Category Archives: Insta360

Is the Insta360 X6 really more expensive than the X5?

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I see many people talking about how much more expensive the new Insta360 X6 is compared to the previous model. But is it?

In 2025, the X5 was released with a price of $549. To use it, you also needed a memory card.

For the Insta360 X6, on launch day (8/12/2026) the only way to buy the camera here in the U.S. was as a bundle. There were two bundles available, and they included things other than the camera. I wondered how much we were paying for the X6, so here is the breakdown:

Essentials Bundle

The $799 Essentials Bundle comes with:

Previous standalone cameras just came with the normal battery (now called a LITE battery). The X6 LITE battery is $24 https://store.insta360.com/product/x6-lite-battery?c=6963

Doing some math, the accessories and extended warranty add up to $254. With this bundle being $799 at Best Buy when it launched, that makes the camera around $545 plus a $24 LITE battery for a total of $569. (And Best Buy had the bundle priced at $769 making the camera available for $549 – cheaper than the X5 during its launch.)

The effective cost of the X6 (with battery, and not having to buy a 32GB memory card) is therefore about the same as the X5 plus 32GB memory card.

But the standard bundle does not compare as well…

Standard Bundle

The $699 Standard Bundle comes with:

This gives us a very different price. Without the extended warranty and other accessories, you basically have a camera with memory storage and an extended battery for $699. Subtract away the flash cost and battery cost then add the LITE battery and you get $649. With this bundle, that is the effective cost of an X6 with nothing but the normal battery.

Does my math add up?

More Insta360 X6 differences to be aware of.

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I am still “new” with Insta360. I did not get my first Insta360 camera (the ONE X2) until 2022. Since then, I have tried to follow each new release (X3, X4, X5 and now X6) fairly closely – following rumors, leaks, and early paid promotional videos done by YouTubers. (By “paid” I mean “paid with hardware”. You will note that people who say bad things about these companies do not receive free hardware the next time around, so you only see positive promotional videos from these folks because they understand this.)

Here are some things I have learned that we did not know about before the launch:

Dive Case requires swapping lenses

Unlike the X4 and X5 dive cases, the X6 dive case requires swapping out the normal lenses for special underwater lenses. This was shown in the following video:

This means if you take it to the beach to use on land, then want to go into the water a bit, you have to find a clean place to do a lens swap. This may be a dealbreaker for casual users such as myself. I took both the X4 and X5 to Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida, and used it to take normal 360 photos/videos as well as 360 underwater videos. Even in a simulated beach oasis such as that, finding a clean place to do a lens swap is likely not practical.

An Insta360 Support employee explained why in a comment:

“Hey there, thanks for your post.

This design is used to balance optimal underwater imaging and device portability.

X6 features a much larger sensor to deliver better image quality. However, in an underwater environment, accommodating such a large sensor traditionally requires a massive spherical dive case. This wouldn’t just be bulky to carry, it would also create excessive buoyancy, impacting how easy it is to use when diving.

Our dedicated Underwater Lenses is optimized to solve this. It allows the camera to maintain its exceptional image quality underwater while keeping the dive case compact, lightweight, and easy to handle.

We have carefully noted your suggestion, and our R&D team will continue exploring innovative solutions to enhance future user experiences.”

– https://www.reddit.com/r/Insta360/comments/1vmj87y/comment/p3dgcfq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Is the tripod thread mount different?

In order to record my raw footage comparison videos, I use a dual-camera mount bracket thing.

At first, I thought there was something different about the X6 screw depth. They did redesign the base no the X6 for use with a new type of quick release, so it is physically different than what the X5 and X4 used. However, a user on REDDIT measured and confirmed the depth was identical to the X5. Insta360 Support chimed in:

“Hi there, thanks for the detailed comparison.

X6 uses a different bottom structure design with an added pogo pin interface for the Power Selfie Stick and charging cradle. As a result, the effective depth of the 1/4″ screw mount is slightly deeper than on X5, this is a design difference, not a defect.

If you need a more secure fit with third-party mounts, using a thin spacer (as you’ve done) or the official Quick Release Mount is recommended.

Hope this helps.”

– https://www.reddit.com/r/Insta360/comments/1vmmlqd/comment/p3dj10a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

More to come?

As I learn more things like this, I will update this blog post and add notes at the top explaining what was last changed.

