Why Insta360’s X4 camera hits different.

Last week I came home to find Insta 360's next-generation X4

camera

on my doorstep and a company that wanted to sponsor a video about it. I didn't say yes at first because as cool as these 360 ​​

camera

s look, part of me was thinking I had them. a phone camera now that I'm very happy with it I already carry it everywhere, when would I actually use this? And that became my mission. I booked a trip to London. I took this X4. I grabbed my phone so we can figure out what it is. it actually means having a 360 2024 camera, so the first thing you notice when filming on this compared to your phone, other than the fact that it looks like a meaty tech finger, is that it takes a long time to film if people have this idea.

That 360 video makes no sense and for the most part I agree that realistically I'm going to post a 360 video anywhere, probably not, but that's not really the point, the point at all. which I plan to film all the angles at the same time. It's not to keep all the angles, it's so you can decide later, it's to stop this thing we all do every time we think something worth recording happens, all our attention disappears from the moment and what's really happening and It focuses simply on focusing. keeping the framing right because you have one chance and God forbid you miss the moment when your sister blows out the candles on her cake for the twentieth time, but this is what happens when you record something on the X4 because the 360 ​​camera is not there it just records what's in front of it, but instead a whole sphere of video all the time, you have three options: you can use AI if you don't want to have any involvement and your phone will automatically look around that footage and turn it into a clip showing What I think is the most interesting moment in each step is the quick mode that allows you to change the point of view of the footage, but using quick tools like this little joystick at the bottom or the gyroscopic sensors on your phone so that you physically look around you.

We're looking inside that clip or what I think is by far the coolest deep 3.0 track, which means I'll just draw on an object, hit the play button and it's actually so awesome that it just in real time changes the footage to keep that thing constantly in the center at all times and then if you want to get completely stuck that's what grad mode is for, but the biggest thing that really makes everything come together this time is that the camera now records a resolution For a long time, the 360 ​​camera industry has been stuck at 5.7k at most, and while that's of course still a lot of pixels, it does mean that at any point you'll want to reframe the footage afterwards and may want to zoom in. . a bit on top of that, there would be some resolution compromise, but that's no longer the case, so that's definitely a plus, but I still don't think that alone is enough to justify carrying around an extra device, so I started to I did a little more research into what situations I could use this in where my phone just wasn't working and then I remembered that there is another extremely powerful benefit to having a camera on each side that can record at the same time, well you get two cameras.

That means that yes, if you decide you want to use it as a regular single action camera, you can do so and you'll get full 4K quality at 60 frames per second. It's very pretty. If you want a dash cam for your car, this is literally the high-end Dash Cam money can buy recording full quality 4K video both ways at the same time with the same flow state stabilization used to make make mountain biking look smooth so it's almost good enough for my riding, if you wanted a webcam it will be that too with an incoming update but a webcam with two ultra wide cameras at once covering each person in the room with four directional microphones to individually capture each person's audio or, in fact, what really hit me was when I remembered how unbreakable.

Technical video we filmed a few weeks ago. We were filming this car in our yard and because it's a very fast car and we didn't know where it was going to end up, we had Josh, our main cameraman, filming from a point of view, we had Joseph. Our guy filmed everything from another point of view and then we had more from another, while this X4 made me realize that all I would have had to do was stick it in the ground and leave it there because it records everything you can. Focus on the car as it approaches the camera, you will be able to follow it with complete precision and smoothness, continue to follow it as it passes by and also when we decide we want to show where I am in the frame, so zero people. on the camera, oh actually, can we talk Hardware for a second?

I wanted to start the video with Hardware. Drisha told me don't listen and stop, no one will see it, but you might find this interesting because unlike phone companies, Insta 360 only updates their cameras once. every 2 years, so the jump in the specs of the X4 compared to the previous the GoPro Hero 12 can shoot 90 minutes at 5.3k. Records 135 minutes at 5.7k in 360°. It is powered by a new 5 nanometer AI chip that makes everything work faster, increases the transfer speed of footage by 50% to 100% faster and also allows the camera to record that footage using highly efficient video encoding. , which basically means that the new higher quality 8K clips now take up less storage space than the previous lower quality clips.

