Upcoming Insta360 X4 8K, in less than one hour, here?

[kye]

13 hours ago, gt3rs said:

- operations and UI are snappier than previous models (other than stopping the recording that takes a lot, not sure why)

This might be a blessing-in-disguise, as a lot of cameras actually lose the last few seconds of footage before you hit stop. So it might be compensating for that and making sure no clips are cut short.

[eatstoomuchjam]

Ouch.  I love the cameras that I have from them, but they're going to need to clean up this shady garbage if they want my continued business.  It's not that hard to spot the shills, regardless of sponsorship disclosures, but I still don't want to patronize somebody who is trying to hide it...  partly because it's insulting to the intelligence to think that somebody with a day 1 video doesn't have a relationship with the company.

I'll also note that iphonedo is hardly innocent in this regard as well.  While his agreements with companies like DJI don't specifically remove his editorial independence, he also knows that if he's too critical of their products, the sponsor dollars will dry up.  One can definitely see that he tries harder to be positive in his reviews of their gear than he tried, for instance, with the Karma drone that he mentioned.  It's not a bad quality, necessarily, but just another data point to keep in mind when watching any of the reviews on his channel.
 

 

[kye]

54 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

somebody with a day 1 video doesn't have a relationship with the company

Yeah, I assume that too.  

55 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

While his agreements with companies like DJI don't specifically remove his editorial independence, he also knows that if he's too critical of their products, the sponsor dollars will dry up.

I've always been conscious of this too.  The only potentially impartial reviews are when the person buys it anonymously like any member of the public would, gets it the same time it ships to everyone else, then they put it through their paces.

The other issue with "reviews" that aren't long-term reviews is that the person hasn't had the product for long enough to really test it.  People like Gerald might know what shortcomings to look for and actively go looking for them, but no-one can test reliability in less than a week.  

I find the same issues with product reviews on Amazon etc - they are essentially first-impression reviews.

[gt3rs]

Nothing really new and I'm sure is not just insta... but is indeed bad. They produced good stuff no need of these bad behaviors.
The good news is that the more and more of this comes out and hopefully people will learn to be very skeptical about those reviewers....

I normally just skim true and look at the video to get an idea. Very fishy are also the comparison gopro vs insta and so on..... 

I wish some will simply create some good footage and do a bts and not bla bla gamechanger, why I switch, best ever, is so much better than camera b and worst of all with a stupid face on the thumbnail.

This is the only one that I really liked, sponsored yes, but starts with really good footage and goes in to how he did it. Still a big Ad, but much better than all these pseudos expert reivewers crap
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHT27gW91kU

 

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

If you just want footage with no commentary, markr041 who is a user here has a YouTube channel and he tends to try a pretty decent number of the cameras that come out.  They're usually decently shot and I don't think I've ever even seen one where he talked about the camera (or even showed his face).  😃

[ac6000cw]

The situation with review content being affected by commercial interests is nothing new in the slightest...

Many years ago I was asked if I was interested in doing a product review for a now long-gone print magazine. I tried to be as fair as possible when I wrote it, but thought the product had some usability/compatibility issues that needing fixing. The version of the review printed in the magazine had some of my criticism watered-down, I assume partly because advertising revenue related to the product was important to the finances of the magazine.

I only did a couple of reviews for the magazine in the end, mostly because the amount they paid for them wasn't much in relation the work involved in testing a product properly (and I wasn't interested in doing quicker, more superficial reviews).

[kye]

2 minutes ago, ac6000cw said:

The situation with review content being affected by commercial interests is nothing new in the slightest...

Many years ago I was asked if I was interested in doing a product review for a now long-gone print magazine.

I watched this video recently about synthesisers and recording equipment magazines (which operate incredibly similarly to cameras) and yeah, print magazines almost make YouTube reviewers look honest by comparison.

TLDR:

• he analysed a magazine from 2002 and out of 188 pages, 79 were full page ads (he didn't even bother to count half-page ads either, so the ad coverage was way higher)
• all reviews were positive except for the odd little minor comment, and none of the sub-category scores in any review were even below 2.5/5 (except one product which got 1.5/5 for a subcategory, but that was because it had too many ads!!)

