Why hello there, Mr.Ben here.
And look, I know I was harsh on the ONE X2
in my initial review, but that's my job.
Anyway, I think the ONE X2 is actually a really good camera,
and today I'll be testing it out for it's photo ability.
I've been getting heaps and heaps of questions,
since I posted my initial ONE X2 video,
asking how it can handle 360 photography
in various environments.
And while there's no question,
this is definitely a video-based camera.
It still can do quite a bit with 360 photography.
So in this video,
we'll look at every different mode of the ONE X2
that it currently has ton of making this video.
And which one is the best,
which settings should you use to get the best shots?
And there'll be a bunch of fun B roll behind the scenes,
of me looking like an idiot in public.
So yeah, even if you don't own one, stay for that.
And I know a big point I was pushing in
my previous ONE X2 video,
is that it's just a little bit too similar
to the Insta360 ONE R,
but that shouldn't take away from the fact,
that this is still one
of the best consumer 360 cameras available right now.
So while I wouldn't recommend it for ONE R owners,
if you're in the market for your first 360 camera,
or an upgrade from your previous 360 camera,
that's a bit older.
You wanna pay close attention to this video,
and my next few videos featuring this camera.
Alright, so one of the best features
of the ONE X2, is what they call the pure shot mode.
Where it takes a nine shot, bracketed, HDR,
raw shot combines them together in the app,
into one high dynamic range raw shot.
That you can then edit later,
or have AI edit the shot for you,
to look really nice with minimal effort.
And in case you're wondering,
pure shot is enabled automatically
in the standard photo mode.
So naturally I thought,
Hey, let's go out and shoot,
and test out pure shot mode,
at one of Sydney's most iconic buildings,
The Queen Victoria Building.
And my first location is the elevator near
the entrance of the building.
I just thought, why not?
That could be a cool shot here.
So I went into the elevator,
activated the self-timer, three, two, one, click.
And then about 10 minutes later,
when I downloaded my photos,
I realised I totally messed up my exposure,
and underexposed the image by about four stops,
making it almost pitch black.
And I just didn't feel like going back and re-shooting it.
So I thought,
"Hey, maybe this will at least serve as a good test
"to see how good the raw is,
"and whether I can bring these details back."
So let's take a look at the pure shot, raw shots.
And here we go,
Here's my pitch black image,
with a little bit of that lighting shot,
but that's about it.
Using Adobe camera roll within Photoshop,
I was able to bring up a significant amount of detail.
Not everything, because when I drag
the exposure all the way up,
and the shadows all the way up,
I did get a bit of noise and artifacts,
but I guess that's normal
for such an extreme level of underexposure.
I would say, however,
that this is the best raw I've seen yet,
from an Insta360 camera.
And it's well above average in terms
of the 360 camera market.
Alright, so I learned my lesson at this point.
Don't shoot without checking your camera settings.
And, something I've realised after testing
in many different lighting situations
with the ONE X2, is you don't really need
to set the exposure manually.
It's good, it knows what to do to expose
your scene properly with minimal noise.
Because most of the time,
when I find myself changing those manual settings,
the only purpose is to eliminate all noise from the shots.
But with pure shot, this is its primary objective.
It wants to eliminate all the noise,
or as much of the noise in the scene as it possibly can.
Now let's get some more cool shots.
So all of these shots were again,
shot in pure shot mode,
where I colour corrected in Adobe Camera.
And those results, hey, they weren't bad.
In fact, you would probably even say they were pretty good.
And hypothetically, you could leave out the step
of editing on the computer, if you
just wanted to do everything on mobile, that's okay.
Because with pure shot,
there's an option in the app
to do an automatic colour correction,
where the app guesses what the best exposure
and colours looks like,
and applies it automatically.
Of course, you're going to do a better job,
if you do it yourself in Photoshop.
But hey, it's good to know that option's there.
Now there are other photo modes that the ONE X2 has.
The first one, is the one I've been using forever,
with Insta360 Cameras.
And that's the inbuilt HDR.
By the time we got to the ONE R, and now the ONE X2,
you were able to shoot nine shots of HDR,
and choose really specifically how far apart the stops
and the shots were.
So you could do three shots, four stops apart,
or you could do nine shots, one stop apart.
And, I usually got the same result choosing both options
in the past, but when I tried this compared to pure shot,
it was more or less the same,
if not less dynamic range, than the pure shot photo.
So it made me think,
"Hey, why would I even really need HDR photo anymore?"
Because that's technically what pure shot is doing.
So the only way I think HDR is better,
is, it's slightly sharper than pure shot.
While pure shot is really good,
overall great dynamic range and good clarity.
It does lack a little bit of detail,
compared to other modes of the ONE X2.
As you can see here,
there's more detail with the HDR shot.
For everything else, pure shot wins.
And this also applies to night mode.
This was originally introduced with the ONE R,
to help you get better shots at night,
and you could use it during the day as well,
to smooth out those surfaces.
So you don't end up with bits of noise in darker spots
within the room.
Well I tried that as well, here against pure shot,
and the result was pretty similar.
Pure shot had better dynamic range,
night mode had slightly better sharpness.
And I'm pretty sure eventually,
they're going to combine all of these modes
into one singular shooting mode,
getting the best of both worlds,
both the clarity, and the dynamic range.
Another popular question I've been getting,
is how does the ONE X2 compare
to the Theta Z1?
Well, the answer is it doesn't compare.
The Z1 is much better for photos.
