Is the Max as good / easy as the Inst? Seems it doesn’t have the deep tracking option which was my fave feature on the Insta app
I’ve had both replacing my Insta 360X which was not waterproof with the Max which is waterproof. The Insta ironically met its demise swimming in a pool of drinking water in a waterproof pocket on a super-sunny day.
The object/feature tracking on the Insta was very good and I used to fasten (post-production) on a person or a helmet or ski-boot and it would do the rest - very impressive.
On the Max I have done that editing/tracking manually in post and it is not that time consuming at all.
Another advantage of the Insta 360x over the Max was the form factor and weight with the sleek and light Insta beating hands-down the chunky and weighty Max - shame my Insta is now a brick...
I will be carrying a larger supply than normal of zip ties next season....
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Grinning wrote:
BobinCH wrote:
Is the Max as good / easy as the Inst? Seems it doesn’t have the deep tracking option which was my fave feature on the Insta app
I’ve had both replacing my Insta 360X which was not waterproof with the Max which is waterproof. The Insta ironically met its demise swimming in a pool of drinking water in a waterproof pocket on a super-sunny day.
The object/feature tracking on the Insta was very good and I used to fasten (post-production) on a person or a helmet or ski-boot and it would do the rest - very impressive.
On the Max I have done that editing/tracking manually in post and it is not that time consuming at all.
Another advantage of the Insta 360x over the Max was the form factor and weight with the sleek and light Insta beating hands-down the chunky and weighty Max - shame my Insta is now a brick...
I will be carrying a larger supply than normal of zip ties next season....
Thanks. Sounds like you would go Insta360 with the choice?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@BobinCH, I can email you a GoPro Max 360 file and then you can download the Windows player and or Apps and play around with the footage.
Though looking at the file sizes probably best to wait till I'm back in the UK end of next week and drop-box it.
@BobinCH, you can’t track a person in the gopro max post editing. You set a POV with one click and that could easily just be a person.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
only £70 import duty & VAT - still works out cheaper than what they have been selling for on Ebay. Now just need to wait for delivery from the postman.
@BobinCH, “”Thanks. Sounds like you would go Insta360 with the choice?””
If the ONEX had been waterproof, then yes, without reservation. But I think the waterproofing of Max trumps the Insta 360 ONEX for use in skiing. Some of the best shots involve the camera entering the white room and the Insta always came out damp, quick blow off, then back into action - I was lucky it survived as long as it did.
I have never used the insta 360 One R but it fixes the waterproofing issue and it would still use the same stitching software (I think) so the tracking would be there.
I found The Insta software easier to use on phone/iPad than the GoPro software but that may be because I had two full seasons’ use of the Insta and only a few weeks with the Max.
Sacrifice a set of bindings and get both
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Grinning, yup waterproofness without a case is why I went with the max, having had a contour camera in an official waterproof case completely flood when snorkelling!
After all it is free
After all it is free
Grinning wrote:
But I think the waterproofing of Max trumps the Insta 360 ONEX for use in skiing. Some of the best shots involve the camera entering the white room and the Insta always came out damp, quick blow off, then back into action - I was lucky it survived as long as it did.
I have never used the insta 360 One R but it fixes the waterproofing issue
The updated One X, the One X2, is waterproof. Seems to be essentially the same camera, but with a new screen which makes using it a bit easier, plus a redesigned case which offers waterproofing to 10 feet.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
rob@rar wrote:
The updated One X, the One X2, is waterproof. Seems to be essentially the same camera, but with a new screen which makes using it a bit easier, plus a redesigned case which offers waterproofing to 10 feet.
Is it waterproof without the case Rob?
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
kitenski wrote:
Is it waterproof without the case Rob?
Yes, so it shouldn’t have any problems with skiing, use at the beach, in the rain, etc. I think for proper use underwater it still needs a waterproof housing, not to keep it dry but to ensure that the image is stitched together properly.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Evidently, the GoPro Max if using underwater the end quality is suspect, I think I read that there will be an underwater housing to improve the quality of the output.
Think underwater 360 footage will be pretty cool
For kitesurfing, you can but an impressive mount that protrudes from your harness on the back, again that should produce some nice footage.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
This may have been covered elsewhere but anyone have suggestions for best extendable stick for gopro max? The youth needs to get one..
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@skimottaret, this is what I've used and works well whilst being light! https://amzn.to/3wUU3co
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@skimottaret, as I mention here if it's for skiing then don't go for the GoPro Max Grip Stick/Tripod which is too bulky.
