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00:00The problem with almost all action cameras are the sensors are just too small, right?
00:04So low-light nighttime footage looks pretty rubbish.
00:07Also the screens are just too small. I know we've got the one at front and the back
00:10But once you change this to the aspect ratio that you'll actually want to use like 16 by 9, 9.16, it's tiny
00:15It's like a postage stamp size. So let me introduce you to this guy. This is the new Insta360 Ace Pro
00:23It's their new flagship action camera, which firstly has a much bigger sensor
00:28Secondly, secondly, secondly, has a
00:32Flip out screen and together with some very impressive AI magic and a whole bunch of other features
00:36I'm gonna walk you through. This is one of the most impressive action cameras
00:40I've used in a long time and a big thank you to Insta360 for sending this out for me to have a play with and
00:45Also partnering with me on this video. Over the past couple of weeks
00:48I've been testing the Ace Pro on a boat hurtling down the River Thames in London
00:53Which was a lot of fun for a bit until I felt incredibly seasick
00:56But hey do it for the content, right?
00:58I mounted it to my car both inside and outside as I regularly use action cameras to shoot car videos and while
01:04Exterior shots like this are always pretty good. The lower light interior shots have often been a bit tricky
01:09So I was keen to see how this fared. I
01:12Got on my bike
01:13Well, I didn't my buddy and videographer James did because I actually can't ride a bike and we got some glorious 4k
01:20120 slow-motion video riding through a puddle properly tested in the rain and the mud ready for a good hosing down afterwards
01:28Although a action camera, I'm sure you'd agree
01:31But I also took it on a night out with me in Soho
01:33Partly because I can't switch off and my work is my entire life and I have a problem
01:37But also because I wanted to see just how good that biggest sensor is and to give you a taste if I bring in the
01:42Latest GoPro Hero 12 both shooting a 4k 30. Just look at the difference
01:48So, let me give you a walkthrough show you what this can do and how it compares to the GoPro to see if it's worth the
01:53price because at
01:54449 pounds same in dollars
01:56This is actually 50 quid more than the GoPro, but I would argue you are getting more for your money
02:01But let's see what you think
02:03So this is the Insta 360 ace pro and on the face of it a pretty typical looking action camera
02:08But peeling off the plastic you can see we've got that Leica branding as they've co-engineered the camera
02:13And we've also got that 1 over 1.3 inch sensor and for context the GoPro 12 has a 1 over 1.9 inch sensor
02:20Meaning this captures a lot more light which is particularly useful as I'm sure you can imagine in lower light scenarios
02:26So for shooting indoors or at night which here in the UK means any time after like half 3 in the afternoon
02:31We have this small little screen on the front showing you recording and battery information
02:34But then the best bit is back here with this 2.4 inch flip screen
02:38This shows me my full 16 by 9 video or if I'm holding it sideways 9 by 16
02:43And it means I can see how much battery I have the timer
02:46Just make sure you are still looking at the lens and not the screen
02:49So for being able to frame your shots or just for vlogging so you can see yourself as I'm being attacked by pigeons. Oh
02:57My goodness, I really am being attacked by pigeons
03:00However, you can also use the app on your phone or even your Apple watch as a remote viewfinder
03:05Or you could buy this optional GPS preview remote which gives you a live preview and control of the camera on your wrist or say
03:11The handlebars of your bike while also recording GPS and other data which you can add in post
03:16Now as well as the camera itself in the box
03:18We have their standard magnetic mount which is very similar to the GoPro and so it'll work with all their accessories as well
03:23And the advantage with this being magnetic is you can then quickly mount or dismount the camera
03:28Which is very handy if you're in a rush
03:29But I would suggest also getting this quick-release mount as it includes the folding two-prong amount and also a screw hole
03:35Which is very useful, but there's plenty of other mounting and accessory options as well as they continue to build their ecosystem
03:41So up front we have this little light bar which goes between different colors
03:45You can see it's red when I'm recording and it also goes red when it's charging as well
03:49We have the small screen for some at-a-glance information, but mostly I find myself obviously using the flip screen on this side
03:55We have the battery and just a battery because on the other side
03:59We have the micro SD card slot and also the USB C port then above that power button at the top
04:05We have the shutter recording button. So one press to stop or stop recording
