The use of 360-video for news and documentary storytelling is about to explode, in my opinion, and camera manufacturers are betting for that to happen. However, there aren’t yet a lot of 360-video solutions available on the market that I like. Many are too expensive (got 60 grand), produce low quality footage (Ricoh Theta), require too much stitching in post-production (rigs with multiple GoPros), or have no set release date yet (Nikon KeyMission and Samsung Gear 360).
The little-known Insta360 that I stumbled upon last month proves to be the best option right now for creating news and documentary 360-video. It’s a crowdfunded camera from a Chinese company Shenzhen Arashi Vision Co., Ltd. It retails for about $600 right now, which is very reasonable.
I’ve had the opportunity to test the camera out on a couple of shoots and have been happy with the results. I’m still learning how to edit and put together sophisticated stories, but initial clips are extremely easy to process and upload to YouTube or Facebook.
The internal microphone is serviceable, and worked well for a Bernie Sanders political rally in Seattle recently. See a sample 360-video clip from that event below.
The camera works by using two lenses; one fisheye lens on each side of the camera. The lenses are 230° and direct your scene onto Dual Sony 8MP CMOS Sensors. The footage is stitched automatically as you shoot and recorded onto a SD card. Live streaming is supposedly possible with an ultra-fast internet connection but I haven’t tested that yet. I don’t believe the camera can accept memory cards with a capacity higher than 32GB right now, but I was able to record for over an hour at the Bernie Sanders rally without issue.
The specs of the Insta360 camera are great, but not mind-blowing. You’ve got 4K, which really is the bare minimum for 360-video at this point. When you think about wrapping all those pixels around a spherical field of view, 4K isn’t as high as it seems. A lot of people using GoPro rigs are doing so to get 6K, 8K, or more.
The camera has no viewfinder, but it has a great mobile app. With its built-in wifi, I can connect with my iPhone easily and control every important detail of my shots, from the color temperature, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc. The manual controls are easy and great. Android phones are also supported.
The camera comes shipped in a nice custom little padded carrying case with a 32GB Kingston SD card, charger, tripod adapter, lens cloth, and a few necessary cords.
The camera is not too heavy and is about the size of a Zoom H4n audio recorder, which I lug around in my camera bag often. The exact specs are 2.9 x 6.2 x 1.9" and it weighs in at just under one pound.
It was a bit of an adventure springing for this camera from an unknown company … and it’s technically a beta version, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. If you don’t mind looking at a Chinese menu after updating the firmware, there are no real issues to report. This is a very exciting time for filmmaking and visual journalism, so I hope I can help you decide if you’re ready to jump into 360-video with a camera like the Insta360.