There are several ways to get photos and videos off of an Insta360 X3 or X4 camera. I no longer have a ONE X2, and never had a ONE X, so these may apply to those as well but I cannot verify.
- USB CABLE: Hook camera to computer via USB, mount it as a drive and copy files over. WARNING: I was doing this during a vacation, and it corrupted the microSD card. I just read about this happening to someone else (either on REDDIT or Facebook). They were able to use a file recovery tool to get their files back. In my case, the card had already been modified so some of my files were lost permanently. Because of this, I no longer use USB to transfer files directly from the camera.
- MEMORY CARD READER: You can take the microSD card out of the camera and then put it in a computer (via a microSD card slot, or using an microSD-to-SD adapter, or via some form of USB card reader). This is how I do it on my MacBook.
- VIA MOBILE APP AND ITUNES: If you transfer files into the Insta360 App, you can then hook your iPhone to a Mac via USB cable and browse the file system on the iPhone and copy files out that way. I expect there is a way to do this on Android as well.
Speed Comparisons
The X4 has a much faster USB-C connection and can copy in a few minutes what the X3 took 30+ minutes to copy. I ran a disk speed test on the memory card via a USB reader on my Mac, and then the same test via a USB mounted X3 and USB mounted X4. All were using the same Sandisk Extreme Pro 256GB microSD card.
I used the AJA System Test utility (available for Windows and Mac) to obtain these speeds.
microSD -> SD Adapter -> Apple USB-C Reader
Write: 67-77 MB/sec. Read: 88 MB/sec.
X3 via U-Disk Mode
Write: 18-19 MB/sec. Read: 22-23 MB/sec.
X4 via U-Disk Mode
Write: 50-55 MB/s. Read: 64-72 MB/sec.
Speed and Safety
As you can see, reading the memory card directly (assuming you have a fast SD card slot or a fast USB reader) is the fastest way to go. It is also safer, since if you are using a microSD-to-SD adapter you can toggle the “write protect” switch to ensure you don’t corrupt the card and lose any data. “Just in case.”
There is also a way to move files using WiFi — with the X3 being much faster than the X2. I assume the X4 will be even faster, but that is a test for another time…
Until then…
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I approve this comment.
Even if I do not understand it.
I get 36-38 MB/s on x3 in U-Disk Mode.
I used Udisk mode once and it corrupted my memory card, losing much footage I shot that day. I have not trusted it since then. I either download to the phone app, or put the memory card in a reader on my computer.
Transfer speed will also depend on the USB interface of the computer doing the test. This is why I did all the X3 and X4 tests on the same computer using the same USB port. This shows the difference in the cameras, not in the computer. If you get faster with an X3 on your machine, I would expect you would get faster on the X4 as well.