Ever wanted to jet off on some exotic holiday, not somewhere with an all-inclusive bar but a proper adventure where you can take those sort of photos that make others jealous on Instagram? Well now you can (sort off) thanks to 360-degree camera manufacturer Insta360, which is running a travel competition.
Entering the contest is fairly easy, all you need to do is follow this link, enter your name and email and that’s it. For course there are a couple of cravats as with any competition. The offer is a round-trip ticket for one-person with the ticket value up to $1500 USD in total.
The competition runs from today until 12th August, with the winner being announced through Insta360’s official Instagram and via email on 13th August 2018. As far as VRFocus can tell there are no other terms and conditions stipulating what countries can enter or when the trip needs to be taken by.
There’s also no mention of a 360-degree camera which seems a little silly as surely Insta360 would love the winner to take some awesome 360 pictures to advertise its devices.
Insta360 has a range of cameras to suit those keen on taking immersive snaps and videos of their travels. From the diminutive Insta360 Air for Android devices to the full on Insta360 Pro which is capable of stereoscopic 360 stills and video in up to 8K from six 200° lenses. The company’s most recent product is the Insta360 One, launched in 2017 the camera shoots 360-degree video and photos at resolutions of 4K, has a 70 minute battery life, an F2.2 aperture, and its compatible with iOS and Android devices.
Remember there’s only a couple of weeks to go until the competition closes if you fancy a solo journey somewhere. For any further updates fro Insta360, keep reading VRFocus.
As 360-degree video capture becomes increasingly popular, the range of tools, hardware and software becomes ever more extensive and sophisticated. Virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree camera company Insta360 have now announced new technologies aimed and helping to simplify the VR production workflow for users at all levels.
The tools it has announced include an integrated VR post-production extension for Adobe Premiere Pro, a long-range video transmitter and a new technology for payback of high-quality immersive content on smartphones and VR headsets.
When delving into capturing and editing 360-degree video, it has previously been necessary to learn an entirely new set of software and tools, thus slowing down production significantly. Insta360 have recognised this problem so have produced an extension for Adobe Premiere Pro that lets users stitch 360-degree video captured by Insta360 Pro camera directly in Adobe Premiere Pro.
To save time, during export only the footage that made the final cut is stitched together, reducing processing time and saving system resources.
When filming in 360-degrees, a director and crew usually need to take fairly exotic precautions to avoid appearing in shot, in some cases being forced to hide bhind – or even inside – props. The Insta360 Farsight is a remote video transmitter that lets the Insta360 Pro stream high-res video over long distances.
Insta360 are also introducing a new system called CrystalView that breaks a 360-degree video into many segments and selectively renders the segments of the video the viewer is actually observing in high resolution, while down-grading the other areas, thus allowing for much higher quality playback than would otherwise be possible.
CrystalView will be introduced into the Insta360 Player, the free video playback app which is available on iOS, Android, Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR. Insta360 are making the CrystalView SDK available for developers to use the technology in their own products and media players.
For future coverage of new and updated VR and 360-degree products and services, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Anyone that’s tried recording virtual reality (VR) video on a budget will already know some of the struggles. DIY GoPro solutions work, but still introduce a host of problems of their own. Getting high-resolution, fully spherical 360 video is a daunting task for content creators, but if you have the money to splash for a high-end VR camera solution, then Insta360’s latest cameras will be music to your ears.
At CES 2018, Las Vegas, Insta360 revealed two new cameras designed for VR video that’ll make the task of VR content creation easier than ever for high end creators with demanding workloads. The first camera is a eight-lens VR camera and has a host of features that are sure to impress.
The camera shoots fully spherical 3D and 360 video at up to 10K resolution. Not shabby at all. The camera boasts noise free images and video even in low light environments. While specific specifications and a release date aren’t available right now, the camera is expected to retail at around $12,000 USD – though even this number isn’t concrete.
