Insta360 - Ace Pro 1

Basic summary is the X5 is out for obvious reasons (curved lenses don't work great underwater), the Action 5 tends to overdo the "blue" correction and isn't always accurate to the real colors, and sometimes loses sharpness in some scenarios. The AcePro's colors are better, but the highlights tend to be quite soft which removes some of the punch from the image. It also loses sharpness in some scenarios. The GoPro tends to have the most accurate colors and the best overall sharpness in these tests.

Get the original Ace Pro. It’s probably less expensive than OA5 Pro and is a fantastic camera.

Avoid GoPro. Terrible reliability. They’ve rested on their laurels far too long and don’t deserved your business. I’ve heard a DJI account is required to use the OA5. If true, absolutely avoid them as well. I’ve been very happy with my Insta360 Ace Pro. 100% reliability after 2 years. It has literally never not turned on, overheated, or otherwise malfunctioned in any way. Image quality is fantastic and it absolutely destroys GoPro in low light. If you plan to record at night, Ace Pro/Ace Pro 2 is the way.

TLDR: Stop believing Tiktok "influencers" who get paid to shill for products. Use the right tool for the right job. I have Ace Pro and Go 3S and I use them for different things. The majority of Tiktok "reviewers" are people being paid to promote a product and so they use their photography/video skill to make the output look really good. Ace Pro is a decent action camera - so it is good for action camera type things (vlogging, stabilizing large camera shake if you are running/moving, being water/impact resistant, being very small and mountable). I have the Ace Pro (which is the same sensor as the Ace Pro 2). Ace Pro is primarily for video in daylight, but is ok for indoors or night time if you aren't shaking too much. I don't like Ace Pro for photography in general. If you want superior still image quality and zoom, the Canon is going to be way better for that. Video quality is good if you are standing still (the image stabilization is worse, so it's less good if you are walking/running around). However, again - it is just a tool... just like getting a really nice pan, oven, and kitchen knife isn't going to mean you automatically are going to be making top tier food... getting a nice camera isn't automatically going to give you good content. Go 3S is a POV camera. You are trading image quality (video will look a little bleached/washed out in bright midday sun, and dark/blurry at night) and stabilization (there is only tilt correction of 10 degree) for compactness to be able to easily and discretely mount to your heat/chest or on a pole/fence. So it will only really look go if you are doing something interesting in your POV (playing sports, cooking, eat, walking with your attractive travel partner, etc). Go3S can also be snuck into small spaces (on a cat's collar, in a cat food bowl, in your backpack, on a fishing pole, etc) - even more so than an Ace Pro (although both as better than the Canon for this).

I don't know about gimbal mode for X4 Air. I think it depends on what you want to do with the camera. I have an Ace Pro and an X4 and I use my X4 a lot more in general because of the convenience of having a 360 pespective that allow reframing after the fact. I also have the X2 awhich was 150g and I notice the weight of the X4 (200g) at the end of a 100cm pole (a long lever) while snowboarding as I like to keep the stick horizontal and at waist height. The X5 is 200g as well so it will be a bit heavier than the 165g X4 Air. Last I checked the X4 Air is like $150 cheaper for a slight reducing in low-light image quality (the sensors are smaller) and like 15 minutes less battery life. So I would pick the X4 Air for action sports usage (handheld out in sunny weather) as well as to save some money. But if money is not an issue and you want the absolute best image quality available on a Insta360 right now and you are mostly not long-lever handholding (e.g. head, chest or object mounted) than I would got with X5.

I have a X2/X4 and a Ace Pro. X5 is a 360 camera. So when you crop it down from 8K 360 to a 16:9 viewport with say a 90 degree field of view... you are at something around 2.7K resolution (note you can shoot single lens in 4K, but it is an ultra, ultra wide field of view... so it's not going to be as good as a normal 4K as well). Personally, if I have to have only one camera with me, I always take my X4... it is just much more versatile as I think the convenient of framing and tracking almost always outweigh the loss in quality. Some times I have both an a magnetic-quick mount stick and just swap between the two depending on whether I need the reframing ability of the 360 camera or not.

I have an Ace Pro, X3 and just got an X5. Remember that the X5 resolution is spread out over the entire sphere so you’re nowhere near 4k if you crop your field to a typical 16:9 action cam focal length/POV. So it’s horses for courses, if you want a conventional hi res camera, Ace Pro 2 is the right tool, but if you want an infinitely reframe-able, stabilised view then X5 is amazing

I disagree. In technicality and specs, DJI wins, but in usability and gimmick, Ace Pro takes it. Honestly, it's up to the user. I've seen AcePro videos that are dogshot, but I've also seen Action5 videos that are dogshot. But yeah I guess we can all agree that GoPro is non existent at this point

cool, dji and ace pro can do that too since their sensors are also square-ish

The ace pro 1 did great, no heat issues, while I was travelling last year in the US virgin islands. I'll be back on a different beach in a couple of weeks. I'll try to overheat the 2.

