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Despite being right there in the name, the new Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is not a 360° camera. Instead, this is a cinematic quality, 8K resolution, rugged as hell, action camera with the mission of putting GoPro and DJI on their respective trailers. As most of you are consuming this and most other media from your phone’s screen, I have trouble seeing the value of 8K. But the color, clarity, and stabilization are only scratching the surface of this camera’s capabilities. After seeing even the first few seconds of footage, it made me want to enroll in film school.
When the OG action camera hit race tracks and halfpipes at full force in February of 2007, I scraped together every extra cent I could to buy my own GoPro Hero3. I had already been in this industry for a few years. While my company would happily splash money on digital camera gear for still photography, the idea of video was way outside the imaginations’ of print media CEOs. In fairness, YouTube had just been acquired by Google, and was literally cats in costumes playing keyboards and we were even months away from Chocolate Rain—kids, go ask your parents.
It changed the world, the action camera. Well maybe Chocolate Rain, too. But the ability to suction cup a camera to glass and sheet metal in seconds for a couple of hundred bucks was the biggest change to automotive media since cliches. The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 isn’t going to change the world in the same way, but it can reset expectations.
The Bottom Line
The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is an evolution of the original Ace Pro, the first 8K action camera. The Pro 2 adds a dedicated image processing chip as well as AI. This allows for voice control and an auto-editing system that filters out the boring parts of your on-camera life. There’s also a new Leica sensor, the flip-up screen is slightly bigger, and it’s now waterproof to 39.4 feet. It’s a nice round 12 meters if you’re wondering why Insta360 didn’t put in the work for that one more foot. The Standard Bundle, with 1 battery is $399.99 and the Dual Battery Bundle is $419.99.
That’s all great, how does it work? In a word, intricately. I know that doesn’t help a lot; let me explain. The detail the Ace Pro 2 provides is nuts. It looks like I can reach into my screen and grab a handful of gravel from my footage. The texture of the road, the detail of wispy clouds, I can even see every branch on the happy little trees. Slight color variations all jump out, and all of this works at a surprising depth of field, even while moving.
The PureVideo Mode, which doesn’t work in the full 8K, even provides deep vivid colors in low light. The downside of the Ace Pro 2 is that to get all of this with the camera and the mount, you have a $450 bill hanging off the side of your car. That’s not small money. I also wonder about the value of 8K shooting. But you can select whatever you want, so I wouldn’t use that huge resolution as part of your calculus when figuring out if you want this very high-performance and rugged action camera.
| Insta360 Ace Pro 2 Action Camera | |
|---|---|
| Ease Of Use | 9/10 |
| Physical Quality | 9/10 |
| Image Quality | 10/10 |
| Editing App | 8/10 |
| Overall | 9/10 |
What Are The Specs Of The Insta360 Ace Pro 2
I’m starting with the easy stuff; the Ace Pro 2 is 2.8 x 2.1 x 1.5 inches and weighs 6.2 ounces. It’ll operate in temperatures from -4° to 113°F. Waterproofing will get you down to 39 feet. With the optional Dive Case, it can keep going to 197 feet. It uses a microSD, up to 1 freakin’ terabyte, with no internal storage. The 1800mah battery claims to last up to 3 hours. I think that’s optimistic but over 2 hours is easy. The camera offers reverse charging, so it’s a power bank too. It will now do 8K resolution at up to 30 frames per second(fps), but at 4K you can do 120 fps, and at 1080p you can get a whopping 240 fps. Oh, it works with iOS and Android.
If you weren’t in the AV Club in junior high you may want to skip to the next section. The sensor size is 1/1.3 inches which in theory means the sensor is 12mm diagonally. The lens has a 35mm equivalent length of 13mm, which is suuuuper wide. I bought a 16mm lens for my DSLR and my editor asked if I was trying to get my ears in the shot. Insta360 says it measures out to a nearly 160° field of view.
ISO is automatically adjusted between 100 and 6400. The shutter speed can vary between 1/8000 all the way up to a possible 120 seconds but it’s dependent on frame rate. It uses MP4 file format for video, JPG or Raw for photos, and video coding is H.264 or H.265 video codecs. Honestly, those last two I don’t understand. H.265 supports 8K, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you the difference.
It has 3 microphones, uses a 6-axis gyro, has both 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi. It has a USB-C port that can be used with a plug-in receiver for wireless mics. Or you can use Bluetooth, but it won’t sound as good. Most importantly, it comes in any color you want, as long as it’s black.