It has a larger and more colorful screen, but if you don't want to use it, you can control the camera with gestures in case you are wearing gloves or want to make it very easy to show your grandparents, in addition to Ultra Wide mode, there is now Mega view, which which is absolutely crazy, it feels like a field of view that really shouldn't even be possible as I can see. both sides of my hand in one frame, this is what it would look like if we also had eyes on the back of the head, the body is more durable, the glass is now Gorilla Glass, it comes ready to attach removable lens protectors, which It now comes included in the box and I have to say it greatly improves the durability, oh yeah and the whole thing is also dive proof to 10m and as far as recording goes I already mentioned that normal video is now up from 5 .7k. at 8K and well, just to give you an idea, this is what it looks like in practice with my insta 360 much larger, it can shoot 5.7k at 60 frames per second and then 4K at 100 frames per second, which is a world first for a 360 camera and when you combine slow motion and 360 you can do very interesting things and, if you want, record a time lapse video at 8K resolution which by the way is already four times the resolution of 4K this thing can shoot at 11k resolution I mean what does that look like so I tried it and well it needs a lighting decent, that's a restriction, but feed it. and yes no phone has ever recorded anything like this, you can pan around at any angle and it looks good because there are so many pixels present and what I find really cool is that since they are 360 ​​images you can also keep zooming out and stuff. is the mini globe of your memory at 11k resolution, the other thing I've realized is that this doesn't look much like drone footage because it's essentially two cameras, each with a field of 210° vision, and you get a tactical blind. place that allows the selfie stick you use to simply disappear and the camera to look like it's flying.

I don't think it will be a complete drone replacement, as we have started using a drone from time to time, like in our unbreakable technology video. In fact, where we hired this big lift and wanted to take a photo of the entire scene, this cannot be done. Actually, you could probably do it if you attached it to a 3M selfie stick and then taped that selfie stick to the riser it was on. Yeah that would be the same thing, well I guess the point I was going to make is that this can do a lot of what a drone could do in the same way that a lot of people use them, but without most of the disadvantages, it's silent .

It's easier to control It's cheaper It has a longer battery It's less fragile and it's not going to suddenly decide to do a kamikazi into the nearest tree, but what I think is the most important part of this equation is that you can use the M mode, which means even If you film as you normally do, without paying special attention to the direction the camera is facing, it will simply remain fixed on your face. It also has a gyroscope inside that can not only keep up with the Horizon in one. axis but literally a full 360° all the time is an effect I've never seen on any other camera I've used.

I still feel like the phone will always be the first camera I turn to because there's nothing more convenient than that, but then this for anyone who's a little more creatively oriented seems like it covers almost every other possible use you can imagine without having to lug around professional camera equipment, but that's okay, everything we've talked about so far, I would. Let's say those are the basics where this becomes particularly interesting is with Shot Lab, this absolutely huge list of

different

types of effects that you can create, thought filters for your camera, but on another level because they're actually taking full advantage of the ability panopticon of this chamber. to see everything at once, plus the list is now twice as big as when I first started it on the X3, so with that last camera I showed you how you can change the sky, which is still here but now has more options.

I thought the electric shock was cool because it can automatically circle around you with these lighting effects. There was bullet time, which of course is also here now in higher quality in the X4, but it feels right. Next level, now there's a Dash flash that looks like something out of Dragon Ball, rest in peace Mr. Toriyama, by the way, that was heartbreaking, there's AI War, which is absolutely next level, you pick a style and then AI changes completely the look of your video in that style and then there's even the bending effects of Horizon looking at Inception and it's always shocking how cool the final clip can look, even if the base clip is literally me taking a walk down the street.

Now I think this camera itself is starting to reach a premium level price, like the X4 which is $499, but Shot Laab is to me what makes that worth it because it's broad in terms of what it allows you to do. and is completely included in that purchase price. The only exception is AI warp which has a limit of three free uses per day, presumably because it is quite expensive for them and to process but like the equivalent gopro editing suite it is much more basic but it is also a paid subscription and if you want to know the status of subscriptions in 2024 well I have the perfect video for you I will link it from here and for insta 360 They have also given us a special link that gives you a free invisible selfie stick with the camera so that It's also in the description.