DO NOT BUY the Insta360 X3!

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

recently I bought myself this brand new

Insta360 X3. It is a 360 action

camera, kind of like the GoPro in terms of

functionality but with added 360

abilities. And the reason why I bought it

was because I needed a new camera for my

recent trip to Vietnam, and it's been

about 4 years since I last bought a new

camera. I've been using the GoPro Hero 7

for about 4 years, and even though it's a

decent camera, it's kind of boring, and I

wanted something new and exciting.

Unfortunately, after using the Insta360 X3

for about a week, I've decided that it's

not really that great of a camera. It's

kind of expensive and overpriced. It's a

bit boring, and might I say, lacking in

luster as an action camera. So one of my

main complaints about the Insta360 camera

is the design. As you can see, it is quite

a bulky and large camera compared to the

GoPro Hero 7. You can see the size

difference is quite noticeable, and

they've gone for this kind of hand phone

smartphone design where it's elongated and

rectangular and tall. So you'll notice

that it is tall when it is standing

upright compared to the GoPro, which is

quite short and flat, and it's kind of

like a short fat man, whereas the Insta360

is like a tall skinny man. And the problem

with this is when you want to balance it

like this, you can see it's not very

stable and it's very easy to fall over.

And it's a bit scary when this thing falls

over because as you can see, it's got 2

lenses on both sides and they are quite

bulbous and round. So if this is falling

down onto a hard surface like that, you do

have a risk of cracking the lens. So you

can see the lens is made out of glass. If

that lands on something hard like concrete

or stone, that's probably going to crack

if you just let it drop like that. So

putting this down onto any kind of

surface, you have to be very careful and

place it down gently like that, because

there's no way you can just lay this down

without the lens touching the surface,

because the lenses are on both sides. Now

you could balance it on its side like

that, but it is kind of tricky because

the, the edges are rounded. As you can

see, it is rounded, it's not perfectly

flat, so you have to be a bit careful when

you try to balance it on a flat surface.

It's kind of easy because this is a soft

surface, but if it was on like a harder

flat surface like that,

it does want to fall over. It's just this

bag of peanuts is blocking it. So look,

yeah, it will just fall over like that.

And when I'm using my GoPro, I don't

really have this problem because as you

can see, every side of the GoPro is

perfectly flat. If even the bottom is

flat, so I can just plonk it down on

anything like a table or the floor or even

the ground if I want to do some kind of

creative shots. But with the Insta360 X3,

I don't really have the same flexibility.

Now you could say, why don't you just use

a tripod? Why don't you get a selfie stick

that has tripod legs? And I don't use

tripods or any kind of accessories with my

action cameras because one of the main

benefits of using an action camera like

the GoPro or, or the Insta360 is its

portability. It's really small. Look at

the size of this. I can just shove it in

my back pocket and it's very unnoticeable

in my pockets and very easy to carry

around. But if I start adding GoPro mounts

and tripods and selfie sticks and all that

kind of mumbo jumbo, then the portability

factor of these small action cameras

basically gets destroyed and it's no

longer very portable. Can you imagine

putting this inside of the housing or this

this inside of some kind of case and then

adding a tripod or a selfie stick and then

trying to put that into your pocket, I

don't think you'll be able to unless you

have very big pockets. And even if you

have very big pockets, it's going to be

very uncomfortable having this with a

selfie stick in your pocket. So I don't

like to use selfie sticks or tripods. I

like to use the device as it was made.

Sometimes I found myself in a situation

where I couldn't use both my hands and I

really wanted to quickly put the Insta360

down onto some kind of surface without

worrying about it falling over or cracking

the lens if I just put it down roughly.