The other new camera is a prototype for a light field camera, which can create 180 degree videos with “6 degrees of freedom.” Essentially, this means viewers actually have six separate points from which they can view the scene, giving them a slightly different perspective with each. The prototype currently allows for 1.5 feet of movement in all six directions, giving a fair amount of flexibility.
The effect is achieved thanks to a 128 camera array which captures both the intensity and direction of light at every point within a scene. While it currently only records 180 degree video, Insta360 say the technology can be applied to 360 videos too.
It’s all very fascinating. The new 10K 360 camera is sure to make high-end VR video clearer and crisper than ever, while the Six Degrees of Freedom camera array is promising technology that can make future videos much more immersive than is currently possible.
Info on specific products incorporating Insta360’s light field technology will be shared at a later date.
For all of the latest advancements in VR video, cameras and software, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.
This summer saw 360-degree camera manufacturer Insta360 launch what it claimed to be its most versatile consumer camera yet, the Insta360 ONE. Well this week sees that versatility expand that little bit further, adding Android support.
The Insta360 ONE versatility comes from the company combining various aspects of its other cameras, like the Insta360 Nano, Insta360 Air and Insta360 4K. So the ONE offers users three modes of operation: standalone use, remote control via Bluetooth, and direct connection to a smartphone.
Android support comes by way of an adapter that snaps into a phone’s charging port, allowing Android users to connect the ONE to their phone and begin capturing, editing and sharing 360° content.
In terms of specifications, the Insta360 ONE shoots 360-degree video and photos at resolutions of 4K – 3840 x 1920@30fps, 2560 x 1280@60fps and 24 MP (6912 x 3456). It has a 70 minute battery life, an F2.2 aperture, 6-axis gyroscopic stabilisation, Bluetooth, and it’ll accept up 128GB SD memory cards.
With both a USB Type-C and Micro-USB version, the Insta360 ONE Android Adapter is available now on the Insta360 Store. The adapter can be purchased on its own for $29.00 USD, or together with the Insta360 ONE at a limited-time sale price of $298.00.
In addition to the new Insta360 ONE Android bundle, Insta360’s full camera line is discounted for a limited-time Christmas sale, running until 17th December. All the prices can be found below.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Insta360, reporting back with the latest announcements.
Pricing Details
Product
USD
Insta360 Nano
Original Price
Standard Package: $199
Promotional Price
Standard Package: $159
Insta360 Air
Original Price
Type-C Package: $129
Promotional Price
Type-C Package: $99
Insta360 ONE (iOS)
Original Price
Standard Package: $299
(HK, SG: $344)
Selfie Stick Package: $315
(HK, SG: $360)
Promotional Price
Standard Package: $269
(HK, SG: $314)
Selfie Stick Package: $285
(HK, SG: $330)
Insta360 ONE (Android: Type-C / Micro USB)
Original Price
Standard Package: $328
(HK, SG: $373)
Selfie Stick Package: $344
(HK, SG: $389)
Promotional Price
Standard Package: $298
(HK, SG: $343)
Selfie Stick Package: $314
(HK, SG: $359)
Insta360 Pro
Original Price
Basic Package: $3,499
Charging Combo: $3,687
Google Street View Package: $3,548
Promotional Price
Basic Package: $3,359
Charging Combo: $3,399
Google Street View Package: $3,408
Above prices may be subject to change without prior notice.
CES is the biggest technology event in the world, held in Las Vegas, Nevada every January. Ahead of CES 2018, 360-degree camera company Insta360 has just announced it has picked up two accolades for its Insta360 Pro and Insta360 ONE cameras.
Having previously released cameras like the Insta360 Nano for iOS and the Insta360 Air for Android smartphones, the company launched the Insta360 ONE back in August, aimed at being its most versatile consumer focused camera to date.
Able to shoot 360-degree video and photos at resolutions up to 4K – 3840 x 1920@30fps, 2560 x 1280@60fps and 24 MP (6912 x 3456), the Insta360 ONE offers three modes of operation: standalone use, remote control via Bluetooth, and direct connection to a smartphone. It’s also the first Insta360 camera to offer FreeCapture functionality as well as bullet time mode.
