Insta360 - Insta360 X4

Insta 360x4 was absolutely awesome

I bought a x4 for similar reasons- family vacations, biking and running. I think the action stick is necessary as well as the heavy duty clamp. I got a protective cage for it as well.

If it’s your first just go for the x5. I’ve used the x4 for more than a year and as long as it doesn’t break there very little incentive to move to the x5 on the basis of low light performance

Insta360 is the best we’ve used and the 360 has major benefits.

I use an Insta360 X4 with motorcycle mount on my R3. It has decent night time videos that I have posted on YouTube. 5k resolution downgraded to 1080p because I use a freeware clipchamp.

Here's my take. Cameras like the X4 are great 'lazy' cameras. You don't do anything with them live - just stick them in place and let them do their thing. They are also 'you get what you get' cameras. Low light noise, visible stitch lines are part of what you get. Finally they are 'get it all' cameras with the 360 degree dome - even if the camera operator is unaware of something interesting happening - the camera will catch it. The post-processing on the app is also fun in the X4 with lots of novel shots available to you. If you're planning on using this for motorcycles - do you need more than 180 degrees? If not - then the X4 is not necessary. Get the best quality 180 degree camera you can get. Reminder - you can set the X4 into single lens mode and get better quality 180 degree footage too. I edit my videos - so I can handle the stitch lines and noise profiles easily. My favorite camera (out of GoPro, RX100VII, FX30, FX3, Pocket 3, X3, X4) is the X4. It's just goofy, easy, low-risk fun. My best camera is the FX3 (and the FX30 actually). My photo camera/daily carry is the RX100VII. The Pocket 3 proved less useful for what I do and unfortunately it gathers dust. The X4 was not really any kind of improvement over the X3 - which I believe was part of your question.

I got an Insta360 X4 for Christmas for filming my kids and it is pretty much magic fairy dust level of technology. It is the only one you should consider IMHO.

I’ve had ONE X2, X3 and now X4. Only downside was the X4 was larger and heavier but I quickly got used to that. Depending on how you use it, it might not be a big deal. It is missing some bracketing photo features earlier models had. If you don’t use them, no big deal. Check out many side by side video comparisons. I record them when I get a new X camera to decide if the upgrade is worth it.

I have never owned a GoPro, but started 360 photography in 2005 with a mirror-ball add on for a digital camera. I’ve owned 360 cams from Giroptic, RICOH, Kodak and now have Insta360 and DJI. While my RICOH had better photos than the ONE X2, I got a ONE X2 because it had better software and was more fun. I instantly used a "worse" camera more than any of the other models I had. As I moved from X2 to X3 to X4 to X5, each comparison always had some things I thought the earlier model did better. With my DJI Osmo 360, I got it specifically for low light, hoping it might be my "go to" for low light situations, and the X5 for everything else. I’ve already seen alot of footage comparing it to other cameras, and some things look better on the Max 2, and other things look worse. Personal preference is a b-tch ;) What do you expect the niche of the Max 2 to be? What are the things that GoPro does better?

