DJI Osmo 360 II review.

The 360 camera Americans can't buy is $140 cheaper than Insta360's in Canada

Here's the odd part. The best-value flagship 360 camera of the fall is one most Americans can't buy at a normal store, and it's sitting on the shelf at Best Buy Canada for $799.99. That's $140 less than the Insta360 X6 Standard bundle at the same retailer on October 13, 2026. The DJI Osmo 360 II is a pocket-sized block with a fisheye lens on each side. It films everything around you at once, then lets you choose the angle later on your phone or computer.

Amazon.ca had the Standard Combo at $799, bundled with a spare battery, and the Adventure Combo at $949, within a dollar of Best Buy's $949.99. DJI's own Canadian store was also taking orders for Ontario delivery, though it listed prices in US dollars on October 13. South of the border it's a different story: Engadget, TechRadar and SlashGear each report DJI hasn't launched it in the US, so buyers there are stuck with grey-market sellers.

So the question for a Canadian is simple. Is this the 360 camera to buy over the pricier X6 or a heavily discounted GoPro Max 2? The answer depends on two things: whether you shoot at night, and how much you hate editing. Start with what DJI actually changed.

Same body, same sensor, and lenses you can finally swap yourself

From the outside, not much. DJI kept the 61 x 36.3 x 81 mm body, the 183 g weight and the pair of 1/1.1-inch square sensors. TechRadar suspects the sensor is physically identical to last year's, which means most image gains come from a faster processor and new processing. The list of upgrades is still decent: 8K at 60fps instead of 50, a claimed 14.5 stops of dynamic range instead of 13.5, a new SuperNight 2.0 low-light mode, 4K/240fps slow motion, 16K timelapses, NFC tap-to-pair and a slightly bigger 2,150 mAh battery.

The change that matters most is the lenses. On the original, a cracked lens meant shipping the camera off to DJI. Now you unscrew it. Engadget swapped one in under five minutes with DJI's kit, which includes the removal tool, a blower, a suction cup and fresh gaskets. Best Buy Canada lists a replacement kit at $35.99, and Amazon.ca had the single-lens kit at $28. On a camera where both lenses bulge out like eyeballs, that's real peace of mind for anyone riding trails or skiing trees.

Who shouldn't upgrade? If you own the first Osmo 360 and your lenses are fine, SlashGear suggests waiting a generation. Owners comparing both cameras in r/djiosmo360 mostly describe modest gains: a higher top bitrate (220 versus 170 Mbps), a touch more sharpness and better white balance under artificial light. Where the new model clearly pulls ahead is after dark.

SuperNight 2.0 is the reason to pay more than a GoPro

DJI says SuperNight 2.0 pairs the f/1.9 lenses with a new AI noise-reduction system so it can use faster shutter speeds at night. That matters because blur, not just noise, ruins most 360 night footage. Engadget put the claim through a night ride on Paris streets with the camera on the handlebars. Its best results came from SuperNight 2.0 combined with an Anti-motion Blur setting, and it says the waxy, plastic look the first model gave people's faces is mostly gone.

SlashGear walked downtown Vancouver in the middle of the night and came back impressed with how noise stayed under control and how highlights and shadows held up. Its one complaint: the camera tends to lift shadows brighter than your eyes see them. TechRadar found SuperNight far cleaner than on the original and says the GoPro Max 2 struggles once the sun sets. One catch from TechRadar: you can't use D-Log M, DJI's flat colour profile for grading, while SuperNight is on.

In real life, this is the difference between usable and unusable footage of a December walk through a Christmas market, or the last hour of a fall ride when the sun drops at 6 p.m. Both TechRadar and SlashGear, the outlets that compared it with the Max 2, side with DJI at night. If you shoot after dark even a few times a year, that alone covers the price gap. Night footage that looks clean raises a fair question, though: what's the catch with the big 8K/60 headline?

8K at 60fps is a first, and it comes with a heat timer

TechRadar calls the Osmo 360 II the first 360 camera to record native 8K at 60fps; the X6 tops out at 8K/50. Sixty frames looks smoother on phones and laptops and drops straight into a timeline alongside phone footage without frame-rate conversion. SlashGear rated its 8K/60 footage among the best it's seen from a 360 camera, but warns that playing those files back on a PC needs a fast drive.

Heat is the limit. TechRadar's camera ran about 19 minutes at 8K/60 indoors at room temperature, with no breeze, before shutting down to cool off, and the camera warns you when you pick that mode. Expert Reviews got roughly half an hour of continuous top-quality recording before overheating. SlashGear's experience shows how much the weather matters: more than two hours of mostly 8K/60 in cold wind on a Zodiac ride was fine, but in a hot seaplane cabin most clips showed up as invalid files on the camera, though they played normally in the Mimo app and on a PC.

On a ski hill or a bike in October, you'll likely never hit the wall. Filming a long indoor event or sitting in a parked car in July is another story. Drop to 8K/30 for long takes: DJI rates 100 minutes there, TechRadar's battery drain matched that almost exactly, and Engadget got about 105 minutes. Engadget also clocked a full recharge in 39 minutes, down from 91 on the original. Treat 8K/60 as a highlight-reel mode. Then ask how sharp that 8K really looks.

Engadget's resolution chart shows the ceiling every 360 camera hits

8K sounds razor sharp, but those pixels are spread around a full sphere. When you reframe to a normal flat video, you're using a small slice. Engadget measured this with resolution charts and rated the centre of the frame somewhere between 1080p and 4K, with the edges closer to 720p. It's clearly softer than DJI's own Osmo Action 6 Pro, a regular action camera, though Engadget says it's very close to the Insta360 X6.

