Insta360 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition review: The low light king?

Insta360 continues to add to the modular One RS family with the introduction of its latest camera, the One RS 1-inch 360 Edition.

This time, the trademark has teamed up with the imaging experts at Leica to develop a 360 module with dual 1-inch sensors.

Its large bulbous lenses and Leica branding requite the visitation of a serious image-making tool, but how does it perform in the real world?

We've been putting it to the test in an effort to find out.

Design

• Modular system utilising One RS core
• IPX3 water resistance
• Weight: 239 grams
• Dimensions: 53.2 x 49.5 x 129.3mm

The diamond of the 1-inch 360 Edition is seriously clever. It utilises the same Cadre module as the Insta 360 One RS but configures it in a vertical format that's increasingly unreceptive to the brand's non-modular 360 cameras.

The reason for the orientation transpiration is simple: the lenses are far too large to fit the standard configuration without looking extremely lop-sided and off-balance.

In this vertical format, the Cadre can't be powered by the same shower terminals, so Insta360 has ripened a USB-C shower module that substantially acts as a power bank. The shower and cadre can be slid in and out of a plastic frame, and the oversized camera module securely clips into the top with two retaining latches. When assembled, the camera feels reassuringly sturdy, and the new form factor feels natural to hold.

There is a downside to this new configuration, though. Removing the SD vellum now requires disassembly, as the port is sandwiched between the shower and cadre modules in the middle of the frame. It's not the end of the world, and probably takes the same value of time as opening the fiddly door on the standard One RS, but it's a bit increasingly of a hassle than we would like.

The camera module features two bulbous lenses that measure over an inch in diameter. They are encircled by Leica Super-Summicron branding, which inspires conviction in the optics. It's nonflexible to say how much involvement Leica has unquestionably had in the development, obviously, but its clearance is a good sign.

On the sides of the camera module, meanwhile, are slick plaques that ventilate the 1-inch sensors and FlowState stabilisation. These squint like OLED displays at first glance, but they are, in fact, just shiny plastic. It's a bit of an odd choice. It doesn't squint bad per se, but it might squint largest without them.

The 1-inch 360 Edition is IPX3 certified (when assembled), so it's unscratched to use in light rain or snow, but it's not submersible like the standard 360 module. However, that's no major loss, as 360 videos don't tend to work very well underwater.

Insta360 doesn't recommend the 1-inch 360 Edition for action-sports usage, either. Instead, the new model is designed for travelling content creators, tours and real estate.

Software and features

• Insta360 app on desktop and mobile
• FlowState stabilisation
• Support for external microphones (with optional accessories)

The software wits is substantially the same that we are used to from the One RS and One R, and that works nicely for us. On both Windows and Android, the importing of footage, reframing and exporting is intuitive and fluid - so long as your machine has the specs to handle 6K video playback. We moreover found that we could connect the app much increasingly reliably than with our GoPro cameras, which made it much increasingly pleasant to use.

Since the software is the same, we get wangle to all the unconfined tools that we have enjoyed using with the standard One RS. As before, reframing via DeepTrack works fantastically on human subjects and does a respectable job on other objects, too.

One of our favourite things well-nigh shooting in 360 is the worthiness to render out multiple options of the same clip, and Insta360 Studio makes that really easy. For example, you can render out a 16:9 prune for YouTube, a 9:16 prune for your Instagram Story and a 1:1 prune for Twitter in a matter of minutes. It's really handy for content creators. Plus, you can export at up to ProRes 422, for editing in a traditional NLE like Premiere Pro.

The audio quality remains the same on the 1-inch 360 Edition, as the microphones are housed on the One RS Cadre module. We weren't overly impressed with the microphone quality on the One RS, but, thankfully, Insta360 has introduced some clever traps to modernize things. If you purchase the mic connector and specially designed bracket, you can now hibernate the Rode Wireless Go or Go 2 within the stitch lines of the lenses for invisible high-quality audio.

Photo and video quality

• Dual 1-inch sensors with f2.2 lenses
• Up to 6K 30fps video
• Up to 21MP 360 photos
• New PureShot HDR photo mode

As the product name suggests, the largest transpiration in image quality comes from the larger 1-inch sensors used in the camera module. There's a resolution increase, too, from 5.7K to 6K. However, in practical terms, it's not much of a leap.

In good lighting conditions, the new 1-inch module produces noticeably sharper images in both video and photo modes. The colours towards increasingly natural and lifelike, whereas the standard 360 module tends towards the warmer end of the spectrum. We moreover noticed that the new module retains increasingly detail in the shadows, but it's still a pretty contrasty image overall.

In daylight, the resurgence is noticeable, but it's not mind-blowing and based on that alone, many current users may not finger the need to upgrade. In darker conditions, however, the story gets a lot increasingly interesting.

360 cameras aren't typically very good in visionless conditions, due to a combination of small sensors and the need to capture light in all directions at once. The One RS 360 module was no exception, producing grainy and muddied images in challenging lighting. The 1-inch 360 module, on the other hand, is a variegated yahoo entirely.

We took the 1-inch 360 Edition virtually some dimly lit tradeshow halls, as well as a rural street lit only by LED streetlights, and the difference was incredible. The 1-inch module is capable of capturing a decent image in very dim conditions - long without the standard 360 module image had fallen apart.

One thing to alimony in mind, though, is that your videos are subject to lower shutter speeds in low light. This ways that camera shakes and fast movement result in motion mistiness that FlowState stabilisation can't correct. So, in low light conditions, you need a steady hand or a tripod to get the weightier results.

We moreover tried out some long exposure night photography with the 1-inch 360 Edition and were very impressed with the results. Insta360's PureShot HDR processing does an spanking-new job of retaining details, as can be seen in our test shots, with visible stars slantingly light trails from a rented stretch of motorway.

Just like with video content, a unconfined goody of 360 photography is the worthiness to render out multiple images from a single photograph. You can segregate a linear frame in any direction, fisheye view, create a tiny planet or simply share a 360-degree view. It's unconfined fun to play virtually with without the fact.