It's the new Insta360 camera.
The One RS, ha ha!
Meet the Insta360 One RS.
Insta360's newest action and 360 camera hybrid
and the first follow-up camera to 2020's Insta360 ONE R.
The ONE RS is similar to the original ONE R
and the GoPro Hero 10 in many ways.
However, it does have some cool things
that make it stand out, slightly.
The first one being, call it a feature or not
is the price it's $299 U.S. making it $50 cheaper
than the GoPro Hero 10 Black,
when you pick up a GoPro subscription.
For the 4k and 360 lenses though, it's $549.
And I feel like it's important
that we start with the price just so
you can manage your expectations a little bit.
Taking a look at it up close
and you've probably noticed that it looks identical
to the previous Insta360 ONE R that's because it is.
Again, they've gone with the modular design
with the red battery on the bottom.
This time it's slightly bigger
than the previous ONE R but not that much.
And it disassembles exactly the same way as last time.
You remove the battery,
then separate the lens from the core,
attach a new lens to the core.
Here, I've got the 360 lens and voila!
So again, just like last time, this is two cameras in one.
It's a 360 camera as well as an action camera.
So what's new?
Well, both of these parts.
So, apparently, the core a.k.a. the camera module
has been improved since last time in small ways.
One extra feature of this core is instant zoom,
where you can basically go from a wide perspective
to a narrow one by zooming in through the screen.
Next, they've added this 4K boost lens
which is the standard lens you get when you buy the camera.
Well, I guess you could think
of it as a standard action camera lens.
It does have two advantages.
The first one is this lens allows you to shoot
in a 6K wide-screen video at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio
which technically makes this camera a 6K camera.
I mean, being able to capture 6K wide-screen video
is super useful.
You can use it in situations like, uh,
you can use it in situations where,
where you might need 6K wide-screen video.
Jokes aside, that is technically a pro
since I'm sure some people will
have some kind of use for it.
So 6K wide-screen is exclusive
to the 4K lens as is Active HDR.
And what Active HDR is, is it's essentially
in-built HDR video that can be used
in any type of situation, including shaky hand-held shots.
I took a whole bunch of clips using Active HDR
including the first shot of this video and many others.
And I've gotta say I'm very impressed
with the dynamic range of these videos.
I tried pushing it to the limits here,
putting the sun directly behind my head
as well as shooting in high-contrast scenes.
But every time, the footage wasn't ruined
by overexposure and lens flares under any circumstance.
In my opinion, aside from the price,
Active HDR is one of the best features of the One RS.
Those shots look good.
And if you're someone that likes shooting handheld a lot,
you won't have to worry about whether
your shot is properly exposed or not.
It always will be if you use Active HDR mode,
except if you're in low light,
they recommend that you shoot
during the daytime only with Active HDR.
For those of you who bought the original ONE R
and are wondering whether these two cameras
can be rebuilt using each other's parts,
the answer is yes, you can use your old 360 lens
and your old Leica 1-inch lens with the One RS.
The only thing that isn't cross compatible
is the new 4K boost lens,
which is exclusive to the ONE RS, at least at the moment.
Now, how does the One RS compare to the One R spec wise?
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you,
but it's almost identical.
So the vast majority of photo and video specs
are identical from the One R to the One RS,
aside from 6K wide-screen video
and still-photo resolution, which is 48 megapixels
which admittedly, is pretty impressive
for a little action camera.
I just dunno why you'd use an action camera
for photos when you've got a phone.
Here, I took the exact same photo
with the One RS and my iPhone 13 Pro Max
and the One RS definitely looks sharper there.
Those roof tiles are not clean, but they are crispy.
So if you were in a situation where you needed
high-quality images and you didn't have your phone handy
like in some sports situations,
then the One RS is going to deliver great results.
To give you the actual video specs of the One RS,
if you are shooting with the 4K boost lens,
you can shoot anywhere from 1920 x 1080,
from 24 up to 200 frames per second,
all the way up to 6016 x 2560 a.k.a. 6K at 25 fps.
With the 360 lens, you can shoot 3K at 100 frames per second
up to 5.7K at 30 frames per second.
To my 360 brothers and sisters out there,
I'm sorry.
We were expecting more than this,
but we've got the same 360 specs
as the last few camera releases.
And it's good, don't get me wrong.
We should be grateful.
It's 5.7K, that's cool.
And you can edit it on a phone,
and the end result looks good,
but the same specs, like, three or four cameras in a row,
can we not change that up a bit?
Maybe there's something I'm missing.
Maybe it's hard to create
a small handheld 6K, 7K, 8K, 360 camera.
But unfortunately, no 360 upgrade with the One RS.
So this is primarily an upgrade only
on the action camera side of things.
