Moving timelapses for the DJI Osmo Pocket — motion timelapse without limits

Timelapse with a camera move: unlimited waypoints, smooth transitions, any speed — in three variants for the DJI Osmo Pocket.

A motion timelapse — a moving timelapse — speeds up time and moves the camera while doing so: clouds drift across the sky while the frame pans slowly. With Pathset you program that move beforehand and the camera runs it photo by photo while recording — a gimbal timelapse with pan, tilt and zoom, for the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, 4 and 4P.

What the Osmo Pocket's built-in motion timelapse cannot do

The DJI Osmo Pocket has its own motion timelapse. It is quick to set up but soon reaches its limits: at most four waypoints, and the result is always a 16:9 video. Longer or more complex moves, very slow pans over a longer period or another aspect ratio are not possible.

What Pathset does differently in a moving timelapse

For a moving timelapse with the Osmo Pocket, Pathset offers three routes; the following applies to all of them:

• Unlimited waypoints — plus hold times and loops, which turn a handful of points into a slow pan back and forth over a longer period.
• Smooth transitions — the path is rounded through the points, with soft ramps instead of hard corners.
• Any speed — even very slow pans where the frame barely seems to move.
• Save and reuse paths — with Pathset Pro a path is stored permanently, for instance for the same pan in different light.

Everything is set in the recording card of a path; you record it with "Start".

The three variants at a glance

For all three: how to keep your timelapse sharp.

Hyperlapse with a camera move — fast and finished right away

In a hyperlapse the camera films in real time and speeds the video up itself: in the "Speed-up" row you choose "Auto" or ×2 to ×30. Pathset runs the path at normal speed, just as in a video move.

Afterwards there is a finished video on the memory card right away — nothing has to be transferred or post-processed. The camera handles the exposure itself.

Good for shorter scenes with movement in the frame in daylight: streets, clouds, water, crowds.

Estimating the length: travel time divided by the speed-up factor. The tile and the recording card show the result — 450 s of travel time at ×30 gives 15 s of video.

A tighter frame. For stabilization the camera crops a hyperlapse a little more tightly than a video. So that you can see what will be in the picture while you plan, Pathset shows this crop in the live view as a dashed frame — line your waypoints up with it rather than with the whole live view. The frame currently applies to the Pocket 4P; for the Pocket 3 and Pocket 4 it will follow once the crop has been measured.

Zoom: Pathset sets the zoom of the first point before the recording starts.

Timelapse with a pan — short intervals, video by the camera

Here Pathset uses the camera's own timelapse: it takes photos at a fixed interval and renders the video itself, while Pathset moves the gimbal between the photos exactly to the next position of the path.

• Short intervals from 1 s ("Interval" 1 to 60 s in the camera's steps).
• Exposure "Automatic" or "Manual" with shutter and ISO — Pocket 4 and 4P up to 4 s, Pocket 3 up to 8 s (above 1 s unofficial, the app shows a note; more about this).
• "Save as" video, video + JPEG or video + RAW.
• Zoom: the zoom of the first point applies to the whole recording — the camera does not zoom in a timelapse.

Zoom slows the pan down. If a zoom is set, the gimbal pans correspondingly more slowly in a timelapse — at 3× to about a third. Pathset takes that into account; if a segment is planned too fast for it, the editor shows "too fast". Then give the segment more travel time or zoom less.

Robust: if the connection to the phone drops, the camera keeps recording — only without the movement. The recording is not lost.

Good for sunsets, drifting clouds, traffic and people: everything that becomes fluid at an interval of 1 to 10 seconds.

Every row in detail: recording card, timelapse section.

Timelapse+ — long intervals, 1:1 photos and the video straight on your phone

Timelapse+ works differently from the other two variants: Pathset takes single photos in the camera's photo mode and moves the gimbal between the exposures, while the camera is still processing the last photo. Every frame is therefore taken at a standstill — sharp and without motion trails.

The video is created on your phone after the recording: Pathset fetches the photos from the camera, builds a video at photo size (25 or 30 frames per second) and saves it to your photo library. On a current iPhone this is quick — almost all of it is the transfer; on older Android phones it takes longer and possibly results in a lower resolution.

