The people who once "killed the camera" are making a comeback
Over a decade ago, smartphones reshaped the imaging industry with computational photography and the mobile internet, and buried countless compact cameras and consumer cameras with their own hands.
For ordinary users, taking photos has changed from "taking a camera out" to "pulling out a phone at will."
However, when short videos, store reviews, travel Vlogs, and voice-over content become new forms of daily expression, phones have begun to expose another shortcoming: they are not stable enough, may not be suitable for an individual to complete framing and shooting over a long period, and cannot meet users' aesthetic expectations.
More than a decade later, as short videos and content creation give rise to new demands, those who once wanted to push cameras out of the historical stage have re-entered the camera market.
Thus, a demand that was once squeezed by phones is growing back in a new form - the handheld gimbal camera.
It is not as heavy as traditional cameras, nor is it exactly the same as a phone peripheral. Instead, it attempts to carve out a middle ground between phones and cameras: it is more stable and has better image quality than phones; it is lighter and easier to use than cameras.
In 2024, the sales volume of DJI's handheld gimbal camera, Pocket 3, exceeded 5 million units, and the revenue scale was nearly 20 billion yuan.
The success of DJI Pocket 3 has for the first time given this middle ground room for imagination: it proves that beyond phones, there is still an independent imaging hardware that can be sold in the price range of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan and has the potential to become a hit product.
Facing the broad market prospects, phone manufacturers and others are eager to try.
Vivo launched the project of a Vlog camera at the end of 2025. The product is directly targeted at DJI's Pocket series, and a team of nearly 100 people has been assembled. OPPO has also launched a gimbal camera project, codenamed "Fuyao." Honor plans to launch a "Robot Phone" equipped with a gimbal camera, which is equivalent to combining a smartphone and a Pocket camera.
Imaging manufacturers are also not to be outdone. On June 10 this year, Insta360 joined hands with Leica to launch the handheld gimbal camera Luna Ultra. In May before that, Canon publicly disclosed a patent for a gimbal camera in 2026. The automatic folding design shown in it is also regarded as a signal of its entry into the handheld gimbal camera field.
However, this collective entry has coincided with a new wave of chip price increases.
The demand for AI computing power has pushed up the prices of key components such as storage and imaging processing chips, and the hardware costs of consumer electronics manufacturers are being raised again.
On the one hand, manufacturers see the market opportunities verified by Pocket cameras; on the other hand, they have to face a more expensive supply chain and narrower profit margins.
Lightning Offensive and Defensive Battle
Before the price war really arrives, the patent war has started first.
On the day of the release of Insta360 Luna Ultra, DJI filed a lawsuit in the United States, targeting its Luna series products.
In this lawsuit, DJI set the starting point of the narrative in 2018.
It was in that year that DJI launched the Osmo Pocket 3 and defined it as "the first truly pocketable, integrated handheld gimbal camera."
In DJI's view, before that, a "handheld gimbal" usually referred to a motorized stand, and users needed to separately mount their smartphones or action cameras on it.
What DJI did was to integrate the camera, three-axis gimbal, processing electronic components, operation buttons, and display screen into a device small enough to fit into a shirt pocket.
This made the Pocket no longer "an accessory for other cameras," but a complete camera in itself. It was this step that created the new category of "modern handheld gimbal cameras."
Based on this, DJI believes that the appearance of Insta360's Luna rotating screen, functions such as gimbal mode switching and target tracking, all fall within the scope of the patent protection it obtained in the United States in the early years, and requests the court to issue a permanent injunction against Insta360 Luna.
It seems that Insta360 had anticipated being sued as soon as Luna was released.
On June 11, Insta360 also filed a counter - lawsuit against DJI, accusing it of infringing five invention patents, covering gimbal stabilization algorithms, gimbal pointing control, camera smooth anti - shake, motion data overlay, and panoramic video anti - shake.
According to Insta360's explanation, in the early years, when DJI applied for patents for stable platforms, remote control methods, and devices and methods for stability and shock absorption, it had cited Insta360's 161 and 090 patents. Based on this, Insta360 accused DJI of deliberately infringing its patents by continuing to use the technology despite knowing that its products would infringe Insta360's patents.
At the same time, Insta360 also filed a request for invalidation of the relevant family patents with the National Intellectual Property Administration of China.
