[Between the 13th November and 31st December 2024 Insta360 have a promotion with 15% off everything https://www.insta360.com/sal/x4?utm_term=INRT7JX. Use my link for a free selfie stick too and help support my website and YouTube channel – thank you!]
The X4 is Insta360’s 4th generation dedicated 360° action camera. These cameras capture everything around you in a 360° sphere. You then use Insta360’s free software to reframe your clips however you see fit. This reframed clip is in a standard format that can be easily viewed and shared.
Their latest camera now shoots in 8K. This is a big deal – even after reframing you’ll still end up with a 4K file – the resolution of most standard action cameras.
I’ve recorded almost 1TB of footage with this camera over the last 6 months. I’ve tested it cycling, running and hiking. All to help you decide whether a 360° camera is right for you. So let’s start with an overview of the X4’s features.
Overview
Just like every other action camera on the market there are endless bundles available. The Standard bundle comes with the camera itself, plastic lens guards, a single battery, a USB-C charging cable, a protective pouch, a lens cloth and a thermo grip cover. I have the Endurance bundle that adds an extra battery, a lens cap, a microSD card, a selfie stick, a fast charge hub and a carry case.
The build quality is very good – on par with GoPro and DJI. The big bump in resolution has resulted in a heavier and bulkier camera. At 201g it’s 23g heavier than the X3 and 52g or 35% heavier than the X2. It still fits in a jacket or even a cycling jersey pocket, but it’s starting to get a little chunky to fit in a jeans pocket.
As well as the extra resolution, the larger camera does accommodate a slightly larger 2.5” touch screen, a new 5nm AI chip, and it now has a 2290mAh battery. That’s 27% more capacity than the 1800mAh battery on the X3 which is very welcome. According to Insta360, that’s 135 minutes at 5.7K and 75 minutes at 8K. I’ll discuss battery life in real use shortly.
The battery charges quickly too at up to 18W – if you’re using a fast charger. Insta360 claims 80% charge in 38 minutes and a full charge takes 55 minutes. If you charge the battery externally with the Fast Charge Hub included with the Endurance bundle it’s even faster.
It takes just 26 minutes to get to 80% and 43 minutes for a full charge.
Unfortunately there’s no built-in storage on the X4. Remove the battery to insert a microSD card, up to 1TB. The card’s logo faces the front screen.
To start using the camera you need to turn it on with a single press of the power button and then connect it via WiFi to the Insta360 app. This will complete the activation and most likely you’ll be prompted to download the latest firmware update which I’d recommend doing.
You can configure and control the camera via the Insta360 app, which is very useful for 360° photographs for virtual tours for example, which I’ll cover briefly later. You can also control the X4 with the GPS Preview Remote I tested with the Insta360 Ace Pro. This is brilliant if the camera is mounted somewhere less accessible.
But the large and responsive screen makes the X4 easy to control without the app or remote in most cases. And since these cameras in typical use are shoot first frame later, you normally can just hold the camera on a selfie stick, or attach it somewhere like on your bike and hit the left record button. Tap record again to stop recording, or you can hold down the record button to delete the recording.
Next to the record button is the lens button for switching between the 360° and the single lens modes. The single lens modes use just one lens like a typical action camera – you can choose the front or rear facing lens. You can shoot at up to 4K, with no reframing required, so you can share files straight away.
Below the power button is the Quick button for cycling through Presets. You can tap on the + icon to add your favourite settings as a preset. Both these buttons can be customised in the Settings menu. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the Shortcut menu. Swipe across to the left and tap on the cog. Then choose the Customise button.
There are so many modes on this camera it can get confusing – particularly with the additional Single Lens modes. Tap on the video icon at the bottom left of the screen to cycle through these modes. You can tap on Single Lens to see all the modes that just use one lens. It might not be obvious whether you’re in 360 or Single Lens mode. An easy way to tell that you’re in Single Lens mode are the black bars you get top and bottom of the preview screen.
I imagine most people, most of the time, will use the camera in 360 Video mode – I know I do. Tap on the resolution and frame rate to choose from 8K down to 4K. In 8K you’re limited to 30 fps. In 4K you now have up to 100 fps. But it’s worth remembering you’ll only get half the resolution or less when you reframe.