04:09You've also got gesture and voice control
04:10I'll show you in a second and also at the back here either side of the screen you can pinch in and then unlocks the
04:16Screen and I do really appreciate how durable this hinges because obviously if you're gonna have this on your bike or your boat or whatever
04:22It's gonna have a lot of movement and obviously you don't want that screen to move from where you want it
04:28So it stays nice and sturdy, but at the same time it's not too hard to move up and down either really nice hinge design
04:34I think and the whole thing obviously fits in palm of your hand
04:37It is waterproof to 10 meters or 33 feet, although you can buy a separate dive case if you want to go deeper
04:42Yeah, it's an action camera
04:44So the 8th Pro is their flagship model with the biggest sensor and all the bells and whistles
04:48But they are also launching this Insta360 ACE, which is a slightly more affordable option. Although for this video, I'm focusing on the Pro
04:55Okay
04:56So once you've got it up and running and you've connected the device to your phone via the Insta360 app
05:00Which you can download for free on Android and iOS and I would definitely recommend the app because firstly you can transfer
05:06Wirelessly your photos and videos and actually you can do it in the background
05:09So you don't actually have to have the app open
05:11You can also create videos you've got their AI quick edit and also some of these very cool AI features
05:16Which I'll come back to in a second
05:17So definitely worth getting the Insta360 app but swiping around and navigating the UI on this rear flip screen is all very fast and nice
05:24and intuitive and I do like that we have all these different modes that you can play around with or you can just switch to
05:29One of the presets if you just want to keep it simple
05:32You've got voice and gesture control where a peace sign snaps a photo and a palm stops or starts a recording
05:38Although you can turn this off if you do like to wave at your camera a lot and don't want to keep starting stopping it
05:43You can shoot up to 4k at 120 frames per second
05:46Although most of the time I find myself recording at 4k 60 or 4k 30 now technically this will also support 8k footage
05:53Although it will be coming via an update after launch so I can't test that just yet
05:56you can also change the aspect ratio between 16 by 9 or 4 by 3 and
06:01Actually, if you switch to the free frame video mode, which shoots in 4 by 3
06:05It gives you these handy horizontal and vertical guidelines to help you frame your shots
06:09And then you can switch between the aspect ratios in post via the app
06:12But most of the time you'll be shooting in 16 by 9 and if you're thinking well
06:16How am I gonna get good quality vertical footage then? Well you do that. Obviously, the GoPro is a little bit different
06:21It's got a different 8 by 7 sensor
06:23So it's sort of more tuned to both horizontal and vertical but there are pros and cons for that as well
06:27This is a more traditional aspect ratio
06:29But of course you can just change the way you mount it or shoot in that freeform mode and change the aspect after
06:34At the bottom, right?
06:35We've got our different field of view options including a horizon lock which keeps the image nice and level even if the camera rotates a little
06:41bit
06:44Tapping this double arrow icon zooms in or what they're calling clarity zoom as it actually uses a crop of the 8k sensor
06:51meaning you're still getting good quality 4k footage, but you know zoomed in and
06:56As you would expect for any action camera worth its salt Insta360's flow state stabilization does a fantastic job of
07:03Smoothing out your video. It's flawlessly smooth mounted to the side of my car
07:06It handles the bumps and jumps and humps of the Thames speedboat and James's off-road biking as well as any other action camera
07:13I've tested
07:16But what truly makes this stand out from the competition is how well it performs in low-light
07:21swipe over to the pure view mode aka night mode and the combination of the bigger sensor and the cameras processing and AI power that
07:28gives us improved denoising and better stabilization dynamic range picture quality means the difference between
07:34Usable footage and well not so usable. Well, we've got the GoPro
07:38We've got the UC 360 ace Pro in its pure video mode
07:41Which is meant for low-light and it uses the chip the AI's when it does some denoising and some other fancy stuff
07:47obviously combined with a bigger sensor to hopefully
07:51Give us better low-light footage
07:53Well night footage
07:55Although it is only like six o'clock at night, but it's pitch black here in the UK and it will be till like
08:02April anyway, this is Soho in London a
08:07Great little place to show off the cameras every kind of RGB neon
08:14Street light everything going on here. So hopefully as you watch this back you'll get a sense of how they compare
08:22In terms of stabilization video quality, what do we think?
