Category Archives: 360 Photography

Changing default view for 360 video on Insta360 X2/X3 and others…

When you export 360 video to a format that can be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, or other online service that supports 360 video, you get a wide, warped video file that looks like this:

For the Insta360 ONE X2 and X3 cameras, the front facing camera (the one opposite of the preview screen) will be the focal point of the video. In this case, it’s the entrance of the Whalebone Grill in the Awa (water) realm of the new-for-2022 Lost Island Themepark in Waterloo, Iowa. (This new park is pretty amazing with its backstory and unique themes.)

But, what if you wanted the 360 view to default to a different view when first played? Unfortunately, the Insta360 mobile app and desktop apps do not provide a way to do this (currently; folks have been asking about it for years, so maybe one day…). Often, the advice is to put the video in a video editor like Premier or Final Cut Pro and change it there.

Some quick web searching led me to this REDDIT post with a comment from user glitch007 explaining a way to use the free ffmpeg utility to reprocess 360 video and set the initial view:

ffmpeg has command line options to specify the X/Y adjustments (yaw and pitch) for the 360 video export. You can import the original MP4 file and export it out as a new MP4 with the view changed. If, for example, I wanted my Whalebone Grill video to start with folks facing the seating area, I could change that and it would look like this:

The command line option to do this is:

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -vf v360=e:e:yaw=90:pitch=0:roll=0 "output.mp4"

In this example, “yaw=90” tells it to change the X view by 90 degrees. You could pass in 180 to make the video face the opposite direction. The “pitch” controls the looking up and down, and “roll” controls tilt (I believe; I haven’t actually tested it).

For the curious, the command line options mean:

  • -i … Input file.
  • -vf … Video filter (and any parameters it needs).
  • v360 video filter:
    • e … Equirectangular projection (the type of 360 format the video is in).
    • yaw / pitch / roll … Set rotation for the output video. Values in degrees.

glitch007 shared a timesaver where you specify a start and end section of the video and can quickly process just a snippet so you can see the results before doing the entire video. Using “-ss” sets the starting section, and adding “-to” lets you specify the ending second:

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -ss 00:03 -to 00:08 -vf v360=e:e:yaw=90:pitch=0:roll=0 "output.mp4"

If you run that, you’d get a 5 second clips covering seconds 3 to 8 of the video, and could look at that and see how the view is. This allows quickly making changes to yaw/pitch/roll to get what you want.

I used the ffmpeg command line utility to do this, but there may be Windows/Mac programs that put a graphical user interface on it, making it easier for folks to use. If you know of a good one, please leave a link in the comments.

Thank you, glitch007, for this tip!

Looking for Insta360 .insp and .insv file formats.

I am posting this in case someone else is doing the same searches I am.

I am trying to find details on the Insta360 ONE X2 file formats for photos (.insp) and videos (.insv). They contain meta-data I’d like to be able and parse to determine what kind of files they are. Going by filename is not enough.Th

This came up again today when someone contacted me with a ONE X2 video that was recorded in Bullet Time mode. It was not meant to be, but because the file is saved that way, the Insta360 Studio program will not allow reframing/editing the video.

Insta360 support (via app chat) has an auto responder if you ask about changing Bullet Time files to normal videos, so they have a way to do it — if you send them the files.

In the case of Bullet Time, is is recorded at 100 fps in 3K mode. It stores both lens videos in the same file. This is the same format used when recording normal 360 video at 3K / 100 fps. It appears only the meta-data is making the file appear one way or the other.

To be continued…

The many, many Insta360 Selfie Sticks

Updates:

  • 1/18/2022 – Page created.
  • 2/17/2022 – Added some Bullet Time Bundle details.
  • 4/26/2022 – Added the new Power Selfie Stick.

Why are there so many? What are the differences? Let’s find out…

The first problem is that the official insta360.com online store does not currently give any specifications of these accessories. Only two mention a length in their product name. You can find their full accessory list here:

https://store.insta360.com/accessory

The following table will contain information as I obtain it.

Summary

Product
Collapsed LengthExtended LengthWeightBuilt-In Tripod?PriceNotes
2-in-1 Invisible Selfie Stick + Tripod24 cm / 9.4 in105 cm / 41.3 cmYes$25
70cm Invisible Selfie Stick15 cm / 6 in70 cm / 27.5 in$19.99
120cm Invisible Selfie Stick23.5 cm / 9.25 in120 cm / 47.4 in$16
All-Purpose TripodYes$34.90
Bullet Time Accessory (2022 bundle)120 cm / 47.2 inIncludes Handle (Tripod)$55
Bullet Time Handle (Tripod)16.9 cm / 6.6 inN/AYes$40
Extended Edition Selfie Stick (new version)36 cm / 14 in3 m / 9.8 ft$99.99
Extended Edition Selfie Stick (old version)55.8 cm / 22 in304.8 cm / 10 ft
Power Selfie Stick33 cm / 13 in100 cm / 39.3 in$69.994500 mAh battery and power/shutter buttons. Cannot get wet.