“360 cameras are a revolutionary storytelling tool, and our mission is to make them accessible and fun for everyone,” said JK Liu, founder and CEO of Insta360. “The heavy focus we put on R&D is a means to that end, and it’s thrilling to have our efforts recognized by some of the leading voices in tech.”
While the Insta360 Pro arrived much earlier in the year, and as the name suggests, focused much more towards high-end professionals. Capable of stereoscopic 360 stills and video in up to 8K, the Insta360 Pro houses six 200° lenses and onboard real-time stitching technology to capture finished 360-degree videos that don’t require any post-processing.
Currently the Insta360 ONE supports the iPhone, and retails for $299.90 USD. While the Insta360 Pro will set you back $3,499.
The cameras have been honoured in the Virtual and Augmented Reality product category. Both the Insta360 Pro and Insta360 ONE will be displayed at the Innovation Awards Showcase, as well as at Insta360’s booth, at CES 2018.
VRFocus will be attending CES 2018 to bring you all the latest virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) news.
I have spent a lot of time with 360-degree cameras over the course of the last year, but things have really heated up in the last six months. The market is starting to evolve and meet consumer and professional demands. More importantly, the breadth of these cameras is finally starting to allow artists to offer unique and creative 360-degree content that simple wasn’t possible years ago. This is important because the VR market is still in its early stages and any quality content that consumers can view and enjoy in VR will help the overall market grow. The 360-degree camera market has evolved into a user-friendly fully-integrated market where creative minds can just buy an off-the-shelf camera and start creating high-quality immersive 360 video and photo content. The Insta360 Pro is the culmination of years of trial and error by multiple companies in the market, and is evidence of many of the lessons learned by Insta360 as they released their own consumer 360 cameras.
State of the 360 Camera Market
The first 360 cameras were just a series of GoPros slapped together, and were very roughly stitched together to create 360 photos and videos. Eventually, some consumer 360 cameras started to enter the market like the Ricoh Theta, Samsung Gear 360 and Insta360 Nano and 360 cameras got more integrated and simpler to use. However, at the high-end for professionals your only choices were cameras like the Nokia OZO which has dropped to $25,000, or to build your own rig with a bunch of identical 4K cameras. At the ultimate high-end of this are companies like HypeVR who are taking RED 8K Weapon cameras by the dozen and seamlessly stitching them together with secret sauce to do volumetric 360 videos. The creativity in the 360 market continues to expand as the options get more user-friendly and the cameras become more integrated into a single unit.
One key aspect of 360 cameras is that at lower resolutions, the content is generally degraded to a point where it no longer looks good. In the early days, most 360-degree content looked pretty rough unless it was recorded in 8K. Eventually, this came down to 4K, but for the best quality content today, you need 8K to really ensure that visual fidelity isn’t poor inside of a 1440p headset like an HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR. This is because when you think about 360-degree content, an 8K 360 video is really the same as a 4K 180 video which means that when you’re viewing it through a roughly 100-ish degree field of view, you’re only looking at 2K resolution at any given moment which is about the same resolution of the display. Any lower source content and your VR headset is looking at pixels that are a lower resolution than the display 1 inch from your face. Therefore, 8K resolution video is crucial to have when you are looking to provide a high-quality VR video experience.
The Insta360 Pro
The culmination of all these improvements has resulted in one very highly integrated device that is both professional class in its capabilities and consumer friendly in its simplicity. The Insta360 Pro is Insta360’s first professional grade 360 camera with their first two 360 cameras being smartphone-tethered consumer products for iPhone and Android. The Insta360 Pro is a completely standalone untethered camera capable of significantly more than either the Insta360 Nano or Insta360 Air and pretty much every other camera at the $3500 price. At this price, Insta360 really shook up the market for high-end products and I believe is the major reason why Nokia had to drop the price of their OZO camera Additionally, they’ve made Facebook’s own 360-degree camera efforts seem a bit unrealistic and overpriced. Since the launch of their own 360-degree cameras, Facebook has gone from wanting to license the design to manufacturers to completely open sourcing the designs.
