This is Ben from Life in 360 and this Insta360 One review was shot entirely
with the Insta360 one. There's been so much hype around this camera and people are
wanting to know: is it as epic as they say it is? So in this video I'm going to
tell you everything you need to know about the Insta360 One, who it's for
and whether you should buy it.
The camera design of the Insta360 One is unlike
anything I've ever seen. You can use it in many different ways and the first
thing that stood out to me in my unboxing video was the fact that the
lenses are on different planes, we've got one up the top and one in the middle
there. In my experience it hasn't really affected the image but it's
pretty funny looking don't you think? You'll also see that there's quite a
significant gap in between the lenses. This is maybe twice as thick as some of
the other cameras like the Xiaomi and the Theta V. Because of this there is gonna be
be way bigger stitching errors and you should stay way the hell away from the
seam line unless you like the mutant look. You like having half your face
chopped off which suits me but it may not suit everyone so you might want to
avoid that. Otherwise with the design there are many features that I actually
do like. Unlike the Nano that had the permanent lightning port you can see it
has a pop-up port just there. So that's really handy because it means you can
use it with your phone or without and it just clicks away and that's really handy.
I like that a lot. To be honest I hate the idea of using a 360 camera with a
phone. 360 cameras can do so much more when they're on their own
however I must say one thing I love about attaching my insta 360 one to my
phone is having a massive iPhone screen to preview everything I'm looking at
live in 360. That's really cool and it's harder to do that without the cameras.
Yeah you can do whatever Wi-Fi connection but you don't get as sharp
resolution. That is one benefit to plugging the One into your phone and for
those of you wondering how I'm holding Insta 360 One while filming on an
Insta 360 One well I've got two. You have a tripod thread down here and it's made
of plastic beware. I haven't had any issues with it yet but I wouldn't
discount it having issues later, maybe it could break I don't know. Probably not
if you're sensible but I'm not very sensible. Next to the tripod thread we
have the microSD slot and I know that's a really strange place to put it
but I've actually found to be really handy. This button here is the on/off and
you can also press it twice I think for video three times for time lapse I don't
remember to be honest I find a little bit confusing I'd much rather
connect to my smartphone. You can use this via Bluetooth connection however
beware it's not going to give you a live view. You're going to have to guess you
can change your settings manually however you can't see what you're
looking at until you plug the camera back into your phone. This is the case
that it came with and I've got to say I hate it it's not a good case. It's hard
plastic and it's actually really hard to jam the camera in there. It's always a
struggle like I'm literally I'm struggling to get this in right now. You
got to get on the exact right angle for it to go in smoothly otherwise it
actually touches the lenses, the lenses and smudges them up. Sometimes I've had
smudged photos. Every other 360 camera comes with a soft case of some kind
whether it be neoprene or a pouch this is good because it holds your camera but
also it cleans the lenses as you're moving around. This one doesn't and by
the way to state the obvious the Insta 360 One is for iPhone only no
Android yet. It is coming potentially in the next 1 to 2 months but it's not
ready so iPhone users you can buy this Android not yet. The image quality is
6912 x 3456 and while this is above average for consumer 360 cameras you
shouldn't buy a 360 camera just based on resolution. All-around versatility and a
number of other factors are more important so let's take a look at some
other features now. The One has the ability to shoot RAW photos which is
ground breaking for point-and-shoot 360 cameras. You'll need to stitch in
Insta 360 studio on desktop then bring the file into a raw photo editor like
Photoshop or Lightroom. Here's a normal photo taken with the One and a raw photo.
Obviously the normal One looks better straight out of the camera but now I'll
try color grading them and see how that equation changes. So the raw photo is
looking way better, the normal photo is looking maybe 10% better and to be
honest I really like to look at both of them
and I don't see that much of a difference between them in this specific
situation. It's going to be a high contrast situations that you see the biggest
difference but it's by no means an essential part of the workflow to edit
raw photos. It's only for you color grading nerds out there that want full
control of your dynamic range like me and love playing with color. The video
quality is 4k and in my experience so far it's been very decent it handles
most situations pretty well. The One lets you shoot in log mode which essentially
is the same principle as raw. It gives you more control over your colors later
on however I haven't really found this to be that different to any other 360
camera and the dynamic range to be more or less the same. Stitching test and I
just want to say no I'm not an amputee this was unfortunately the not-so
good stitching from the One. This is one of the big weaknesses of the One the
stitching isn't that good because the lenses are far away. Within the app
there's an optimized stitching option however when I press it on and off I've
found it doesn't make that much of a difference this means you'll need to
keep all important details of your scene away from the same line and in front of
the front or back lenses. You will also need to be careful around direct
sunlight I mean look this is an issue that every single 360 camera has however
I have noticed something different about the One. It almost seems like one lens
has a haze over it and as I moved the camera around you can see the haze
changes to the other lens. Look I'm probably over analyzing it but this is
something you definitely will want to check as you're shooting to make sure
you have a camera position that works the best in direct sunlight. One of the
coolest features of the Insta 360 One is the beautiful six axis stabilization. You
can shake this camera in any direction and it's going to stabilize itself. This
is really handy if you're on the go a lot and completely careless like I am
here. 360 video can be nauseating already so having this feature means you
probably won't make your audience sick and that is always a good thing. I just
find this incredible and the Insta 360 One is an improvement yet again on the Nano and
the Air for stabilization. Even when I shake it around violently mom's
spaghetti still remains very much in my stomach. Don't try this at home
and by that I mean definitely do try this it's fun. Previously I mentioned the
fact that the Insta 360 One has drifting issues, if I set it up and let it go for
a few minutes slowly the file would move to the left
to the left to the left well after posting that video I did hear
a few other people had this issue so it's not just me.