And yeah, of course,
because it's more than twice the price.
And I'd still recommend this as a go-to virtual tour camera
for small to medium-sized clients.
Would I use this in virtual tour situations?
Yes, only for small clients though.
And as I was taking my cool 360 shots
at the top of the Queen Victoria Building,
who approaches me, but Mr. Claus himself.
Yeah, like straight out of nowhere, Santa is here.
And he's curious about what Mr. Ben's doing.
Well, I think he was actually just paid
to walk around saying "Ho ho ho!"
So I took a 360 photo in pure shot mode with Santa.
And it's always funny talking to people
about 360 cameras for the first time,
when they've never, ever heard of them before.
Just explaining what it is, and how it works,
but still they don't get it,
until you take the photo and you show them the result.
When I was explaining it to Santa,
he still thought the camera was going to rotate somehow.
But no Santa, that's not how it works.
We're not living in the 1950s anymore.
So after I took the photo and showed him,
his mind was blown.
And now as a result,
every child waking up on Christmas day is going
to be getting a 360 camera.
So another area that the ONE X2 performs pretty well at,
is night time photos.
Since the objective of pure shot, is not only
to get really good dynamic range in a raw shot,
but also, it's to eliminate noise in shots.
And it does an extremely good job at night time.
Is it on the level of the Theta Z one?
No, it's not.
But it's actually kind of close-ish.
For a much cheaper camera,
these results are actually really decent.
So if you're someone that shoots at night time, yeah,
you can totally rely on the ONE X2,
to get you decent photos.
I put it side by side with three of the top 360 cameras
under $500 that I consider to be its competitors,
for photo in late 2020.
And those were the ONE R, the GoPro Max,
and the Theta SC2.
Here are the shots straight out of the camera.
And looking at these four,
I think the Theta SC2 is performing the best here.
It not only has the best dynamic range,
but also the best contrast and clarity.
This is unedited,
and this is edited.
And yeah, now it's a lot more even.
But I'd say with the additional step of colour correction,
the ONE X2 beats the Theta SC2,
because I was able to colour correct the DNG raw files.
Whereas with the Theta SC2,
it's only a JPEG, and there's not much you can do really,
with a JPEG.
So there we have it.
I wasn't expecting that.
But the ONE X2 is the new best budget,
virtual tour camera under $500 right now.
If you're shooting with a ONE X2 outside,
it's generally going to perform really well,
capturing highlights and shadows nicely,
within the same image.
And these shots really don't need to be edited in Photoshop.
You can let the AI do its thing in the app,
and the shots will look great.
Oh, here's another noteworthy mode,
and that's burst mode.
So it clicks off about 20 photos at once,
within the scope of about a second,
which means it's really good for fast moving shots
where you need to capture a split second in time.
But there's always that element of unpredictability
of whether the camera is going to fire off
at that exact millisecond.
So, I tested it out here on George Street in Sydney's CBD.
And I already knew what shot I wanted in advance.
This cool jumping shot, where I'm jumping
above the camera, and the buildings towering above me.
I've taken the shot before,
and I knew I could get it again,
this time with the ONE X2.
And to be honest, it did not work perfectly.
I watched the countdown timer
and jumped right when it hit zero,
and it kept capturing me when I wasn't ready.
Either before, or after the jump.
And about eight attempts later,
I finally nailed this shot by waiting
about a second more than the timer suggested.
So while this feature does need some fine tuning,
it can be a really handy one for that fast motion.
The final photo mode,
at least at the time I'm making this video
on the ONE X2, is time-lapse mode.
We all know what a time-lapse is, we know how it works.
And here I captured a few hundred photos,
which could make an epic 360 time lapse here,
in Hyde Park, in Sydney.
But then I thought about the workflow involved
with something like this.
And it's not quick,
when you've got hundreds of high resolution files,
and you're putting them all together,
into a 360 time-lapse, that's a lot of work.
And while there might be some situations,
you would do it in photo mode.
I just don't see why you wouldn't use the video mode
to achieve this.
The resolution is only a tiny bit less
than the photo mode,
and it will save you a lot of post-production.
So I wouldn't necessarily recommend
using photo time-lapse mode,
with the ONE X2.
And I couldn't even be bothered editing
that time lapse together.
So sorry about that.
I'm sure you can imagine how it would have turned out.
It would have been good, I think.
Alright well, that's it
for my video on the ONE X2 photo modes.
And again, pure shot mode is definitely the best mode
and setting to use with the ONE X2,
combine that with a little bit of colour correction
in Photoshop, and you will get
some fantastic looking images, like I got here
at The Queen Victoria Building.
As much as the photo quality is lacking
just a little bit, you can do so much
with photos and videos on your phone,
or on your computer, if you prefer that workflow.
So if you're shooting primarily for social media,
then this is going to be the best three 60 camera under $500
you can buy right now.
And yes, I will definitely be sure
to make a few more videos on the ONE X2,
the next one will cover video mode,
and the cool things you can do 360 video with the ONE X2.
So be sure to hit that subscribe button,
so you can see that.
Also, I've been posting a bunch of samples
from the ONE X2 to my Facebook page.
So you'll definitely want to give me a follow there,
because I post regular 360 content,
using the top 360 cameras of the day there.
If you wanna see them in 360,
in full screen, or see how they compare
to their closest competitors.
You'll also find most of the photos
from this shoot on that page.
So I'll link that down there.
And that's it, it's been fun.
Peace out, see you next time.