We’ve called DJI’s baby steadicam “almost everything I wanted my iPhone camera to be” and one of our favorite gadgets of 2023, but it’s just become a harder product to recommend. In April, DJI quietly hiked the US price of the camera from $519 to $619. Now, DJI has hiked the price again, officially listing the camera at $799 in the US.
That’s a $280 price hike in just two months, a 54 percent increase, and the company says it’s not a mistake. “The price you saw today is the current price,” DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong tells The Verge. We’re seeing that US retailers have already updated their listings.
DJI’s “Creator Combo” has risen in price even more. The kit, which adds loads of useful accessories including a modular extended battery handle and one of the company’s excellent Mic 2 wireless lav microphones, is now listed at $979, up from the original $669 list price it had maintained before April. (It quietly rose to $799 around the beginning of April.)
Is this the impact of Trump’s tariffs on China? DJI is a Chinese company, after all, but it says things aren’t as clear-cut as that. Tariffs “are certainly among the key considerations,” the company tells The Verge by email, but suggests it’s not the only factor.
DJI did not say which other factors might be responsible — but it doesn’t seem to be demand, as these price increases are explicitly targeted at the United States despite high demand for the camera everywhere. In the UK, Europe, and Japan, we’re still seeing these gadgets listed at their original prices. (Last year, it was reported that the Osmo Pocket 3 had become Japan’s best selling video camera.)
“The Osmo Pocket 3 is one of the top-selling products in the history of DJI. Since its launch in 2023, its popularity has continued to grow and exceed expectations. We are constantly working to meet consumer demand in nearly every market. We attribute the product’s success largely to word-of-mouth recommendations, among both content creators and everyday people who want to film everyday moments,” reads a statement from DJI to The Verge.
Despite the higher prices, DJI’s cameras are not currently in stock at most US outlets. In fact, many of DJI’s drones are not currently in stock in the US either. Even before Trump’s latest rounds of tariffs, DJI had been having trouble importing its items in the United States, as US customs has allegedly been blocking many of them. DJI did not answer whether tariffs might cause the company to stop shipping product to the US entirely, as some other Chinese gadget makers have.
In February, I interviewed DJI about the future of its business in the United States, where it also faces a potential automatic ban on all its products starting in 2026. In our interview, it sounded like the company would be fine selling fewer products in the US if it had to.
“DJI remains committed to the U.S. market and is closely monitoring recent challenges affecting product availability,” reads a statement from DJI to The Verge this week. “We are actively working to address and mitigate any influences and uncertainties, and to ensure products are accessible to our customers soon.”
There is currently one intriguing and unorthodox way to get a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo for closer to its original price: Amazon will ship one to the United States from Germany for free. Just note Amazon is currently charging an extra $71 in estimated tax to cover the tariffs you need to pay — it’s showing me a grand total of $725.92 to buy the formerly $669 product. Amazon US is also tentatively offering the camera-only option on backorder for $639, though that’s less of a deal.
I use an Osmo Pocket 3 every single week to film chunks of my Today I’m Toying With videos, and I’m beginning to use it as a very high quality PC webcam thanks to its built-in webcam mode. I’d pay the $726… but $979 is a tougher ask.
DJI does not yet seem to have increased the prices on drones or other products yet.
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