However I think I might have found a fix for it. You are able to calibrate the 360
camera within the app. There are two options in Calibrate
stabilization and you can calibrate the stitching. You want to do both this
involves moving the camera 90 degrees at a time you just follow the prompts it'll
take 30 seconds but this very well could be a solution to the dreaded drifting
issue. Next we have the much-hyped bullet time effect which involves
attaching a string to the One changing it into bullet time mode where it
records 240 frames a second and you swing it around your head at about a 1.5
meter distance to kind of create a matrix like effect.
I think this effect is pretty cool but you only get a 720p output and also I
don't really see how you could actually use this other than silly social media
videos. It's definitely a cool effect but I think it's going to be something that
comes and goes You're putting your camera at risk by
trying this it could easily smash into a wall or the string could come loose from
your finger so really it depends on how much of a daredevil you are. For me the
final effect isn't really worth risking breaking my camera especially given the
prominent seam line that is exacerbated by swinging the camera around. If you are
a badasss and want to try this I'd suggest doing it in strong sunlight. All
cameras performed super slow-motion much better in strong sunlight. This was late
afternoon here and the sun was just on the horizon. Here is the One in low light
and looking at my iPhone here I'm seeing a lot of noise everywhere especially in
the darker really dark areas whereas I think some other 360 cameras
would pick those areas up. The lighter areas yeah they're doing okay. I'd say
this is acceptable but I don't know. I probably wouldn't rely on the
Insta 360 One for anything this dark, you'll have to go
into outdoor lighting at the very least or shoot late afternoon but not when the
sun goes down. The Insta 360 One app is basically the same thing they've used
with their previous two cameras however there is one feature that sets this app
apart from every other 360 camera app out there and it's called Free capture.
Put simply it allows you to watch back your 360 videos and hold the record
button down as you move your phone around and record a regular view point.
I'm essentially able to utilize the whole 360 video and convert it into a
normal 16x9 video. This is super cool because I'm moving my phone around as we
speak and it looks like I'm just holding a regular video camera. I haven't yet
seen a mobile application do something like this
so Insta 360 are leading the way when it comes to manipulating your 360 videos on
mobile. This is something that's super handy if you're a blogger that's into
360 and this is one of the best features of the Insta 360 One. The next cool feature
of the app is called Smart track where you can draw a green box around your
subject and it tracks you throughout the whole video and make sure you stay in
the dead center. This is deadly accurate however it does make the background
jitter a lot as you may have noticed in the earlier sections of this video. I bet
you were thinking something isn't quite right what is that? I can't put my finger
on it that's it. And by the way expect to see this screen a lot. Whenever you
have the camera attached to your phone and you switch apps it will
automatically disconnect then you'll have to unplug and reconnect. Also
sometimes I've found the camera takes a really long time to be recognized and
while you can plug it in either way into the lightning jack I found sometimes it
takes a ridiculously long time to recognize the camera and by ridiculously
long I mean 20 or 30 seconds which is ridiculously long. Then again sometimes
it can take three seconds so patience is a quality you will need to have. One
feature that the Insta 360 One beats every other 360 camera out there with is to
storage and yes it does have a microSD slot there
but you can record straight to your iPhone. This is super cool if you do
forget your memory card for some reason you can record straight
to your phone how cool is that. I know you'd have to be really forgetful to
forget your microSD card but I'm really forgetful and I've done it twice already
since owning my Insta 360 One and that has saved me. I mentioned in my test footage
video that I was having issues with micro SD cards. I tried every single one
out there and none of them would work well I'm here to tell you that I've
solved that problem. I found the perfect micro SD card. It is the San Disk
one the red and black. I'll put a link in the description there aren't going to be
many SD cards that work with it you need a super super fast one 95 megabits a
second plus and ultra high-speed 3 but there are a few. Check the description
but Mr. Ben is the Insta 360 One better than the Theta V or the Xiaomi
camera? Well I'd say it's not as good for video although it has some really
stylish features however it is more versatile than those other two cameras.
In my opinion those two cameras beat the Insta 360 One when I put them side-by-side
in that video comparison but in terms of all-around versatility I think the One
wins and for me almost the app alone is what wins me over to the Insta 360 One.
I love shooting tiny planets, I love manipulating my 360s into other
things so to be able to do that within the app is something I'm really looking
forward to doing. Look I probably won't use this as my number one camera however
I will keep it on me as I travel around and I just need something different and
I need blog material I will definitely be getting the Insta 360 One out.The one is
currently retailing for $300 and is it worth $300?
Let me think about it. Yes, it is absolutely worth $300
given it can do so many different things. It actually is a very
good photo camera and a good video camera. Look there's going to be
stitching issues and the colors aren't always the most vivid and it will be
slightly inferior to the other cameras in a few areas but I would say the One
is a really good all-around camera to do everything. And because I'm a blogger I
know it's going to really help me get stylish looking blogs out really fast
without having to go to my computer at all , can do it all on my phone
so if you're a blogger the Insta 360 One is a very good option for you. The one is
currently available on Amazon so I'll put a link down in the description and
it's going to be available on Gearbest really soon for even cheaper so I'm
gonna put a link to that as well down in the description so definitely check them
out and figure out which one is the lower prices get the cheaper one I'd also
strongly suggest you join the insta 360 community group on Facebook if you have
any questions if you want to see sample photos sample videos and to see all the
wacky experiments people are up to I always find that group really
interesting and hang out there a lot so I would definitely suggest you join if
you have any questions leave them in the box below and I'll do my best to answer
them otherwise I will see you in the next video. One more thing can I put
it in my mouth?