This is the new $500 Insta360 X4. It is capable of 360 video at 8k, 30fps, 5.7k, 60fps, and 4k, 100fps. It can take 72MP 360 degree photos. It is waterproof down 10 meters. It has great stabilization, a battery rated for 75 minutes of 8k footage, and it has a much improved removable lens guard system. But unlike previous X series cameras there are no fancy software tricks or large hardware overhauls in the X4. Which begs the question: has the X series hit its peak?
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 Insta360's X-Series.
00:02 It is the company's most successful camera lineup to date,
00:05 and it's their flagship 360 degree action camera.
00:09 The X3 sold over 1 million units
00:12 since its launch in September, 2022.
00:14 But as a whole, they're starting to look a lot
00:17 like a camera series that we all know real well.
00:20 I'm Becca, welcome back to Full Frame.
00:22 Let's talk about how Insta360
00:23 is gonna solve the hero problem.
00:28 This is the new $500 Insta360 X4,
00:31 and there are really only two things
00:33 you need to know about it.
00:34 It's capable of 360 video at 8K 30 frames per second,
00:37 so clear some space on your hard drives,
00:39 and it has a new removable lens guard system.
00:42 Spec bumps can be a big deal, and 8K is no small feat,
00:45 but the X4 is a unique product for Insta360
00:48 because that's pretty much all they gave us this year.
00:50 There aren't any fancy software tricks,
00:52 like the Mi Mode that we got on the X3.
00:54 It uses both lenses to create a POV
00:56 from the bottom of the camera for use with a selfie stick.
00:59 And there aren't any fancy Shot Lab features
01:01 that started rolling out with the X2,
01:03 like the AI Warp that puts an artistic look
01:05 onto your footage.
01:06 And lastly, the design language stayed almost the same
01:09 from the X3, except for the fact
01:11 that the X4 is a bit bigger,
01:12 which is a first for this lineup.
01:15 All of this is starting to signal to me
01:17 that the X4 might represent the final form
01:20 of the X series lineup.
01:22 Sort of how in 2016, when the GoPro Hero 5 was launched,
01:25 well, that kind of became the final form
01:27 of the GoPro Hero lineup.
01:29 In the first half of 2012,
01:32 GoPro was responsible for 21.5%
01:34 of all digital camcorder shipments in the US.
01:38 And later that year, when the GoPro Hero 3 launched,
01:41 it was the highest selling POV camera on the market.
01:43 This was because of a few things.
01:45 First, GoPro was at the right place at the right time.
01:48 More typical point-and-shoot cameras
01:50 were rapidly being replaced by the cameras on our phones.
01:53 While GoPros offered folks a unique POV
01:55 from a camera that could take falls and go underwater,
01:58 so long as it was in its housing.
02:01 And second, GoPro's marketing was incredibly strong.
02:04 By 2013, GoPro logos were seen all over action sports.
02:08 Take for example, the 2013 X Games Aspen.
02:11 You can see GoPro logos here, here, and even here,
02:15 on Sean White's helmet, when he landed the first triple cork
02:18 in X Games slopestyle history.
02:20 But GoPro marketing wasn't only on our TVs
02:23 and on our favorite athletes.
02:25 Anywhere a GoPro was sold, there was a TV next to it,
02:27 showing all the amazing things you could capture with it.
02:30 But by 2016, sales of the Hero camera were down,
02:33 and the infamous Karma drone
02:35 was literally falling out of the sky.
02:37 But I don't need to talk about Karma
02:40 or how big this drone is, oh my God.
02:43 I don't need to talk about any of this
02:46 to continue talking about how the Hero line up.
02:48 Ah, God.
02:50 How the Hero lineup plateaued.
02:53 The bigger problem with GoPro's Hero line
02:55 was that it oversaturated its own market.
02:58 I mean, everyone had one of these cameras,
03:00 and they had nothing more to do with it
03:01 or to learn from it.