The Insta360 Pro’s capabilities have really enabled the market to also deliver high quality 360 streams that can be shown to the world with support for 4K Facebook Live streams. This capability is huge because Facebook 4K 360 live streams are pretty much the only live 360-degree footage on Facebook that doesn’t look like crap because of Facebook’s heavy compression algorithms. One of the great things about the Insta360 Pro is that you can let the camera do all the stitching itself in-camera so all you get is the final 360-degree photo or video, or you can stitch it using software in post. Doing things in post will always result in a higher resolution product, because the processing capabilities of the camera are limited.
One of the really important features of the Insta360 Pro that the 360-degree camera market absolutely has needed is the in-camera stabilization. In-camera stabilization is crucial because the shakiness of many moving 360 videos shot by users is enough to make even the most veteran VR users sick. The Insta360 Nano introduced this feature using the gyroscope in the iPhone as a reference, but with the Insta360 Pro there is an in-camera gyroscope. The gyroscope when paired with the camera’s footage can produce stabilized 360 video footage that lacks the shakiness that many 360 video cameras have when recording a 360 video on the move. Some people have solved this shakiness problem in 360-degree video with gimbals and other mechanical stabilizers, and they will always have their place for the smoothest possible footage, but having an in-camera gyroscope ensures that the smallest little bump doesn’t ruin footage.
There is also a detachable mount at the bottom of the camera if you want to attach it to anything using a standard ¾ tripod mount. The reality is that you can remove this if it is too big for your application or you want to use something else. This mount creates enough distance between the camera and whatever you mount it to so that you aren’t blocking too much of the camera’s view by getting too close to the camera.
Real World Testing
Insta360 loaned me an Insta360 Pro for two weeks to test which I took with me to the Santa Monica Pier, San Diego Comic-Con and the local beach. As you can imagine, there was no shortage of interesting photos and video footage to take in these scenarios. Taking the camera with me in these scenarios made me learn a lot about the camera’s ups and downs and what kind of content I could expect to get out of it as well. I shot a mix of live-stitched 4K 360 and post-stitched 8K 360 video as well as 3D 6K 360 video footage and plenty of 8K 360 photos. At the time that I had the camera, the 4K 360 live feature wasn’t supported yet by Facebook so I didn’t test that out but its available now and I’ve seen it successfully used.
Before you start using the camera, you need to ensure that you have the right memory card, because if you don’t use the right memory card the camera will run a test on your card to see if its capable of handling 8K 360 video. If your memory card doesn’t pass this internal speed test, then the camera won’t shoot 8K 360 video, only photos. Therefore, it’s extremely important to consult Insta360’s website and community to ensure your memory card is compatible. When you start up the camera itself, you just need to press the power button and wait about a minute or two for the camera to boot up. Once it is booted up, then you can start up the application and try to record an 8K 360 video at which point it will test your memory card. After that, it is advised by Insta360 to calibrate the camera for the scene you plan to shoot in so that the camera’s stitching algorithm matches the scene around it. This process takes less than 60 seconds, but is advisable to do every time you switch places to get the optimal stitching results. One thing to keep in mind is that it’s advisable to stand more than 5 feet away from the camera when you are doing this, that way you don’t throw off the camera’s stitching algorithms.
In my testing, I found that the 360 photos almost always come out very clear and sharp and are snapped extremely quickly. If you use the live stitching feature, you must wait longer between photo takes until the camera has finished stitching all the images together and Insta360 says they are working to reduce this wait time. It takes about 10 seconds until you can take another photo if you let the camera do the stitching rather than doing it later on a computer. In my personal experience, unless you absolutely need to be sure you’ve gotten the shot live stitching isn’t worth the time you have to take waiting between shots. When it comes to video, the capture time can lag sometimes where it only starts to capture a second or two later and the same happens when you press stop remotely. The one thing I have noticed is that the video stitching works best when you have your subjects a few feet away, if people walk too closely across the cameras the stitch lines are very obvious, but if they’re about 5 feet away or more the stitch lines are almost impossible to see.