In bright conditions I’d recommend 8K 25 or 30 fps depending on your region. Otherwise I’d recommend 5.7K – I’ll show why shortly. There’s also 5.7K+ which downsamples the 8K video for smaller files, but it’s still unsuitable for lower light so I’d avoid it and just get a bigger microSD card personally. MicroSD cards are pretty cheap.
You can also set the field of view: Mega, Ultra or Dewarp for a less distorted image. I mostly use the Mega FOV – it still has a wide FOV but without too much distortion. But you can change all this in the app later so I wouldn’t be too concerned.
Most of the time, you really want to shoot with one of Insta360’s “Invisible” selfie sticks. Screw this into the ¼” tripod mount, tap record and extend it. Video from the camera’s two fish eye lenses are dynamically stitched together to capture everything around you. And one accidental feature of this is that anything on this stitch line is hidden, including the selfie stick. So you can get some impressive 3rd person views even filming on your own.
Stop the recording and then you have two choices to process the footage. This is one potential downside of 360 cameras – you will need to edit this clip before you can share it (unless you use one of the Single Lens modes). But Insta360 does make this pretty easy. You can either use their smartphone or desktop app.
I won’t cover their desktop app in this video – but it’s very capable and it’s my preferred way of editing 360° footage. The smartphone app does look a little busy for my liking, but it’s filled to the brim with features.
To get footage off your camera wirelessly, tap on the camera icon to re-connect with the app. Then tap on Album to see your footage. You can edit and reframe your footage without downloading your clips, or you can download them by tapping on the download icon. I’m a little disappointed there’s no WiFi 6 so wireless transfer speeds aren’t great – typically around 30MB/s.
Fortunately editing clips without downloading them works very well. I could spend a whole video on editing your footage. But briefly, the app provides three editing workflows. First off there’s AI – which does everything for you. It can do a decent job and it’s worth at least giving it a go. And you can go in and edit the clips the AI algorithm generates for a little more control.
Then there’s Quick editing. You hit the record button and then physically move your phone around the 360° sphere. Your movements are captured and converted into smooth transitions. You can also use the virtual joystick to move around the scene.
Finally there’s Pro editing which is traditional keyframing. This might sound intimidating, but I actually find it the easiest mode to use for quick edits. Just position your reframe and tap the + icon. Play the video until you want a change of view and tap the + icon again. Move forward a few frames and tap the + icon again but now reframe to your new view. Insta360 has also introduced some clever automatic transitions. Tap the + icon and then Movement to choose from the huge range of options. I quite like the Zoom Roll.
You can change the aspect ratio of your exported video – choose from 9:16, 16:9, 1:1 and 2.35:1. Then tap on resolution to set both resolution, frame rate and bit rate, then tap Export which exports the file to your camera roll and can be shared like any other video.
If you want to transfer files off the camera, either for backup or to edit in the desktop app, I’m glad to see the X4 finally supporting faster transfer speeds over USB 3.0 – I got around 70-80MB/s Depending on the speed of your microSD card and card reader, you may still get faster transfer speeds removing the card. But it’s nice you don’t have to do that – microSD’s are always a little fiddly to handle and you’re leaving the camera completely exposed when you remove the battery to access the card.
Performance
In bright conditions shooting at 8K, 25fps the quality of the reframed footage is very good – noticeably better than the X3’s 5.7K. And there’s a little more leeway to zoom in a tad further when reframing – especially if you’re sharing for social media.
The quality does deteriorate pretty quickly in more gloomy conditions and I try to remember to switch to 5.7K in these situations. There is still an advantage shooting at 5.7K over the X3 – you now have 50 and 60fps available. I use the camera a lot when cycling and the 50fps does look smoother. You can also extract sharper stills from the video at this higher framerate.
But even in 5.7K, just like the X3 this is not a camera for lower light. There is no dedicated low light mode like on the Ace Pro and Ace 2 Pro. And compared to these cameras and my DJI Action 5 Pro lower light footage is just disappointing. Even compared to my GoPro Hero 13 which isn’t great in low light itself, it looks pretty good compared to the X4. This is not a deal breaker – but just something to bear in mind when choosing a 360° camera, as things stand.
