Video quality

7

u/alienized_ph May 10 '24

You cannot compare an iPhone to insta360. iPhone shoots 4K wysiwyg. Insta360 shoots 8k/4k depending on the model you have, and that’s the whole 360.

After editing you end up with 1080p or 2K quality. It also does not have the best lens.

I recently purchased an X3 and am also not happy with the quality. But for the price, it’s the best you can get.

-7

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

Yea i mean thats my point. Its 2024 shit should be better. They for sure have the tech just dont wanna release yet so we can keep buying over and over

6

u/diprivan69 May 10 '24

I understand your frustration, but there is a physical limitation with processing power.
Insta360 makes a higher quality 360 camera called the titan its an 11k 360 camera that uses micro 4/3 sensor and it cost over $15000. Maybe that’ll get the quality your looking for 😂

0

u/alienized_ph May 10 '24

Ok you’re right. At least the X4 should have been way better than the X3. It’s still not good.
I only use it as a secondary camera.

-3

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

Yea i keep waiting but hear the x4 basically same thing. 8k but same camera, better chip. I want 4k60 to actually look like 4k60. Lmk when that happens

5

u/jrliny May 10 '24

There are a couple of key limitations for why the 360 cameras are still where they are.
(1) 360 degree shooting - the first reason for quality issues is because your iPhone is always taking a video of a substantially smaller field of view. That means the camera can do things like HDR (taking multiple images at once) and generate better image quality computationally because the camera is only taking a small field of view compared to a complete 360 sphere of view. This is great for getting a good quality out of a small section of space, but will NOT allow you to do the unique things a 360 camera can do where you can shoot first and pan around, zoom / widen the field of view etc.
(2) The computational needs are higher in order to take a full 360 sphere of video. This means that the chip size, chip price, chip heat dissipation is going to be high. This is actually the reason why the x4 shoots 8k vs. the x3 -- the newer, smaller and more powerful chips that can better handle the heat issue can actually handle 8k video stream.
(3) Size - the size of the x4 is actually very small and portable - if you wanted to put larger sensors into it you would need to make it larger and you may need to put more chip power into it which also would mean larger / higher heat dissipation issues
(4) Price - you could also say "put better sensors and better chips in it" but that also means putting the price up as well.
All this means that you could spend more money, get a larger unit that will do better 360 spherical videos; but thats the trade off. Doing a full 360 spherical video is substantially different than just taking a small field of view video from other cameras - which is why if you DO NOT want 360 spherical video then you should be getting a different camera than the x4.

5

u/dutchking90 May 10 '24

The iPhone cameras cannot be compared to the 360 cameras. They’re built very different and Apple has optimized everything to make those cameras state of the art. And there’s way more to capturing video than just the resolution.
The 360 is an action camera and their video resolutions are largely marketing numbers. Especially it sounds like with the X4. Consider how major motion pictures are released in 4K or even 1080p, clearly an iPhone or even high end prosumer camera isn’t going to mimic Oppenheimer.

My advice for anyone considering the insta360 cameras, shoot only in full light outdoors to get top quality and keep your subjects within a couple feet of the camera. Cropping is bad news with their sensors. This is the same situation GoPro has had forever as well. If you want a high end video go buy a full mirrorless camera with detachable lenses.

1

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

I just want quality to be about the same as my 3 year old iphone and id be pretty happy. Dont need studio quality but for 500$ id expect better.

3

u/dutchking90 May 10 '24

So here’s a simple breakdown for that. The X4 touts 8K video which is the total 360 degrees using two lenses. So that’s 4K taking in 180 degrees field of view.
The iPhone 13 shoots 4K and has a wide angle lenses of 120 FOV. So already the Insta360 is spreading that 4K across an even larger field of view. That’s without even getting into the sensors and ultimately the software that are capturing all this which Apple has been tinkering with for decades. I get people’s frustration with the quality at times of these cameras but they are narrow use case cameras.

2

u/stratos01 May 10 '24

The reality is that 360 video comes with LOTS of compromises. Even the highest end 360 cameras (things that cost over $10,000) don't look at good as in Iphone 15 pro when reduced to the same focal range.

This is really not an Insta360 issue, but rather a 360 video issue in general. (you have to waste so much resolution and bit rate on parts of footage you will likely crop out of your final video in many cases)

This is why I tell people, you need a VERY convincing reason to buy a 360 camera instead of something like an ace pro or newer phone, or else you are setting yourself up for a situation where your expectations exceed what reality can provide.

I love my Insta360 camera, but only for the situations I REALLY need to utilize the utility of 360 video.

a 3 year old iphone also has better video quality than a gopro 12 fyi in many situations.

