First use of mine today, and when I took it out of the box prior was a tad disappointed in that it's only one position, nigh on upright whereas my system is at right angles to the ski pole.
I'd tested it prior and it didn't really seem to be an issue, however, first run today, I had it on max extension and in my left hand as I was trying to film my Cardo Intercom* unit and the whole setup was not a good experience, combine that with new skis, an overcooked snow along with a manic dog and I soon switched hands and reduced length of pole and asked the OH to hold on to the mutt
I remember when I first used the pole it took a while to get used to and I think this will be the same.
So miffed with my GoPro Max and the GoPro Quik software and upload subscription that I have reverted to an Insta360 x3 - son is getting the GoPro. I started my 360 camera journey with an original Insta 360 but I drowned that in a jacket pocket on a rainy Norway trip. Pleased to be going back to Insta.
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?
@Grinning, I dont pay for quik or upload subs for my max, what’s the issue and how does the insta solve that issue?
I’ve not used it this year but want to take it to Norway so if somethings changed in how I can film and edit with out paying a subscription it’d be worth figuring that out now!
@Grinning, yes I too don't pay - I hardly ever use Quik and do nearly all my editing on the laptop - if I'm uploading it's the final edit to YouTube.
And when I do use Quik I simply connect to the 360 and look at the low res from the 360 on my phone, and then download the still I want or movie clip, that said has been a tad glitchy of late, so for out and out speed take the SD card out and insert into the laptop etc
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@kitenski, @Weathercam,
WiFi connection issues with GoPro that I never had with my first Insta - so annoying - not being able to connect. turn off/ turn on - even in zones where the only WiFi is my GoPro & my phone’s connection - pure frustration!!!
Subscribed to auto upload and that doesn’t work reliably. Going back to reliable connection and looking forward again to the tracking feature on Insta which works so well.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
For someone considering a 360 camera, and who is quite happy to buy second hand/old tech (my proper camera is a Fuji X-T1 which was second hand, as have been all the lenses), what should I consider?
OG Insta 360?
After all it is free
After all it is free
galpinos wrote:
OG Insta 360?
Second gen is a better camera, Insta360 One X2, including waterproof for splashing around in a swimming pool or use in snow.
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.
As far as I can tell the 360 x2 is ok, except you can't tell if it's on or off. They fixed that with the x3. The x4... maybe next season?
Here's some X3 video. I wonder if it'll embed it directly.
Snowboarding in Blue River 2023-24 from phil 45464
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.
I still love my Insta360 One R, and so for my most recent trip I purchased the 3m selfie pole and the waist harness.... well all I can say is it was hilarious! the pole itself is ridiculously long (think carbon fibre fishing rod), and its an all or nothing pole, with no way to just put say half of it out. Its also very light with the carbon construction and as a consequence, really 'bendy'
So I did one 'run' down with it, to pretty bemused looks all the way down
It did get some great drone like footage, but often the flex of the pole made a pronounced bend which the software had no hope of editing out.
So long and short of it, its already gone back on ebay and gone off to somebody else
Might work with a less heavy camera, maybe one of the newer long thin type of insta360's (X3?)
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
Hi all. What laptop are people using for the insta 360 studio?
I bought an Insta 360 x3 last week and got some great videos mountain biking. Looking forward to taking away for our easter ski trip.
The mobile phone app is OK but would like to use a laptop.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Boarderfarce wrote:
Hi all. What laptop are people using for the insta 360 studio?
I bought an Insta 360 x3 last week and got some great videos mountain biking. Looking forward to taking away for our easter ski trip.
The mobile phone app is OK but would like to use a laptop.
What are the benefits editing on laptop over phone app?
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Bigger screen and more functionality. Looks like there are more features using the insta studio software. Just curious what spec laptop people are using and their experiences
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Boarderfarce wrote:
Hi all. What laptop are people using for the insta 360 studio? ... The mobile phone app is OK but would like to use a laptop.
Me, I don't use the mobile app much at all. My phone is powerful, but not that powerful. I also need to back my stuff up, as if you drop the camera somewhere, you lose whatever's on the card. So my approach is:
Have a big card in the camera, shoot only stuff worth shooting, never delete anything.
Backup from camera to laptop each day it's used.
I may play around with some footage on the laptop but mostly I'll just take the odd still out of it.
Back up laptop to my home systems, then when I get home edit on my desktop.
My laptop is for travel... so cheap and light - a Samsung Galaxy Book 3 360, with the smallest memory & cpu I could get... to give all-day battery life & USBC charging. A large micro SD card gives cheap storage without paying for a higher spec machine. The Insta app will auto-track at less than real time on that. Doing that same thing on my desktop is better than real time, as you'd expect from all the flashing lights and heat it generates.
