 10-bit D-LogM color science ensures consistent color across different devices. Whether it's drone aerial shots, first-person action camera footage, or panoramic shots, the images can be seamlessly connected under the same color logic, greatly reducing the threshold for post-production color correction.
"Users shouldn't sacrifice their creative experience due to device differences," a DJI engineer explained. The unification of D-LogM color isn't just about aligning technical parameters but also about making multi-camera and multi-scenario shooting as smooth as using a single device.
The ecosystem integration also extends to audio recording and accessory systems. The Osmo 360 can automatically pair with two DJI wireless microphone transmitters upon startup, eliminating the need for a receiver and allowing for immediate shooting. Users can control the camera's recording start and stop via the microphone, making parameter adjustment more convenient. It supports high-specification audio recording at 48kHz/24bit, capable of simultaneously capturing the voices of the subject, partners, and ambient sounds, enhancing the consistency and spatial expressiveness of the media.
In terms of accessories, the Osmo 360 uses a magnetic quick-release design. It's fully compatible with the accessory ecosystem of the Osmo Action series and retains a 1/4-inch threaded port, enabling seamless integration with the existing action camera system and leaving room for expansion with traditional third-party accessories. Moreover, its battery is compatible with the Osmo Action 5 Pro, Osmo Action 4, and Osmo Action 3, making device switching more flexible.
Software is the final piece of the ecosystem puzzle. The DJI Mimo App, used in conjunction with the Osmo 360, allows users to complete shooting control, media management, and professional editing in one place. On the desktop, DJI Studio supports features like intelligent tracking. Its logic and operation methods are designed to be similar to mainstream editing software, reducing the learning curve.
"We want users to be able to go from picking up the camera to publishing the final video without having to jump between different platforms," another product manager added. The synergy between Mimo and Studio aims to complete the panoramic content creation cycle in one stop.
With this ecosystem, outdoor sports, travel, and Vlog creation are no longer fragmented by devices. Users can record immersive content using both the first-person perspective of an action camera and panoramic shots in one go, with the visuals and audio naturally blending. Post-production becomes an extension of creativity rather than a burden. DJI defines the Osmo 360 as "the next step in outdoor imaging," not just filling the gap in panoramic imaging but also smoothing out the creative process across multiple perspectives and scenarios.
"If existing solutions can't meet user expectations, we'll start from the end goal and find the right way to solve the problem," which is the consensus of DJI's imaging team. Doing difficult but correct things may be costly, but it