Insta360 ONE RS New 1" 360º Lens

in

This is what I was hoping for. I wrote a little about the Insta360 ONE RS last month. To recap, I had been excited by the possibility of a modular action camera that could be upgraded in a similar fashion to a DSLR or mirrorless camera when Insta360 released the ONE R but wasn’t sure if they would do anything with it. After they recently released the ONE RS, a lot of which could be upgraded on the original ONE R instead of buying everything new, I was a lot more excited. And now Insta360 has done some more.

When they released the ONE RS it had, if I remember correctly, an upgraded camera module, battery, and 4k lens. Now they’ve released a 1” 360º lens. It’s like the previous 360º lens except with a larger 1” sensor inside. This seems to have made it a bit bigger. It also seems to cause you to use it differently. While the Insta360 ONE R and ONE RS are usually rectangular like a GoPro camera, the 1” 306º lens requires a larger battery placed to the side, instead of underneath, the camera module. Then there seems to be a mounting bracket the battery and camera module slide into to hold it all in place. It makes it look more like the company’s ONE X and ONE X2 cameras than the GoPro.

According to the FAQ on the product page the lens works with both the ONE R and ONE RS camera modules. This means you can buy and use it even if you have the original ONE R without needing to buy the newer ONE RS. It does require its own battery. The normal battery plate doesn’t work with it but it seems that a battery comes with the lens if you buy it without a camera module. I suspect that having a lens that fancy requires a bit more power than the regular battery, for either the ONE R or ONE RS, can provide. While it’s kind of a bummer it needs its own specific battery I guess it’s not that different than getting a battery grip or external battery for a larger camera.

Either way I think this is a great addition to the expanding Insta360 ONE R family. I’m thrilled to see action camera style cameras getting a more modular upgrade path in place of the standard entirely new camera. I hope they keep this up.

I’m definitely going to be keeping my eye on Insta360 now to see what they do. And I’m considering even more strongly than before if I could film a cool fight with a 360º camera.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all my pictures and videos.