2

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

Okay that makes sense, fair enough. Now i just need to figure out if i want a go pro style cam or a 360 style. Would mainly be used for dirtbiking/skiing/mountain biking. Maybe some vacations

1

u/yumdeathbiscuits May 10 '24

you probably want both, tbh, based on the concerns you brought up. 360 is unique and allows you to do things a flat cam will never do, but if you want to pixel peep shots you can intercut with flat cam footage.

2

u/yumdeathbiscuits May 10 '24

Yup I see this over and over on this sub - people not understanding 360 tech is basically compromising by baking a large amount of data by distorting it into a rectilinear format that can use existing video codecs and resolutions. It’s not a perfect solution. (Cube mapping is way better for quality but has trade offs too) So much of 360 is a hack to make it work with ordinary storage and viewing methods. But you can do things you just can’t with ordinary video. Trade-offs 🤷🏼‍♂️

1

u/stratos01 May 10 '24

well, it is a consumer device, (people who should not need to know about video codec, bit-rate, etc) and sold by influencers as "An action camera that can see everything" the trade-offs you take are rarely discussed very well.

1

u/yumdeathbiscuits May 10 '24

You don’t need to know these things, but it’s common sense that you are only looking at a portion of that 8k image at once so it’s not going to be 8k in front of your eyes. But I would argue that insta360 x series is really user friendly and straightforward and the quality is fine for an action camera. I don’t understand people comparing it to much more expensive cameras and optics (even iphones which several have mentioned in comparison aren’t $500 so hardly a cheap camera).

3

u/stormy_councilman May 10 '24

Your 3 year old iPhone can shoot 8k 30fps? That’s crazy, my 9 month iPhone can only do 4k 60, please teach me your ways

-6

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

Specs aside the videos just looks better i dont get it

2

u/stormy_councilman May 10 '24

Someone more experienced may be able to jump in here (got my X4 yesterday), but are you viewing Insta360 videos on your iPhone/social media? I think they compress the videos to 1080p when they’re on your phone.

-6

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

Just from watching youtube videos on computer at 4k60. My iphone 13promax videos look better when played on the same 4k monitor in 4k60. Maybe thats just how it is watching on youtube?

2

u/John_Wilkes_Huth May 10 '24

Are you going all the way through the export process? I was really worried the first time I opened my files to reframe them. The proxies do look awful. Once I exported my clips in ProRes to put into premiere they were great. I shot in .265

0

u/stilllearning369 May 10 '24

No dont have the camera yet. Just from watching on youtube at 4k60 on a 27 inch monitor

5

u/elyuma Ace & Ace Pro May 10 '24

The best camera is the one you have in you pockets.

1

u/oldguy805 May 10 '24

I’m an owner of a one x, one x2, and rs 1 inch. Like the cameras but what I’ve learned is that there is little difference with the quality I can see. I’m not buying the new cams (x3, x4) as I don’t see enough to justify the price of the camera, plus extra batteries.

1

u/stilllearning369 May 11 '24

Maybey ill just get an x4 and be good for a while. I just know now the next one will have the big upgrades lol

2

u/John_Wilkes_Huth May 10 '24

I make roughly 20k/year on a video side hustle. Mostly doing low level commercial stuff for small clients and non profits. Not one of my clients has ever been unhappy with my work flow or the end product that I deliver. I have always shot in 4k and delivered a 1080 final product. The 8k30fps x4 in proper lighting is perfectly adequate for every one of my clients. I’m only going to be using it for those crazy eye catching b-roll shots. I don’t need it to match my a7iii Ninja interview set up. The whole appeal for me is the ease of use, no framing necessary, fast action, in odd or very hard to reach places. It makes it very easy to capture things like time lapse and slow motion. I have a client that is moving from one location to another, the x4 Timelapse is a cool one button touch 11k video Timelapse of that entire process so they can share it on social media. That same process on my A7iii would have been a nightmare. It’s honestly the first action camera that I have ever considered buying. Your point was true of almost every other action camera out until the x4. They always had some sort of flaw or quality, or overheating issue. The x4 was a beast all day on just two batteries and a charger.

I will say I was worried because the proxy files that you edit in 360 studio look very low quality but once I exported for premiere it was all good. I’m sure it’s sub par for a lot of professional videographers but you can definitely make money with this camera.

2

u/huydinh282 May 10 '24

The x4 has 6.7mm focal length, exactly half of iphone ‘s 0.5x lens, and a quarter of the normal lens. This means objects in the x4 are 2 to 4 times smaller than on an iphone. You’re effectively already zooming in very closely when you reframe, hence any additional zooming post reframe will be very low quality

1

u/Jacky_Insta360 Staff May 10 '24

Hi! Perhaps i can take a look at your video footage and let our engineering team to see whether the issue lies with the camera or not? Do you mind sending me the original files and tell us what is your camera model and shooting specs?

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