Insta360 One R
Is this modular action camera the best of all worlds?
The One R is a truly modular action cam – one third is battery, another block is home to the controls and screen, while the last part is the lens and sensor brick.
This style lets you choose one of three cameras to slot into the Insta360 One R – there’s a 4K action camera, similar to the
GoPro Hero 8 Black, and the 360-degree camera is nearer to the GoPro Max.
We had two initial concerns about the Insta360 One R. Would the modular design make it huge? And would feel as if it was always about to fall apart?
Both of these were unfounded. The Insta360 One R is only a bit bigger than a GoPro Hero 8 Black, and is surprisingly sturdy.
There’s no tough locking mechanism to keep the control block and camera lens part together, but the One R feels rigid enough when you clip the battery base in at the bottom. Sure, the Hero 8 Black looks more accomplished, and its soft touch finish feels better too. But Insta360 has managed to make the modular design here seem almost practical, rather than a strange science experiment.
When you want to switch lenses, you simply unclip the battery, pull the lens off and slot in your other module. It takes around 20 seconds.
The Insta360 One R’s screen introduces our second issue. It’s a 1.3-inch square display, similar to the front screen of the DJI Osmo Action.
You use this to compose your shots and navigate the interface. And this is a lot to ask of such a tiny touch display.
Shoot a 16:9 aspect video and the preview becomes even smaller. There was no comparison, using it side-byside with the Hero 8 Black. The GoPro screen is far more comfortable to operate, and is no user experience revelation itself.
The Insta360 One R dream is standard 4K video capture that can match the GoPro Hero 8 Black and 360-footage that rivals the GoPro Max. We are a way off that dream, but there are several things to like here. Let’s start with the 4K wide-angle camera, which is the ‘normal’ side of the One R.
We went out to the park for a run to shoot side-by-side with the Hero 8 Black and One R. The sharpness and of the stabilisation, which Insta360 calls FlowState, are roughly similar. Both are great and the One R captures a lot of detail at 4K resolution in good lighting.
The Insta360 One R succeeds in areas that it could easily have failed in, coming from a company that fires out dynamic action camera designs at quite a rate. But it also trips up in predictable ways, particularly when compared to the more polished alternatives from GoPro.
The Insta360 One R is a unique action camera that offers comparatively good value when compared to non-modular rivals like the GoPro Hero 8 Black and GoPro Max.
Andrew Williams