360° cameras do have excellent image stabilisation and this is no exception. When reframing the shot, the software has the whole spherical capture to play providing buttery smooth footage.
By default the camera shoots in the Standard colour mode. Colours look pretty good most of the time, but I’m not a huge fan of how blue skies look on these cameras. You can switch to the Flat colour profile if you’re happy to colour grade your footage, but that’s yet another step and Insta360 doesn’t provide a LUT to automatically do this for you – or at least get you to an acceptable starting point. There is also a Vivid mode for more saturated colours you can experiment with but most of the time I just shoot in Standard mode. In bright conditions I have a preset that uses the Standard colour mode, 8K 25 fps, and set the exposure to -0.3EV.
I’d highly recommend setting up a preset for your favourite settings. Not only can you access this preset quickly with a single press of the Quick button and then a confirmation with the capture button, but you can also set this preset as your QuickCapture. So even with the camera switched off, you can press the Record button and the camera will turn on, record using this preset, and then you can hit Record again to stop the recording and the camera will automatically turn off.
It’s worth noting that shooting at 8K can get the camera very hot. Shooting indoors I measured almost 60°C with my thermal imaging camera. Although even after 20 minutes – the camera didn’t turn itself off. Insta360 provides a Thermo Grip cover with the camera. This doesn’t help with heat dissipation – but just makes the camera more comfortable to hold.
It does offer a little protection too – but I never use it. In real use, outside as an action camera, I didn’t really notice the camera getting hot, and in all my testing over the last 6 months it’s never overheated.
Battery life is improved on the X4. I didn’t quite get 75 minutes in real use but got pretty close. Usually between 60 and 70 minutes of full 8K footage. I still needed to carry a spare battery for a full outing on the bike – but that was usually plenty.
For general use, hiking and running I tend to use the invisible selfie stick. On my bike I really like Insta360’s new out-front bike mount. It’s made almost entirely of metal and can accommodate most bike computers including my Garmin with the various supplied inserts. The camera attaches securely to the front of the mount – you do need an allen key to tighten it. And there’s even a detachable GoPro mount underneath. Perfect for my chunky Exposure light or another action camera. It provides a good view of the trail ahead – but the third person view is a little distorted.
I prefer the third person view of Insta360’s Heavy Duty Clamp that mounts to your handlebar. And if you want to use the Single Lens modes you’ll need to use something like this otherwise you’ll just get a view of the road or the sky. But it’s not ideal mounting on your handlebars – the out front mount is much neater – and has the additional features.
The Single Lens modes make life simpler if you just after a typical action camera shot and don’t want to mess around editing. These modes can now shoot in 4K – the X3 was limited to 2.7K. The quality is decent – again in bright conditions, but I wouldn’t buy the X4 for these modes. You’d be far better off buying an action camera for a lot less money. Still – it’s nice to have the option – and if you’re using the chest mount for example, you’re not getting the full 360° view anyway so it might make sense to simplify your editing workflow.
There are so many other features of this camera, but just to run through a few of my favourites.
It’s not for everyone – but I still love taking photos on 360° cameras – my first 360° camera only took photos! These can be used professionally to create virtual tours, but I’ve been using it to record progress of our house renovation.
There’s completely free software like Marzipano that makes this pretty simple, if you have a way to host your tour. Disappointingly though, Insta360 has removed the auto-bracketing feature in the HDR photo mode. The results are still decent, but it’s all automatic now. For professional and serious hobbyist use the X3 is still the better option – I can bracket up to 9 shots up to 1EV apart! And currently only the X3 is supported by the professional Matterport software!
There’s also Loop Recording which could make the X4 the ultimate dash cam. You can set the camera to automatically record only while you’re driving. Go to Settings | Power-off Charging and set this to Charge and record, and toggle the Stop recording when power source disconnected. You can even choose a specific preset to use only with loop recording.
I tried it with a suction mount attached to my windscreen. It’s a great feature but let down by the poor low light performance of the camera.
