Action cams have come a long way since the days when pilots were forced to carry a camera operator in a tandem. GoPros changed the game, then came the competitors. Today, it’s the Insta360 that is proving ubiquitous in our sport. Are they really that amazing?
Earlier this year the company, which was founded a decade ago in Shenzhen, China, released the X5 – claiming it to be “the smartest, toughest 360º camera ever made”. For years I’ve been a loyal GoPro fan and never felt the need for a 360. One reason – I never loved that super-wide-angle fisheye view that trended a while back. (When the camera is too close to the subject everything can also look really distorted.) I was also put off by the fear that the editing process was more complicated and not as simple as a regular forward-facing camera. But for the past six weeks I’ve been flying with the X5 in the Alps and have been forced to challenge some of my assumptions. Is Insta360 the way to go?
Mounting
The X5 is not the smallest of action cams, measuring 12.5cm along its longest side (although at 200g it’s relatively light). That length does...
