(upbeat music)
- This is Insta360's One R.
And yes it is a 360 degree camera,
but it's also a 4K action camera too.
So for someone who's on the fence
about buying a 360 degree camera,
this might be the perfect gateway.
Let's get into it.
But, oh, one more thing,
this is a pre-production model
which means that it's near final hardware,
but they're still tweaking the software.
So think of this as an extended hands on
rather than a full-fledged review.
Now let's get into it.
(upbeat music)
The Insta360 One R is made up of three components.
The core, which houses the screen, power,
and record buttons, USB-C port, and microSD card slot.
And then the battery base and the lens mods.
There are two ports on the core
that coincide with the prongs of the lens mods.
And the battery just snaps onto the bottom.
Once built it all feels really solid and compact.
As a unit the One R is waterproof up to five meters.
Now on my unit you'll notice there is a gap
between the battery grip and the rest of the camera.
Insta360 tells me that does not affect waterproofing.
Now in the final versions of this camera
that will be there at all.
They're getting rid of it for aesthetic reasons they say.
The One R also comes with a plastic housing for mounting
and there are two very familiar prongs
on the bottom of that which connect to
pretty much any amount you could possibly want.
Let's talk the 360 mod first.
Because it was by far my favorite to use.
It shoots 5.7K, up to 30FPS spherical video.
If you're coming from the 1X,
the footage on the One R looks almost identical.
They've really only updated nighttime stabilization
and then they've added HDR video.
But the real difference is having a screen
built right onto the camera.
It is a very lo-res screen at that,
but you can change frame rates, view playback,
and scroll around your frame.
If you double tap on the screen
it will change between lenses.
I found the screen to be extremely responsive.
It's biggest downfall though is its size.
I have small fingers so this wasn't a total dealbreaker
but I could see how someone with gloves
or anyone with bigger hands really
could find the small screen frustrating.
During my test I was switching between
the GoPro Max and the One R and going back to the GoPro Max
felt like a relief because the screen
is almost twice its size.
All right now this 4K sensor.
It's best quality is that the screen
can be both a rear facing screen
and a front facing screen.
Because you can just flip it around and put it back on.
It's kinda cool.
The 4K mod shoots at up to 60 frames per second in 4K
and up to 200 frames per second in 1080 P.
As a typical action camera it's fine.
If it didn't come with a 360 mod
this definitely would not be my first choice
for an action camera though.
First, I just prefer the color
that a GoPro puts out way more than a One R.
GoPro isn't afraid of the blacks and the shadows
and it will really let that pop
creating a nice contrasting image.
And second, flow state just isn't as good as hyper smooth.
You can really see it here in this clip of me running.
In the One R's frame look at the building on the left.
You can see it just jittering around.
Whereas in the GoPro keeps it extremely stable
all throughout the image.
I found myself using the 4K mod
mostly just to take photos though.
I found there was a lot of smoothing happening
especially in the backgrounds.
And Insta360 is evening out the low and high lights.
I also thought the auto mode was a bit slow
often leading to blurry subjects, even in daylight.
Overall the 4K mod is fine
but it's definitely not the star feature of the One R.
Insta360 is coming out with a 1 inch 5.3K
Leica branded sensor.
I mean that's huge for an action camera.
But we'll have to test it out and see how it holds up.
Honestly what people don't know
is that Vegas is actually beautiful.
I mean come on.
The audio is pretty crisp and it definitely
prioritizes voices over everything else.
You just have to be super cautious
of the sounds of say, extending the selfie stick
or hitting record on the camera.
Those are really loud.
The editing workflow really hasn't changed since the 1X.
The desktop app is still not intuitive
but it does have added Pro Rez and H265 export options.
And the app is still super easy to use
with a few added tricks.
There is Deep Track active tracking,
auto framing, and CineShots
which are like fun storytelling tools.
I was most impressed by the tracking though.
It really holds people or objects
right in the center of the frame
without having to lay keyframes.
And then the other big new feature
is being able to edit your footage
without having to first download it onto your phone.
You can use Deep Track and set keyframes
all without having to wait for the file to download.
It's all super snappy with no noticeable lag
and it didn't kill the cameras battery in the process.
The One R's battery is right on par with the 1X.
You can definitely get a full day out of it
if you're careful to shut it down
when you're not using it.
But the One R also supports fast charging.
So if you do get low you can use a two amp charger
and charge it up to 80% in just 30 minutes.
I'll take that.
The twin addition of Insta360's One R
is on sale today starting at $480 US dollars.
And it comes with one core, one battery,
a 360 camera mod, and a 4K camera mod.
And then the one inch addition which will be coming out
hopefully later this spring
will retail for $550 US dollars.
So that's Insta360's One R.
I mean for someone who's curious about 360
but not sure they're ready to take the leap
into having two lenses constantly sticking off their camera,
well this might be the perfect form factor for you.
Let's just see if it's as durable as, well, it feels.
Keep it locked to The Verge.
That's all I gotta say about that.
I'm a go climb a rock, this one right here.
Actually, oh shoot, oh shoot,
oh, it's been a long week
and it hasn't even started (laughs).
Okay I'm getting down.