I have in front of me the Insta360 One X2 camera from Banggood – and no it’s not a sample – I bought it and I’m waiting for the selfie kit (purchased separately) to arrive. I paid (in Euros – I’ll leave readers to do the conversion) €376.66 for the camera, €52.19 for the tripod. At the time of writing the price is now higher – I jumped in and bought in their July sales. Think these sales are a con? Well, think again as I definitely paid €428.85 all in (including VAT and postage so the Spanish customs/courier could not rip me blind to pick up the parcel).
China deliveries: Order was placed on 17/07 – shipped from their CZ depot (expected delivery August 7) and I’ve had the camera now since 27/07. Can’t complain about that – I pulled no favours etc, just a straight-forward order taking advantage of the sale.
If you don’t know about this amazing 360 degree camera, I suggest looking at the various videos out there, trying to ignore the hype – as most of these guys seem to be on commission – but you’ll get the general idea.
Firstly – the camera comes with an “Insta360 ONE X2 Quickstart Guide” most of which is in every language but yours. The first 7 pages were English – the rest for me were just potential loo roll. However, that got me started… take the tape off the built-in battery.. being careful not to scratch the two lenses etc. Put in an SD (I happened to have a Samsung Ultra 32GB doing nothing, so I popped it in).
Then I grabbed the Android Insta360 APP from the Playstore. That told me more. The camera and phone APP connect by Bluetooth automatically and by Wifi – but using an access point on the camera – so first time around you have to tell your phone about the access point and put in the default password – I read somwhere this was 12345678 but the camera said 88888888 – OK, it worked.
I had my first away day last week and took the camera in it’s little pouch with me with NO idea how to use it. I was a passenger in the back of my pal’s car and pointed the camera at the front of the car and started recording video. Without moving the camera I took a video looking at the front, moving the camera to the side near the end (I now realise I didn’t need to do that). Of course all of this needs a new mind-set – the camera is NOT just taking a video of the front view – it’s taking the lot – hence the name insta360. Later you can decide what viewpoint(s) should go into the resulting video, front, back or side – of course you can also do picture-in-picture and have the lot. I’ve not figured it out yet but you can also do one of those 360 degree tiny planet videos – not much use in the back of a car though. As soon at my super selfie-stick (pretend you have a drone) kits arrives, I’ll try more ambitious experiments and finish off this (what promises to be a long) blog.
THIS is probably important as we’ll see later… the user manual – supposedly a PDF download but I just keep seeing HTML pages – however, here it is – https://www.cameramanualpdf.com/2020/10/insta360-one-x2-user-manual.html
Meanwhile – I”ve just downloaded “Insta360 Studio 2021” onto my PC. So, you can do simple editing on the camera, better editing on your mobile phone and better editing on your PC. I’m happy with the mobile phone or the PC. By adjusting a single USB setting in the camera, I figured out how to get video off the camera onto the PC – I told you this was an idiot’s guide – right now I’m feeling like an idiot but give it time. PC software download location. I have also noticed that I can transfer video to the phone for use in the APP while they are connected.
Meanwhile – check this video out – not mine, not someone I know but it looks really useful – I already learned that my 32GB microSD isn’t going to last long – so a larger SD is in order 🙂 The video is all about setting up. This video by the same guy gives important tips on using the APP and has some interesting on-location footage – I’m finding it very helpful.