WE ARE THE WATCHERS ON THE WALL
I've just completed my first ever tirp to China - and I have to say that if there ever was a $400 investment to take this trip to the next level - grant me footage that for my family will be timeless, fun, grand in scale, and captures the the vastness and intensity that is China, WITH SUCH EASE - it'd have to be the Insta 360 One X.
Coming from the Galaxy Gear 360 - which I've taken to Hawaii and Japan, bringing a DSLR a Gimbal, a Galaxy S10 and an iPhone XS Max - this was by far the best standout.
So let's breakdown why the Insta 360 One X is essential, and really moves forward the era of 360 shooting -
The Insta 360 is essential primarily because of the SOFTWARE advances, Editing experience improving my workflow, followed by the creative accessories and hardware build.
Briefly let's talk hardware - slimmer and sleeker than it's predecessor, the Insta 360 One X makes and indiscernible impression. AND THAT'S A HUGE IMPRESSION. It's think and smooth when it matters, yet also having the essentials - a threaded camera mount, removable battery, micro SD card slot and the fish lens. The size was perfect and essential when placed in my Nikon DSLR camera bag - even with multiple dslr lens +100$ this would sit nice and comfy in the pack, in it's soft case. This falls in the action camera category, while remaining sleek like a mobile phone, with the power of ultrawide lens camera.
Let's talk software - the Insta 360 One X experience, which consists of the mobile app, flow state stabilization and on the go mobile editing made this the best all around travel recording device… well ever.
Holy mother load was this device leagues ahead of the Gear 360 days. The iPhone app paired with my XS Max was a killer combination for on the go syncing and editing. Once you launch the app you're brought to a tutorial page with videos on how to get the most out of your device.
For me the best way to share the 360 footage was to translate it into the 2D medium - and that's where Pivot Points come in. You're in a world renowned heritage site, you pop out the camera, capture everything, and edit on the train ride home what focus points you want to be as you export the video for Facebook/instagram or wechat - wherever your friends are. You also have the options to speed up the video, hyperlapse, which I found essential as ways to give your videos a creative kick of energy with pacing. Lasty there were some video filters, tiny globe options etc but to me I preferred the clear, focused video with select points I wanted my viewers to see. Plain, simple, and vast.
The offerings of the mobile app were great - but the consistency astounded me. The software paired with the hardware just works. I brought my Nikon DSLR on the trip - and if you look at the apps store reviews it is absolutely dismal. Nikon consistently drops the Snapbridge app connection. The Insta360 One X, never did. (although it's best to always keep the app open when transferring videos). I forgot my direct iPhone lighting cable to micro USB at home in the state. I was scared of Wifi. But IT WORKED FANTASTICALLY. Connection never dropped, my 15min + long gigabytes of videos transferred with a breeze. You almost don't need the direct plugin cable at all - a great backup nice to have - except for when I wanted to livestream on the Great Wall. You still need the microusb to lightning direct connection. Whoops. So keep that.
By now you've been seeing all this footage - and it's what you don't notice that matters - how stable camera pans are - all selected pivot points - but the camera is never shaky, and so stable. I brought a gimbal with my iPhone. I used it once. I used the 360 camera every single day for 12 days straight. It puts the clunky gimbal and $1500 iPhone to damn shame. Here's footage from the cherry blossom festival in Japan. I thought I needed premier pro, or samsungs clunky 360 desktop software to fix it. The stabilization was on by default. In one fell swoop you can take out the camera, record a video (at 5.7K 30fps) higher than other 360 cameras at this price point, edit it with pivot points, and share to your social channel apps.
The workflow from shooting to sharing could be less than 5 minutes. Whereas with my old Gear 360 it'd take hours to days - getting the footage to stitch, downloading to desktop to fix the shakiness, then sharing.
The videos are smooth, and stable, translated on a 2d format looks like I had a professional camera on gimbal - on a DRONE. So let's talk bout that by the way.
ACCESSORIES
The best place to purchase the Insta 360 One X is the Apple Store. You'll get the selfie tripod, bullettime extendable selfie stick, and extra battery and a 32gb u3 memory card. You'll need every one of these tools - and it’s the best bang for your buck if you're buying into this ecosystem.
The accessories complement the recording experience - and the app tutorial really drive home how easy it.
Bulletime - I'm pretty sure named after Neo in the matrix - this 100fps rotating view seemed dumb. By god it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. In the app you can adjust what parts are slowmo or sped-up - by default you're always slo-mo - and you choose how fast the camera pans around you. It's silly to me that the default is to throw money in the air - but the shots speak for themselves - I got to have so much fun with it. Just be careful as the acessoreis all attached together - black in color look like a gun. In an international country. I've had to explain it and take it apart multiple times in China. That aside, the cherry on the cake is music - even with the 4 selected tracks I LOVED the feel they added.
So let's work it out - in 5 mins you can have a matrix style epic score on the great wall of china - and this will last a lifetime - and you can share it both to the Insta 360 community, and insta for the applauds (mainly laughs) of all your friends. Own it!
Shorten you clips to 5 seconds, and you can loop it, like a more comprehensive boomerang - add some steel wool around he camera to get fire streaks… what?
And then 'Drone' shot. _ scratch record, freeze frame… what?? Drone shots were the coolest thing ever. Not included in the bundle is a mega extended selfie stick for $70. One day before my trip I rushed purchased a 165in selfies stick - the longest anybody has ever scene. All inspired by the drone like feature footage that I learned in the app. You get drone shots - without the drones, or worrying about drone free areas. In one swoop I'd extend the largest carbon fiber selfie stick this world has ever seen, and get footage and aerials views to my hearts content. Have your friends roll their eyes and fish pole the selfie stick back, and you can capture grand shots and views that you can look back at in post editing. From the Shanghai at the Oriental Pearl, Shanghai Bund, to Beijing at the Summer Palace, Forbidden Kingdom Tienanmen Square, Temple of Heaven and Great Wall I had the little 360 camera perched nearly 30 feet in the air. Sure you can have drones, but that's a whole other device to take care off with the risk of police taking it away have landmarks. $1000+ DJI? I have a stick.
Lastly you have additional accessories - like the football for tossing, and waterproof case, if I'm back in the water this summer I'll consider it, where the football seems more of getting creative footage rather than capturing travel.
Things that could be improved - The 360 X screen has been upgraded to tell you the feature modes - I just found that in the soft nylon wear around your neck case you can too easily press the small button to turn the camera on - making me burn through the battery once it was bumped by my other devices. The camera offers and insta shoot mode - but even with holding the big button long for can't miss footage I've missed some fast shot - so I wish they had a once button press record video - similar to how fast I can snap a picture. I've gotten insufficient memory speed but that was my fault - stick with U3 type memory card that comes with the bundle. Minor criticisms because I'm still so blown away with the camera.
Oh and along with the stabilization, stitching, editing software, consistent connectivity, creative accessories, they've also made it so the selfie stick disappears.
The Insta 360 One X is the complete package. The name is long winded to say the least - but coming from a no experience with this brand I'm super hesitant to ever switch to a GoPro or Instaeon - the Insta 360 went from 0 to absolute complete trust in the brand and company. And for me as a tech enthusiast that's unheard of.
If you're in the market for a 360 camera - take advantage of the Apple store old iPhone trade-ins, and get this bundle before your next trip. Your future self will thank you - and to the the Insta 360 team - thank you for putting so much effort in to make me sharing memories with my family as effortless
For more 360 footage I'll update the description below - until then, thank you guys for supporting these tech reviews and I'll see in the next review.