Longer intervals

The interval is whole seconds from 2 to 60 s. The minimum depends on camera and format: Pocket 3 from 2 s, Pocket 4 and 4P from 3 s, and longer with RAW, SuperPhoto or a long exposure. Only matching values are offered. With movement in the frame, one second above the minimum is more relaxed.

1:1 with the full vertical angle of view

In the 1:1 aspect ratio the camera uses more sensor area at the top and bottom: 3072 × 3072 pixels instead of 3840 × 2160, which is about 40 % more image height. From the square video you later crop 16:9, 9:16 or, for Instagram, 4:5 and 3:4 with your phone's normal tools — one timelapse for every format. The camera's built-in timelapse always gives you 16:9 only.

Zoom follows the waypoints

Unlike the timelapse, where the zoom of the first point applies to the whole recording, in Timelapse+ Pathset adjusts the zoom between the photos — evenly from point to point. Very slow zoom moves are therefore possible, for example gradually zooming in across the whole recording. (Pocket 4P up to 9×, Pocket 4 and Pocket 3 up to 2×. The Pocket 4P switches lenses at 3×; at that point the framing can shift slightly.)

Photo size, file format and RAW

• SuperPhoto (Pocket 4 and 4P only, 8K photos): the video is built at half size and processing takes longer. If you need the full resolution, build the video from the photos on a computer.
• JPEG + RAW for post-processing on a computer: the video in the app is built from the JPEGs, the DNG files stay on the card. With "RAW only" there is no video in the app; on the Pocket 3, "RAW only" is not available.
• Photos on the card are kept by default. On request Pathset deletes them — but only once the video is in your photo library. On the Pocket 3 deleting is currently not possible, so the photos stay.

Live view: the latest photo

If the live view is switched on, Pathset shows the photo it took last after every exposure. Even at night with a long exposure you can see what the camera is really capturing. If it is off, Pathset does not fetch any preview images.

Longer runs

Keep the phone connected and the app open until the video is finished. With the battery handle a Pocket 4P lasted about an hour and a half in our tests. If the camera runs on a charger, it can get quite warm under load and refuse to charge — then set it up somewhere cool.

Artificial light: under lamp light, flicker can make dark bands run through the image. The remedy: exposure "Manual" at 1/50 s or 1/100 s (on a 50 Hz grid).

Good for night shots and star fields with long exposures, very slow pans over a longer period, and content for both portrait and landscape from a single recording.

Every row of the recording card in detail: recording card, Timelapse+ section.

Staying sharp: focus in timelapses

The "Focus" row of the recording card applies to every recording mode of the Osmo Pocket, including video, slow motion and hyperlapse:

• "AF-C" (default for new moves): the camera keeps adjusting. This is the safest choice — the risk of a timelapse that is out of focus throughout is lowest here.
• "AF-S": the camera holds a fixed focus for the whole recording — no hunting, no refocusing onto the foreground or in the dark. It keeps the focus it had last: the one it found with AF-C before, for example, or one you set in the manufacturer's app "Mimo".
• "As set on the camera": Pathset does not change the focus mode. That is the right choice if you have already set AF-S on a point on the camera or in "Mimo" — that focus is then kept. In the camera it applies to all modes until the camera is switched off.

Below it, in every focus mode, sits the option "Focus on the image centre at point 1" (default: no). With "Yes" Pathset taps the centre of the image once as soon as the camera has reached the first waypoint — like a finger tap in "Mimo". With AF-S the camera then holds that focus for the whole recording; with AF-C it places its focus point there. If Pathset tapped under AF-S, it sets the camera back to AF-C after the recording — in the camera the focus mode applies to all modes.

Tip for night shots: if the camera finds nothing to focus on at the first waypoint at night, add one extra first waypoint that serves only to focus: it shows an easy subject at a suitable distance in the centre of the frame — a lit edge, a street lamp, the horizon. With "AF-S" and "Focus on the image centre at point 1" the focus is then set for the whole recording. The second waypoint is the actual starting position. If the actual start is easy to focus on, you can do without the extra point.