Computer Shopper - UK (2020-05)

ISSUE387|COMPUTERSHOPPER|MAY2020 39

ITMAYLOOKlikejustanotherGoProclone,
buttheInsta360OneRisactuallymultiple
camerasinone.Itsmodulardesignletsitact
aseithera360°cameraor,byswappingina
different mod, a4K, wide-angle action cam.
Youcan even add a1in sensor foreven
better image quality,though this is aseparate
purchase on topofthe outlayfor this
dual-mod bundle.Still, £440 isn’t expensive at
all when you’re getting two very distinct
cameras in one,sothe price could easily be
worth paying if the One Rdelivers on its
promise of maximum flexibilitywithout the
need to carry several different cameras.

HOTSWAP
The core module houses the brains of the
operation, a1.3in colour touchscreen, the
device’s power and shutter button, plus aUSB
Type-C port and microSD card slot covered by
alatched flap.Camera modules can be
attached to this either forwards or backwards,
giving you the option to use the display
normally or as aselfie screen forvlogging.
The battery clips to the bottom of these two
modules, holding everything together.
Attach the 4K camera module and you
have atraditional action cam, capable of
shooting 4K video at up to 60fps and up to
200fps in Full HD.The dual-sensor 360
module,meanwhile,can record 360° footage
at up to 5.7K at 30fps, and you can choose to
crop and reframe the footageafteryou’ve
captureditand export it as a1080p 30fps
video.There are even acouple of battery mod
options, allowing you to choose between a

INSTA360 OneR

★★★★★

£440•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT

AningeniousmodularframeletstheOneR
playmanyroles,butitsmostconventional
actioncamerafunctionletsitdown

MODULARACTIONCAMERA

highercapacityorasmallerunitthathelpsthe

whhholllethhhingfififitintoatraddditionalllmountingcage.

It’sallveryclever,andfairlyrugged,too:

theOneRisratedasbeingIPX8water-

resistant,meaningyoucansubmergeitin

water up to 10 metres deep without the

need to put it in acase.However,there are

issues with the design as well. The 1.3in

touchscreen is alittle toosmall to use

comfortably,and annoyingly,pressing the

record button doesn’t always immediately

record: if you press it while in amenu, you

have to back out of it first.

The One R’s mobile app,bycontrast, is

impressively usable.Itseems to drain the

handset’s battery quitequickly,but being

able to editvideo clipsinplace on the

camera –without needing to download it to

your phone –isgreat.

The multiview feature for360° footageis

also very cool: it enables you to quickly

assemble two points of view from the same

section of footage, with both split-screen and

picture-in-picture options available.

ALL SEEING,ALL DANCING

A f image quality,360°video looks very

dindeed. The One R’s ‘FlowState’

electronic stabilisation works well

even in the most demanding of

situations, with footageappearing

usable and smooth in arange of

lighting conditions.

We preferthe colour rendering

of the GoPro Max (Shopper384)

–even with the One R’s Color Plus

mode enabled it just doesn’t seem as

rally punchy –but it’s still no slouch

regard, and you can always shoot in

nd grade the footageyourself if you

adifferent look.

ewill saythat the in-camera stitching

good as it is on the GoPro Max for

pfeatures.Used judiciously,thiswon’t

hofanissue in day-to-dayshooting

escenery further than ametre or so

awayisstitchedsmoothly,butthedifference

isclllearlllythhherefffor cllloser stuffffff.Overallllll,

however,the resultsfrom the 360 mod are

pretty amazing foracamera this cheap.

The 4K mod, unfortunately,isaletdown.

While it offers no shortage of features and

modes, including slow-motion and timelapse,

4K footageisplagued by visual noise and

other artefacts. Insta360 recommended

turning off Autoaction mode to improve this

and it worked up to apoint, but we still saw

shimmering artefacts to the stabilisation that

were absent from 360° footage.

Most of these issues can be improved

upon by dropping down to 1080p.This sorts

out the stabilisation problems and eradicates

much of the noise,but if you can make do

with the lower resolution, you might as well

just stick with the 360 module.Ontop of all

this, there’s also some poorly implemented

wind noise suppression that turns audio into

aswirly,squelchy mess.

WOUNDED INACTION

It’s possible that some or even all of these

problems could be fixed with firmware

updates, but fornow,the OneRdoesn’t fulfil

its considerable potential. The smartness of

the design and quality of the 360 mod’s

video capture isn’t close to being matched by

the action cam component, while seems miles

off being able to competewiththe exquisitely

clean and stable footageofaGoPro Hero 8

Black (Shopper385). As such, the One Risa

good idea, but only about three-quarters of

the waytobeing agood buy.

JonathanBray

SENSORNotstated•SENSORPIXELS12 megapixels

(actioncam mod), 2x 18 megapixels (360 mod)•MAX

RECORDINGRESOLUTION4K (60fps)•AV CONNECTIONS

None•DIMENSIONS47x72x32mm (action cammod),

47x72x43mm (360 mod)•WEIGHT121g (action cammod),

131g (360 mod)•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS

http://www.insta360.com•PARTCODEOneRTwinEdition

SPECIFICATIONS

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The smartness of the design and qualityofthe 360 mod’s

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