Each to their own. I use other editing tools too, and it's all easier on a large open platform with big hardware resources. I try to spend as little time in Insta's software as possible; it exists to support the camera, it's not a brilliant tool in itself. There is an Insta plugin for Premiere Pro - anyone tried that?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@phil_w, intersing experience.
I was thinking of a new laptop as we need one for home but a desktop has appeal.
What system are you using?
What's your preferred editing software?
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 may have posted workflow before... there are lots of ways to do it. The most important step is in the camera, where avoiding shooting lots of useless stuff makes all this much easier.
I use a machine which was bleeding edge when new, but most modern machines will have plenty of poke. With a decent gaming machine (Nvidia has gaming and "studio" drivers...), this is real time rendering, with the exception of the Topaz which is about 2fps and is the only thing which gets my fans going.
I use in order:
Insta's free Studio for remapping, and export to ProRes222 maximum bit rate (1920x1008).
Import into Topaz AI and up-res to 4k (this is the CPU/GPU intensive bit), export maximum quality ProRes222 4k.
Import into free Davinci and edit the 4k clips.
If you render out to H.265 free DaVinci is limited to use one CPU core and no GPU, so is dog slow on any machine.
Instead render to DNxHD 444 12-bit, which is uncompressed so quick.
Use free Handbrake to convert uncompressed DNxHD -> H.265, which uses all machine resources so is quick.
Upload to Vimeo or whatever.
Note that Vimeo transcoding introduces some artefacts - the originals always look better.
If you don't bother with that resolution boost step (Topaz AI), it's simpler, although you'd still want to avoid compression (so use ProRes222) until the last step and probably hack around the DaVinci limitation. I used to use Premier Pro, and as noted you can probably edit more directly with the Insta plugin for that, but I want to up-resolution before I edit, so that's probably not what I want anyway. Topaz cost $80 or some such, but I figured I'll pay that much and more for a higher resolution sensor when they bring one out, and it does a decent job. It won't produce modern GoPro quality footage, but it's better than the original Insta output.
Insta360 is releasing a new camera next Tuesday (16th April), which looks like a will be a new model in their 360 camera range. The big change seems to be that it will be an 8K camera, so presumably will allow re-framing of the image at, or close to, 4K resolution.
Mine arrived today. Here's the physical comparison with the x3. It's bigger (a bad thing) and heavier. Comes with a beefier case and lens guards (never needed those before). There's a separate frame thing which they say is a heat sink too.
Had a bit of hassle with the firmware updates, which needed me to sign in to their app to work (just running the app didn't work).The USB connexion seemed a bit flaky to start with too. Otherwise, it feels much bigger which isn't good, but has a lot of new features such as voice output/ control and all that malarkey. All the defaults are for 5.7k, not 8k - and there's a lot of talk about heat when using 8k... not a problem for snow use, but I can see why they kept the x3 on for more general use.
Now all I need to do is find some snow. Oh, and I have an x3 to sell on eBay
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
phil_w wrote:
Mine arrived today. Here's the physical comparison with the x3. It's bigger (a bad thing) and heavier. Comes with a beefier case and lens guards (never needed those before). There's a separate frame thing which they say is a heat sink too.
Had a bit of hassle with the firmware updates, which needed me to sign in to their app to work (just running the app didn't work).The USB connexion seemed a bit flaky to start with too. Otherwise, it feels much bigger which isn't good, but has a lot of new features such as voice output/ control and all that malarkey. All the defaults are for 5.7k, not 8k - and there's a lot of talk about heat when using 8k... not a problem for snow use, but I can see why they kept the x3 on for more general use.
Now all I need to do is find some snow. Oh, and I have an x3 to sell on eBay
Nice, I've ordered the Ski Bundle shipping to the US as it's £100 cheaper that way. Picking it up next month, hopefully. It'll be a massive upgrade from my original Qoocam.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@phil_w, bigger size hopefully means bigger battery which is always welcome IME
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 believe the battery is larger, but then 8k burns hot...
I just ran some footage through it, and the extracts are genuine 4k, looking pretty good. I no longer need to "up-res" the stuff. It's raining in this bit of UK so I only did indoors and some limited outdoor tests.
Noise is significant indoors; perhaps the x3 had that too, I only used it in snow. The Topaz AI processing stuff (which I used for up-ressing on the x3) tackles most of that noise, but I'd guess like most of these it's way better in bright light.
There are various "lens guard aware" settings and I used them, but I got some flare off those. I think I'll probably not use them as I never needed them in snow anyway.
Waterproofing is to minus 10m; if I'm that far down I've cocked up.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