Stitching, the job of blending the two halves into one image, is mostly solid. SlashGear says the seam is usually invisible with occasional flaws. Engadget saw some artifacts at certain angles but fewer than on the X6, and TechRadar calls stitching and selfie-stick removal excellent. Expert Reviews gives a useful rule: keep subjects about 75 cm from the camera or the seam can show. Switch to single-lens mode for sharper close-ups.

My take: buy a 360 camera for the angles, not for pixel peeping. If you want the crispest possible clip of your kid's first ski run, a regular action cam such as the GoPro Hero13 Black will look sharper. If you want to film the run once and pick the best angle afterward, this is the trade you accept. Picking that angle is where the next headache lives.

Reviewers split on DJI's editing apps, and owners lean negative

Every 360 clip has to pass through software before it looks like normal video. The camera records in OSV, DJI's own format, so you'll use the DJI Mimo phone app or DJI Studio on a computer. Engadget is the harshest: it calls Studio unintuitive, short on colour correction, effects and titles, and behind Insta360's software. DJI's new Reframe plugin for DaVinci Resolve helps, but you have to export to MP4 first, which Engadget says is a chore and costs some quality.

Other outlets are kinder. Expert Reviews liked Mimo's quick 360 workflow and its preset camera moves. SlashGear found desktop Studio efficient even with hours of 8K/60 footage, but called Mimo frustrating. TechRadar rated both apps dependable but wasn't impressed by Mimo's AI auto-edits, and Digital Camera World felt DJI's desktop software was less polished than Insta360's.

Owners add a sharper edge. In r/djiosmo360, several report Mimo crashing partway through exporting longer projects on Android, and others say DJI Studio started lagging or crashing after an update. In an r/Insta360 thread weighing the two cameras, the most upvoted advice for people who hate editing was to buy Insta360, though a few DJI owners argue desktop Studio is the more capable tool.

Plan for big files, too. Engadget moved 20GB, just 8.2 minutes of video, in about 32 seconds over USB-C to a fast drive. On a five-year-old laptop with a nearly full SSD, 8K editing will be painful. If you like tinkering, you'll manage. If you want a finished reel by bedtime, read the next section closely.

How the Canadian prices line up against Insta360 and GoPro

The Insta360 X6 is the main rival at $939.99 for the Standard bundle at Best Buy Canada and $939 at Amazon.ca, or $1,039.99 for the Essentials bundle. Per Engadget it lasts longer, about 140 minutes at 8K/30, and charges a bit faster. TechRadar notes it's waterproof to 20 m without a case, double DJI's 10 m. Its edge is software: easier AI editing that does more of the work. DJI counters with more storage, the 8K/60 mode and the lower price.

Last year's Insta360 X5 was $624.99 at both Best Buy Canada and Amazon.ca on October 13, which makes it the middle ground if you want Insta360's apps for less. The GoPro Max 2 is the budget pick: Best Buy Canada's $429.99 sale price was sold out, and Amazon.ca had a Max 2 accessory bundle at $499.99. TechRadar and SlashGear both rate its daylight footage highly but its night footage well behind DJI's, and SlashGear prefers GoPro's built-in mounting fingers. The original Osmo 360 Essential Combo was $529 at Amazon.ca.

My ranking: the Osmo 360 II for value and night shooting, the X6 if editing is the part you dread, and the Max 2 on sale if you only film sunny days. So what does owning DJI's camera look like after the box is open?

Living with it in Canada: cheap lenses, shared batteries, scarce dive cases

Running costs are low. Lens kits run about $28 to $36. DJI says the camera takes Osmo Action Extreme and Extreme Plus batteries too, so if you already own a recent DJI action camera, your spares work. The 105GB of built-in storage means a microSD card is optional, and the camera takes cards up to 1TB. DJI rates it down to -20°C, which covers most Canadian ski days. DJI's Canadian store lists DJI Care Refresh accident plans at US$46 for one year and US$78 for two, and promises up to 30-day returns.

Owner threads raise two things worth planning for. Several posts in r/djiosmo360 complain the Osmo 360 dive case keeps going out of stock, including on DJI's Canadian site, so if you're booking a winter snorkelling trip, order the Diving Combo or case early. Original Osmo 360 owners there also grumble that a promised firmware update never arrived on schedule, which is a reasonable thing to weigh when you're counting on fixes after purchase.

Two smaller notes. SlashGear dislikes that the camera has to be activated online through an account before first use. And if you spend winters in Florida or Arizona, remember that DJI isn't selling this model in the US. Nothing in the reporting says a Canadian unit stops working there, but plan on handling any repair back home.

Buy it for night rides and travel; skip it if editing makes you groan

Buy the Osmo 360 II if you're a Canadian picking your first serious 360 camera and you'll use it on bikes, ski hills, road trips or city walks after dark. It's also the obvious pick if you already own DJI mics or Osmo Action batteries, or if you've cracked a lens on the original and paid for it. If you shoot all day, the $949.99 Adventure Combo makes sense: TechRadar notes it adds two extra batteries, a three-battery charging case and a 1.2 m selfie stick.

Skip it if you own a working original Osmo 360, if you want the camera to cut your highlight reel for you (get the X6), or if you only shoot in daylight and want to spend under $500 (watch for the GoPro Max 2 on sale). And if razor-sharp footage matters more than choosing angles later, a regular action camera will serve you better than any 360 model.