TLDR: I personally really like the versatility of the 360 cameras like X4 Air (if I could only own one it would be a 360 camera), but the small size of the Go 3S makes it a more discreet device. In the end, it's depend on your use cases and imagination. I have Go 3S and regular X4. The X4 Air is about the size/weight of a chunky candy bar/short TV remote/ or slim eyeglasses case and they have distinctly different use cases. Use the Go 3S for established POV videos - for example mounted on your head, chest, or to the body of a instrument. Here you have established stationary positions of the camera and viewing angle. For instance, I mounted a Go 3S to an Air Rocket my kids launched as part of a school project and I got a good slow motion sequence of the crowd on the ground as the rocket blasted away. Use the X4 Air when there is a lot of movement going around that makes it hard to properly aim it - for instance you want a full body view of yourself (with no visible poll) from 3-10 feet away as your are moving (hiking, skiing/snowboarding, etc), or say you are trying to video your friends moving (skiing/snowboarding) while you are also moving where it would be tricky to casually keep them well framed in the camera (a veteran/pro videographer will be able to anticipate/follow the action with some communication/planning with the moving subject... but a 360 camera makes this a lot easier). I've also mounted the 360 camera to a fishing pole and a hockey stick and the 360 camera can easily stabilize the extremely movements of those two poles while still focusing on the action at hand (i.e. the lure being flung into the water, or the players and puck despite the camera twisting/spinning along). As for the drone, the Antigravity drone is not schedule for release until early 2026, so that will be far from now. Whether a drone will replace the X4 again depends on your use case... with a 10ft (3m) pole, the X4 Air can do a lot of similar angles to a drone being within 10-15 of the subject and isn't limited by the various regulations around a drone (drones are noisy and banned in most state/national parks, within 15-20 miles of airports, and landmarks and public/private buildings). You can easily make a video of what looks like a drone flying behind/in front of you with a 360 camera on a long pole. What you can't do with a normal 360 camera is get a view 100-300 ft in the air away from anything else (like a bridge or tower).

I don't know about gimbal mode for X4 Air. I think it depends on what you want to do with the camera. I have an Ace Pro and an X4 and I use my X4 a lot more in general because of the convenience of having a 360 pespective that allow reframing after the fact. I also have the X2 awhich was 150g and I notice the weight of the X4 (200g) at the end of a 100cm pole (a long lever) while snowboarding as I like to keep the stick horizontal and at waist height. The X5 is 200g as well so it will be a bit heavier than the 165g X4 Air. Last I checked the X4 Air is like $150 cheaper for a slight reducing in low-light image quality (the sensors are smaller) and like 15 minutes less battery life. So I would pick the X4 Air for action sports usage (handheld out in sunny weather) as well as to save some money. But if money is not an issue and you want the absolute best image quality available on a Insta360 right now and you are mostly not long-lever handholding (e.g. head, chest or object mounted) than I would got with X5.

I have a X2/X4 and a Ace Pro. X5 is a 360 camera. So when you crop it down from 8K 360 to a 16:9 viewport with say a 90 degree field of view... you are at something around 2.7K resolution (note you can shoot single lens in 4K, but it is an ultra, ultra wide field of view... so it's not going to be as good as a normal 4K as well). Personally, if I have to have only one camera with me, I always take my X4... it is just much more versatile as I think the convenient of framing and tracking almost always outweigh the loss in quality. Some times I have both an a magnetic-quick mount stick and just swap between the two depending on whether I need the reframing ability of the 360 camera or not.

TLDR: I would get the X4 Air as I believe it is equal or cheaper than the X4. Otherwise X4 is fine. I always shoot in 8K personally and that gives me like 75 minutes of continuous recording (which I think is plenty in most cases - especially on a bike since you can connect an external power to it). X4 Air is splits the difference between the X4 and X5 in image quality (i.e. better than the X4) has replaceable lenses. It has like 65-70 minutes of 8K battery life. Yes, you can swap batteries as they recharge to 80% in about 20 minutes (you can charge the X4/X4 Air/X5 as well via USB port if you aren't in a lot of water) - you say you want to "record all day" but how many hours of actual footage do you plan to take? I find 60+ minutes of footage is a lot (although you mentioned dashcam footage and the camera I believe have a loop recording mode that will just keep recording and only save 5/10/30 minutes - there is a infinite mode that clears out the oldest loop clip as well). Note you can still replace a X4 lens, just that you have to send it it... so if you are mostly kayak fishing and not crashing your road bike a lot - it's probably ok. I've had an X2/X4 for \~5 years and my main crashes was flipping face first running on a BMX dirt jump course next to me kids and I only got a tiny scratch on my X2 lens (to be fair I was protecting it so my face and hands got scratched a bit).