The excellent Insta360 camera technology has, depending on who you follow, largely hit standard aspect action cams hard, with the ability to select shots in the edit, rather than reframing or repositioning the camera live. The clever and easy to master tech has made shooting bike reviews, or even events like Red Bull Rampage, or Moto GP, seemingly, a doddle.
It’s not quite that easy at that level, but we use Insta360’s whenever we can get our hands on them, and they really do represent one of the very best ways to capture brilliant cycling content, quickly, especially if you want something unobtrusive that doesn’t need constant attention, which might otherwise take away from the ride or event you’re participating in.
When it comes to being unobtrusive, whilst there’s little better there is smaller, and to date, the Insta360 offerings have come with a compromise in that they’ve been larger than some conventional action cams, and whilst they’re hardly bulky, you tend to dangle them at the end of a stick, suspended off the front or back of your bicycle, so any ‘miniaturisation’ is going to be very welcome. That’s exactly what Insta360 has been up to with this latest redesign of their 360 camera tech.
Insta360 has taken its X4 compact camera and re-engineered it to make it the brand’s lightest ever 8K 360 camera, with portability at its core.
(Image credit: Insta360 X4)
The X4 Air weighs a claimed 165 grams, which should make it less noticeable when attached to a bike helmet, or anywhere else for that matter, or when carried in a backpack, bike bag or jersey pocket.
But despite its svelte appearance it’s still loaded with features, making it what Insta360 says is “an ideal entry point for anyone looking to explore 360 storytelling for the first time”, as well as being “smarter and more intuitive” than the X4.
It uses 1/1.8-inch sensors to capture its 8K footage, with what Insta360 says is a 134% increase in pixel area per frame compared to the X4. This means more detail and added colour. It also features the brand’s intelligent exposure algorithm, AdaptiveTone, which independently analyses the light from both of the camera’s lenses to better balance brightness and colour across the full 360 image. This is said to work in conjunction with Active HDR, which increases dynamic range in real time, resulting in more lifelike shadows and highlights even when the light conditions are less than ideal, for example when cycling through the forest. There’s also an additional Portrait Mode that automatically detects faces then adjusts accordingly, to reduce the amount of editing required, as well as handy enhance algorithms and noise reduction for images captured at night.
You might also be forgiven for thinking 8k is a little overkill for a few Youtube videos of a ride out with your mates, but the ability to select shots after you’ve finished filming is enhanced by the ability to crop into a shot, without losing too much quality. With an 8k image to play with you’ve a lot of leeway before zooming in starts to denigrate a video you want to upload to instagram for example. You can also pull excellent stills from the footage, and we use them for stills in bike reviews when a close-up of a detail might otherwise have been missed, without losing quality.
As a camera designed for cyclists, skiers and general adventurers it needs to be durable. The X4 Air addresses this by featuring user-replaceable lenses that have a hard optical coating to improve on the drop resistance, compared to the X4. A scratched lens can be swapped “in seconds”, and there are optional guards that can be bought and fitted, too. For those wanting to shoot in the water, Insta360 says the X4 Air is waterproof to 49 feet, or 15 metres. We don’t worry about that too much, but the weather here in the UK can be pretty appalling and we’ve not managed to drown any of the previous versions yet.
As for the aforementioned lenses you get two fisheyes designed to capture every angle, with the accompanying app ready to help reframe your footage when required.
As mentioned, portability is perhaps the X4 Air’s true USP, allowing users to film 360 views, POVs, drone-like shots (with the Invisible Selfie Stick) and more, all without an excess bulk or fiddly setup. There’s even a InstaFrame Mode that records both a flat video and full 360 version that means users can post the footage quickly while still having the ability, and freedom, to re-edit later.
The ‘smarter and more intuitive’ claims are strengthened by a number of tools including the Twist to Shoot option, that allows users to start and stop recording with a simple twist of a selfie stick, while the Gesture Control recognises hand signals to take a photo or start a video, handy when the camera is mounted out of reach, as it often is when we’re making content ourselves.
If you’re a budding cycling influencer, this is going to be really helpful in the production of your own content, especially if you’re making content on your own. There’s also a Voice Control feature, which adds to its versatility.
The X4 Air aims to make editing 360 footage as easy as it does capturing it. The Insta360 app takes raw footage and turns them into polished clips in minutes, using AI-powered tools such as Audio Edit and FlashCut. That’s been really helpful for us here at Cycling Weekly, as few of us come from a content creation background. The X4 Air also integrates with other brands, like Apple and Garmin, so you can sync your location and your performance data directly into your videos.
The Insta360 X4 Air is available in two colours, Graphite Black and Arctic White, with the Standard Bundle retailing for $399.99. A Starter Bundle, which includes a 114cm Invisible Selfie Stick, Lens Cap, and extra Battery, is priced at $439.99. Both include a complimentary one-year Insta360+ subscription for a limited time.
Jamie is using the X5 for events over the winter, and I’ll be using this new camera to capture a little more video from my reviews too, so we’ll report back in the Winter, and let you know how we get on with this new version.