The Insta360 Pro is controlled primarily with an iPhone, iPad or Android app wirelessly but can also be connected to over a network using a wired connection as well. The application allows you to switch between photo and video modes in the camera and toggle between live stitching or just regular shooting with separate images or videos. Additionally, you can adjust the bracketing and enable features like HDR and time lapse videos. From my experience, the application worked exceptionally well in almost every scenario except for at Comic-Con where the interference was so bad that I was barely able to make a connection with the camera for more than a minute. If you plan on using it in a signal noisy scenario with a lot of people like Comic-Con, be prepared to go wired.
In terms of low-light performance, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Insta360 Pro’s low light image quality or noise but that’s been my experience with most 360 cameras up until that point. That might change with an update or shooting multiple exposures with the HDR feature, but you can’t shoot any moving objects in 360 with very low light like night time. I wouldn’t suggest any 360 camera for low light right now partially because we’re dealing with multiple smaller sensors rather than the larger sensors you see in the top-end DSLRs and Mirrorless cameras. In low light, the camera is also very sensitive to bright sources of light and those can throw off the stitching and the overall cohesion of the 360 images.
In terms of final product, I believe that Insta360’s Pro produced some really high quality 360 photos and videos that simply have been unparalleled by any other camera I’ve used. People were continually blown away by the quality of the images and video and the 8K resolution images are so high res on Facebook that you can zoom in on the 360 images and still get a sharp image. Battery life is about an hour per battery, but they batteries are hot swappable and external power is also an option. One 64GB SD card is good for about 30 minutes of 8K 360 video footage. So, if you want to shoot continuously for an hour, you’ll probably need a 128GB SD card. For even longer periods of recording, you can use USB-attached SSD storage like the SanDisk Extreme 500 which comes in capacities of 120GB to 500GB.
When I was loaned the Insta360 Pro, I was given a brand-new camera which comes in its own hard case with foam inserts for the camera and accessories. I provided my own tripod for the camera, and I would recommend anyone that buys a 360 camera have some sort of tripod to ensure the best possible footage. Hand held is possible, but it will never look as sharp as things taken with a tripod. Inside of the box you get the camera, power adapter, Type-C data cable, USB Ethernet adapter, internal battery for the camera, a cleaning cloth, rubber protective lens cover and a network cable. Mine also came with a carrying sling if you want to hand carry the camera without a tripod attached to the bottom of it.
Things Insta360 Could Improve
While I enjoyed using the Insta360 Pro, I believe that there is still some room for improvement. One of the things that seemed to continually bother me was the boot up time. If I knew that I was going to be moving somewhere far with the camera, I would turn it off to save power. Booting it back up was a bit of a long process and should be much quicker than it is. Insta360 says they are working on an update that will bring the boot time down to under 20 seconds to address this. After booting up the camera, in direct sunlight, it was also very difficult to see if the camera was on by looking at the in-camera LCD. It would be great if you could see the LCD display better in broad daylight even though most of the things on the camera can be seen in the smartphone/tablet app.
The black color of the camera tends to attract heat and make the internal fan more necessary and harder to run in fanless mode. The company offers a silver version but it is less commonly in stock. I also would like to see Insta360 upgrade the Wi-Fi in the Insta360 Pro because I believe that at places like the beach I should be getting more than 30-40 feet of range where there is virtually no interference at all. I don’t usually want to be in my Insta360 Pro shots, so being as far back as possible is my preferred distance, Insta360 says they’re aware of the issue and are working on improving it. I also believe that the Insta360 Stitcher app for Windows still needs work in terms of stability, it has crashed multiple times with multiple versions and that’s just not a ‘Pro’ level program quite yet. But they are constantly updating the application and improving it. Finally, I would really like to see Insta360 build an evolving database of SD cards that work with their cameras and make it as visible as possible. I’ve seen countless people buy the wrong SD cards for the Insta360 Pro not realizing that it was very picky about the memory cards it supports. Overall, it seems that many of the issues with the Insta360 Pro that I had are either already being worked on or should be ironed out in the next few updates. That constant iteration and improvement has been a hallmark of Insta360’s development process.