08:31The
08:35Ace Pro also introduces active HDR for video shot at up to 4k 30 now
08:40It's not recording in like HDR 10 or Dolby Vision or anything
08:43But you do get better dynamic range with the brightest areas being less blown out and you get more detail in the shadows
08:54There's plenty of other modes to play with and of course you can take photos as well
08:58But there's also a couple of cool AI tricks of the Ace Pro sleeve that I want to show you including this
09:12Now in the Insta 360 app
09:14There's this new AI warp option that uploads your footage and uses generative AI to stylize your video from either one of their presets or
09:21From your own imagination as you can write your own prompts
09:23It does only work on clips that are a few seconds long and the results can vary in quality
09:28But it is quite fun to share them
09:30we also have the AI highlight assistant which creates a
09:33highlight montage of clips recorded on the camera and it's particularly useful if you have a really long clip like a
09:38Timelapse or loop recording because it can help identify where the action happens and then add it to your highlights
09:43Now you can add markers yourself by tapping this little flag icon on the screen
09:47Although the advanced AI on the chip powering the camera does a great job of highlighting
09:52Well the highlights automatically using AI machine vision to identify targets in real time
09:57And this also makes creating memory clips in the app afterwards faster as it doesn't have to reanalyze the clips
10:03Now one issue I've had particularly with GoPros in the past is overheating
10:07And so while I'm trying to test battery life, for example, it will actually just not run out of battery
10:11It'll overheat and shut off before it even runs out
10:14so I got them both recording at 4k 60 timed how long it took to either a run out of battery or be
10:19Turn off due to overheating and the 4k 60 as I say the hero 12 lasts about 29 minutes and that's in sort of room
10:26Temperature, you know, no wind blowing no cooler conditions
10:29So it obviously will last longer if you're going down a mountain on skis
10:32But for general use like if you're shooting in your car
10:3529 minutes at 4k 60 although much longer at 4k 30 the ace Pro didn't shut off at all
10:41No overheating issues whatsoever in like the hour and 15 that I kept testing until I eventually filled up the storage and ran out of
10:47Battery, so however, they do it whether it's a more efficient chip or just better thermals
10:51This doesn't overheat and turn off anywhere near as quickly or at all to be honest compared to the GoPro
10:56So good job. It's a 360
10:59One also faster charging zero to 80% in just 22 minutes and it will take over twice as long on the GoPro
11:08So that is the insta 360 ace Pro which is upside down now as I say that I've only had it for a couple of
11:13Weeks, this isn't like an extended review or anything like that, but I do have a couple other notes
11:17I want to share with you firstly when I was wearing polarized sunglasses. I actually couldn't see the screen
11:22I'm not sure if it's like a layer or a filter or something they do
11:25But that was a little bit annoying because I couldn't see I had to sort of raise my sunglasses for polarized sunglasses
11:29Also, the lens cover here. The camera cover is not replaceable. You can't take that off
11:35So if you break it if you scratch it, you'll have to replace the whole thing or you know
11:39Get the insta 360 care plan so they all replace it for you
11:42Also on the GPS preview remote the video doesn't fill the whole screen
11:46It's quite small. I should also say this is a pre-production model and also running pre-release software
11:51It is also a little bit sort of chunky and a little bit heavier and also 50 quid more than the GoPro
11:56So, of course, there are pros and cons for all the action cameras out there
11:59It's great that we have lots of competition
12:00But certainly the biggest sensor the fantastic stabilization the flip out screen the AI extras and just the image quality
12:06Generally makes the ace Pro definitely worth considering whether you're a content creator a videographer
12:12You go on adventures you travel around the world
12:14But what do you reckon? Would you be tempted to buy one of these and if you did have an insta 360 ace Pro?
12:19What's the first thing you do with it? Thank you so much for watching guys as I say link in the description
12:23Let me know if you've got any questions and I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat