Insta360 One

[BTM_Pix]

I know 360 video isn't everyone's cup of tea but the potential offered by this particular one (in terms of what it can do rather than the quality it can do it with) is pretty fascinating to me.

I have the Theta S and its actually pretty great for holiday pictures and family stuff to be honest and I was intrigued by the new V version of it announced today but linked in the article I was reading was the Insta360 One which is also ready to be released and I hadn't seen it before.

Yes, the quality of it is a million miles off where it needs to be but watching this video with Lok, its got amazing potential for vloggers and the ability to "shoot first and point later" as they put it and then use the app to post reframe and track faces etc to make regular video from is very cool.

It makes me think that this is a far more interesting use for this technology than what everyone originally intended we should be doing with it which is to strap a pair of goggles on to immerse yourself in what you've shot (though even on a low res device like the Theta this is actually good fun). If this is what can be done for $399, it doesn't take much of a leap to imagine what we could have for $1500 if one of the bigger manufacturers got involved.

I hope that the tricks this thing can pull of might attract their attention.

By the way, if you watch the official video for it (as Lok's attempt was a bit of a fail) the bullet time using a piece of string thing is crude but genius !

 

[gt3rs]

17 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I know 360 video isn't everyone's cup of tea but the potential offered by this particular one (in terms of what it can do rather than the quality it can do it with) is pretty fascinating to me.

I have the Theta S and its actually pretty great for holiday pictures and family stuff to be honest and I was intrigued by the new V version of it announced today but linked in the article I was reading was the Insta360 One which is also ready to be released and I hadn't seen it before.

Yes, the quality of it is a million miles off where it needs to be but watching this video with Lok, its got amazing potential for vloggers and the ability to "shoot first and point later" as they put it and then use the app to post reframe and track faces etc to make regular video from is very cool.

It makes me think that this is a far more interesting use for this technology than what everyone originally intended we should be doing with it which is to strap a pair of goggles on to immerse yourself in what you've shot (though even on a low res device like the Theta this is actually good fun). If this is what can be done for $399, it doesn't take much of a leap to imagine what we could have for $1500 if one of the bigger manufacturers got involved.

I hope that the tricks this thing can pull of might attract their attention.

By the way, if you watch the official video for it (as Lok's attempt was a bit of a fail) the bullet time using a piece of string thing is crude but genius !

 

I agree and the potential is huge and I belive most people have not yet realized the impact that will have in a few years.... having a full sphere stabilized where you can later on reframe and do camera movement in post especially as b cam it is huge. Currently the end quality is way too crappy but with 8k a better sensor and lens and it will become super usefull.

I'm curious to see the gopro fusion if it is better althroug I'm not expectin miracle at this time.

[Grimor]

I get one today for 200€, so next week i'll be doing freaking things with it.

[kye]

This is the tech of the future for non-professional shoots I think.

It's the perfect answer to recording everything and then sorting out later what was interesting and what wasn't.  The fact you can hold it out in front of you and extract multiple camera angles from it and then cut between them is absolutely genius.  

It's basically a flying multi-cam setup that can record:

• You
• Wider shot of you in environment
• Where you're looking
• Interesting things going past
• etc.

and all in a package that's no larger than a fat selfie stick.

I imagine taking this to fairs, concerts, and on holiday.  When it gets 8K capture with reasonable codec it will have the resolution required when you crop in, but currently consumer 4K doesn't cut it except for wide shots.

[Emanuel]

 

[Grimor]

@BTM_Pix my first 360°

 

[BTM_Pix]

14 minutes ago, Grimor said:

@BTM_Pix my first 360°

 

A great application for it.

They have something new being announced on the 21st.....

[jhnkng]

I know there are people who mount GoPros on their cameras to get a wide while shooting run and gun (mostly freelance news or fast moving doc crews), and I wonder if this would be an even better solution to having a second wide angle to fall back on in case you miss something while shooting longer. Assuming the footage can be cut in to each other, I think this could be a really good option when shooting docs or really fast moving scenes where getting the shot is more important than it being beautiful.