Conclusion
My experience with the Insta360 Pro really shows how far the industry has come in terms of 360-degree cameras and how close we are to high-quality cameras for everyone. I believe that the Insta360 Pro is the best prosumer 360 camera on the market right now that satisfies many of the more high-end features that people want to see on a 360-degree camera. It also has some of the easiest workflows to setup and run quickly which may be attractive to professional users that want a high quality 360 8K video without needing to setup multiple cameras and calibrate them. While it still has some kinks to work out, I have seen how quickly and diligently the Insta360 has worked to solve issues and update capabilities. I have no doubt that people who already own an Insta360 Pro are happy with their cameras and are happier with it now than they were maybe a month or two ago.
While the $3,500 price tag isn’t particularly accessible to many consumers yet, it is properly priced to reach the prosumer market. I believe at $1,500 or $2,000 we could see this camera take an even stronger hold in the market with more amateur videographers adopting it rather than consumer cameras. I’m already seeing people attaching the Insta360 Pro to professional drones and taking 360-degree drone footage of cities and buildings as well as landscapes. People are also using them in scenarios like weddings to offer a new and more immersive experience for the bride and groom to remember their special day. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how many different organizations including Time, CNN and NASA used the Insta360 Pro to do live 360-degree streams of the eclipse that just recently happened in North America.
I hope that others will follow in Insta360’s footsteps and offer high quality 360 cameras that capture in 8K or better. I am still convinced that the Insta360 Pro’s 8K video quality is the standard for what VR content should look like. And while there is plenty of great looking 4K footage out there, compression will wreak havoc on the final product in many cases and 8K is a better starting point in my opinion.
Disclosure: My firm, Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and analyst firms, provides or has provided research, analysis, advising, and/or consulting to many high-tech companies in the industry, including ARM, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Peraso, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics cited or related to this article. I do not hold any equity positions with any companies cited in this column. Find more from Moor Insights & Strategy on their web site, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube.
Today, 360-degree camera maker Insta360 has announced a new initiative to reward and promote the best immersive content from around the world, the Insta360 Awards.
Submissions are open for anyone with a 350-degree photo or video – shot on an Insta360 product as the terms state ‘Please make sure the Contents are totally or partly created by Insta360 products’ – covering any theme they like, whether that’s an adrenaline-fueled adventure sport or a cute cat video.
The awards are then split into two tiers, the Pioneer Awards will be rewarded on an unlimited, rolling basis, with winning videos receiving $150 USD, and winning photos receiving $100. While the quarterly Legend Award of $2,000 will be rewarded to submissions that showcase exceptional artistry or subject matter.
“360-degree photos and videos are new forms of storytelling, and they’re being defined today by the creators who pick up a camera and start sharing,” said JK Liu, Insta360 founder and CEO in a statement. “With Insta360 Awards, we’re excited to reward the creators who inspire us, and to promote their work to show the world what 360 is all about.”
Winners will have their work promoted, with Legend Award winners also getting the opportunity to participate in exclusive workshops and events.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Insta360, reporting back with the latest announcements.
360-degree camera manufacturer Insta360 has launched its latest product today, a new portable camera that might just be its most versatile yet, called ONE.
Having previously released the Insta360 Nano, Insta360 Air and Insta360 4K, with its latest product the company introduces its second 4K camera, just this time it’s a lot cheaper.
The Insta360 ONE shoots 360-degree video and photos at resolutions of 4K – 3840 x 1920@30fps, 2560 x 1280@60fps and 24 MP (6912 x 3456). It offers users three modes of operation: standalone use, remote control via Bluetooth, and direct connection to a smartphone.