Here, "family patents" refer to a group of patents formed by applying for the same technology in different countries or regions.
"Invalidating a patent in China will not have a direct impact on the lawsuit in the United States because patent laws are territorial. A patent invalidated in China will not automatically be considered invalid in the United States. However, since it is the same technology and the same viewpoints or statements, these can be used as evidence in the US case," a Beijing - based intellectual property lawyer explained to Wall Street News - All - Weather Technology.
This is not the first time the two companies have clashed.
As early as March 2026, DJI sued Insta360 in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court over a patent ownership dispute, involving six patents, targeting several former core R & D personnel of DJI. It accused them of applying for patents within one year of leaving the company, which were closely related to their work tasks during their tenure at DJI.
At that time, Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360, and Yuan Yue, the person - in - charge of the Chinese region, published a long post on Weibo to refute the accusations item by item. Liu Jingkang also pointed out in turn that DJI's panoramic camera fell within the scope of several of Insta360's patents, but the company "had not taken the initiative to sue."
As the domestic lawsuit is yet to be concluded, the North American battlefield has been ignited. The feud between the two imaging device companies has further intensified at the moment when the handheld gimbal camera market is heating up.
Thus, a new question emerges: as the patent war between DJI and Insta360 begins, will players such as Vivo and OPPO, which plan to launch handheld gimbal cameras in the future, also be involved in similar disputes?
Thirteen - Year Evolution
Zooming out from the courtroom, the history of handheld gimbal cameras is the result of continuous innovation of generations of products.
In 2013, Feiyu Technology, which mainly focused on drone flight control and aerial photography gimbals at that time, transferred the stabilization technology originally used on drones to handheld devices and launched the Feiyu G3, a handheld two - axis gimbal that served as an accessory for GoPro action cameras.
This product brought "stable shooting" from the aerial photography scenario to ordinary consumer - grade handheld devices.
However, the G3 was essentially still a camera accessory. It provided a handle, a gimbal, and stabilization capabilities, but the final imaging was still done by the external GoPro.
Two years later, DJI launched the Osmo, integrating a 4K camera and a stabilizer into the same device. Users no longer needed to mount an additional action camera. Holding the handle itself, they could switch angles, take photos, and record videos.
Compared with the Feiyu G3, the Osmo was closer to the prototype of today's handheld gimbal camera. However, it did not have a screen, and real - time framing, adjusting the picture, and performing more operations still relied on a phone.
It was not until 2017 that the South Korean imaging accessory manufacturer REMOVU launched the K1, stuffing a 4K camera, a three - axis gimbal, a handle, and a 1.5 - inch LCD screen into the same device, and claiming it to be "the first 4K camera integrating a three - axis gimbal and a built - in LCD screen."
However, REMOVU failed to popularize this category.
The core issue was that the product's capabilities did not meet the requirements. The K1 weighed 340 grams, heavier than the popular Canon G7 X Mark II compact camera at that time, but its image quality, lens, and portability were inferior.
For ordinary users, the K1 was not as convenient as a phone, did not have the image quality of a camera, and was not as durable as an action camera. It seemed to have no advantages in any aspect.
REMOVU K1
In 2018, DJI launched the first - generation Osmo Pocket. This time, the form was finally compressed into a size that truly had the significance of consumer electronics: the camera, three - axis gimbal, display screen, control buttons, and the entire shooting system were all packed into a pocket - sized device.
DJI regarded this moment as the real formation node of "modern handheld gimbal cameras."
However, for a long time, the first two generations of Pocket did not become popular in the mass market.
In the eyes of ordinary users, they were always "an additional camera to carry." They had an extra learning cost compared to phones, were not as durable as GoPro and not suitable for extreme sports, and did not have an overwhelming advantage in image quality, focal length, and depth of field compared to traditional cameras.
The real turning point came in 2023 when DJI released the Osmo Pocket 3.
With a 1 - inch sensor, the image quality and night - time performance made the handheld gimbal camera not only "stable" but also able to capture images closer to users' aesthetic expectations. The 2 - inch rotatable touch screen made framing and self - shooting more intuitive. Intelligent follow - up shooting and focusing improved the smoothness of self - shooting, store reviews, travel photography, and voice - over content creation by an individual.
A person from DJI's supply chain said that even DJI did not expect the popularity of the Pocket 3.