Until then…

Insta360 brings A.I. slop editing to your videos

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Real musicians fought against things like rhythm boxes (later called drum machines), synthesizers and samplers. Today, these technologies are accepted even though somewhere out there a violinist is getting less work because a sampler/synthesizer can be “good enough” on a recording. And, well, drummers may be having the hardest time of all of musicians…

But I digress.

I have discussed the “A.I. is a tool” topic in the past. The better technology works for the untalented, the more impressive it will be when guided by someone who knows what they are doing.

And then there are videos… No one really knows what makes them popular.

A crappy cell phone video can go viral and be seen tens of millions of times. Meanwhile, a whole team that put together an Oscar-worthy short film gets a few hundred views. Your talent means nothing if no one sees it. Getting lucky is still a more powerful way to be seen.

And editing videos? Yeah, some folks do really crappy editing jobs, and get tons of views, while someone who does professional-level editing may produce content no one cares about.

Insta360 is about to give the folks who do really crappy editing a new robot to do their editing for them:

Be on the lookout for more cookie-cutter videos that seem like they were all made by the same editor. Because they will be. Bleep, bloop.

Sure, this will give people with really poor editing skills the ability to have highly polished robot-looking edits done on their footage. It might even produce better results than some skilled editors.

But much like clip art and stock music, once we start seeing it over and over (and over), it will just be another example of “A.I. slop” to many.

But it sure is going to be fun to play with until folks get sick of “the look.”

Then we will need a name for it. “A.I. slop edit?” Comment away if you have some ideas…

Insta360 X6 available to order at Best Buy US

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UPDATE: Some folks on REDDIT saw it in the store on Sunday (8/10) and were able to order and receive on Monday (8/11) and activate the camera. I had checked around 3pm CST on Monday and Best Buy did not have it listed. Your mileage may vary.

Essential:

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/insta360-x6-8k-action-camera-essentials-bundle-black/J39VLT4TY9/sku/6685236

Standard:

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/insta360-x6-8k-action-camera-standard-bundle-black/J39VLT4TL6/sku/6685237

Says “delivery BY tomorrow” so … if you feel lucky . . .

Activation Warning

Folks who managed to get their hands on an X6 early reported they could not use it. Like much modern “smart” hardware, the camera is useless until it phones home and activates with the Insta360 server. There was a report of someone being able to activate and firmware update, so this may be what was in the latest Insta360 app update v2.31.1 which released yesterday.

Insta360 X6 preview videos released

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On August 6, 2026, Insta360 seems to have allowed the preview videos for their new 360 camera to be posted. Some “reviewers” do up-front explain they were sent the hardware for free (which should be obvious; you cannot buy it yet), while others do not mention their video is sponsored with hardware. Of course.

Go to YouTube and take a look, but don’t expect too much yet. They seem quite limited to what they can say right now, and are unable to show any comparison videos — making the early release pretty pointless.

“Pro Tip” (again, there is no such thing unless your professional job really is giving tip): If a video does not tell you they got the gear for free, you may wish to skip their later “review.” If they are hiding the fact that they have been compensated with hardware, what else are they willing to hide? Also, be aware that if a “reviewer” who receives free hardware says bad things about that hardware, the company is less likely to send them more hardware in the future.

And so it begins…

Insta360 X6 and August 12 and…

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As you read this post, please keep in mind that, while I am an old fart when it comes to 360 photography (I have been experimenting with this stuff for over 20 years), I am still a relative newbie with Insta360.ย I have only been following Insta360 since 2021 when I began researching their ONE X2 360-degree camera. Back then, the Internet seemed to agree that the ONE X2 picture quality was worse than the RICOH Theta camera I already, had but you could do more “fun things” with it thanks to a more advanced app. In January 2022, I became an Insta360 owner. I speak with a whopping five years experience following the brand.

Although I missed the release cycle of the ONE X2, I did follow the announcements and releases for the subsequent X3, X4 and X5 models.

On August 3, Insta360 posted this recap of their camera evolution to YouTube:

A day later, they posted this announcement (teaser?) for their next camera – the Insta360 X6:

I am posting this with the hope that one of you will know much more about Insta360 than I do. This release feels different.

First, in the past, Insta360 would post a cryptic teaser with a date, and no specific information about what they were going to announce on that date. Here is how they teased the X5:

As you see, nowhere did they give us the product model “X5” — but since the video clearly showed 360-degree footage, “everyone” assumed this would be the followup to the X4 and that it would be called the X5.