Two of the camera’s most unique features are FreeCapture and a bullet time mode. FreeCapture is an editing technique to record key moments of a spherical video as a 1080p fixed-frame video. It uses the smartphone’s gyroscope to move around the scene, while the screen acts as a sort of viewfinder, recording whatever the user points to. FreeCapture also allows users to shift from standard perspectives to the unique shots, such as tiny planet and rabbit hole effects.
As for the all-new bullet time mode, creators can capture up to 240 FPS slow-motion shots (boosted from 120 FPS with the companion app) where the ONE circles them using a selfie stick or a string attachment.
“We set out to make the easiest-to-use, most versatile 360 camera in the world, and the ONE is the result of those efforts,” said JK Liu, CEO and founder of Insta360 in a statement. “The ONE isn’t just a step forward for 360 videography. With its unique FreeCapture technology, it stands to change the way we think about cameras in general.”
Currently the Insta360 ONE supports the iPhone, available in the US for $299.90, supplied with a two-in-one case and camera stand, a MicroSD card, a Micro-USB cable, a lens cloth, and a string attachment to achieve the bullet-time effect. An Android version is also in the works.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Insta360, reporting back with the latest announcements.
Insta360 has been working feverishly these last 12 months to deliver the latest and greatest 360 camera technology for every segment of the market. However, there was a pretty significant gap in their product line between their $129 Insta360 Air, $199 Insta 360 Nano and $3499 Insta360 Pro. The new Insta360 ONE is the company’s latest effort to satisfy the 360 market’s demands while also keeping affordability in mind. The new Insta360 ONE has improved capabilities compared to the Insta360 Air and Nano, but still keeps the price in check at $299.
The Insta360 ONE features a video recording resolution of 3840×1920, which isn’t actually quite 4K since they’re missing 240 vertical pixels, it shoots this somewhat odd resolution at 30 FPS while it supports 2560×1280 at 60 FPS and shoots images at 6912×3456 resolution, or 24 megapixels.
What makes the Insta360 ONE even more compelling than the company’s previous products is its ability to be a flexible camera that changes with your needs. It can be a standalone 360 camera controlled via Bluetooth, it can also be directly connected to your smartphone for direct control via charging port which enables solid live streaming capabilities. The current version is iPhone only, like the Nano, but an Android Type-C version is on its way shortly.
Insta360 has two technologies that really set them apart from the competition, their image stabilization and their stitching technology. Both of these technologies enable Insta360 to deliver a superior 360 experience at an affordable price. With the Insta360 ONE, this is no different, with both features coming standard but with some added features thanks to FreeCapture. FreeCapture allows a user to create a unique 360 experience that harnesses the power of the gyroscope and clean stitching to allow for a 360 experience that can allow the user to focus on a single area of a 360 video and be the director of their own 360 video. FreeCapture lets users change perspectives too, like switching between Tiny Planet shots to Rabbit Hole effects, that’s in addition to changing the focal point of the video as well.
The new Insta360 also has the ability to do bullet time style 360 videos with the assistance of a selfie stick or a string. This capability is possible thanks to a software-enabled 240 FPS slow-motion shot that combines the camera’s 120 FPS video capture capability with the gyroscope data to slow down the frames and create a 240 FPS video where everything seems to slow down to nearly a halt. Additionally, the SmartTrack feature allows for a user to capture a 1080P fixed frame video that ensures that the subject of the video is always in the center of the frame which allows users to capture all the surroundings without ever having to lose focus of the subject.
Leveraging the company’s high-quality stitching capabilities, the company is able to enable the ‘invisible selfie stick’, this is because the Insta360 ONE has a socket for mounting to a selfie stick and combined with the software capabilities of Insta360 the company can remove the selfie stick and make the camera look like it is floating in free space. Additionally, the company has created an IP68 waterproof housing for the ONE 360 camera which is sold separately. This is a great development because there are numerous times I’ve wanted to take my Insta360 Air or Nano with me to the beach and simply couldn’t.
