Insta360 is one of the leading brands in 360 cameras. I’ve reviewed several of their consumer-level cameras, like the excellent One and Nano S. For a lot more money, they have a professional camera with a big step up in specs and capabilities.
Today they’re launching an update for that camera, simply called the Pro 2. Its headline specs are impressive: 8K 2D HDR and 8K 3D at 30fps, 8K 2D at 60 fps, and a 9-axis gyro to assist their FlowState stabilization tech.
That’s cool, but what was most interesting to me when I got an early preview a few weeks ago was how they streamlined the workflow for 360 video content creators. This is likely the key in a wider adoption of 360 as a medium.
8K?
Your first thought is likely: “who cares about 8K, my TV is only 4K and my phone is even less.” It’s important to remember that with 360 videos, you’re only ever seeing part of the image at any one time. A slice of the whole. So even 8K video is far less than what your TV can reproduce. This is why the most common comment on every 360 video on YouTube is “it looks soft.” With any luck, the 8K from cameras like this will go a ways to counter this complaint.
However, some gear won’t play back 8K content, regardless. In this case, Insta360 has developed “CrystalView,” which will convert the content to a format that is capable of being played back in 8K on gear that technically doesn’t have the processing power to do it? How? They’re not going into that too much right now, but the short version is it tells their playback app only to render the parts of the image that can be seen at that moment, reducing the processing load on the playback gear, but maintaining the detail of the content. A neat trick, that. Yes, you’ll need to play back using one of Insta360’s apps, but they’re free.
Pro 2
The Pro 2 looks similar to its predecessor: a sci-fi orb with multiple lenses. From certain angles, it’s even cute, especially with its antenna “ears” upright.
Those 6 lenses are f2.4, and have a 200-degree field of view. Each of these cameras records onto its own micro SD card, though it’s unlikely anyone will transfer content from each card individually. But more on that later.
Wi-Fi is built in, but that’s not the interesting part. Insta360’s new 5.18Ghz “Farsight” wireless tech lets you stream live 360 video to a receiver (included with the Pro 2) that uses your phone or tablet as the display. As part of the demo, Eli from Insta360 placed the camera in the middle of a busy walkway. Giving me great anxiety for its safety, we walked away, able to watch ourselves walk away on Eli’s phone via the Farsight tech. We were even able to go around the corner of a building, far out of sight of the camera, and still get a solid feed.
Having shot a lot of 360 photos and videos, getting myself out of the shot has always been a bit of a conundrum. With consumer level cameras, you’re limited to Wi-Fi range, at best, and often just Bluetooth. As such, you can’t run too far, even if you’re in an area where you’re comfortable leaving the camera. And that’s just me shooting for fun and occasional reviews. If a director wants to shoot content of any kind in 360, getting away from the camera is probably important. This has been an issue in the past. Which brings us to the important stuff.
Making 360 easier
The most important improvements Insta360 has made seem to have come from conversations with content creators in how to make their lives easier. This is more than just vanity. Creating content takes time, and as we all know, time is money.
One of the biggest changes, as someone who has recently started dabbling in the Adobe Premiere video editor, is how Insta360 has changed the way that software deals with footage. Previously, an editor would have to render all the 360 footage, then select what they want, make their cuts, and render again for the final product.
The issue there is, you never use all your footage, so that first step is a huge time sink. With a lot of 8K footage, that first step alone could take hours or days, and that’s for a huge percentage of content you’ll never use.
So with the Pro 2, an extra SD card records a down-rez version of the 360 content. This is much smaller and, as such, easier for any computer to deal with. Through Premiere, an editor edits this content, and then only renders once, just the footage she’s cut. This is huge, and will likely save content creators a tremendous amount of time.
Price and Availability
You can preorder a Pro 2 now, and they expect to ship next month. The price, and remember this is a professional piece of kit, is $5,000. Given that even the best consumer-level 360 cameras can’t create anything approaching professional-level content, this leap in price isn’t a shock.
I’m a big fan of 360 videos, and I hope cameras like this let creators produce some new and interesting content for the medium. The changes Insta360 made with the Pro 2 seem like a step in the right direction for making that happen.
You can find out more on their website.
Pro 2: $5,000
Insta360.com