120cm Invisible Selfie Stick

  • Possibly the one included with the special Apple Store X2 kit.

2-in-1 Invisible Selfie Stick + Tripod

  • Larger selfie stick (in thickness) with a fold-out tripod at the end of the handle.

70cm Invisible Selfie Stick

  • Possibly the stick being included with the Bullet Time accessory.

All-Purpose Tripod

  • A tiny tripod base that the selfie sticks can screw in to.

Bullet Time Accessory

  • Includes a special tripod base with a spinning top. The top can be locked so it will not spin. A selfie stick can be attached at the top to use this as a tripod, or on the side, to use a bullet time accessory. (Kit shipping in 2022 includes a 120cm selfie stick, but the packaging had a spot that was designed to hold a taller collapsed stick — no details on what that one was.)

Extended Edition Selfie Stick (new)

  • No details yet.

Extended Edition Selfie Stick (old)

  • No details yet.

Power Selfie Stick

  • Contains a 4500 mAh battery to double the shooting time of the camera. (The battery included with the X2, for example, is about 1600 mAh).
  • Contains buttons to start/stop the camera so you can use it like a remote control.
  • 100 cm extending length. (This makes it a selfie stick with the battery, different than things like the LUME power handle, which is just a handle with a battery).

Giroptic announces new 360 camera for iOS devices

If you have an iPhone or iPad, and want to take 360 photos like the Ricoh Theta does, you may soon be able to do so with a $249 add-on from Giroptic:

https://www.giroptic.com/us/en/giroptic-io

This Giroptic IO connects via the Lightning port and has two lenses. It allows the recording of 360 photos or video which can then be uploaded via the iPhone or iPad.

The device has its own rechargeable battery (charged by a second port).

It’s an interesting product, though it seems it would be easier to just carry a Ricoh Theta with you instead of a clip on camera. It also does not look like it would connect to phones in thick protective cases.

But, it’s still neat… I’d love to get one to do a review of.

360 photos in 2005

I bought my first digital camera in 1996. Back then, no one knew what the term “digital camera” meant, so I would have to call it a “computer camera” for people to understand it was some kind of camera you hooked up to a computer.

I originally wanted it so I could take and post photos during visits to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Over the years, I created a massive archive of theme park photos at my site DisneyFans.com and Renaissance festival photos at AtTheFaire.com. Between my various photo archive websites and personal photos, I expect I have easily taken several hundred thousand digital photos.

And I still don’t claim to know a thing about photography. I just point and click.

I also got involved with video editing back in the early 1980s using my dad’s VHS editing equipment. I bought my first digital camcorder in 1999, as well as an iMac DV to do digital video editing.

Over the years, I have experimented with many types of photography and videography.

Around 2004, I purchased a NuView 3-D adapter for my camcorder, and records many hours of 3-D video at Disneyland and a local Renaissance Faire.

I was also interested in Apple’s QuickTime VR, where you could have a photo that enabled you to look all around (and sometimes up and down). Taking such photos was labor intensive (requiring taking dozens of photos in different angles and “stitching” them together with special, and expensive, computer software). But, there were some “one shot” solutions being offered that involved shooting against a circular mirror that would capture a panoramic image 360 degrees around.

Back around 2004-2005, I had a web page listing the various lens systems I had found:

http://os9al.com/oneshot360/index.shtml

The mirror system I wanted cost almost $1000, so I never bought one, but I did purchase a cheap knockoff called SurroundPhoto. It was a plastic lens with marginal optic quality, but at least I could afford it. I picked one up for around $130, and then picked up a Nikon Coolpix 5400 camera to use with it.

I took the 360 setup with me on a trip to Disneyland during  a trip in December 2005. I wanted to take 360 photos of Main Street and create an update to an old 1996 virtual tour I created using normal photos.

I also took the camera to the Kansas City Renaissance Faire, and to the future construction site of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire.

Beyond posting a few sample photos, I never did anything else with the device.

I recently discovered the photos I took, and thought I’d share a look at what 360 photography was like back in 2005.

The camera shot upwards, pointing to a circular curved mirror. The raw photos looked like this:

360 Disneyland in 2005.
360 Disneyland in 2005.

Special software for Mac or Windows could then convert this circular image in to a panorama:

Panorama of Disneyland  2005
Panorama of Disneyland 2005

Special viewing software could then be used to pan around in this image, with a tiny bit of up and down.

Today, this type of image would be taken with a single 180 degree wide angle lens (like the Kodak PIXPRO SP360) or with multiple lenses like the RICOH THETA or Giroptic 360cam.

One of my winter projects is going to be to finally build this Disneyland 2005 panoramic tour. The picture quality is pretty horrible by today’s standards, so I present it mostly as a look back at the humble origins to 360/VR photography that is so common today that even Facebook natively supports it.

More to come…