Another new 360 camera: Insta360 launch new 'One' camera

Contributing and equipment 360° cameras
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There is another new 360 camera on the market from Insta360 that can take 7k x 3.5k 360 images, see: The Insta360 One is a consumer 360 camera with tons of flexibility – TechCrunch

So similar specs to the Xiaomi 360 camera and costs $300.

It also has some other cool features too, including Bullet time!

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Still trying to find out if it has an intervalometer…

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Looks very interesting. I noted that photos can be in raw, which allows for better post processing if you have the right software. I have tweeted them about the intervalometer.

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The specifications say that it has “timed photos” : intervalometer or timer ?

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It has no built-in GPS, but I’m wondering if plugged on an iPhone it will get the compass and the GPS information of the phone into the EXIF …

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Yes djakk it should do…

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Awesome review as always by techrunch. Many camera 360 are hitting the market today really good.

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I like the FreeCapture feature, but it would be nicer if it can be used in photo mode too. Because right now I usually mount my Sony AS300 45° facing to the left (we drive on the left side), but sometimes there are interesting things to capture on the right, so I would have to re-adjust the camera, which is especially cumbersome on a motorcycle.

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Hello.

I bought Insta360 One and uploaded some photo to Mapillary.
I want to share my experiences.

Good point

  1. Minimum time interval shooting gap is 2s
    (However 2s interval shooting sometimes fails. Then time gap becames like 2s, 2s, 4s, 2s, 4s…)
    (3s interval shooting is fine)
  2. I can start interval shooting by just 3-click camera button! I don’t need to launch smartphone app!
  3. Stitching is very fine (compared to Theta S and LG360)
  4. Micro SD card supported

Bad point

  1. Camera saves photos as dual fisheye format, not equirectangular. I need to export photos with iPhone app or Windows app.
  2. Gyro sensor is too sensitive. While walking with pole, gyro correction disturbes horizontal level badly.
  3. I need to turn off gyro correction one by one photo on iPhone app. It’s too much tough work to turn off several thousands of photos.
  4. Windows app Insta360 Studio can turn off gyro correction of all the photos. However it removes all the photo information, even date/time! So I can’t add geotag from gpx data. Exiftool helped me(#a).
  5. Insta360 Studio support “batch exporting”, but it can handle only 300 photos at one time. When I send 999 photos to app, the app crashes.
    (#a) Commandline to add exif date/time from filename using exiftool

exiftool.exe “-alldates<$filename” -overwrite_original DIR

Neutral

  1. No GPS
  2. No compass
  3. Photo size is 6912 x 3456, but I feel photo quality is almost same as Theta S (5376 x 2688)

Overall

  • Camera and photo quality are great. Especially 3-click function is very convenient for walking photo mapper. But currently desktop app is not so good.

You can see an example of Insta360 and comparison with Theta S.

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@tankaru Thanks for your review. Interesting little camera, I like the small format. Too bad the app it is still not available in Android. Another disadvantage that I notice is that the USB port is placed on the side instead of the bottom. I guess this will make the USB cable visible when connected to a powerbank? Or can this be solved by using an USB connector with a 90 degrees hook? How about the battery life?
So the camera produces unstitched images. What happens with the EXIF tags and time/date stamp of the original photo when processed in Windows? Is this kept or lost?

FYI: I’m testing the LG 360 cam now, it has the same small size I guess which is very convenient. However, the stitching is bad and the timelapse mode is only accessible via the app, not on the device itself, which seems a great plus of the Insta360.

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And the result is here:
ファイル 2017-11-09 21 02 23 | Tomoya Muramoto | Flickr
You can see usb port is invisible (tripod is almost invisible too!)

  • EXIF
    The original unstitched photo has exif information. But Windows app removes exif and timestamp while exporting.
    I have reported this bad behaviour to the maker’s support, so I hope they will fix it in near future.

  • LG360
    I have it too. One thing LG360 is better than Insta360 is gyro correction. LG360 can keep level correctly.

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Oh, one more thing.

  • Battery
    Battery life was 1:40, at 4s interval shooting.
    It’s good enough for me.
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Thanks for the info! So the USB connector with a hook won’t be visible, good to know that. Too bad for the lost of exif information after processing, you showed a workaround with exif tool and the filename. I hope they will fix this and come with the android app.

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@tankaru
Another question: is it possible to hear a shutter sound when you are taking interval pictures? And if so, can you adjust the volume? I always like to hear the shutter sound if the camera is running, sometimes it happens that the battery dies or the camera crashes and it is good to know it has stopped making photos.

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I hear shutter sound while interval shooting.
But unfortunately I can’t adjust its volume.

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Thanks, good to hear that. Any experience with the blue tooth remote control?

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I use bluetooth connection.
It’s easier to connect to the camera than wifi connection (like LG360).
Just press BT icon then connection established right away.
(With LG360, choose wifi, press confirm button, wait for a while, then connection established at last)

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I see, you mean a connection between the camera and the phone, but I meant a bluetooth remote controller, like those you can buy on a selfie stick. Does it work with any remote controller or only with the designated insta360 selfie stick?

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Sorry I misunderstood your question.

I don’t have any BT remote controllers so I don’t know it works or not.

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Like the Insta360 ONE, especially like the bullet time feature, very cool! To check out more features in the Insta360 ONE the 360 camera review on VeeR hardware review.