Insta360 X4: An Objective Technical Review

ADDITIONAL INFO:
A few details got edited out of the review as I was trying to trim it down for time, so here are some additional notes:

1. Low light image quality is improved if you drop the video resolution down to 5.7 K /30, however, if I wanted 5.7 K videos I would have bought the X3 and saved some money. They market this as an 8K camera, so it should perform properly at 8K.

2. One of my beefs with the lens guards is that there is nowhere to put them if you take them off. Nobody makes anything like a contact lens case to hold them. The soft case that comes with the camera has pockets for them, but they will not keep them from falling out or being crushed. I wish someone would make a case for the lens guards.

3. On the iPhone app when exporting there is an option for Dolby Vision. Long story short, you should always turn this on. This will make your videos look more natural and brighter when viewed on an iPhone, or any device that supports HDR. Unfortunately, the Dolby Vision export option is not available in the desktop application.

4. The movie files are absolutely gigantic which can make editing and exporting them on your iPhone very difficult unless you have a lot of free space. This is another reason I prefer to edit on the desktop using a dedicated external hard drive.

5. An entire section got edited out about how and where to upload your 360 videos and photos. Long story short, Kuula is a great place for photos, and unfortunately YouTube is the best place for videos even though it degrades the video quality tremendously. You can also upload your videos and to Google Photos, however you will have to pay for extra storage because you will use your 15 gigs very quickly. 

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I have been into panoramic photography for over 2 decades going all the way back to when the stitching was basically done by hand, so I've wanted one of these dual-lens panoramic cameras for a long time. However, I never bought one until the Insta360 X4 because the others were either too expensive or not up to the quality (8K) that I needed. So, after watching the initial round of sponsored reviews I decided to take the plunge. At first I was disappointed that reality was different than what those schill reviews led me to expect, but the more I used the camera the more I began to appreciate it despite its shortcomings. I am hoping that Insta360 will address the numerous software issues in the mobile and desktop apps, but even in its current state this is a lot of fun to play with.

0:00 - Intro
0:50 - What is it?
2:05 - The Hardware & Weight
5:58 - Lens Guards
8:13 - Lens Cap
10:15 - Image Sensors
11:40 - Sample Videos
12:38 - Camera Firmware
15:48 - Insta360 Mobile App
19:26 - Insta360 Studio
28:44 - Image Quality
30:40 - Conclusion