I'm not too sure if any UK retailers sell the one I bought which extends longer and is thinner and again as I mention if Googling a GoPro selfie stick be very careful of the end attachment as has to be flush not bend so as to achieve that invisible effect.
I was looking on Ebay.co.uk and amazon.co.uk and was very hard to be sure that the ones listed met those specifications but they must exist ?
Weight and length are the main issues, in my experience. If you want a video which doesn't crop out bits of the rider/ skier then you need a pole which is longer than you'd think. 1.2m or more is good. Which makes weight even more important. Most commercial stuff is too heavy and has too many clips and fiddly bits for my liking. I use a microphone boom for that reason: stiff and light and not much to go wrong. The downside is lack of "telescopic" ability, but most of those things which telescope stop working quite quickly in the real world.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
thanks good info, will pass on
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@skimottaret, I should have mentioned for snowboarders, which I think @philwig, is, then their options are better, as opposed to a skier to be seen to using both poles it's a wee bit more complicated than a snowboarder if that makes sense?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
True enough they work better for boards, I think, and you don't have the complexity of the ski pole things to deal with, hence I've no view on those particularly. I did spend a fair amount of time researching various carbon options, of which there are many including kite spars and archery stuff. I think Insta have just brought out a new pole which may be worth a look, although I've never found any purpose-built stuff (including those built commercially by my mates) to be particularly good.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@BobinCH, that setup will really work in the trees around here
Malou (in that video) and her friend Kajsa have pretty good insta profiles and some good stuff on YouTube for those that haven't come across them before. "Kajsa & Malou" is their YouTube channel.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Last day of covid recovery and isolation - not bored but I have been messing about with ski pole mounts using @Weathercam's rig. Love the way the telescopic pole can rest under the forearm with a normal ski grip.
1. Does the under forearm grip tighten the joint up? Are you happy to leave it reasonably loose and then tighten up "naturally" when gripping?
2. I am fearful that my normal 360 camera mounted on the handle end of my ski pole would be too much of a hazard - esp. going through tight trees...
I'm using an Insta360 telescopic stick which goes out to 120cm. I'm interested to see how short I can make it for skiing so that the rig is as compact and agile as possible (minimise the long lever). Have you tried to optimise/minimise the telescope length on your rig @Weathercam???
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
You might enjoy this. Knocked myself out . About 3 weeks ago.
Managed 3 head to foot impacts but lost the camera on the first one. Insta 360 pole survived intact. Still going to physio twice a week
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
First time out with the GoPro 360 kitesurfing.
Had it mounted to the helmet with a gnarwhal extension but think I'll next try that extension mounted on a base plate to the board.
As I use a directional should be ok.
Was a pretty short session as I lost a fin and the wind eased, so didn't get to film any cutbacks and gybes on the inside, and now looks like no wind on the horizon for a week or so, just as well as body is well trashed after the last couple of days with manic winds.
Been playing around with the video format as landscape does not work too well on Instagram.
In the GoPro player you can edit in 9:16 mode, basically tall portrait which is better suited to phones though 1:1 is the Insta format.
Only issue was the Premiere Elements does not let you work in 9:16 (unless I've missed the setting) so I've been playing around with Filmora X which seems to tick a lot of boxes and is not expensive.
If you view this below on your phone, in the YouTube app and view full screen you'll see how it is so much better.
Necroing this as I just picked up an Insta 360 x3.
The x3 is their new toy weighing in at 180g, 30g more than my original Rylo. That's four years of 360 camera evolution to enjoy. It seems well engineered and stable, with claimed decent battery life out of the box (1600mAh versus the Rylo's 830), plus modern SD cards give more storage than I'll ever need. The mount is a female small tripod screw, you don't need the flexibility of a GoPro mount with 360. As is the fashion it's got more "modes" than you can shake a selfie stick at plus a massive screen, neither of which are likely much use in snow. It's clearly a general purpose toy and has workflows for social media etc. Claims to be waterproof.
The lens layout is similar to the Rylo - two 180 lenses back to back. The Insta body is longer to accommodate the screen and larger battery. The sensor's physically bigger (should give better quality) although max resolution hasn't improved in 4 years. The file bitrates are massively larger for the Insta, so it's retaining more detail. The previews in the editor look pretty horrid, but once exported and loaded into something like Davinci the video looks good.
