so you've seen those really cool Insta360 One X videos and you've decided you may
want to get one but is it really the best 360 camera that you can get? in this
Insta360 One X review for 2019 we're gonna compare the Insta360 One X against
other 360 cameras so first I'm gonna share with you the real reason 360
camera reviewers recommend the Insta360 One X then we're gonna talk about other
360 cameras and there are a ton of them so it can be a little bit confusing to
determine which one's the best one for you but I have a unique systematic
approach and I promise you I'm gonna help you find the best research camera
for your needs and the answer is gonna be very clear and easy to understand I'm
also gonna show you some new 360 cameras that I bet you haven't seen before in
fact one of them is so good that it may take over the top spot for its category
first let's talk about the Insta360 One X I want to talk about why 360 camera
viewers consistently recommend it over other 360 cameras so a simple
explanation could be affiliate links right you could say hey Insta360 is
giving these guys affiliate links and so they have an incentive to give it a
generous review so that's a very tempting explanation but it wouldn't be
accurate how do I know that's because there are other 360 cameras that also
offer commissions and in fact some of them offer as much as double the
commission on the Insta360 One X but those cameras are not getting recommended so
if it's not because of affiliate links is it because the Insta360 One X is really
the best at every category? well that's not true either because the Insta360 One X
is not a perfect camera it does have several weaknesses in fact in my
previous video I talked about seven major weaknesses of the Insta360 One X
if you haven't seen that video you go check it out over here if it's not
affiliate links and it's not because the One X is really the best at everything then
why is it considered the best 360 camera the reason is that the Insta360 One X
is either the best or it's really good at almost every category there's no
category where it is weak. it's at worst "average" in a few categories
and for other categories it's really excellent because of this the Insta360
One X is the camera that meets the needs of the greatest number of people
so as a 360 camera reviewer myself if I don't know anything about you and I had
to just recommend a camera then this is the camera that I would most likely
recommend because it has the greatest chance of meeting your needs. alright
that kind of makes sense but what does this have to do with me? so here's the
thing if Insta360 One X is the best 360 camera for a lot of users the flip side
of that is that the One X is not the best for some users so depending on your
needs there may be a better 360 camera for you and that's what we're going to
talk about in the next part so to keep things organized we're gonna talk about
the cameras by their intended use for either photos or videos and for each
one we're gonna talk about the best 360 cameras for price or affordability
practicality or ease of use and performance or image quality. so let's
talk about 360 cameras for photos and we're now talking about the more
affordable options so number one is the Xiaomi Mi Sphere. this is if your top
priority is affordability and your second priority is quality. The mi sphere
is an older 360 camera but even in 2019 it still is one of the best in terms of
360 photo quality. so it's actually even a sharper or more detailed than the
Insta360 One X. it also has true manual exposure and it also has true raw DNG
format. another affordable option for 360
is the GoPro Fusion. At this price range it has the best dynamic range it also
has very good detail despite the lower nominal resolution the
downside is that it doesn't have true manual exposure it also has a
complicated raw workflow now if your top priority is price but your second
priority is ease of use then check out the Madv Mini so this is an affordable
360 camera that's only about $100 now though Madv Mini is a smartphone 360
camera so you attach it to your phone and you need to check for compatibility
but if you have a compatible smartphone the Madv is a great option
because it takes pretty good photos and it's very, very easy to use now let's
talk about 360 cameras for photos if your priority is ease of use now if
you're looking for a 360 camera for photos and you want high quality
then check out the theta Z1 this is a 360 camera that just came out
recently and it has fantastic photo quality and it's also very easy to use
so you could switch to HDR mode and you just press the button it will take three
shots and blend the exposures for you and stitch them for you and it looks
fantastic even without editing now the z1 is a
little bit expensive it's like $1000 so if that's too much for your budget but
you still want ease-of-use then check out the theta series of cameras so
that's the Theta V, Theta S and Theta SC. Between the three, the V has the
best image quality. it has a slightly better lenses. but the others are pretty
good as well and all three of them are just like the theta Z1 can take HDR 360
photos and you don't have to stitch them and fuse the HDR in camera you don't have to
do anything.
so if you want a 360 camera for photos but your priority is image
quality then there are three really good options first of all if your priority is
dynamic range and workflow then check out the theta Z1. as I
mentioned earlier it has amazing image quality it has the best dynamic range
out of any 360 camera I've tested for photos now although the theta Z1 has
amazing dynamic range and stitching and workflow it's not the most detailed 360
camera so if your priority is detail the one that's most detailed right now that
I've tested so far is the Aleta S2C. but I want you to hold off on buying
that because I've just tested a new camera that looks very promising and it
looks like it may take the crown it may even be better than the Theta Z1.
this is it it's called the Xphase. it has 25 sensors and each sensor is 8
megapixels (BSI CMOS sensors) so that's a total resolution of 200 megapixels.
