Seamless 360 Filming
Right out of the box, the Insta360 X3 feels sturdy and strong, made to withstand any potential mishaps. The battery compartment and charging port buttons take a firm push to access, but it just made us trust its waterproof capabilities a little more.
Turning it on for the first time there’s really a wow moment as the screen is so bright and crisp—probably the best we’ve seen on any action cam. Gliding through the different modes is much easier now the screen is twice the size it was compared to the Insta ONE X2.
To access the full range of editing options, you must download the app. Sometimes setting and syncing these kinds of things can be a real hassle, but it was quite simple and ready to edit within minutes.
So, of course, we took some footage cruising around the office and outside to get a quick idea of the different modes and the general usability of the camera itself. It has four buttons in total, and since the front two are “switch lens” and “record/stop recording” that’s all you need to begin with. It’s very easy to use and we look forward to learning more tips and tricks for cool footage.
You don’t need to go into settings and connect to the camera’s WiFi and then find it back in the app, like with GoPro. You just open up the app and the camera pairs up seamlessly. There’s a whole universe of editing options in the app, and a quick tour saw us quickly getting the hang of simple edits.
Like us, you might think that editing 360 degrees of footage is a little intimidating, but Insta360 made a simple system of checkpoints that you’ll get the hang of. If video editing isn’t your thing, you can always select AI and let it do the work for you.
Dual Lens
Insta360 was founded less than 10 years ago, but their cameras have really dropped a bomb on this content-creating era. The secret to their success? The two lenses are twinned with amazing AI technology to produce a seamless globe of footage. Each lens is a fisheye that covers up to 210˚ of footage, so together they create a full sphere of 360˚ footage. This overlap also means the camera can cleverly stitch out the selfie stick.
Let’s say you’re in Hawaii by a feeding station and a beautiful manta ray comes up behind you. Normally your options are to turn with the manta or span your camera around, probably unintentionally cutting yourself out. Or, you just let the manta glide through the scene. Now, with the Insta360 X3’s film sphere, you can capture all the action— the manta and you together—and barely move a muscle.
Clever AI
The implications of AI across industries and applications are still unfolding, but we can’t ignore just how incredibly Insta360 X3 uses AI to stitch the two overlapping videos together to “remove” our selfie stick and the camera itself.
And of course, it does the same when we use the Invisible Dive Case. The camera itself doesn’t know it’s in the case, so we did need to select that when editing in the app. And boom—any shiny plastic is gone. We have previously used the Dive Case so we’re really glad to see Insta360 has fixed that.
Effortless Underwater Filming
If you have used the Insta 360 ONE X2 or ONE R then you’ll see much of the design on the new X3 is the same. There are, however, a few tweaks and upgrades that we think make the X3 a game-changer.
The best improvement is the big, bright rectangular touchscreen. At 2.29 inches, it’s more than twice the size of the X2 screen, and a bit larger than the GoPro Max 360. It can be tricky to see screens underwater, especially in shallower waters that have a lot of glare. Being able to increase the brightness on a much larger screen really made the difference in our dives and snorkel sessions.
Another highlight is the larger sensor, which improves the colors and stability, coming together in Active HDR mode. Active HDR offers superior stabilization and maintains details in both highlights and shadows. We found this really helpful underwater since light can vary a lot in just one scene, producing a lot of unsightly contrast.
A positive side effect of having a small camera that did all the work for us, whether it was capturing the entire scene, adjusting the exposure, or calibrating the colors, was that we had a much more peaceful dive. And, we will likely produce better footage as marine creatures tend to be more comfortable around calmer divers, and even come in a little closer.
Savvy App
Using the Insta360 X3 camera is only half the experience. To access and edit all of the footage, we needed to download the Insta360 app. If you love editing your videos, you might feel a bit like a kid in a candy store—the app is an incredible AI playground with so many options and edits.
As a starting point, you could do your basic edits, such as cutting, cropping, and color correction. Specifically for underwater, there’s a filter called AquaVision 2.0, which quickly color-corrected our diving footage.
But this is 360-degree footage we’re talking about, so where do you crop, and how do you choose which part of the scene to focus on? The user-friendly app made it easy for us to get the compilation we wanted by either tracking (following a jellyfish), or making check marks so our footage would easily flow through different parts and/or angles.
You can choose different Field of Views (FOVs) like Tiny Planet, which you’ve probably seen on social media. FOVs are essentially how zoomed in or out you choose to be; Tiny Planet is when you’re so zoomed out you look like you’re on a little globe.
