Action cameras have gotten to be quite amazing in the last few years. Where, once, they were ideal because of their portability, they have now become an amazing creative tool for any creator. One of the leaders of this movement is Insta360, and their latest camera, the 360-degree Insta360 X4, might be a must-have in your content creation toolbox.
What you get depends largely on which bundle you buy, but the standard bundle gives you the Insta360 X4, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a pouch, 2 standard lens caps, a lens cloth and documentation. However, you can buy bundles to get a slightly cheaper package for the accessories you might need. You can get a simple bundle that adds an invisible selfie stick and lens cap, all the way up to a diving kit that adds a diving case, floating handle and wrist straps, and a host of other bundles that cover cycling, snowboarding, skiing, motorcycling and more.
In terms of the physical camera, the Insta360 X4 has 2 lenses with a 170-degree field of view, which together give you that 360-degree view. The missing 20 degrees, which you eagle-eyed readers may have spotted, cover the bottom of the camera, meaning you can’t see what’s directly below you.
“…the Insta360 X4 has 2 lenses with a 170-degree field of view, which together give you that 360-degree view.”
But it also means the selfie stick can’t be seen when it’s screwed into the X4, which is how you get all those magical shots that look more like drone footage than anything else. You’ve also got dual microphones on either side of the lenses and speakers on one side, a set of waterproof doors that open up to your USB port and battery/SD card storage, the power button, and a quick button that lets you quickly toggle through selected presets and functions.
On the front of the camera, you have a 2.5” touchscreen display, which helps you navigate through the menus, as well as the shutter button to start and stop your video captures and the lens button, which lets you switch between single lens mode and 360 modes. Each of the buttons has a number of functions depending on how long they are pressed and whether or not the X4 is powered on at the time, so make sure to read up on those functions before you start capturing video to avoid messing with your settings unknowingly.
The Insta360 X4 sports a 1/2” sensor and f/1.9 aperture lenses capable of up to 8K/30 resolutions when using both lenses, as well as 5.7K/60 and 4K/100. In single lens mode, you can 4K/60, 2.7K/60 and 1080p/60. And then there’s Me Mode, a mode that lets you skip all reframing and focuses the camera only on you. You can achieve 4K/30, 2.7K/120 and 1080p/120 resolutions in this mode. You can capture your video in H.264 or H.265 at bitrates of up to 200Mbps, considerably higher than even the bitrates of broadcast television. The Insta360 X4 also takes photos up to 18MP for a flat photo and 72MP for a 360-degree photo.
There is only a minor amount of setup before you start shooting. Other than the usual settings, you need to account for a few other things. If you are using anything that covers your lenses, be it the standard lens guards, premium lens guards or the dive case, the Insta360 X4 will make the adjustments so there is no distortion added by the covers. Also, you can select adjustments to your field of view.
You have De-warp, which straightens out most of the curves caused by having a fisheye lens but is also the most narrow field of video, ultra, which experiences a bit of warp when you look towards the edges (or if you have some obvious straight lines in your frame. You’ll see them curve) and Mega, which is simply more than ultra.
Taking video on the Insta360 X4 is truly one of the easiest processes. The only thing you need to wrap your head around is that you don’t need to move the camera around to capture things. They are already being captured. The first videos that I captured were a little harder to reframe because I moved the camera around a lot, pointing it where I wanted to focus. Understanding that you should keep the camera in one place relative to your position will make for much better videos that are easier to work with later.
“Taking video on the Insta360 X4 is truly one of the easiest processes”
The video quality is truly excellent. In good lighting, the video is crystal clear, and the Insta360 X4’s stabilization and features like horizon lock make it incredibly smooth, even if you are running around like a fool. In lower light, it still looks good. It’s a bit noisier, which is where I wish the sensor was closer to a 1/1.55” sensor or even the 1/1.3” sensor that is in the Insta360 Ace Pro compared to the 1/2“ sensor that is in the X4.
However, it is in the post-processing stage where your creativity takes over and determines the quality of your videos. The videos can be uploaded to your computer to be used on the Insta360 Studio app or can connect wirelessly to your phone via the Insta360 App for Android and iPhone. To get the most out of the Insta360 X4 or any of their cameras that you are using in the app, there are a ton of tutorials to help you achieve top-quality effects.
The desktop app gives you everything you need to get the video just the way you want it, plus some clever tools such as Deep Tracking, which lets you choose a subject and keep it in the frame, Time Shift and Motion ND, as well as a range of image and audio editing tools. But the phone app takes it to the next level with all these features plus a seemingly endless number of filters and effects, especially Shot Lab, which gives you amazing creative tools to work with.
Like AI Warp, which can turn your footage into an artistic dream or a psychological journey (for the snowboarders, at least), Sky Swap, which does exactly what you think it will, and Flash Dash, which makes you look like you’re tearing through your environment like one of the two characters in the name. You can even use AI to analyze your footage and give you pre-edited highlights so you can post a video in seconds.
“…if I listed everything the apps could actually do for your footage, we’d be stuck here forever…”
And yes, I am certainly leaving a lot of features out, both in the desktop and phone apps, but if I listed everything the apps could actually do for your footage, we’d be stuck here forever and never going out to use our X4s, so you are welcome. If, for whatever reason, you want to bypass Insta360’s apps, there is a plugin for Adobe Premiere that will let you edit the footage directly in their application. I would love to see similar plugins show up for Final Cut and Davinci Resolve, but I am also perfectly happy pre-building these clips in Insta360 apps and have them ready to go when I load them up in DaVinci for editing.
The best part about the footage that you have is that you simply have so much flexibility. You can take the same video and turn it into a perfect vertical and horizontal video, then make a stylized version for the gram! Want to leave the adventures most associated with these cameras and just have a round table discussion or do a podcast?
The Insta360 X4 becomes a whole studio, letting you cut to different speakers when you choose or even frame up multiple speakers at once. You will want to keep people centred to keep any distortion from coming up, especially if you are all close to the camera, but the possibilities of the Insta360 X4 stretch far beyond your stereotypical concept of what an action camera can do.
The Standard Bundle for the Insta360 X4 (just the camera and standard lens guards) comes in at $499 USD, while other bundle variants go as high as $651 USD. You are not limited to bundles because virtually every accessory found in every bundle can be purchased a la carte, so you can make up your own kit. However, buying accessories separately will cost you a bit more than getting them within the bundles.
The price seems a bit high except for the fact that it will instantly become the most versatile camera you own. Its improvements over the X3, including much longer battery life and higher resolutions, make it worth the upgrade and the fact that it is only $50 more expensive than the X3 makes going right for the top-of-the-line model an absolute no-brainer. The Insta360 X4, plus its robust software, makes it not only a fantastic tool but genuinely fun to use and the easiest way to get great content.