Pulling in a feature from the Insta360 Pro, the Insta360 ONE also has HDR shooting capabilities as well as manual control of exposure, ISO, shutter speed, white balance and more. This can come in quite handy when shooting 360 videos and photos in scenarios that aren’t quite perfectly recognized by the camera in software. To me, the Insta360 ONE is a pretty happy medium between the Insta360 Pro and the Insta360 Nano that bumps up the quality of their 360 cameras without increasing the price too much.
For $299, you can pre-order the camera today which includes the camera, two-in-one case and camera stand, microSD card, microUSB cable (for charging), lens cloth and string for bullet-time effect. It will be interesting to see how this camera compares to our other 360 cameras including the Insta360 Nano. We should have something up within the next week once our camera arrives.
Etwas anders als erwartet fällt die neue Kamera aus, die Insta360 gerade offiziell vorgestellt hat. Nichts weniger als eine neue Ära der Videografie will der Hersteller mit der Insta360 One einläuten. Dafür sorgen soll eine Funktion, bei der man mit dem Smartphone eine Szene in Full HD direkt im 360-Grad-Video aufnehmen kann. Die 4K-Kamera mit 24 Megapixel Auflösung siedelt sich mit 300 US-Dollar im Consumer-Bereich an und lässt sich auch ohne Smartphone verwenden.
Mit dabei: Ein Kamera-Stand
Insta360 One: 360-Grad-Kamera allein oder mit Smartphone
Die Insta360 One fertigt 360-Grad-Videos mit 3840 x 1920 Pixeln und einer Bildrate von 30 fps an. Bei einer reduzierten Auflösung von 2560 x 1280 Pixeln erreicht man flüssigere 60 fps. Standbilder nutzen die höhere Auflösung des Sensors von 24 Megapixeln, was eine Auflösung von 6912 x 3456 Pixeln ermöglicht.
Die Kamera lässt sich in drei Modi benutzten: Als Stand-alone, Remote via Bluetooth-Verbindung oder über die direkte Verbindung mit dem USB-Port des Smartphones. Ein Gyroscope sorgt für die Bildstabilisierung in sechs Achsen. Sie ermöglicht es beispielsweise, in Verbindung mit einem Selfie-Stick oder der beigelegten String-Befestigung, Videos in Bullet Time (Zeitlupe) a la Matrix aufzunehmen. Die Hardware unterstützt dabei 120 fps, Software-Algorithmen ermöglichen auch 240 fps.
FreeCapture: Filmen mit dem Smartphone in der 360-Grad-Szene
Besonders stolz ist der Hersteller auf FreeCapture und verspricht sogar eine neue Ära der Smartphone-Videografie. Die Funktion ermöglicht es, aus aufgenommenen 360-Grad-Material Videos in 2D in Full-HD zu extrahieren. Das funktioniert direkt mit dem Smartphone, das Display fungiert dann als Sucher und der Anwender nimmt das Video wie gewohnt mit dem Handy auf. Außerdem lässt sich fließend die Perspektive verändern und beispielsweise ein Tiny-Planet-Effekt abbilden. Wer nicht selbst das Smartphone schwingen will, kann mit der Funktion SmartTrek ein Objekt verfolgen lassen, das immer im Mittelpunkt des 2D-Videos bleiben soll.
Selfie Stick verschwinden lassen
Praktisch klingt die Möglichkeit, 360-Grad-Videos mit einem Selfie Stick aufzunehmen. Die Software rechnet den Stick automatisch aus dem Bild heraus. Anwender können die Selfie-Hilfe quasi als „fliegendes Stativ“ verwenden und somit kreative Perspektiven ausprobieren. Einen optionalen Stick mit Bluetooth-Verbindung führt Insta360 als Zubehör ebenso im Programm wie ein wasserdichtes Gehäuse.
Die Insta360 One für iOS ist ab sofort über die Webseite des Herstellers erhältlich, autorisierte Händler sollen sie ab dem 5. September im Programm führen können. Die Version für Android erscheint zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt. Im Lieferumfang befindet sich neben der Kamera beispielsweise ein 2-in-1-Gehäuse, ein Kamera-Stand, eine microSD-Karte und das String-Zubehör für Bullet-Time-Effekte.