A Million And One Uses For An Action Camera And I Chose The One
If you’re reading this on The Garage, I’m going to make an assumption that your main interest in an action camera is filming cars, motorcycles, and maybe even bicycles. A camera like the Ace Pro 2 is great for anything, from action sports to vlogging. It even has settings so it can be used as a dashcam. If you’re looking to shoot people more than a few feet away, either not moving or moving slowly, my advice is to use your phone. Most action cameras, this one included are super-wide-angle and make things distorted. But, for action, they’re the best.
If you watch the embedded clip, you can see how detailed the gravel and asphalt come out, even while moving. At the same time, there’s a large depth of field in focus and the HDR processing does a great job with shadows and colors. The low-light clips show off how good the camera is in compromised conditions. That was shot before the sun was up, at what my iPhone claims is the beginning of nautical twilight. It was dark. As a washed-up, I mean retired pro photographer, I was shocked at the quality of the video.
There are several different shooting modes available that slightly change both how wide the image is and how it behaves around the edges. The Ace Pro 2 only has one lens, so it employs processing tricks to manipulate the image. The Action Mode is fairly wide and has a small amount of straightening around the edges. Ultra is wide and rounded for capturing landscapes. There’s Mega, Dewarped, and Linear Modes that all try to flatten out the image in varying degrees. If you use these in motion too close to the scenery, it looks odd as everything in the corners isn’t moving by naturally.
Insta360 sent over several accessories for me to use while testing the camera. For all the on-car shots, I used a PGYTECH Suction Cup Action Camera Mount. This is a similar mount to what the industry has been using basically since the first GoPro. This particular mount has two ball-pivots, a lever-actuated suction cup at one end, and a GoPro-style mount on the other. It’s about 40 bucks and works amazingly, even at highway speeds.
The Ace Pro 2 doesn’t have the typical 1/4-20 threaded insert in the bottom. Instead, it uses a quick-release mount that has both locking clips and magnets. The design is great and if you have a few of these you can change the camera mount in seconds, rather than having to unscrew everything. For the low-light shots, I used Insta360’s Multi Mount. As the name implies, is handy in all kinds of situations. It works as a height and angle-adjustable tripod, or with several different shaped hand grips—one of which resembles a Goa’uld Zat’nik’tel, so is obviously the superior choice. It does work very well, but if I’m honest, feels a little over-priced at $45.99.
I Got 99 Problems But A Switch Ain’t One
There’s a power button and a start-stop button, everything else is touchscreen; and unlike modern VWs, it’s a good thing. Like any electronic device, the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is almost endlessly configurable. It’s all accessed with the flip-up touchscreen. Normally, the screen is your “viewfinder,” the only one, the front screen doesn’t do that, but when you swipe from any edge, you get a different menu system. I learned how to use it more quickly than I thought. It’s pretty intuitive.
Most of those menus, and the viewfinder, are also mirrored in the Insta360 smartphone app. So when the camera is stuck to the outside of your car, you adjust settings, see what the camera sees, and even start and stop recordings remotely. It connects via wifi and the footage has a barely noticeable delay. Again, when I first picked it up, I was a bit frustrated just by the sheer number of options, but it’s organized well and is easily learned.
The Verdict: Insta360 Ace Pro 2 8K Action Camera
As someone who reveres the name Leica, I should be more excited about the lens and sensor being with the storied camera company’s name. The sensor is apparently the same as DJI’s, so I guess it’s Leica software and/or firmware. With that said, the image quality, the colors, the details, the focusing, everything I can name about the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is fantastic. The only use I can see for 8K is that you can haphazardly wave the camera in the general direction of your subject, crop it down in post, and still have a perfectly framed 4K image. The other downside of 8K is the processing power and RAM you need to edit the footage. For me, I’ll keep the camera on the 4K setting and pay attention to where it’s pointed.
Besides the $399.00 price tag everything else about the Ace Pro 2 makes it extremely accessible. It’s labeled as “Pro” and gives results worthy of the name, and yet it’s amateur-level-easy to use. I sometimes think experience with other brands and UXs is a detriment to quickly learning new devices, but I was flicking through menus like a pro in minutes. For some devices I test, I’ll make myself a cheat sheet for the controls, but there was no need for the Ace Pro 2.
The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 has more features and functions than I can possibly list here. I’m already a good 20% over my normal word count. Many of those uses are only going to be used by pros. But even some of those might be adaptable for amateur creators. I will have more footage in the coming weeks on The Garage’s TikTok account. I promise no dancing, as well as another review where I will test out a couple of more uses. The picture quality of the Ace Pro 2 is astounding in every situation I’ve tried so far. More importantly, the performance comes in a tough package that is easy to use right out of the box.