Insta360 has announced a new professional VR camera, introducing the Insta360 Pro 2 – price tag $4999 – which boasts six lenses to produce ‘8K-per-eye’ 3D 360 video.
The Insta360 Pro 2 also incorporates the company’s FlowState stabilisation technology, announced earlier this year, along with long-range live monitoring.
At the heart of the Insta360 Pro 2 is a new technology that produces 8K VR footage to viewers regardless of whether they have premium playback devices.
How the Insta360 Pro 2 works
The Insta360 Pro 2 employs six cameras situated around the spherical camera body to capture every angle of a scene.
The video or still images captured by these cameras are then fused into two 8K 360 images – one per eye – to create a 3D virtual reality experience.
Features
The Insta360 Pro 2 can shoot 8K 3D at 30fps, iK monoscopic footage at 60fps, 6K 3D at 60fps and 4K 3D at 120fps.
There’s also new in-camera HDR that promises a wider, more natural-looking dynamic range.
A new i-Log mode also gives users the opportunity to grade colour in post-production.
Insta360 announced its FlowState stabilisation technology earlier this year as a firmware update, but it comes already embedded in the Pro 2. FlowState uses a gyroscope to track motion on nine axes. Then, when it’s paired with Insta360’s software, it allows users to stabilise their footage automatically.
Other features include 4K live-streaming in both 3D and monoscopic formats. There’s also the option to save 8K versions of your live-stream footage at the same time as your broadcast, meaning you can polish it up later.
There’s also a built-in GPS module, allowing you to append GPS data to your captures and contribute to Google Maps Street View.
Farsight technology
The Insta360 Pro 2’s new Farsight technology is a 360-degree live monitoring system that promises a high-definition, low-latency video stream for long-distance preview.
This helps to eliminate the problem some 360 videographers have where WiFi connections between the camera and device can get disconnected.
Adobe Premiere Pro integration
Insta360 also recently announced a partnership with Adobe so that users could edit their 360 videos from the Insta360 Pro in Adobe Premiere Pro software.
The Pro 2 builds on this, and every time the camera captures a video it saves a low-res proxy version in addition to the high-quality footage.
When editing your video, you then import these proxy files into Premiere Pro and edit as usual. When you’re done, the software exports these proxy files and applies the edits to the high-res version.
This saves time and processing power.
Body design
The Insta360 Pro 2 weighs just 3.42 pounds, including the battery and antennae, and features six microSD card slots (one per camera) around its magnesium allow body.
There are also four built-in mics for 360 audio, plus a pair of USB and 3.5mm audio inputs on the top and bottom for adding custom audio setups and other add-ons.
CrystalView technology
Insta360’s new CrystalView technology means the Pro 2 can convert your content into a format that’s ready to play back on any smartphone or VR heads and still maintain its 8K resolution.
Insta360’s playback apps will dynamically render these files, displaying in full quality the exact segment of a scene that a user is looking at.
Insta360 Pro 2 Price & Release Date
The Insta360 Pro 2 price tag is $4999.95, which includes the Farsight transmitter system plus one battery.
Those who pre-oder the camera will also receive a free additional battery, worth $129. You can pre-order from the Insta360 Store or from B&H Photo Video.
Included in the price of the Pro 2 is a 3-month license to Mistika VR Professional Edition ($236 value), offering customizable stitching controls, integrated with Insta360’s official stitching libraries. Also included is a 3-month subscription to Blend Media’s 360 Stories Pro software ($745 value), offering creation and publication of virtual tours and other interactive 360 experiences.
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