[webrunner5]

I can see this one being a hell of a lot more practical, You can change views in post.

 

[BTM_Pix]

On 8/18/2018 at 2:56 PM, BTM_Pix said:

They have something new being announced on the 21st.....

Turns out the something new was a new version of the Pro.

Its 8K (yay) but £5K (rather less yay)

https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-pro2/

[kye]

10 hours ago, jhnkng said:

I know there are people who mount GoPros on their cameras to get a wide while shooting run and gun (mostly freelance news or fast moving doc crews), and I wonder if this would be an even better solution to having a second wide angle to fall back on in case you miss something while shooting longer. Assuming the footage can be cut in to each other, I think this could be a really good option when shooting docs or really fast moving scenes where getting the shot is more important than it being beautiful.

I've tried this type of rig and there are a few issues.  The first issue is that the wide angle of the GoPro makes it difficult to mount so that it can't see the lens or the shotgun mic that are also sticking out the front, let alone your hand playing with the zoom / focus rings.  The second issue is that a second angle is most useful to cut to when something bad happens to the first angle, but if they're mounted together and someone bumps the camera (or some other movement issue) then footage from both cameras are bad at that point.  If you don't need continuity editing and only need a second focal length then it might be ok.

It would depend on the particular setup.  If I was shooting with a tripod then I'd be tempted to mount the GoPro either quite a lot higher up than the main camera (for events perhaps) or maybe 30cm or so to the side, so they'd still be sharing a single tripod.  This would mean that when you cut between them the angle is a bit different and it doesn't just look like a jump cut with a bit of a crop thrown in to try and cover it up.

[jhnkng]

On 8/23/2018 at 1:02 AM, kye said:

I've tried this type of rig and there are a few issues.  The first issue is that the wide angle of the GoPro makes it difficult to mount so that it can't see the lens or the shotgun mic that are also sticking out the front, let alone your hand playing with the zoom / focus rings.  The second issue is that a second angle is most useful to cut to when something bad happens to the first angle, but if they're mounted together and someone bumps the camera (or some other movement issue) then footage from both cameras are bad at that point.  If you don't need continuity editing and only need a second focal length then it might be ok.

It would depend on the particular setup.  If I was shooting with a tripod then I'd be tempted to mount the GoPro either quite a lot higher up than the main camera (for events perhaps) or maybe 30cm or so to the side, so they'd still be sharing a single tripod.  This would mean that when you cut between them the angle is a bit different and it doesn't just look like a jump cut with a bit of a crop thrown in to try and cover it up.

Thanks for your insight, it's great to hear from someone whose actually done it! I like using an EasyRig whenever I can, and  I'd love to try rigging an Insta360 to the top of one, I think that could be a solution to some of those issues you mentioned. 

[kye]

1 hour ago, jhnkng said:

Thanks for your insight, it's great to hear from someone whose actually done it! I like using an EasyRig whenever I can, and  I'd love to try rigging an Insta360 to the top of one, I think that could be a solution to some of those issues you mentioned. 

A 360 camera may be a much better second camera than a GoPro actually, so I think that's actually a good idea.

A 360 camera will probably control exposure via shutter speed and you won't be able to put NDs on it, and will therefore have very short exposures.  This combined with the fact it's 360 means that you can stabilise in post and it will probably be completely fine even if someone bumps the setup.  The ability to choose framing after the fact also means you not only have the variety of shots to choose from but you can ensure that the camera and operator never get in frame.

My recommendation would then be to put it up higher so that the angle that the camera/operator will be included in will be a lot less and you'll be able to use wider shots.  You only have to hold a camera a tiny bit above head level and it looks like drone footage, so there's that too.

Low bit-rate 4K spread across 360 degrees makes footage pretty grainy so you want to use the widest shots you can, so the further away from the operator it is the more unobstructed field of view you will have to play with.

Best of luck - it sounds like it would actually make a pretty flexible B-cam.  I hadn't thought about it in this way either, so this conversation is useful to me too.