 

[Emanuel]

2025 model is arriving... this April 22.

Updated X series version.

A few people say it is the last one of this design. Both their teaser and this beta tester hint that we'll have an interchangeable/swappable lens camera this time...

 

[Emanuel]

«seems that Inst360 plans to install a larger 1/1.28-inch camera sensor with up to 133% better light performance»

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Insta360-X5-New-leaks-reveal-pricing-specs-and-early-camera-performance-ahead-of-schedule.1002234.0.html

[eatstoomuchjam]

Officially announced. If I had an X4, I'm not sure that the new features would convince me to upgrade, but maybe they're enough to convince people who were on the fence to go for it.

The leaked info that Emanual added seems right overall.

https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-x5

[Chrille]

I just borrowed the X4 from a friend and somehow it is so much fun to work with it. Especially the post process when you just tweak some settings and get a super different picture - add some keyframes and the whole thing becomes super dynamic. That being said its strange that you somehow get accustomed to the effect pretty fast.

Size and battery life are nice too.

For the X5 i am really wondering how it will perform as "normal" camera. 1,26" is bigger than Super 16mm isn't it?

[eatstoomuchjam]

On 4/22/2025 at 8:40 AM, eatstoomuchjam said:

Officially announced. If I had an X4, I'm not sure that the new features would convince me to upgrade, but maybe they're enough to convince people who were on the fence to go for it.

Apparently one of those people on the fence was me?

So far, I like it.  Views from the 8K mode might be enough to use as quick inserts on a 4K timeline without being overly jarring. 

The 71 megapixel photo mode is really pretty good too.  I shot the thing below into the sunset.  The tree branches near the setting sun don't look awful and there's some detail on my face.  I just need to remember to hold the selfie stick more casually so the hand is less noticeably funky after their software subtracts it out.  The image SOOC (as below) isn't too bad.  It'd probably only be a few minor tweaks in curves to get the look as I'd like it. 

Pureview HDR seems to introduce artifacts on things that are moving more than a little bit.  Like holding the selfie stick at a 45 degree angle in front of myself, my feet looked a little weird as I walked.

I'm still not sure about using the camera for more than inserts for anything serious, but if I can get over my shame at holding a selfie stick with a little UFO on the end, it could be a pretty great tourist camera.

[BTM_Pix]

It’s unfortunate that AI has such a weird issue generating hands as it would be ideal for the camera to also create something that looked more natural when it is doing the selfie stick removal.

Aa it stands everyone is walking round in these videos looking like a 1970s Action Man with the gripping hands.

Its an impressive camera though all the same.

[Emanuel]

To me this is the only advantage I see for the 2025 model and is not little, even though the room to improve in future versions with a larger sensor size when will come... Brandon Li's entry:

 

And this is the other reviewer I'd rather recommend for everything 360º related (which brings some other 10-bit contender to the equation and is a 2024 model instead) -- apples to oranges but not exactly a minor upgrade which each year devices actually are, driving your pocket just lighter. 

Buy wise/informed.

[gt3rs]

It is more a 4.1 version than a 5, but some good refinements:

- Mics with integrated wind shields, on my X4 I use the velcro wind muffle but they are quite bad and I lose them often. From the reviews audio in windy conditions seems much improved but who trust reviewers nowadays... 

- Replaceable lens, I never scratched mine but I got very close a few times.

- Finally a quick release mount!

- Pure view + larger sensor, curious to test this with MTB as the X4 needs really good light to work, already in daylight in the forest the X4 breaks a part.

They now have also an external mic but nobody is speaking about.... unfortunately it does not seems like the DJI Mic 2 and Osmo Pocket 3 that can do 32 float internal in the transmitter while sending good quality to the Pocket 3.
Insta360 X4 Bluetooth mic just sucks, not sure something has changed in the X5 and if the new Insta360 Mic Air is a normal Bluetooth Mic then is a big miss.