Assumptions are not always correct.

It goes without saying that assumptions are seldom always correct. For example, when the X3 was released, “everyone” assumed it would be called the “ONE X3” because the previous two “X” cameras were the “ONE X” and “ONE X2“.

“everyone” was wrong.

It looks like Insta360 is changing things up yet again. This time, instead of a cryptic teaser with an announcement date, we got an actual video with the product name and a date – August 12, 2026. Many think this is when you will be able to buy the camera. But for the X5 release, the date in the teaser was when the product name and details would be announced, with the availability (i.e., “when can I buy it?”) happening shortly after.

The first time the name “X5” was announced, we were given all the details:

…but for this X6, we just get a teaser with the product name and a date, and no details.

If August 12th is the date you can buy it, what are you buying? Do folks really think Insta360 is really able to just say “hey, buy the new model on this date, without knowing anything about it.” Even Apple doesn’t do that, and that is a brand folks used to line up to buy before they figured out how to handle preorders ;-)

So perhaps, for 2026 and the X6, “shrinkflation” is just hitting marketing. Instead of a teaser giving an announcement date, then an announcement date with the name and details, followed by availability, we just get an announcement without details, and then will get the details on the day we get to place our order.

We shall see.

Even if the only improvement is better low light, that would be enough to make me interested in having one. I currently travel with a DJI Osmo 360 for low light, and the X5 for everything else.

The novelty of 360 video has worn off.

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As an early adopter of 360 photography, I have been enjoying the format for over twenty (20!) years. When I had RICHO Theta “one shot” 360 cameras, all reviews said they had superior image quality compared to the Insta360 ONE X era cameras. But I ended up getting an Insta360 ONE X2 anyway, once I saw all the cool things you could do with their app.

Being able to “do cool stuff” was more important than going less cool stuff that looked better. (IYKYK)

I remember being blown away by some of the things you could do with the Insta360 software. Ever see any demos of the “paper airplane” mode that lets you fly though things in an impossible way? If not, here is on from five years ago that demonstrates it right at the start, followed by an explanation on how it is done.

MIND BLOWING the first time you see something like that because “you can’t do that with a normal camera.”

The next mind blowing thing I saw was the older Bullet Time, which Insta360 introduced with their first Insta360 ONE camera, which I’d never even heard of until I was researching for this post. Here’s a promo about it:

And of course, Tiny Planet was really cool, too! It can create some weird photos (and videos):

But in the years that followed, a lot of the gimmicks just kind of disappeared. They were still there, in the app, waiting for newbies to play with them. They where like the 360 video version of the Star Wipe or Comic Sans – use them, and folks will make fun of you ;-)

But I still think they are neat.

Now that we have gotten used to things…

But now that we have gotten used to things, I seem to see the same tutorials over and over and over again. Fake drone shots by using a long selfie stick. Giant stepping over things by placing the camera low to the ground. Stuff flying or falling by mounting a leaf or paper airplane or whatever to the camera. Over and over and over. And all the big vloggers seem to have run out of things to tutor us on, as they inevitably post a new version of the same tutorial they showed us on last year’s camera model.

What will the next big video revolution be? For me, I still use my 360 camera mostly for preservation – capturing an area so someone can go back later and see “everything” — not just what I pointed my camera to. Did I walk by something that is now gone, and never take a photo of it or shoot video of it? 360 captured it — and even if not properly framed or lit, “crappy video is better than no video.”

My question for you is … do you ever seen these videos? Or do I only see them because I started following 360 “creators” and also sharing 360 video of my own? Or maybe you have seen the results of 360 video “reframed” down to a normal video, doing neat special effects you think took hours, but in reality it was just because they hit a button in an app using a 360 camera…

I do like Fly Lapse mode…

And doing a panning timelapse with a full stationary camera is cool…

And of course I like the Sky Replacement feature. Here is a clip from the Silver Dollar City’s Showboat in Branson, Missouri, with fake fireworks added with “one click” in the app.

You know, take back what I just wrote. I forgot how much fun these things are. But I think I have more fun making my own videos than looking at influencers do their version of something another influencer did, based on something an influencer did last year.

Until next time…

Fakefluencers and the Insta360 X6 and DJI Osmo 360 2.

