this is the new insta360 GO, a thumb-sized 20 gram gimbal like
stabilized camera that can mount just about anywhere I'm Ben from authentech
and this tiny little camera packs a punch for its small size it has a lot of
potential to be a game-changer I'm just not positive just yet let's dive in and
check it out now huge thanks to insta360 for sending me this early beta unit
all links for more info and pricing will be down below now firstly I'm not sure
if we can actually call this an action camera though it sort of feels like one
sometimes however you'll notice throughout this review it's not truly
meant to be a direct GoPro or action camera killer in all areas just a few
for example we'll do a stabilization side-by-side comparison test which
produces some really incredible results but then on the other hand it's not
recording 4k video either so it's a little bit apples to oranges so first up
what is it well it's a tiny little camera about the size of a chapstick
weighs under 20 grams which is legit there's magnets to mount and snap to
just about anywhere capturing superb stabilization ultra ultra wide-angle
field of view which is just awesome there's no screen just one button for
multiple commands like single tap and no auto turn on record a 15 or 30 second
clip then it'll auto shut off to save battery there's this cute little
charging case that reminds me of the air pots it auto recharges the camera when
it snaps in and then it plugs right into my iphone to copy over photos or videos
for editing or sharing not to be honest upfront I was really skeptical and
hesitant at first of this little gut but as I've been testing it for about a week
now I've been really blown away by some of its features and potential firstly
it's so so tiny and cute you can't even feel it when it's in your pocket and it
can be placed or attached just about anywhere
I love the magnets and the multiple clever attachment accessories that are
included in the box they make it fast and easy to stick anywhere and record
allowing your hands to be free and enjoy the memories or adventures
without the camera getting in the way I'm loving that ultra wide-angle field
of view it creates this very immersive perspective making you feel like you're
right there in the moment we've been conditioned to shoot and share short
form storytelling clips to Instagram and other social so I'm actually kind of
liking this idea of preset clip durations at first I was a little
hesitant like hey what if I need to shoot a two-minute clip of this scooter
action shot or whatever and sure there's definitely gonna be times when I'll
still need to grab my 1 X 360 camera or maybe my GoPro for high-res 4k footage
but then there might be other times when 1080p is good enough for either me or
you and especially for the social medias you can't even tell it still looks good
quality and sometimes I like to force myself to keep those Clips a bit shorter
and to the point which is easier than for editing down the line so let's quick
jump into the unboxing key specs and features and who this camera might be
perfect for first a pricing on this go cam is $1.99 so that might help keep it
all in perspective in the box includes the go camera
charging case a couple USB cables one is for charging the case and the other is
type-c for Android devices otherwise if you have an iPhone or iPad well the case
will plug right in via the lightning connector also included is a few
mounting accessories like the magnet pendant easy clip angle wedge sticky
base and a pivot stand with base again I'm weirdly obsessed with magnets and I
love how strong this magnet is inside the go easily snaps into these different
attachments it feels strong enough that as I deign glit on the pivot stand at
the end of my selfie stick while racing down the road on my electric scooter I
actually feel pretty confident it'll stay in there securely I've also enjoyed
snapping the camera in and out of different mounts while on the go this is
good for capturing different angles and a variety of shots semi effortlessly I
like the pendants that I can wear it like a necklace tuck it underneath my
shirt then the camera can snap to the outside of the shirt just like it's
floating there midair this is a nice first-person perspective allowing my
hands to be free for riding scooters or whatever the adventure might be on the
camera specs I'd ever quarts 1080p HD video the lens is super wide angle both
tall and wide the horizontal field of view with stabilization turned off is
139 degrees in sixteen by nine format but when we switched to 9 by 16 for
social media exports the export field of view is a hundred and fifty degrees tall
so this basically reveals a little bit of the magic here the sensor and lens
they're using is almost like it's turned sideways or it's square capturing ultra
wide than having all those extra pixels to crop in for the electronic image
stabilization which they call flow state there's this tiny little mic port
on top charging points on the back with the action button they have it designed
so that you can press the button directly or when it's place in these
different mounts well then a firm press on the front of the camera should click
in that back button to start recording there's also little LEDs up front to
indicate functions plus one of my small but favorite features there's this super
helpful vibrate motor inside the camera these help to indicate when the
recording has started or stopped I found this pretty genius for example
sometimes I'm out flying down the path on my electric scooter recording the
clip pointing the camera off in another direction or behind me and I might not
hear the beep or visually see the LED light but that vibration motor will send
that nice little vibration down the selfie stick into my hand and then I'll
feel when the clip recording is complete it's a sweet little touch and now I kind
of want all action cameras to have that haptic feedback motor built right inside
this charging case is awesome too it has this little plastic cover for protection
I love the strong magnets that suck it right into place it Auto recharges
wirelessly plus a little LED indicator for battery life remaining
I like that integrated lightning connector so even though we have to copy
files over to our phone at least they made it semi easy we can connect it copy
them over in the app or in the settings we can have it automatically copy the
files over or auto delete the files afterwards as well to keep space always
open for new clips on the go they say that the charge
case is good for about 200 clips on a full charge also that go cam auto shuts
off after each quick capture so it's conserving battery between each shot
which is nice as for water resistance while it has an ipx4 rating as it is and
they say it's good for some splashes rain and submersion r in shallow water
for about 10 seconds now I personally got it close to the water with a little
bit of splashes but I didn't have the guts to submerge it under the water just
yet since this is a beta unit I'll save that for when maybe they can send me a
few spare units to play around with there's also Bluetooth Low Energy built
