Insta360 One R: GoPro Hero 8 meets the GoPro Max
This is Insta360's One R. And yes it is a 360 degree camera, but it's also a 4K action camera too. So for someone who's on the fence about buying a 360 degree camera, this might be the perfect gateway. Let's get into it. But, oh, one more thing, this is a pre-production model which means that it's near final hardware, but they're still tweaking the software. So think of this as an extended hands on rather than a full-fledged review. Now let's get into it. (upbeat music) The Insta360 One R is madeup of three components. The core, which houses the screen, power, and record buttons, USB-Cport, and microSD card slot. And then the batterybase and the lens mods. There are two ports on the core that coincide with theprongs of the lens mods. And the battery justsnaps onto the bottom. Once built it all feelsreally solid and compact. As a unit the One R iswaterproof up to five meters.
Now on my unit you'llnotice there is a gap between the battery gripand the rest of the camera. Insta360 tells me that doesnot affect waterproofing. Now in the final versions of this camera that will be there at all. They're getting rid of it foraesthetic reasons they say. The One R also comes with aplastic housing for mounting and there are two very familiar prongs on the bottom of that which connect to pretty much any amountyou could possibly want. Let's talk the 360 mod first. Because it was by far my favorite to use. It shoots 5.7K, up to30FPS spherical video. If you're coming from the 1X, the footage on the One Rlooks almost identical. They've really only updatednighttime stabilization and then they've added HDR video. But the real difference is having a screen built right onto the camera. It is a very lo-res screen at that, but you can change framerates, view playback, and scroll around your frame. If you double tap on the screen it will change between lenses. I found the screen tobe extremely responsive. It's biggest downfall though is its size.
I have small fingers so thiswasn't a total dealbreaker but I could see how someone with gloves or anyone with bigger hands really could find the small screen frustrating. During my test I was switching between the GoPro Max and the One Rand going back to the GoPro Max felt like a relief because the screen is almost twice its size. All right now this 4K sensor. It's best quality is that the screen can be both a rear facing screen and a front facing screen. Because you can just flip itaround and put it back on. It's kinda cool. The 4K mod shoots at up to60 frames per second in 4K and up to 200 frames per second in 1080 P. As a typical action camera it's fine. If it didn't come with a 360 mod this definitely wouldnot be my first choice for an action camera though. First, I just prefer the color that a GoPro puts outway more than a One R. GoPro isn't afraid of theblacks and the shadows and it will really let that pop creating a nice contrasting image. And second, flow state justisn't as good as hyper smooth. You can really see it herein this clip of me running. In the One R's frame lookat the building on the left. You can see it just jittering around. Whereas in the GoProkeeps it extremely stable all throughout the image.
I found myself using the 4K mod mostly just to take photos though. I found there was a lotof smoothing happening especially in the backgrounds. And Insta360 is evening outthe low and high lights. I also thought the automode was a bit slow often leading to blurrysubjects, even in daylight. Overall the 4K mod is fine but it's definitely not thestar feature of the One R. Insta360 is coming out with a 1 inch 5.3K Leica branded sensor. I mean that's huge for an action camera. But we'll have to test itout and see how it holds up. Honestly what people don't know is that Vegas is actually beautiful. I mean come on. The audio is prettycrisp and it definitely prioritizes voices over everything else. You just have to be super cautious of the sounds of say,extending the selfie stick or hitting record on the camera. Those are really loud. The editing workflow reallyhasn't changed since the 1X. The desktop app is still not intuitive but it does have added ProRez and H265 export options. And the app is still super easy to use with a few added tricks. There is Deep Track active tracking, auto framing, and CineShots which are like fun storytelling tools.
I was most impressedby the tracking though. It really holds people or objects right in the center of the frame without having to lay keyframes. And then the other big new feature is being able to edit your footage without having to firstdownload it onto your phone. You can use Deep Track and set keyframes all without having to waitfor the file to download. It's all super snappywith no noticeable lag and it didn't kill the camerasbattery in the process. The One R's battery isright on par with the 1X. You can definitely geta full day out of it if you're careful to shut it down when you're not using it. But the One R also supports fast charging. So if you do get low youcan use a two amp charger and charge it up to80% in just 30 minutes. I'll take that. The twin addition of Insta360's One R is on sale today startingat $480 US dollars. And it comes with one core, one battery, a 360 camera mod, and a 4K camera mod. And then the one inch additionwhich will be coming out hopefully later this spring will retail for $550 US dollars. So that's Insta360's One R.