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Whelp, the 360-degree camera rumor mill is running wild. Every since some registration paperwork was discovered about unannounced camera models, everyone is suddenly an expert on what the new models will be like – yet again.

Pro tip*: If you want to save some time, just block any influencer that is currently using photos showing fake images of hands holding the unreleased cameras, or boxes, or anything else. You can be assured these folks are not there to show truth – they are creating fake images for clicks. DO NOT TRUST.

You will then see your feed becomes much quieter.

Good luck, fakefluencers.

* There is nothing “professional” about a tip. Unless the person is a professional at giving tips, I guess…

YouTube and 8K video

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When the Insta360 X4 came out, it upgraded the recording format from 5.7K to 8K — basically a 4K image for each of the two lenses. When folks tried to upload these files to YouTube, apparently early on 8K would appear as a choice.

Then something happened.

For the past few years I have seen this topic come up time and time again in 360 forums on Facebook, REDDIT, etc. Folks cannot get their videos to show in 8K. Up to 4K is all it offers:

Time and time again, folks in the forum that got it to work just say “sometimes it takes awhile before it shows up.” However, the majority of us seemed to NEVER see this as an option, even months (or a year) later.

Recently, I began investigating this again. I label all my 8K videos as “8K” and it felt misleading to do so if no one could watch them in 8K.

Then I learned: YouTube used a different size for 8K, or so various “experts” claimed. Even though the Insta360 8K size of 7680×3840 worked fine as 8K in the past (for some), apparently now you had to resize the video to 7680×4320 and then and only then would YouTube show it as 8K. At least, according to many folks who were trying to make the work. Here is part of a detailed series of posts on REDDIT about this:

Part 03 – My experience uploading 8K resolution videos to YouTube
byu/pandoradays invideography

My attempts to do this did not produce 8K. Meanwhile, others still insisted that 8K “just worked” when directly uploading the file exported from Insta360 Studio (and, I would assume, the same size file from the DJI desktop app for the DJI Osmo 360 camera).

But not for most of us.

Does it work for anyone?

I ran into a YouTuber that was posting some 360-degree videos from amusement parks, and noticed they labeled them as 8K in their thumbnails. Yet, no 8K option when I viewed it. This led to a few exchanges in the comments, and them saying they could even see my videos show 8K.

I guess that 7680×4320 suggested by some was not important, after all… even though that is the resolution YouTube specifically mentions for 8K:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6375112

When the experts disagree, you know we don’t really know what the rules are.

So why is it so many of us cannot see 8K, and others can see it just fine? I was today years old when I actually saw an 8K option or the very first time:

And, then I checked using a different browser on a different operating system (Edge on a Windows 11 machine) and saw it there, too.

Did something get flipped?

Please let me know if you can see an 8K option on the following video — and if you can (or can’t), tell us your browser and operating system. The PC I used was just a low end DELL with no special graphics card, and I am seeing it on an M2 Mac even though I just found a new post saying you needed an M3 or above to see them.

No one seems to know the rules. But one of you may, so let us all know. Thanks!

Insta360 X6 in 2026?

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Yesterday my news alerts showed me a posting where someone shared screenshots of registrations for the Insta360 X6. There have been rumors of the X6 since (and maybe even before) the moment the X5 model was released.

Beyond adding higher resolution and/or better low light performance, what else would justify someone upgrading from the X5? Rumors are saying this model could have a 1″ lens — something Insta360 already had years ago with the Insta360 ONE RS. That model had 6K resolution (3K per lens) which was resolution worse than the later X4 and X5 “8K” models but the larger sense allowed it to capture better images even if at a lower resolution.

Just keep in mind — there is “what the camera can do” versus “what the camera operator can do.” Someone can take a mediocre camera, play with manual settings, and post-process the image to create something that looks much better than anything you can get from a “better” camera just by pressing the button in automatic mode.

I have mostly been a point-and-shoot user since I got my first digital camera in 1996, so “what the camera can do” is usually more important to me than what some advanced photographer can do with it.

An important reminder:

Be careful trusting an honest review if they don’t disclose they have a hardware sponsor providing them with hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of product to “review”. That, in itself, is dishonest, so how can you trust the rest?

Now we wait for hundreds of vloggers and bloggers to churn endlessly over the same rumors, adding nothing useful except regurgitation.

More to come…