DJI Osmo 360 II Review: 8K60, Swappable Lenses and a Smarter Upgrade

Same size, same weight, same sensor. The DJI Osmo 360 II still manages to be the better camera in almost every way that counts.

The DJI Osmo 360 II went on sale in Australia on 15 September, priced from $899 for the Standard Combo and $1,079 for the Adventure Combo. DJI loaned me one ahead of launch. No money changed hands, and every opinion here is my own.

I didn’t come at this as a studio tech reviewer. I review new energy vehicles for a living, and a 360 camera has been a fixture in my camera bag for most of the past year. I bought the original Osmo 360 with my own money about eight months before this one arrived, and it has shot a big chunk of the in-car and exterior footage you see in Beyond EV reviews.

That makes this a working creator’s test. The question is simple: is the second generation worth the upgrade?

Why a 360 camera earns its place

Car shoots don’t run to a schedule. Some days you get a full day with a vehicle. Other days you get 30 minutes.

That is where a 360 camera pays for itself. There’s no framing to fuss over. You stick it on the car, hit record and drive. Every angle gets captured, and the shot gets chosen later in the edit.

Same body, new insides

Put the two cameras side by side and you’d struggle to tell them apart. The Osmo 360 II measures 61 x 36.3 x 81 mm and weighs 183 g, identical to the original.

The sensor hardware carries over too: dual 1/1.1-inch square CMOS sensors with f/1.9 apertures, ISO 100 to 51,200 and a 1/8000 maximum shutter speed. Photos top out at 120 MP for 2:1 panoramas.

The gains come from processing. The headline upgrade is native 8K at 60 fps for panoramic video, up from 8K/50 on the original. Plenty of creators work at 60 fps, and shooting it natively at 8K is a genuine step forward.

Low light gets the same treatment. AI SuperNight 2.0 now records at 8K/60, where the original’s SuperNight mode stopped at 8K/30. Dynamic range for standard video climbs from 13.5 to 14.5 stops, and panoramic photographers finally get RAW alongside JPEG, which makes colour work in post far more forgiving.

Battery, audio and connectivity

The battery keeps the same form factor, which matters when you’re hot-swapping cells in the field. Capacity rises from 1950 mAh to 2150 mAh, roughly 10% more.

Run time doesn’t move. Both cameras are rated at 100 minutes of 8K/30 recording. That tells me the new processing pipeline is hungrier, and the bigger cell is there to hold the line rather than extend it. Fast charging to 80% takes 22 minutes.

There are still four microphones, but one now has a built-in windproof design for cleaner outdoor audio without a wind muff. NFC quick connect pairs the camera with the DJI Mimo app with a tap of your phone. Small changes, both welcome.

The lenses are the real story

On the original Osmo 360, the lenses are fixed. One scratch and the whole camera goes back to DJI.

The Osmo 360 II has user-replaceable lenses. Scratch one and you buy a lens kit and swap it yourself. For anyone bolting a camera to the roof of a moving car, this is the most valuable change on the spec sheet. If I owned one, a spare lens kit would live in my camera bag permanently.

Side by side on the road

I mounted both cameras on the roof and drove. The difference showed up straight away.

Both had texture set to minus two, because both over-sharpen by default. Even so, the original still looked slightly over-sharpened. The Osmo 360 II produced a smoother, more natural image.

Dynamic range was the bigger story. The original exposed brighter, lifting the road surface but losing detail in the shadows. The Osmo 360 II held detail in the darkest parts of the frame without blowing out everything else.

Inside the cabin, in lower light, the gap held. The original showed noise on the seat backs, even in the brighter areas. The Osmo 360 II stayed clean.

Audio and night tests

Cabin audio, with both cameras on standard settings, was close. Close enough that I left it to viewers to judge.

At night, in a dimly lit car park at 8K/30, the new camera came out ahead through the viewfinder. The original leaned towards overexposure, while the Osmo 360 II showed more detail and more contrast, both in normal mode and with SuperNight switched on. Exported footage in DJI Studio will tell the full story, but the direction was clear.

Where it falls short

This is an evolution, not a reinvention. The body, sensor size and 100-minute run time are all unchanged, so owners of the original gain no extra endurance.

Waterproofing sits at 10 m without a case, half what the Insta360 X6 offers. Push 8K/60 for long stretches and heat can become a factor, which is worth knowing before a long continuous shoot.

Pricing

	Standard Combo	Adventure Combo
Price (RRP)	$899	$1,079
Saving vs Insta360 X6 ($1,049.99)	$150.99	n/a

The Standard Combo undercuts its biggest rival by more than $150 while offering a higher maximum frame rate at 8K. That’s a strong position.

Verdict

The DJI Osmo 360 II doesn’t look new, and it doesn’t need to. Better dynamic range, cleaner low-light footage, native 8K/60 and replaceable lenses add up to a meaningfully better camera at a sharper price than its main rival.

If you own the original and shoot at 60 fps, or your camera lives somewhere lenses get punished, upgrade. If you’re happy at 8K/30 and your lenses are unmarked, the original still does the job.

For anyone buying their first 360 camera in Australia, this is now the benchmark under $1,000. Insta360’s next move needs to be a big one.