Every year, action camera companies come up with new and often increasingly advanced models that fix some things and keep the rest the same. Insta360’s One RS is a different kind of action camera with interchangeable modules for future flexibility.
Build quality and design
The Insta360 One RS It is designed as a modular system where a complete unit has a core display piece, a lens piece and a battery base that both sit. With that in mind, the Insta360 One RS can be a few different types of cameras depending on the lens unit actually used. Includes a 5.7K 360-degree lens module, a 4K boost lens module and a 1-inch wide angle lens module.
The three pieces that complete the system are easy to attach and disconnect, yet I have not had any incidents or concerns about accidental disconnection. Uses a simple sliding switch to unlock the battery base and pulls the display and lens apart. For more security and overall added utility, the system comes with a Mount brackets Not only does it lock everything together behind a hanging door, but it also has a heat-scattering design and a microphone windscreen cover.
Mounting brackets are the ones that add two-prong accessory attachment points because they are not on devices like the GoPro Action Camera. In use, the good thing about it is that I can open the door of the mounting bracket and it is currently attached to something that can slide the One RSK without closing the bracket; I can’t do this with GoPro. So if I want to replace the 360-degree lens for a boost lens, it’s too fast and I don’t have to reconnect my mount.
When you look closely at the build quality, almost everything looks like plastic, rubber or exterior glass. Insta360 claims that the One RST is waterproof under 16 feet (4.9 meters) of water, which is impressive considering that there doesn’t seem to be a ton of tight ceiling around the electric hookups that attach the battery to the battery base or core. Lens unit. Apparently, it is considered waterproof with only the brackets turned, but I don’t see any obvious way that it improves the ceiling anywhere. I put one RSK underwater on the beach, and the only thing that really went wrong was how much sand got stuck on all the small edges.
I’ve been getting the One RS for a few months now and it’s usually dropped on the display next to the lens and bag next to my hiking backpack. As such, it does not have scratches – good news because the glass is not user-replaceable. The 360 lens comes with a Rubber cover Since the two bubble lenses cannot easily avoid contact when you place it somewhere. The downside is that the cover is poorly designed because it picks up all kinds of lint and dirt and the lens you don’t want to rub with falls off easily and I guarantee you will lose it quickly. I miss it almost every time I use OneRS, and sometimes it means following my steps to find out where it fell on the trail.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery base has a capacity of 1,445 mAh. It takes a little over an hour to recharge when the battery is low and this is done through a USB-C port in the core module when connected to the battery base. Battery life will vary depending on how the OneRS is being used, whether it’s primarily for still shooting or long 6K widescreen video with still shooting or a boost lens. My review unit came with a single battery base, and it was always enough for me in the months that I was initially using it for video. A battery sustains me through day trips where I can recharge at the end of the night. The extra battery costs only 30Which gives me how far it gets.
Image quality
I used a 4K boost lens and a 5.7K 360 lens for this review. There’s also a third lens module, co-engineered with a wide-angle lens leaker that packs a 5.3K 1-inch sensor, but it’s not included in my review kit.
5.7K 360 lens
I’ll start with the 360 lens first because when it comes to image quality, it’s confusing what we’re really getting out of it. In terms of video, it is labeled as a 5.7K lens. This is technically true, but it is calculating the full double-lens, 360-degree field of view frame, which is not yet a usable part of the footage. After taking raw 360-degree footage and reframing it into a standard-looking horizontal frame, the resolution output is 1080p. Oddly enough, the output is always 1080p, whether the original footage is shot in 5.7K, 4K or 3K. Based on the quality of the footage, I guess the 5.7K output is a native 1080p, and the others are being scaled.
This is a similar concept for photos where a 360 lens takes a 2: 1 viewfinder that is 6,080 by 3,040 pixels, however, when it is reframed to look more like a normal image, the export drops to 3,840 by 2,160 pixels.
Things get even more bizarre when looking at frame rate options. Every second standard contains a mixture of NTSC and PAL frames, but it is mostly PAL. Regular video with a 360 lens is 30 frames per second in 5.7K, 50 or 30 frames per second in 4K but not 60 frames per second, and 100 frames per second in 3K but not 120 frames per second. When trying to output 100 frames per second in the Insta360 Studio app, only 25p, 50p, and 100p, without any NTSC option. There is no option to shoot HDR video with lens only 25 frames per second and 24 or 30 frames per second. If you use only one RS footage in conjunction with another RS footage, it may work, but mixing this footage with other cameras in an NTSC-based project will depend on how well your video editor can hide mixed frame issues. Rate
Below are some video samples of 360 lens use It should be easily clear that its strength is not the quality of the image. The details are easy to wash off and have endless sound and compression artifacts regardless of the state of the light. The photo shows strong colored fringe and “smoky” edges.
What redeems a 360 lens is the ability to set it somewhere to record and then add movement to the post, refram the composition in front of or behind the camera, or continuously track moving objects. The Insta360 Studio app on computers makes keyframing easier.
Another problem with 360 lenses is that the final reframing footage sewn between two lenses is almost always clear. This prevents the camera from being able to refram in any direction as it will show a long seam through the video pointed to the side. One RS usually needs to point in the right direction for the most clear-view footage.
4K boost lens
The 4K boost lens is much more straightforward and has a frame rate that is understandable. This module has a 48-megapixel 1/2-inch sensor and the resulting images are still not of great quality, an improvement over the 360 lens. Noise is noticeable in all ISO settings, and details are not resolved.
The camera can shoot 48-megapixel standard photos in JPEG and RAW or 12-megapixel HDR photos. It can record 4K footage up to 60 frames per second and 1080p footage up to 120 frames per second, also below all expected frame rates. There’s also a 6K widescreen mode that captures video with a 2.35: 1 aspect ratio of 24 or 25 frames per second.
Or
For me, the boost lens was a go-to for cleaner-looking shots. It can shoot photos that do not look completely distorted with much higher image quality. Of course, I’m losing the reframing power of the 360 lens, but it’s not something that will always be needed.
Some things are better than others
Having a 360-degree camera in a small form factor makes it much easier to create content than a standard action camera. I brought this with me to several occasions for capturing behind-the-scenes footage where I didn’t want to bother with position or composition while my focus was elsewhere. Below are some examples of behind-the-scenes footage of Insta360 that was mixed with my primary camera in a larger project shot.
One RS has figured out how to get the best experience for a 360-degree camera through capture and software, so this is a great place to start and hook up. Even by formatting a card, the company has found the right sequential file naming – something I’ve never seen a microSD device do before. The multi-use capability of the modular system means that I can always change things without having to buy a completely different camera with different accessories.
Although it is not a perfect camera, and the picture quality will turn off some people. I find it a tradeoff where I get at least one shot because it deals with a more complex setup rather than ease of use which I probably won’t bother with.
Have options?
Insta360 One RS is an updated version of the previously released version One more. Due to the modular capacity between One R and One RS, many pieces are interchangeable. Insta360 There is a support document This makes sense of the compatibility of the two cameras and their components.
Other than that, there is no substitute for the idea of a modular 360-degree camera that can switch to a regular action camera with a few other techniques for booting that I am aware of. If flexibility isn’t critical, either go with a straight-up action camera GoPro HERO 10 Or like a pure 360 camera Insta360 ONE X2 Will be worth checking out.
Will you buy it?
Yes. The Insta360 One RS Too-to-toe doesn’t match the image quality from a larger sensor camera, but I’m still going to use it again and again. Capturing an entire scene with a 360 lens makes it very easy to refram the video later or switch it out and use a 4K boost lens for better images with less distortion.