I mean for someone who's curious about 360 but not sure they'reready to take the leap into having two lenses constantlysticking off their camera, well this might be theperfect form factor for you. Let's just see if it's asdurable as, well, it feels. Keep it locked to The Verge. That's all I gotta say about that. I'm a go climb a rock,this one right here. Actually, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh, it's been a long week and it hasn't even started (laughs). Okay I'm getting down.
Now on my unit you'llnotice there is a gap between the battery gripand the rest of the camera. Insta360 tells me that doesnot affect waterproofing. Now in the final versions of this camera that will be there at all. They're getting rid of it foraesthetic reasons they say. The One R also comes with aplastic housing for mounting and there are two very familiar prongs on the bottom of that which connect to pretty much any amountyou could possibly want. Let's talk the 360 mod first. Because it was by far my favorite to use. It shoots 5.7K, up to30FPS spherical video. If you're coming from the 1X, the footage on the One Rlooks almost identical. They've really only updatednighttime stabilization and then they've added HDR video. But the real difference is having a screen built right onto the camera. It is a very lo-res screen at that, but you can change framerates, view playback, and scroll around your frame. If you double tap on the screen it will change between lenses. I found the screen tobe extremely responsive. It's biggest downfall though is its size.
I have small fingers so thiswasn't a total dealbreaker but I could see how someone with gloves or anyone with bigger hands really could find the small screen frustrating. During my test I was switching between the GoPro Max and the One Rand going back to the GoPro Max felt like a relief because the screen is almost twice its size. All right now this 4K sensor. It's best quality is that the screen can be both a rear facing screen and a front facing screen. Because you can just flip itaround and put it back on. It's kinda cool. The 4K mod shoots at up to60 frames per second in 4K and up to 200 frames per second in 1080 P. As a typical action camera it's fine. If it didn't come with a 360 mod this definitely wouldnot be my first choice for an action camera though. First, I just prefer the color that a GoPro puts outway more than a One R. GoPro isn't afraid of theblacks and the shadows and it will really let that pop creating a nice contrasting image. And second, flow state justisn't as good as hyper smooth. You can really see it herein this clip of me running. In the One R's frame lookat the building on the left. You can see it just jittering around. Whereas in the GoProkeeps it extremely stable all throughout the image.
I found myself using the 4K mod mostly just to take photos though. I found there was a lotof smoothing happening especially in the backgrounds. And Insta360 is evening outthe low and high lights. I also thought the automode was a bit slow often leading to blurrysubjects, even in daylight. Overall the 4K mod is fine but it's definitely not thestar feature of the One R. Insta360 is coming out with a 1 inch 5.3K Leica branded sensor. I mean that's huge for an action camera. But we'll have to test itout and see how it holds up. Honestly what people don't know is that Vegas is actually beautiful. I mean come on. The audio is prettycrisp and it definitely prioritizes voices over everything else. You just have to be super cautious of the sounds of say,extending the selfie stick or hitting record on the camera. Those are really loud. The editing workflow reallyhasn't changed since the 1X. The desktop app is still not intuitive but it does have added ProRez and H265 export options. And the app is still super easy to use with a few added tricks. There is Deep Track active tracking, auto framing, and CineShots which are like fun storytelling tools.
I was most impressedby the tracking though. It really holds people or objects right in the center of the frame without having to lay keyframes. And then the other big new feature is being able to edit your footage without having to firstdownload it onto your phone. You can use Deep Track and set keyframes all without having to waitfor the file to download. It's all super snappywith no noticeable lag and it didn't kill the camerasbattery in the process. The One R's battery isright on par with the 1X. You can definitely geta full day out of it if you're careful to shut it down when you're not using it. But the One R also supports fast charging. So if you do get low youcan use a two amp charger and charge it up to80% in just 30 minutes. I'll take that. The twin addition of Insta360's One R is on sale today startingat $480 US dollars. And it comes with one core, one battery, a 360 camera mod, and a 4K camera mod. And then the one inch additionwhich will be coming out hopefully later this spring will retail for $550 US dollars. So that's Insta360's One R.
I mean for someone who's curious about 360 but not sure they'reready to take the leap into having two lenses constantlysticking off their camera, well this might be theperfect form factor for you. Let's just see if it's asdurable as, well, it feels. Keep it locked to The Verge. That's all I gotta say about that. I'm a go climb a rock,this one right here. Actually, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh, it's been a long week and it hasn't even started (laughs). Okay I'm getting down.
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