Experimenting with the Insta360 One X
The Insta360 One X is a camera that we are very excited about. Successor to the original Insta360 One, the One X is one of the best cameras on the commercial market right now. And at a $399 price point, it is also one of the most affordable cameras.
The first thing that is really exciting is that the camera shoots at 5.7K resolution at 30 frames per second, which is a huge step up from the Nikon Keymission that we started with which maxed out at 4K resolution at 24 frames per second. However it can also shoot at lower resolutions at a higher frame rate. Because of this, the camera can also shoot in several different slow motion settings. Another great feature is built in stabilization. This makes it a great candidate to use if you are planning on shooting video where there could be a lot of motion.
The physical design of the camera is also worth mentioning. The camera is very and small and light weight which makes it easy to carry around with out too much inconvenience. It even comes with a case that you can wear around your neck so that if you are on the move you can have easy access to it. It also has a display screen that makes manual operation of the camera very easy. Using just the two buttons on the camera and the display screen, you can easily change between the various shooting settings or switch as well as record your video right from the phone. The battery life of the camera is about 60 minutes but because it has external batteries, you can purchase a few batteries to keep handy if you are planning on being on a long shoot. The only downside of the design is that unlike other cameras, the Insta 360 One X is not waterproof. However you can also purchase a waterproof case from the Insta360 store.
One of the best features of this camera is it’s phone application. The application will allow you to preview what you are shooting, change shooting modes, adjust exposure, transfer anything you shoot to your phone, however this process can be a bit slow depending on the size of the video. Connecting over wi-fi, it is by far one of the easiest cameras to get connected to an app that we have used. The connection is also very stable and you are unlikely to lose connection in the middle of your shoot.
One downside regarding the software side of things is that you need to use the desktop software associated with the camera in order to prep the clips for editing in platforms like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. The software will basically take any footage that you have and run it through a conversion to get it into the proper format. This does allow you to add extra stabilization and you can fix the view if you’d like, but this process can take a while depending on the length of the videos you shot and how many extra features you’ve added.
Overall this camera is one of the best we have used up to this point. As we move forward, you can most likely expect to see loaner pools of these popping up at several campuses.