The X4 now has four microphones, one on each side of the camera and audio quality is pretty good. But you can also add a Bluetooth microphone. You can here how this all sounds in the accompanying video.
Finally, Insta360 has now added Gesture support.
You can hold up your Palm to start and stop a video recording, or the peace sign for a photo. You need to be fairly close – but it’s a handy feature.
Conclusions
So coming back to my original question. Should you buy a 360° camera? For me the answer is yes – but I’ll summarise with 5 pros, and 5 cons so you can decide for yourself.
You likely already have a smartphone – to some extent that can do the job of almost any other camera you purchase – except a 360° camera. Here’s 5 reasons 360° cameras are sounique:
- The shoot now frame later concept is incredibly versatile. Not only can you point the camera wherever you like and reframe after the fact, you can also add keyframes for multiple camera angles. This can produce far more compelling content from your footage. You can even create unusual reframing Field of Views like Tiny Planet if you’re feeling creative. And the X4, now with 8K provides enough resolution to even zoom in a little;
- You can change the aspect ratio in your edit. So again with a single capture, you can make standard 16:9 content for YouTube etc, but with a single click you can change this to 1:1 or vertical 9:16 for Instagram or TikTok;
- The two lenses create an invisible stitch line – anything immediately on either side of the camera disappears. With a so-called Invisible selfie stick you can create third person footage, impossible with any other camera. In some cases, especially using something like this 3m extended selfie stick from Insta360, you can create footage that could have been shot with a drone. Considering you can’t fly a drone everywhere this can be super useful;
- Using just a 360° camera, the HDR photo mode, a selfie stick on a tripod and free software, you can very quickly create virtual tours, useful for tracking a building project, adding to your Airbnb listing or even for professional work. It could be incredibly valuable for an estate agent for example;
- Even non-360° action cameras have excellent image stabilisation now, but cameras like the X4 have so much information to play with, stabilisation is simply excellent.
But there are a few reasons why 360° cameras aren’t for everyone. Here are 5 reasons they might not be right for you:
- By far the biggest potential downside is the requirement for post-processing. You can’t share your 360° footage from the camera immediately. You need to load it into the smartphone or desktop app, reframe it into standard video, export it, and only then it can be shared. This does not have to be complicated. You don’t have to use AI, or manually add lots of keyframes. You can just choose your preferred camera angle and hit export. And if you do want to get creative, you might enjoy the post-processing. They are loads of options available in the app. But overall, I’d still consider this post-processing a negative. Maybe the next version will have the capabilities to do basic reframing in-camera;
- Low light performance is probably the biggest weakness of the X4 specifically. Its ½” sensors just can’t capture enough light in even slightly dim conditions. At 8K this is even worse than the X3. I wouldn’t be buying a camera like this if you need to shoot in lower light. Insta360 do have their 1” 360° camera, but this isn’t an action camera as such;
- Although the X4 and its predecessors are billed as action cameras and they are waterproof, you do need to treat them far more carefully than your typical action camera. The two bulging fisheye lenses are very exposed and not replaceable. Insta360 does provide plastic lens covers with the camera that can be easily attached and detached as need be. But they will slightly degrade the image even in pristine condition – and being plastic they’re easy to scratch. Optional glass versions of these are available, but there’s an extra expense and they’ll still introduce some loss in image quality. And you need to ensure you account for both lens covers in the stitching software. I’d love to see the cameras’ lenses themselves replaceable in the X5.
Also the shape of the camera can be a little awkward. A more traditional action cam body like GoPro’s ageing Max is less obtrusive on the handlebars of your bike, the top of your helmet or strapped to your chest – in my opinion; - These cameras are getting bulkier with each release. I want to take this camera in addition to my smartphone for hiking and cycling. And whilst I still can – it’s way less pocketable than its predecessors;
- Lastly there’s the price. You can check the current price down below. But currently it’s almost 40% more expensive than say the DJI Action 5 Pro. Its higher price is understandable – it has two camera sensors and lenses. But it’s still a big investment. Fortunately the X3 is still available for about £100 or $100 – and that’s still a great camera.
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