in so from the app we can control the camera settings and stern stop
recordings as of now I don't think we can live preview the video feed but I
found since it's a super wide angle it's more of a aim roughly in the right
direction and you should be good type of system with just one button there's four
different modes we can shoot in plus a few more when connected via bluetooth
when the go is turned off a single tap will instantly turn on start recording a
15 or 30 second video clip and we can set that in the app or when it's turned
off hold the button down for just a couple seconds and you'll enter into
standby mode from here single tap just snap a photo
double tap to record a hyperlapse and these are always fun
I found the stabilization to be good overall and you can record up to 30
minutes on one of these triple tap for 100 FPS slow motion these export
resolutions step down a little bit to 1600 by 900 but still looks pretty great
in my opinion in the app we can remap all those button functions which is nice
plus a few more modes like standard time-lapse with adjustable interval and
record up to 8 hours they say okay so let's say you've recorded a family
memory or action-adventure now you have some clips like I showed earlier it's
quite fast and easy to copy these files over to your smart device which then
opens up a whole other world of fun editing and exporting options firstly
viewing each clip and scrubbing through is well designed it's almost like
scrolling through your Instagram feed quick to delete or favor it with left
and right swipes if I want to export a batch of clips straight to my final cut
for editing or let's say I want to share in an album I can easily select a
grouping of photos set the aspect ratio then export them all each sixteen by
nine video export has the resolution of 1920 by 1080 and a bit rate of
approximately 32 megabits per second and that's at 25 fps I'm not sure if 30fps
is coming down the road but I'm hoping for it video quality is well I'm a
little split on it on one hand it's just 1080p which again I can't be expecting
4k pixel resolution or super quality here but for HD it's actually pretty
good overall sharpness and focus is nice even up close and I'm not sure the
minimum focusing distance but it does look to be set at infinity focus colors
are well balanced and good saturation all around dynamic range is definitely
lacking a little bit and it seems the highlights aren't easily blown out same
with the noise levels it gets fairly grainy in low-light conditions however
it's not terrible in my opinion so it's still producing usable shots again the
idea is to just tap and then go hands-free run and gone
capturing life's moments without worrying or thinking about at all of the
camera settings there's something nice to be said about the simplicity then
these clips are for fun sharing or family or friends posting on Instagram
or Facebook then the quality of footage and photos should be good enough it's
this crazy wide-angle and superb stabilization that gets me with how tiny
this camera is it's producing footage that sometimes looks like it was shot on
a gimbal on this note I thought it'd be fun to run a side-by-side comparison
tests of stabilization go first GoPro
while walking both are looking over smooth I can notice the go has a
brighter exposure while the GoPro looks so quite a bit darker but it's
maintaining more detail like up in the cloudy skies also notice the go has a
wider field of view even wider than GoPros superview and this is a quick
jogging stabilization tested in the jogging test it's truly impressive how
much each camera is stabilizing the wobbles and shakes that each look very
similar in terms of smoothness one small thing I notice on the go I'm not sure if
it's compression or bit rate issue it could just be beta software but up in
the skies we can see a little bit of the footage shakes but then in other daytime
shots you can't really see that pixel shifting issue oh we're all very
interesting stabilization results this tiny go cam is 200 bucks the GoPro seven
black is normally double the price at four hundred I'm excited to see what
stabilization improvements we'll get in that upcoming GoPro eight stay tuned for
those comparison reviews coming soon audio quality on the go is actually okay
it's a little too quiet sometimes but with a little volume boost it could be
acceptable now back to the app there's some cool features here under stories we
can select a theme and then choose our clips or use a I powered
flash cut which finds your best shots that fit the theme even down to specific
segments of the shot that is best and then edits them on beat to the music
with speed ramping at all in some of my experience these produce some fun
results that I could definitely see myself sharing on my Instagram like
let's say I visit downtown coffee in the park or maybe a scooter ride down by the
lake they did a nice job of making it simple for me to cut the clips together
automatically or if I want more fine-tuned customization there's a ton
more creative controls under my stories like playback speed filters exposure
adjustments splitting trimming cutting Clips and a lot more so all in all like
I said in the very beginning this tiny little camera though I was hesitant at
first actually has some pretty cool potential I very often get questions
from my viewers asking me hey Ben I don't need 4k Resort and my computer
can't even handle 4k 1080p is good enough and I want a little action camera
that's waterproof durable good for taking on family trips or weekend
adventures what would be a good budget camera for me well now a nice new
competitor has entered on the market and I like how insta 360 is trying to push
the envelope or at least try some new things also consider how many times have
you record with an action camera or maybe even on your phone but there's
just so much footage that never gets edited or you never even go back to
re-watch it with go not even allowing you to record long-form video maybe it's
sort of forcing you to shoot just the highlights then semi effortlessly Auto
editing those highlight reels for you they might be better for the socials or
family memories now one last thing that this gadget does it actually gets me
refire dup and excited for the future of tech and more specifically action
cameras first so long the form-factor hasn't really changed just look at the
very original GoPro Hero that chunky little cube basically looks the exact
same as the GoPro nowadays that's just about to release 15 years later it's
about time that these action cameras maybe take on a new
or design and I'm far from saying that this is it
but I respect insta 360 for trying something new and honestly that smooth
stabilization ultra wide-angle it gives it some legs for potential as always I
want to hear all your thoughts and questions down in the comments as always
all the links will be down in the description below thanks so much to
insta 360 for sending me the early unit and consider sticking around for more
camera reviews coming soon until next time let's live