Welcome back to another episode of Insta360 ONE X2 review and tutorial.
Today, we focus on the low light performance of the Insta360 ONE X2 and compare it with
all the other 360 cameras - including Insta360 One R, GoPro MAX, Qoocam 8K, and Ricoh Theta
Z1 for 360 photo comparison.
We will find out why the official Insta360 AI Effects Remove Grain is bad for your low
light video - and what is the correct workflow of removing small sensor digital noise with
both Adobe Premiere Pro and better, Davinci Resolve - my secret weapon to get very clear
low light footage in ISO 800 to even ISO 1000 on the One X2.
To educate you about the problems and challenges in low light VR filmmaking, I will go 1 step
further to explore moving 360 and flowstate stabilization.
Why low shutter speed will create a blurry low light footage.
And how to use vibration dampening to avoid this problem.
We will show you the result from Professional Cameras like Insta360 Titan, Qoocam 8K Enterprise,
and even the brand new Teche 360Anywhere.
Compare it to One X2 moving 360 results in extremely low light conditions.
At the end of this tutorial, I will share some best practices for filming VR at night
time, how to add light and what light to add to make your 360 footage look more cinematic.
My goal of this video is to give you the knowledge and super power to film better low light 360,
both photo and video.
If you are ready to up your skill, let's go.
Hey, what's up everybody!
It is your boi Hugh here from CreatorUp - the YouTube channel dedicated to 360 and immersive
video for EVERYONE.
The original goal of this video is to review the Insta360 ONE X2 in low light.
But there is a huge knowledge gap there in low light 360 filmmaking from all the feedbacks
I gather.
And the wrong information on the Internet confuses the heck out of both the clients
and the filmmakers.
So I want to set the expectation and then share some best practices in both filming
on set and noise removal in post-production.
If your client expects a SONY A7S or Canon R5 low light result in 360 videos, the answer
is practically impossible.
None of these small sensor cameras, including the Qoocam 8K, can shoot in ISO higher than
800.
Our goal is to find out which camera can do a reasonably good result that we can use lighting
and post-production magic to compensate.
Even the best camera like ARRI Alexa or RED needs lighting in low light.
360 cameras actually require a lot more light.
BUT HUGH, 360 CAMERA SEE EVERYTHING - HOW CAN YOU ADD LIGHT ON SET?
Yes, that is correct.
We will cover that in this tutorial.
Okay, let's find out if the Insta360 ONE X2 is a good choice for low light 360 videos
and photos.
In order to see the result, we put it against Insta360 ONE R, GoPro MAX, Qoocam 8K and ricoh
Theta Z1.
Later on, we mount the ONE X2 on a moving car and compare it to Qoocam 8K Enterprise,
Teche 360Anywhere, and even the $15,000 US Dollar Insta360 Titan.
Here from left to right, we have ONE X2 with AI remove noise, ONE R with AI remove noise,
GoPro MAX, and Qoocam 8K.
They are all in ISO 800 and shutter speed 1/60, shooting in 30 frames per second.
Here is a very important tip, always shoot in manual exposure mode in low light.
You don't want your shutter speed slower than 1/60.
If you are moving your camera, I will even go up to 1/100 or 1/120 to remove motion blur
and jitter.
Keep the ISO in 800 is risky - but a good number of testing out noise profile for all
these cameras.
As you see here in ISO 800, Qoocam 8K still looks really dark, then Insta360 ONE R, then
GoPro MAX, and ONE X2 is the brightest of all.
You can see more details in ONE X2.
But GoPro MAX has the best highlights result, in my opinion.
You can clearly see that in the light-up pumpkin behind our model.
I suspect GoPro MAX has the least amount of compression in the ISP level and a better
lens.
GoPro having their own ISP chip does give them the advantage in image processing.
Also, GoPro allows you to turn the ISP sharping all the way down - so the result looks softer
than all the other cameras - in return, a better highlight falls off and a more natural
image.
This is good if you are going to do denoising and re-sharpening in post-production.
You really can't see this until you do a side by side comparison.
That is why you should consider subscribing to CreatorUp, and sharing this video so more
people can see a fair result instead of blindly listening to marketing or unfair reviews.
Let's zoom in 200% to see the noise in the shadows.
Then we see a huge problem in both ONE X2 and ONE R footage.
The ground looks wavey and moving unnaturally.
It is like you are looking thought a heatwave or mirage.
This is a very common artifact causing by aggressive and bad denoising.
In Neat Video, which I mentioned in this tutorial, is the Jitters in detail problem.
The noise looks a lot more natural in GoPro MAX.
In Qoocam 8K - b/c of bigger sensor size and higher 8K resolution in 10-bit color, the
noise is not notifiable at all.
But Qoocam 8K looks really soft in the mid-tone area - which is a commonly known problem already
among Qoocam users.
The good news is, for One X2 and ONE R, the problem is not the camera itself, but the
AI Effects remove grain during the rendering process.
Insta360 wants to remove noise automatically for us in Post-Production but did a really
bad job - which is understandable as Insta360 Studio is NOT a professional editing software
like Adobe Premiere or Davinci Resolve.
If you see the side by side result between with and without the AI remove grains, you
see the digital noise in without AI look a lot more natural.
Yes, it is crazy high noise in ISO800.
But don't worry, if you run a denoising pass professionally in Davinci Resolve or Neat
Video - then you see the end result look 100 times better.
So, in conclusion, if you want the best low light ONE X2 or ONE R video, do NOT use the
AI Effects Remove grains.
Also, it would be best if you render in ProRes instead of H.265 or H.264 to minimize compression
artifacts.
So in my professional opinion, all 4 cameras look bad in ISO 800 without light.
So how can you improve the footage?