03:03 And this is the GoPro problem.
03:05 How do you keep people's attention
03:07 when innovation starts to slow?
03:09 In a lot of ways, Insta360 has already begun
03:12 solving this problem for itself
03:13 by taking its camera tech and putting it
03:15 into other products.
03:17 This includes a webcam, the tiny Go cams,
03:20 a 360 drone attachment, and even a gimbal.
03:23 But I wanna talk about the X series
03:25 specifically in relation to the Hero series,
03:28 because, I mean, for starters,
03:30 it's Insta360's most successful product.
03:33 And also, its whole launch and beginning
03:36 and the way it's continuing
03:38 mirrors the Hero lineup almost to a T.
03:40 So first, Insta360 launched a camera
03:44 that most folks had never seen before,
03:45 and one that was far more versatile than our phones.
03:48 Then the company showed people what they could do with it,
03:51 not by putting it on screens in stores,
03:53 but instead paying a lot of money to influencers
03:55 who then made videos about it and flooded our algorithms.
03:58 And now, in a real full circle moment,
04:01 there's a Shaun White partnership
04:03 with the Insta360 X3 Camera Snow Kit,
04:06 which is simply a camera bundle with mounts and such.
04:10 In this time, the cameras in the X lineup
04:11 have been improving in both hardware and software.
04:14 Here's each camera in the lineup
04:15 recording the same 360-degree scene
04:18 with the One X on the far left,
04:20 all the way to the X4 on the right.
04:22 The good news is Insta360 has seemingly found
04:28 what works best in a consumer 360-degree action camera.
04:33 The software is easy to use and footage is easy to edit.
04:36 The hardware looks and feels great.
04:38 The footage is punchy without looking like bad HDR,
04:41 and it is super steady.
04:44 The problem with all that is we've been saying most of that
04:46 for at least two generations,
04:48 but we definitely said all of that with the X3.
04:51 There are a few new pieces of information
04:53 I can add to the story this year with the X4.
04:56 First, 8K creates heat, and this camera does get warm.
05:00 It even overheated on me
05:01 while filming this hyperlapse on a plane
05:03 that was supposed to be a view out the plane window,
05:05 but since that was overexposed,
05:07 it became a hyperlapse of me sleeping.
05:09 Second, the battery life is solid despite the 8K.
05:12 Even after overheating, the camera cooled down a bit
05:14 and I was back filming with a battery
05:16 that still had plenty of juice.
05:18 And third, the mics are so good,
05:20 and they do a great job of picking up on voices.
05:23 Okay, wait, this is my favorite run,
05:27 and they opened it up,
05:28 but I don't know when they opened it up.
05:30 It's gonna be a mad sketch.
05:32 Here we go.
05:33 Okay, sick, sick.
05:36 Yup, yup.
05:38 Lastly, if you'll be viewing this footage
05:39 on anything larger than a phone,
05:41 8K is great and certainly crisper than the 5.7K on the X3.
05:46 That being said,
05:48 if you won't be viewing it on anything larger than a phone,
05:51 save yourself the 100 bucks and stick to the X3.
05:54 So the question that remains for me
05:56 is that if the X4 is in fact the final form of this lineup,
05:59 and like the Hero lineup,
06:00 we're just gonna see small spec bumps year over year,
06:03 instead of 360, what are you gonna do next
06:06 that is as successful as this?
06:09 This is a company that doesn't sit still.
06:12 This is a company that will surprise you
06:14 and put out, I don't know, a webcam randomly.
06:17 This is a company that wants to disrupt markets
06:21 and wants to keep outpacing itself.
06:25 This is not a company that puts out a camera
06:27 with a small spec bump.
06:29 And so I know that their solve
06:31 will be doing something that none of us expect.
06:33 And I'm excited to see what that product is.
06:37 (whistling)
06:40 (whistling)
06:43 (whistling)
06:45 (whistling)
06:47 (whistling)