DJI launches the Osmo 360 II on 13 August. We bought two of the originals on release and took them underwater. Here is what needs fixing.
The Osmo 360 was DJI’s first swing at a 360 camera, and on paper it was a good one. Dual sensors, f/1.9, 8K at 50fps, a square HDR design nobody else had. We wrote at the time that it might be the camera underwater 360 filmmakers had been waiting for.
Then we took it in the water.
What we found, and what DJI’s own documentation quietly confirms, is that the Osmo 360 is a strong camera that does not belong underwater. Not because it leaks. Because of fogging, refraction, and a housing that never arrived.
The Osmo 360 II lands on 13 August at 12:00 GMT, with pre-orders already open in China. So the question is simple. Has DJI fixed it, or built a better version of the same problem?
Note where the condensation sits. It is behind the outer element, not on it. This is not something you wipe off.
It fogged. Both of ours.
Within days of the original launch, users were posting about fogged lenses. One case involved fifteen minutes of 8K recording before the optics clouded over.
We saw it on both units we bought at release, worst during temperature changes going into cooler water. Soft footage, stitching falling apart, longer sessions written off.
DJI acknowledged it. Their explanation is that humid air trapped inside the body during a battery swap condenses on the optics once the camera heats up. Their fix is to run the camera with the battery compartment open for fifteen to twenty minutes before sealing it.
That is not a fix. That is a pre-flight checklist for a consumer camera, and it tells you the moisture is already inside the body before you get near the water.
We covered this in detail in our piece on why the Osmo 360 fogs up in water.
DJI never really wanted it underwater
This is the part that does not get much coverage.
The Osmo 360 is IP68 and waterproof to 10m without a case. But DJI’s own support documentation says underwater shooting with the camera body alone is not recommended, because the convex fisheye design refracts light underwater and produces distortion and stitching errors.
They also warn against fitting the Transparent Lens Protectors during water sports, rain or snow, because it causes fogging.
Read that back. The accessory designed to protect the lens makes the fogging worse, and the manufacturer advises against using their waterproof camera in water.
The case DJI announced, then withdrew
A proper housing with a flat or dome port would solve most of this. It corrects the refraction, seals out the humidity, and takes the camera deeper than 10m.
DJI knows this. When the Osmo 360 launched in July 2025, the accessory line-up included an Invisible Waterproof Case, alongside the Invisible Selfie Stick and the rest of the mounting ecosystem. It was real enough to get a SKU, CPOS.00000454.01, and Australian authorised reseller D1Store briefly listed it at A$209 before the page went to a 404. Other resellers posted the same SKU with no photos, no specs and no stock.
Then it quietly disappeared. It was never released.
We wrote about this a year ago in our piece asking whether the waterproof case was coming soon. Our read then was postponed rather than cancelled, and possibly deliberate. Releasing a case is an invitation to shoot underwater, and DJI’s own documentation says the optics are not suited to it. Better to hold the accessory than ship one that produces distorted, badly stitched footage.
A year on, it still has not shipped. Not for the original, and nothing announced for the II.
What the 360 II actually changes
Based on the teasers, FCC filings and a leaked unboxing reported by channelnews, here is what is confirmed or close to it.
| Feature | Osmo 360 | Osmo 360 II |
|---|---|---|
| Battery | 1,950mAh | 2,150mAh |
| Charging | Standard USB-C | 27W USB-C |
| Lenses | Fixed | User-replaceable |
| Sensor | Dual 1/1.3-inch | 1/1.1-inch reported |
| Pairing | Standard | NFC reported |
| Body | Square | Square, largely unchanged |
The replaceable lenses are the real news, and credit where it is due. On the original, a scratched lens meant a service ticket or a dead camera, and a 360 camera wears its glass on the outside of both faces. It was the most requested fix and DJI delivered it.
Does any of it help underwater?
Some of it. More than we expected on one point, less on the rest.
Replaceable lenses might fix more than scratches
The obvious benefit is damage, and underwater that is genuinely useful, because sand, rock and coral chew through exposed glass. But there may be a second benefit. If the humidity behind the optics was sealed in during assembly, as many believe, then a removable lens gives the body a vent point it never had. On the original there was no way to get to that trapped air short of DJI’s battery-compartment workaround. On the II you can open the optics themselves, dry them properly, and reseal. That does not prove the fogging is solved, but it is the first change that could plausibly address the cause rather than the symptom.
The bigger battery cuts both ways
Ten percent more capacity means longer sessions, which matters when you cannot open a housing mid-dive. It also means more sustained heat inside a sealed body, which is precisely the condition that produced the fogging.
The fisheye problem is not fixable in the camera
Every 360 camera uses convex fisheye lenses, because that overlapping coverage is what makes the stitch possible. DJI cannot design that out. Underwater, those lenses refract light in a way the stitching algorithm was not built for, which is why DJI says not to shoot with the body alone. The fix is not a different camera. It is a housing with a dome port that restores the correct optical path, and that is the accessory still missing.
The housing is still missing
The one accessory that would actually settle this was announced with the first camera, given a SKU, listed by resellers, then pulled before it ever shipped. Nothing has been said about it for the II. That is the part we would expect to change. DJI normally launches a waterproof housing alongside its cameras, as it has done across the Osmo Action range, so a case appearing with the II would be the normal pattern rather than a surprise. If one does not, that tells you something about how confident DJI is in 360 stitching underwater.
What we do not know yet
No pricing for any market. No global date. Coverage expects a phased rollout one to two weeks after China, so late August or early September, but that is DJI’s habit rather than DJI’s word.
US availability is doubtful. The December 2025 national security determination cut off new equipment authorisations, and the original never went on US sale. One report has the II clearing FCC authorisation on 21 December 2025, a day before the determination took effect. That has not been independently confirmed.
Insta360’s X6 arrives within days, so the comparison will be immediate and unforgiving.
The verdict, for now
Calling the original a failure would be unfair. As a 360 camera it is excellent, and DJI’s Action line remains among the best you can put in a Seavu system. But as an underwater camera it was oversold by everyone including us, and DJI’s own documentation says as much if you read it closely.
The II looks like a better camera. Whether it is a better underwater camera comes down to one question we cannot answer yet.
We would like to be wrong about the rest. Live, stitched 360 footage from below the surface is a genuinely exciting idea, and this is the sensor to do it with. What it needs is the housing DJI announced and never shipped, and confirmation that the condensation is actually fixed rather than made serviceable.
Whichever camera you end up with, one limit does not move. WiFi and Bluetooth do not travel through water, so nothing streams a live view once it is under. A Seavu system is what changes that, carrying the signal back to the surface so you watch the feed on your phone while the camera is below.
We will get an Osmo 360 II in the water as soon as one reaches Australia, and publish what happens.