Moving on to the 1-inch wide angle lens,
and you can shoot anywhere from 1920 by 1080,
from 24 to 120 fps, all the way up to 5.4k at 30 fps.
Again, it's a lot of resolution.
It looks good, but it's practically the same
as what we had last time with the One R.
To lighten the mood,
here's a silly slow motion shot I took
with said camera, shot at 200 fps at 1920 x 1080.
That's a fun shot.
And the slow-mo mode is absolutely legit.
There are many other ways that the One RS is similar
to the original One R
including the fact that it's waterproof.
It does live streaming in normal video
as well as 360 video.
And you can use it as a webcam.
Something they did add to the One RS
is built-in Flowstate Stabilization.
So, instead of having to shoot, stabilize
in the app or desktop software,
then export to either your phone or computer,
it basically does it all automatically.
I will say, as a 360 shooter,
that the in-built HDR video mode is getting really good.
Here I am with the One RS on a selfie stick
walking it almost like I'm walking a dog.
And that dynamic range is seriously good.
I'm super happy with that shot.
And there's not that much overexposure.
And I really do think that 360 is a massive strength
of Insta360, obviously because it's in their name,
but there's no denying the video quality has improved vastly
over time since they released their first camera,
the Insta360 Nano about four or five years ago.
As usual, you can use the One RS for new shot lab effects
where they have very easy-to-understand tutorials.
You follow the prompts and it automatically
creates a cool effect within the app.
They've added an additional mic to the One RS.
So there's basically a mic,
if you can see those little holes
on every side of the core,
which means they are making an effort
to improve the audio quality.
In fact, they've even created this new mounting bracket
where you put the camera in
and it naturally acts as a wind protector.
Hi everyone,
this is Mr. Ben vlogging from the side
of a major intersection.
I have two questions.
Firstly, how does this look?
Secondly, how does this sound?
Because it's very noisy in real life,
so I'm wondering if the extra mic added
to the One RS makes any difference.
There are other new accessories
like a mic adapter and accessory shoe
if you want to record sound directly
into the One RS using external sound recording equipment.
So I was curious about how the video quality compared
between the One R and the One RS.
So I used the same 1-inch mode with both cameras,
hence why they don't sync up,
but looking at this unedited 5.3K footage
and I can't pick them apart, can you?
I think I can pretty confidently say that the video quality
from both cameras is identical aside from Active HDR mode
which again is only available with a 4K boost lens.
So, should you upgrade to this, from this, or this?
I'm gonna say "No".
The camera is so similar
to the previous two Insta360 releases
that it's not a big enough of a jump
to justify buying a brand new camera to do a lot
of the stuff you can already do on those two cameras.
I'd absolutely upgrade to the One RS
if you're switching from a GoPro
and you wanna shoot more 360
or you're switching from an older 360 camera
and you're ready for something new and modern
that offers the best technology of the time.
Because I do think this is technically the best
consumer 360 camera available right now under like $600,
but it's not enough to justify an upgrade
if you've already got something similar.
By the way, there are heaps of different ways
you can buy this camera.
So many different combinations of parts,
so I'll link the Insta360 store below.
So you can see all the different options
when it comes to purchasing this camera.
So is the One RS a big upgrade?
No, it's not, but it is a small upgrade.
I think Insta360 are slowly becoming more
and more like GoPro where every new camera
they release isn't 50% better.
It's more like 5 to 10% better.
Something that I do think helps get this number
up is the fact that Insta360 are constantly
updating the firmware and software to do
with their cameras to add more percentages to that.
So if it starts 5% better over the next 12 months,
no doubt they'll add brand new firmware
that gives the camera a new capabilities,
new modes, as well as reducing if not eliminating
the problems that people will eventually discover
with it to eventually get close to 20% better.
So from my experience,
that's you usually something you can count on
when purchasing an Insta360 camera.
And again, I do think the majority
of the upgrade with this camera is
for action camera users over 360 camera users.
It does have a lot of those cool new features
that action camera users would definitely get value out of.
It also has the advantage over GoPro of modularity.
Instead of being just one fixed action camera,
there's two cameras in one.
Whereas with GoPro, they've got the GoPro Hero 10 Black
and the GoPro Max.
So, if you wanted to shoot 360 and action shots,
you'd need two separate cameras.
Looking at the specs of the new GoPro though,
it does have a few things over the One RS,
including higher frame rates on similar video resolution.
I haven't used the Hero 10 Black yet,
but no doubt it's good.
GoPro makes good cameras.
And this concludes my first video
about the Insta360 One RS.
No doubt, I missed a whole bunch of things,
so if there's anything you want to know,
let me know down in the comments.
And also, we're sure to make follow-up videos
covering some of the best and worst features of this camera.
Comment below your thoughts on the Insta360 One RS.
Yay or nay?
And I'll catch you later.