And it was just kind of stressful trying

to balance the thing on the table. I had

to balance it like this— don't know if you

can see that— I had to balance

it like that very carefully on table

surfaces. If, for example, I wanted to

have a meal at a restaurant and put the

camera down and film myself eating my

meal, it was just a lot easier to do that

with my GoPro. Where there's basically

zero chance of this falling over. Look,

you can't even get this to fall over

unless you purposely push it over, but

this thing would never fall over. I could

place it like that, I can place it like

this, I can place it like that. And even

if it falls over on its face, it doesn't

really matter because it doesn't have like

a round sticking out lens that is going to

easily get damaged. Now there are lens

guards and lens covers for the Insta360

X3, but they make the thing look so ugly

and they look kind of scuffed. And I've

heard people say stuff about how the lens

guards actually reduce the quality of the

video image quality because it's made out

of plastic and it has this weird effect on

the lenses. So I don't really want to get

a lens guard or lens cover. Also, if

you're not using a selfie stick, then

every time you film with the Insta360 X3

and you pan the video frame down, you're

going to be able to see your hand, and it

makes your hand look like it's some kind

of weird deformed hand which is missing a

few fingers. It looks kind of, kind of

weird, and you can't really get rid of

that because it's a 360 camera, so no

matter where your hand is, no matter where

you're holding the camera, your hand is

going to be visible in the footage unless

you have the special selfie stick. Now I

did go into the shop and have a look at

the selfie stick, and it's a well-made

selfie stick, very nice and everything,

but it's just so big. I didn't want to buy

the selfie stick just because it's so

huge, and it was at least 2 times the size

of the Insta360 camera and I don't really

care about extending it to do those really

weird-looking drone shots. I just want

something small and portable in my pocket,

and if I got the Insta360 selfie stick,

it wouldn't have been very portable

anymore. So the design of the camera is

not really that great, I would have to

say. Okay, so next let's talk about the

360 functionality of the camera, since it

is a 360 camera and that is the main

reason why I bought it instead of the

GoPro 11. Now I did think the 360 was

pretty cool when I first played around

with it, but I noticed that as the days

went on during my Vietnam trip, I started

to use the Insta360 X3 camera less and

less, and I went back to using my iPhone

as my main vlogging camera, and I started

to not care anymore about the 360

functionality. So basically the 360

functionality is, well, you have an app

that you download off of the App Store and

you can download your video straight from

the camera straight to your phone. And

then after you finish filming your 360

footage, you can then use your finger to

pan and swipe around on the screen to

choose what you want to show your viewers

in your video. You can just choose and

then reframe it and select a frame and

select— also select how wide it is. You

can select super wide, ultra wide, wide,

or linear, which gets rid of the round

fishbowl effect. So the main reason I

bought the 360 camera was because in my

mind I thought it'd be easier to have a

360 camera and not have to worry about

what you're pointing the camera at. With

traditional cameras, you have to point at

what you want to film, and then you edit

it afterwards, and you don't have the

ability to reframe it. You have to frame

it before you start shooting or whilst

you're shooting. But with the 360 camera,

because it's filming basically everything

around it, you have the luxury of being

able to frame stuff after you've finished

shooting it. So you can just hold it up in

front of you, walk around, and it's

filming everything. So once you're

finished filming, and you're ready to

edit, you can then choose what you're

going to show. And it is really impressive

technology and everything, and it was kind

of fun to play around with in the

beginning, but it kind of made me realize

that I do actually enjoy the process

of framing my shots myself without using

some kind of app or editing software.

There's a very nice artistic and creative

process that's involved when you're using

your own eyes and and you're trying to

find a nice cinematic angle, trying to

find nice lighting, trying to make your

video look good. And that's kind of taken

away with the 360 software because you

don't really have to frame anything

yourself. You just frame it afterwards

whilst editing. So if you're a wannabe

filmmaker and you enjoy the process of

filmmaking, then it isn't really very fun

using the 360 software or the app to frame

your shots. It makes all of your shots

just look kind of the same. I found myself

going back to my iPhone to film videos

more and more nearing the end of my trip

in Vietnam, and I was using the Insta360

X3 less and less, mainly because I just

missed the process of framing my own shots

while shooting without having to use an

app to reframe it. Also, needless to say,

the iPhone was just so much better in

low-light situations than Insta360 X3.

The Insta360 X3 is okay in low light, but

compared to the iPhone, it's just no

comparison. So in my conclusion, I would

have to say that it's not that great of an

action camera. It's very expensive for

what it is. The 360 functionality does

work really well, but depending on what

you do, it's probably not that necessary

or important to have. If you're not really

going to do much extreme sports or things

using a motorbike or a vehicle or

paragliding or skydiving, then you

probably don't really care about having

360 functionality, and maybe just a

standard point-and-shoot GoPro will be

fine for you, or maybe just using your

phone is fine, is good enough filming your

holiday videos, but I just found myself

not really caring about using the 360

anymore, and I just felt like just

pointing and shooting to frame my videos

is good enough.