I'm a Photographer who recently got into videos. I have to point out that the Insta 360 video quality is nowhere like the mirrorless cameras I've had, BUT, it's really about the spontaneous moment captured with it and not the quality that I'm impressed of. I've found footages of myself in the moments of serendipity that I know I will never achieve with any of my mirrorless camera unless somebody is following me around with it. I also tried the Osmo Pocket but I certainly love the convenience of the Insta 360 more because you can choose which frame, back, front, up or down you want to finally edit for posting. Really helpful the 360 view.

I think the way to look at it, is that GoPro was so far ahead for so long, there was no real competition for them for over a decade. Even DJI had GoPro mounts built in when the Phantom 1 came along. Historically, GoPro perfected their 1080P then moved to 2.7k on the Hero 3 Black. They had the best 4k on the Hero 4 Black. Then they made the whole camera waterproof and added the built in touchscreen on the Hero 5 Black, then they went 4k 60 with moderate stabilization on the Hero 6 black, built a tiny camera on the Session 4 and 5. With the Hero 7 black, they finally got stabilization in camera that started to compete with 3 axis gimbals. On the 8 they had the mount built in so you didn't have to have a frame and changed to a larger form factor with the Hero 9 black and got resolution to 5.3k. They perfected features like Timewarp and Hyperlapse where all the work was done in camera instead of post. They made GoPro labs available for most of their cameras and gave amazing levels of customization that no other cameras have even to this day. Then they really started to stagnate and features were more incremental and evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Sure they had the 8:7 sensor and got video resolution up to 24.7 megapixels, but they still use a tiny sensor and low light performance is still very bad. They also had to deal with the rise of DJI and Insta360 who started to release competing products. Dji matched 10 bit the same year as GoPro, The Action 5 and Ace Pro 2 use much larger sensors and do much better in low light. GoPro was late to the party with magnetic mounting systems and Insta360 even put 8k into their Ace Pro versions. Insta360 has the Ace Pro Line, their Go series mini camera and even had the modular R series which could be an action cam or a 360 camera. In the time since GoPro released the Max, Insta360 has released 5 consumer grade 360 cameras that get better each year and now do 8k. We have no idea when the Max 2 will be released. GoPro stock is hovering around 50 cents a share and the market cap of the entire company is only 75 million dollars. It used to be almost 11 billion dollars, so it is 145 times smaller than it was shortly after the company went public. They have had to lay off staff and that has a huge impact on R&D. They are clearly falling behind competitors with no real path forward. Depending on which site you listen to, they rate the probability of bankruptcy at 33 to 62% in the next 24 months. That is not the sign of a healthy company. They botched the launch of their Karma drone and ceded that potential marketplace to DJI in the process. The reality is that the DJI and Insta360 cameras do a lot of things better and much easier. Low light is a real thing for a lot of people and the Action 5 and Ace Pro do a very good job in the space and GoPro isn't on the same playing field. I love the new GoPro lens system, but I am an advanced user and have been using ND filters, Anamorphic lenses, and macro lenses for years with the GoPro. The new anamorphic lens is great because it does the desqueeze of your footage automatically in camera. What is annoying is that they announced the lens in September of 2024 and I was finally able to get it 7 months later. GoPro is a great camera, but for many people who never touch labs, don't care about 10 bit or color grading, never do reframing 8:7, like to shoot in lower light conditions, or won't spend the $129 on an anamorphic lens, the GoPro is not really the camera for them. Insta360 are releasing much better cameras each year and GoPro is falling further behind. I really want GoPro to come back strong, but I fear they don't have the finances to compete unless they have an absolutely amazing technical breakthrough in the action camera space.

Hi op, one issue is you’ll now no longer be waterproof. I use the DJI mic 2 internal recording inside my helmet to a GoPro 13. You can check the sound here. [action camera with DJI mic2 inside helmet no wires retains waterproofing](https://youtu.be/y7ENSoDiaUg?feature=shared) Use the mini as the second camera, the 11 black as your main. I have a 13 as main and either an action 4 or insta 360 as handlebar.

IQ improvements just don't feel worth it at the price when it's still significantly lower than full size cameras and the 8 bit doesn't look great). Although admittedly I returned the 3S because size vs IQ trade off wasn't worth it for me over Ace Pro and Action 5. I also wish they would really have a small charging back magnet so you could run a long cable to a battery pack to films continuously for 3+ hours. Since adding the pod for 200 minutes makes it so I'd rather just go full size action cam at that point since my use cases need battery swaps for minimal downtime and even 10 minutes charging is a long break.