Before the release, the expected inventory of the Pocket 3 was only 300,000 to 400,000 units. After its launch, the inventory was gradually increased to 1 million, and in 2024, it was further increased to 5 million. By October 2025, the cumulative sales volume officially exceeded 10 million units.
Starting from the Pocket 3, the handheld gimbal camera has changed from a niche imaging tool to a re - priced and imaginable category in the consumer electronics market.
A Battle for the "Middle Ground"
The success of the Pocket 3 not only verifies the commercial potential of this category but is also the result of DJI's cultivation of a complete supply - chain ecosystem around gimbals and handheld imaging devices over the past decade.
Behind the Pocket is a high - level integration of components such as motors, gimbals, camera modules, wireless connections, heat dissipation systems, batteries, screens, and the assembly of the whole machine.
Ofilm is a strategic core supplier for DJI. Its camera modules and lenses are used in multiple product lines of DJI, such as drones and handheld cameras, and the two parties have a close cooperation.
Ofilm's annual report for 2025 shows that the company's new - field business achieved a revenue of 2.776 billion yuan in the whole year, a year - on - year increase of 58.73%. The new fields include handheld intelligent imaging devices.
The success of the Pocket has become an opportunity for upstream enterprises such as camera module, lens, motor, and connection line manufacturers to enter a new growth cycle.
After DJI has nurtured the supply chain, more players are attracted to enter, and the remaining task is to solve the product problems.
The handheld gimbal camera is positioned as an intermediate product "between a phone and a camera."
Looking up, the handheld gimbal camera needs to take better pictures than a phone. It relies on a larger sensor, professional three - axis mechanical stabilization, and a set of optics and algorithms designed for videos to make up for the shortcoming that phones cannot meet users' aesthetic expectations.
Looking down, it must be lighter and more portable than traditional cameras, without the cumbersome processes of changing lenses, adjusting parameters, and post - processing that cameras have.
This determines that this category is naturally a two - front battle. One foot needs to firmly step on the upper limit of image quality "better than a phone," and the other foot needs to hold the lower limit of the experience "more convenient than a camera."
If it fails on either side, the product will be pushed back to the territory of phones or cameras.
This product proposition determines that there are mainly two types of companies that can stand on the starting line of this track: one type is professional imaging manufacturers; the other type is phone manufacturers that have a large user base but are worried about the diversion of the imaging entry.
Beyond hardware, the resource endowments of each company are also different.
The advantages of phone manufacturers are technological accumulation and channels.
In the past few years, manufacturers such as OPPO and Vivo have made huge investments in phone imaging.
From sensor calibration, night - time algorithms, portrait algorithms to video anti - shake, multi - camera fusion, color management, and AI image enhancement, these capabilities can obviously be reused in handheld gimbal cameras.
Another advantage of phone manufacturers lies in their channels.
OV has offline stores, operator channels, e - commerce systems, and a pool of phone users. Once the product is integrated with the phone ecosystem, the handheld pocket gimbal camera may become an important external device for the phone imaging ecosystem.
Insta360's advantage lies in innovation in usage.
From panoramic cameras to action cameras, Insta360 has been reducing users' dependence on professional shooting skills, allowing the device to complete more composition, camera movement, and post - processing for users.
The Luna Ultra continues this idea. For example, a detachable image - transmission remote - control screen is added to the product design, turning the screen into a remote control, which solves the pain points such as having to consider the angle during self - shooting, repeatedly confirming the composition during group photos, and having difficulty seeing the picture in time during long - distance or fixed - position shooting.
Facing the simultaneous entry of players such as Insta360, Vivo, and OPPO, DJI's next - generation products need to maintain the user perception established by the Pocket 3 and resist the attacks of later - comers in terms of telephoto, large sensors, and usage innovation.
On June 15, DJI released the Pocket 4P, which for the first time adopted a dual - lens solution, equipped with a 1 - inch variable - aperture main camera and a 3x optical telephoto lens. It also supports Hasselblad color, D - Log mode, 6K 60fps video recording, and 4K 240fps slow - motion shooting.
The newly added 60mm golden mid - focal length and f/1.8 large aperture of the Pocket 4P further enhance the ability to capture portraits and tell stories in scenes.
2026 is destined to be a year of chaos in the handheld gimbal camera market.