If video editing isn’t your forte, no worries. You can select Auto, which uses AI to create clever different cuts and compilations for you to choose from. All these edits are just temporary in the app and don’t alter the clip permanently. So, for example, we used Auto to generate and export a video quickly to send to friends and family. Later, we returned to the video to edit it into a cut we wanted to keep.
We were glad to see that the Insta360 App is also available on tablets at full size. We had a lot of footage to go through, and working with a larger and more comfortable device made a big difference.
File Sharing
One setback we found was sharing the files among ourselves once they were in the app. For example, some of us went scuba diving in Malta. When the memory card ran out of space we transferred those files into the phone app.
Now, back in the office, we wanted to extract those files out of the app and pop them on our communal drive. You can export the full file from the camera onto your phone and then transfer them, for example via Airdrop. When we did that and opened the 360˚ file in the Insta360 Desktop Studio they were missing some metadata.
We couldn’t, for example, select Remove Invisible Dive Case or choose to use Aquavision. We aren’t sure if this loss of information is an Insta360 issue or due to our not-always-friendly Apple iPhones.
When we transferred the files from the SD card directly onto our laptop all the metadata was there and we had full control over editing. Of course, any AI editing or special cuts and compilations that are available in the phone app are not available in the desktop program. In the Insta360 Desktop Studio, you can only manually edit and cut the footage.
We recommend that if the card is running out of space and someone else needs the original files, either transfer them to an external drive or pop in a new card. That way you can transfer the original files to the app when you’re ready.
The New Invisible Dive Case
The Insta360 X3 is waterproof to 33 feet (10 m) which is okay for snorkeling or skin diving. However, if you want to take the Insta360 X3 on recreational scuba dives, the Invisible Dive Case is a necessary accessory. Insta360 claims the case is waterproof to 165 feet (50 m); we tested it down to 105 feet (32 m) and it performed well.
When comparing the previous Dive Case with this newer Invisible Dive Case, we liked that Insta360 changed the two bottom clamps to four side clamps. Although we never flooded the camera, users noted that the old case tended to accidentally open and flood. It’s good to see Insta360 listened to its consumers and fixed that issue.
Of course, the main improvement is a clue in the name…invisible. Unlike its predecessor, which had obvious plastic shining at the bottom of the scene, nothing shows with the new case. We can barely see the case when we bring our hand closer to start or stop the video.
In some shots, like the one below, it seems the light is being reflected inside the case, making it slightly visible. To us, it’s so inconspicuous that we would still consider this an invisible case.
Divers can also place anti-fog inserts inside the case. We decided not to use ours and it never fogged. To be honest, we don’t think the inserts are necessary if you just ensure there’s no condensation. However, if you like that peace of mind, it’s a nice add-on.
Price/Quality Ratio
Divers can also place anti-fog inserts inside the case. We decided not to use ours and it never fogged. To be honest, we don’t think the inserts are necessary if you just ensure there’s no condensation. However, if you like that peace of mind, it’s a nice add-on.
The Insta360 X3 Dive Bundle is $547—which is perhaps a lot of money—but we don’t think it’s too expensive. You can use this camera to capture any situation, in any way. The X3 has six video modes and five photo modes, with endless editing options in the app.
And remember, even though this review focuses on the Insta360 X3 as a diving camera,it is even more capable as an on-land action camera. So on your next vacation, what other camera would you need?
Do we recommend the Insta360 X?
Do we recommend the Insta360 X? 1000%! We have tested this camera a few times in the past month and have only scratched the surface of its possibilities. We look forward to learning more and more about it and really exploiting its brilliance.
Specs & Features
| Dimensions | 46.0×114.0x33.1mm |
|---|---|
| Weight | 180g |
| Image Quality | 72MP (11968×5984); 18MP (5952×2976) |
| Video Quality | 360: 5.7K @30/25/24fps; 4K @60/50/30/25/24fps; 3K @100fps |
| Single Lens Mode | 4K @ 30/25/24fps; 3.6K @ 60/50/30/25/24fps; 2.7K @60/50/30/25/24fps; 1080P @ 60/50/30/25/24fps |
| Depth Rating | 33 feet (10 m) without Invisible Dive Case; 164 feet (50 m) with Invisible Dive Case |
| Display | 2.29-inch rectangular screen |
| Video Modes | Standard, Active HDR, Timelapse, TimeShift, Bullet Time, Loop Recording, Pre-recording |
| Photo Modes | Standard, HDR, Burst, Interval, Starlapse |
| Charging | 90 minutes charging time with Type-C USB; run time 81 minutes |
Take a moment to look at this.