The main improvement seems to be the applications. Rylo never released their desktop editor, having just a fairly limited keyframing mobile app for editing and export. That was a workflow pain, especially if you wanted to use a standard NLE on the cropped output. Both mobile and desktop apps from Insta are a massive improvement; I think they're shared across all their cameras, and they both feel more mature than most camera manufacturers' stuff. As far as I can tell there's no functional difference between the two apps... I'll likely use the desktop as that's where the power is (the app supports CUDA and... up to 5 parallel CPU threads...). Export is H.264 or ProRes, should be good for more quality, and is similar to rendering from a modern NLE. Keyframing works as you'd expect, but the "deep track" thing actually works, at least in test. However you still can't "improve" on deep tracked stuff by adding keyframes to it.
At best there's a 1:1 dollar/ pound exchange rate on these and their accessories. The camera comes with a neoprene cover so I'm glad I didn't buy their "lens cap" thing. I'll probably chuck it in an old goggle bag anyway.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@phil_w,
Can you mount them in parallel for 3d/vr? The x2 was supposed to be able to do this, but never materialised.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I don't know, maybe. I've not looked for that, and haven't come across it in the docs I've found. Which is something I omitted to mention - the documentation is pretty dire. There's a short multi-lingual "manual" which doesn't cover all the settings, and almost everything else is buried in hours of video you're supposed to watch.
From a snow perspective... it's easy to set it up (or create a "preset") for snow, with the EV compensation and other stuff probably required. You could use "me mode" (which uses only the bottom half of the lenses - the bits pointing down the pole), which will give stable 1080p with pole removed, and does the "tracking" in camera. That's probably mostly for people shooting and using a lot of footage (vloggers?). In snow, you're going to shoot a lot and use almost none of it, so I think full 360 video is way more useful, the upside and downside both being that you can then frame it anyway you like in post. With that mode set it's a single press to power up, beep, light up and start recording... and a repeat to stop recording and power down.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I've had my Insta360 One X for quite a few years and absolutely love the thing - great quality, great stabilisation, invisible stick, love the 360 lens picking up everything so I don't need to worry about where it's pointing. The only downsides are the fact that it's not waterproof so have to be a little careful in the snow, and that in using 360 mode the edited footage goes from 5.7k to 1080 HD.
I'm also aware that it's a few years old and there's quite a few newer models on the market now. And just wondered how much of an improvement the newer models are?
My Rylo was I think the first consumer job... with 5.7K, so in that sense 4 years has given nothing much of an improvement. Well the still image size has gone from 18mp to 72mp, so the sensor is likely significantly better. It's probably physically bigger, although they are cagey about those measurements in all these cameras. The x3 is waterproof - you can swim with it - not that I ever use the things anywhere they get wet.
You're still going to get 1080p when cropping into the 5.7k, sadly. However it response fairly well to Topaz Video Ai (free trial available...) so you can get footage which looks acceptable at 4k on a big screen with that. I've not had this in the snow yet so have nothing to demonstrate that with. Using the Topaz on old Rylo footage definitely cleans it up considerably though.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Thanks @phil_w, really useful - I think I'll hold on to my insta one x for a bit longer, no point upgrading until it's a real game changer. I'll take a look at Topaz Video Ai though, sounds that could be the next step.
Just got the Insta 360 x3 into some back country snow in BC. The processing is good (the auto-tracker is way better than the Rylo was) and it all runs on PCs as well as mobile phones, but I'm going to wait until I'm home with my latest generation graphics card as it's slow even with a powerful dedicated graphics laptop. No real surprise there: it's doing video rendering.
Here are a couple of screen grabs from today's video:
The light was mostly worse than that, but good light makes it easier for the camera. I'm using I think a 150cm pole; you could clearly get away with less (eg the standard Insta pole). 360 cameras don't need to be quite so far away to still capture the whole rider. Even so, I like the wide feel.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Nice photos @phil_w, any length pole seems to look good, but the longer ones do seem to give a real drone effect and give some really impressive footage.
I'm trying to look at what additional mounts to get - as a skiier, holding the camera stick in one hand and my two poles in the other doesn't give the most natural footage. I've been looking at wrist mounts, pole mounts..
After all it is free
After all it is free
The longer pole does seem to reduce the fisheye look of the footage. I always think the 360 cam footage looks like you're constantly about to go over a roll over and it's put me off getting one so far. Phils video might help change my mind......... maybe.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
I should also update that article as I now use an Insta360 pole with a specific adapter that takes the GoPro 360 but the mounting concept to the ski pole is still the same.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Cheers @Weathercam, great article, and really innovative way of mounting to your pole. I'll definitely look into that. Have you got to the point where you're now used to skiing with it, or do you think it still affects your pole technique?
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
. About 3 weeks ago.