by comparison the previous record-holder was the panono which had 36 lenses and
each one was 3 megapixels for a total resolution of 108 megapixels
so this is almost double the previous record-holder and I've taken some test
shots and they look really phenomenal and that's why I wanted to hold off on
buying a 360 camera for photos if your priority is detail now besides detail
the other amazing thing about the Xphase is the price
it starts at $599 so that makes it far more affordable than the theta Z1 or
the Aleta s2c so I'll be working on a review of this stay tuned so if you
don't want to miss it hit subscribe and don't forget to hit
the notification bell. so those were 360 cameras for photos now
let's talk about videos and if your priority is affordability then my
favorite one would be the GoPro fusion so the GoPro fusion is currently
available for $299 and that's amazing because it was first released at $699 I
believe and I bought it at full price and I thought it was worth it
even at that price now $299 it's a bargain and to me is this is the
strongest alternative to the Insta360 One X which is why we're gonna go into a
more detailed comparison with it. now if $299 is still too much then don't
worry check out the Yi 360 VR this is currently $199 and it's a 5.7K 360
camera it still has very good quality in fact in 2017 it was a second only to the
GoPro fusion and it came out at 399. now it's marked down to 199 because the
manufacturer isn't updating it anymore but the image quality is still really good
now the big downside to this is that there's no Mac stitcher you gotta have a
PC and the other thing is it takes a really long time to stitch so even if you
have a powerful PC with a powerful graphics processor the Yi 360 VR
stitching takes a really long time another great option for affordability
is the original Insta360 One, which is now available for $199. so the Insta360 One is just
4k but it still has great stabilization it has most of the features of the
Insta360 one x, so if you're if you want something affordable and also easy to
use this is a good option. so now let's talk about 360 cameras for
videos if your priority is practicality and convenience now if your secondary
priority is performance or quality then I recommend the pilot era this is a new
360 camera that's really powerful but it's also very easy to use so first of
all it has a touchscreen so it makes it easy to use it it's like using a
smartphone more importantly, it has in-camera stitching with stabilization so
it can stitch at 4k 24fps with stabilization or it can shoot that 8k 24
fps and that is not real time but it can stitch that video in-camera so you can
stitch that video on your way home and by the time you get home your videos are
probably already stitched for you now the problem with the pilot era is the
price is $2799 so that's outside of the budget for most people so a secondary
recommendation if your priority is practicality and you also care about
performance is the insta360 One X. now the One X does not have in-camera
stitching but it does have a no stitch workflow on both the smartphone app and
the desktop app so it's close enough to real-time stitching that I can recommend
it for both practicality and performance now if your priority is practicality and
price then there are a couple of 360 cameras that have real-time stitching
but they're also affordable first of all is the Yi 360 VR we talked about this
earlier and yes it has 5.7 K video that takes a long time to stitch but it has
another mode: it can shoot at 4k 30fps with real-time stitching and when
you do that of course stitching is not a problem at all
and at $199 the Yi 360 VR is the lowest cost 360 camera that can have real-time
stitching. now another 360 camera with real-time
stitching that's also affordable is the 360 penguin this is a new 360 camera it
can stitch at 4k 360 videos and also Stitch 360 photos both of them in
real-time stitching so you don't have to stitch with any software it will stitch
it in camera for you I have to remind you that both the Yi 360 VR and the
360 penguin will not add stabilization when you're using real-time stitching but the
Yi 360 VR has an advantage because you can use the desktop app to add
stabilization afterward the stabilization metadata file is included
when you record in real-time stitching on the other hand with the 360 penguin
you don't have the ability to add stabilization later on they are just
stuck with no stabilization. but what you get is that the 360 penguin has
better stitching in real-time stitching mode so when you're using both in
real-time stitching it's relying on template stitching and the 360 Penguin
has lenses that are closer to each other so there's less parallax stitching error
compared to the Yi 360 VR. now let's talk about 360 cameras for
performance in other words image quality so first if you care more about
ease-of-use then that would be the Insta360 One X the Insta 360 One X has amazing
image quality both for detail and dynamic range especially when you use
HDR video mode, a feature that other 360 cameras don't have. it also has a lot of
useful features such as super slow motion and time shift and the GPS
overlay and on top of it all it has the best work so for both mobile and desktop
if you're looking for a 360 camera that has great image quality and is easy and
convenient to use the Insta360 One X is it. on the other hand if you want to try
to save a little bit of money then you can get the GoPro fusion. The GoPro Fusion's
image quality rivals that of the Insta360 One X. it doesn't have as many
features as the Insta360 One X but its video quality and its photo quality are
both excellent now the fusion however has two
weaknesses first of all it's the mobile app so the app feels unfinished like
it's very difficult to export 360 photos and videos for editing in other software
the other problem is the desktop workflow. it's not so much the workflow itself it's
more that number one you'll need a dedicated graphics card. if you don't
have one stitching will take a really long time. the other thing is that when
it exports its its maximum resolution of 5.6K or even at 5.2K it'll
export it only in cineform and prores. those codecs are great because
you have very low compression on the other hand not a lot of video editors
for consumers can edit them so if you have premiere great you have no problems
but if you have consumer grade software you won't be able to edit those files so
both of these cameras have really good image quality and they each have
different sets of advantages now I've done a 40 factor comparison between the
two of them check out this video after I made that video they each made
improvements the Insta360 One X added other improvements such as HDR video and
other features whereas the GoPro fusion increased the resolution to 5.6K
so in my next video I'm gonna do an updated comparison between the
Insta360 One X and the GoPro fusion in 2019. I'm also
gonna talk about the next Insta360 One X. when are we likely to see it and what
features is it probably gonna have I'm gonna try to get the video out tomorrow
which usually means a 2 days after that don't miss it just hit subscribe and
I'll see you in 360