Insta360 has been working feverishly these last 12 months to deliver the latest and greatest 360 camera technology for every segment of the market. However, there was a pretty significant gap in their product line between their $129 Insta360 Air, $199 Insta 360 Nano and $3499 Insta360 Pro. The new Insta360 ONE is the company’s latest effort to satisfy the 360 market’s demands while also keeping affordability in mind. The new Insta360 ONE has improved capabilities compared to the Insta360 Air and Nano, but still keeps the price in check at $299.
The Insta360 ONE features a video recording resolution of 3840×1920, which isn’t actually quite 4K since they’re missing 240 vertical pixels, it shoots this somewhat odd resolution at 30 FPS while it supports 2560×1280 at 60 FPS and shoots images at 6912×3456 resolution, or 24 megapixels.
What makes the Insta360 ONE even more compelling than the company’s previous products is its ability to be a flexible camera that changes with your needs. It can be a standalone 360 camera controlled via Bluetooth, it can also be directly connected to your smartphone for direct control via charging port which enables solid live streaming capabilities. The current version is iPhone only, like the Nano, but an Android Type-C version is on its way shortly.
Insta360 has two technologies that really set them apart from the competition, their image stabilization and their stitching technology. Both of these technologies enable Insta360 to deliver a superior 360 experience at an affordable price. With the Insta360 ONE, this is no different, with both features coming standard but with some added features thanks to FreeCapture. FreeCapture allows a user to create a unique 360 experience that harnesses the power of the gyroscope and clean stitching to allow for a 360 experience that can allow the user to focus on a single area of a 360 video and be the director of their own 360 video. FreeCapture lets users change perspectives too, like switching between Tiny Planet shots to Rabbit Hole effects, that’s in addition to changing the focal point of the video as well.
The new Insta360 also has the ability to do bullet time style 360 videos with the assistance of a selfie stick or a string. This capability is possible thanks to a software-enabled 240 FPS slow-motion shot that combines the camera’s 120 FPS video capture capability with the gyroscope data to slow down the frames and create a 240 FPS video where everything seems to slow down to nearly a halt. Additionally, the SmartTrack feature allows for a user to capture a 1080P fixed frame video that ensures that the subject of the video is always in the center of the frame which allows users to capture all the surroundings without ever having to lose focus of the subject.
Leveraging the company’s high-quality stitching capabilities, the company is able to enable the ‘invisible selfie stick’, this is because the Insta360 ONE has a socket for mounting to a selfie stick and combined with the software capabilities of Insta360 the company can remove the selfie stick and make the camera look like it is floating in free space. Additionally, the company has created an IP68 waterproof housing for the ONE 360 camera which is sold separately. This is a great development because there are numerous times I’ve wanted to take my Insta360 Air or Nano with me to the beach and simply couldn’t.
Pulling in a feature from the Insta360 Pro, the Insta360 ONE also has HDR shooting capabilities as well as manual control of exposure, ISO, shutter speed, white balance and more. This can come in quite handy when shooting 360 videos and photos in scenarios that aren’t quite perfectly recognized by the camera in software. To me, the Insta360 ONE is a pretty happy medium between the Insta360 Pro and the Insta360 Nano that bumps up the quality of their 360 cameras without increasing the price too much.
For $299, you can pre-order the camera today which includes the camera, two-in-one case and camera stand, microSD card, microUSB cable (for charging), lens cloth and string for bullet-time effect. It will be interesting to see how this camera compares to our other 360 cameras including the Insta360 Nano. We should have something up within the next week once our camera arrives.