Well, you need some post-production magic.
I already made an in-depth tutorial on how to use Neat Video inside Adobe Premiere to
remove noise, light flicker, and jitter.
So please follow this tutorial step by step if you are using Adobe Premiere to edit 360
Video.
Here is how you do that in Davinci Resolve.
If you have a paid license of Resolve, you don't need a third-party plugin like Neat
Video.
The native Resolve noise removal is really good.
Let me show you now.
let's play the video.
If you pay attention right here in the shadow, we see noticeable Chroma Noise.
Chroma noise is color noise BTW.
So let's fix it by going to this tap right here - the Motion Effects.
In Temporal NR, we use Frames 3.
It basically means Resolve will look forward and backward 3 frames to identify the noise.
5 will be too much for your computer.
I have a Titan RTX, so I can go 5 on problem.
Motion Estimate Type should always be BETTER.
Motion is Small as our model is barely moving.
In Temporal Threshold, unlink Luma and Chroma.
We have more Chroma noise than Luma here, so just dial in based on your footage and
how much denoising you want.
I am also going to use Spatial NR as small sensor camera is usually very noisey.
I am using Enhanced and medium Radius.
Unlink and only add Chroma here, around half of the Temporal NR value.
We are also going to add Sharpening in POST as we always shoot in Medium Sharpening settings
in our GoPro MAX.
That is what I will recommand at least.
And trust me, it looks a lot better when you add sharpening in post with Davinci Resolve.
We will not have a real-time playback, as this is a pretty extreme setting in a 5.7K
video.
So go ahead just render it and bring it back in Premiere.
Look at that, Premiere version, and here is the Davinci Resolve version.
Now, you will not be afraid to push your creativity and use some of your favorite 2D LUTs in 360.
Let's talk about moving the camera in low light.
The short answer is NO.
You want to lock your 360 camera on a tripod.
Beside Vibration dampening, you also need to make sure your shutter speed is faster
than 1/60 second.
You are looking at some results right now shot on the Insta360 ONE X2 on a moving car
with FlowState stabilization and vibration dampening.
To compare, here is Qoocam 8K Enterprise.
And here is Teche 360Anywhere.
They are both professional cameras in the 1000 dollar range.
I think 360Anywhere is the sharpest and with the most amount of details.
But even that, with an almost 4000 dollars camera, low light moving shots are not looking
as good as a SONY A7S or Canon R5 full-frame sensor mirrorless camera.
Here is footage from Insta360 Titan.
It is the only acceptable low light 360 camera out there - but operating a Titan is crazy-expensive,
and most of the production will not be able to afford it.
If you want to move the Titan with the rover in low light, just forgot about it.
As you see, the heavy Titan requires lots of vibration dampening in low light.
So if you are shooting a low light 360 video, you should have a gaffer, and you should
add light.
Lighting in 360 is a pretty complicated topic involving shooting a clean plate, rigging,
and sharping light.
In my 360 Filmmaking Masterclass, which is coming soon, I go over all that in detail.
It targets more professional audiences or cinematographers.
Comment below if you want to learn more about the pre-release date and want to get your
hands on a copy soon.
Back to the topic at hand, as you see this outdoor restaurant scene right here at night,
shot entirely on Insta360 ONE X2, is looking really good.
The noise is minimum without even denoising.
We added two lights in the scene.
One is on the monopod with the brand new Bushman 360 Halo - so you can't really see the light.
It stitches out by the camera automatically.
One is on the table closer to the talents, so it acts as a practical light.
It give the talents' face even lighting all around - great for 360 scenes.
Both Bushman set to 3200 Kelvin, so it gives a more natural looking color tempurture
Adding light is also very important for 360 photography.
As you see this 360 photo here, we also used bushman light on a monopod to light everyone
up.
Let's quickly switch gear to talk about 360 photography in low light.
The new Pure Shot feature is really good for low light photography for absolute beginners.
It is basically one button click, and Insta360 AI does the rest for you in the mobile app.
Here is the comparison with Rioch Theta Z1, and it looks pretty good.
Theta Z1 has really high noise that needs to use dual fisheye plugin mode to minimize
noise.
HDR like Dual Fisheye is always gonna be better in low light than regular DNG like Pure Shot.
But HDR requires everyone to stay still for a long time - which is not practical when
you photograph Human or moving subjects.
That is why ONE X2 is a very attractive camera for daily use.
And it is def better than all the other consumer 360 cameras like GoPro MAX or One R in low
light 360 photography.
What about Nightshot - another feature in ONE X2.
When should you use Pure Shot, and when should you use Night shot.
According to Insta360, Pure Shot will give you more dynamic range, and Night shot will
give you lower noise in low light.
Here is Night Shot compared to Pure Shot.
They both look good, but Pure Shot has fewer artifacts and a more accurate color representation.
Night shot is using DNG image stacking to remove noise - so in the process will drift
the color.
Also, Night shot took 9 time longer than Pure Shot - so it is also not ideal for capturing
humans.
Good luck to ask your model to stand still for 30 seconds for a single photo.
So Pure Shot is more practical as well.
Thank you for watching!
I hope you learn a lot today and ready to take on some low light 360 filmmaking challenge.
360 filmmaking and 360 photography require lots of on-set experience and practice.
You can watch my tutorial all day long, but the best way to master the skill is to get
out there and use your brand new 360 camera.
I am looking forward to seeing what you create.
Please tag me on Instagram if you make anything fun in low light.
If you need feedback, don't hesitate to comment on YouTube.
If you are new here, please consider subscribing and hit the notification bells for the latest
360 camera review and tutorial.
Knowledge is power.
I hope you keep learning from me, and I will see you in my next tutorial, or in VR! Ciao!