I’d avoided this Facebook social media alternative — until the pandemic. It’s very popular with outdoor recreation folks so I started posting near daily on @BestHikeVisuals.
I’d long planned to replace both my old GoPro and my Sony ZV1 camera with one action camera — and finally made the leap when the Insta360 Ace Pro was released December 2023.
My minimum gear for shooting video has never been lighter nor more compact.
I like HDR (high dynamic range) and shoot the same on my iPhone. Over-saturated video looks good to me on YouTube. Especially if watching on a phone.
4K30fps is the most I can shoot in HDR on the Ace Pro. (Better would be 60fps in HDR. That would be my #1 request for future upgrade.)
I export at 1080p30fps so can crop / zoom down without losing resolution.
Shooting in this setting I can quickly zoom 50% and yet still end up with 4K video whenever I want by double tapping the screen. How does 4K zoom to 4K? … Some sort of digital trickery in camera they call clarity zoom.
Their 8K is 4K with 4 small pixels replacing each normal 4K pixel. So far I haven’t been much impressed with 8K for video.
Ultrawide gives the widest possible perspective for outdoor scenery. I’ll use that mode when shooting BIG outdoor vistas.
Most of the time, I’ll use Dewarp (minimal distortion) as it most closely matches a normal camera with almost no curvature to the image.
iPhone App and Apple Watch App
I’ll be using the Apple Watch app quite a bit. It’s simple. Quick. And intuitive.
I might never use the phone app which is complicated. And really not needed for someone who plans to edit video later on laptop.
Voice Command on the Ace Pro works most of the time, even in noisy environments.
This camera has Gesture Control — but it works inconsistently, as it does on every other product I’ve tried with that feature.
Downsides of the Insta360 Ace Pro
The AcePro has no GPS. With iPhone photos and video, I sometimes look up the metadata to see exactly where and when I took the picture — very useful.
It’s possible to use the phone app — or even the watch app — to get the metadata, but that’s too much hassle for me.
The biggest problem now, however, is lack of much zoom on any of my cameras. I’d love to have something with 10x optical, as well.
Since I export at 30fps, in my normal shooting mode I won’t be able to slow down video. In reality, I don’t use much slow mo anyway, so it probably won’t be a problem. BUT I’ll need to remember to switch to slow motion if I ever want some of those captures.
What I liked best about Dresden, Germany was how few tourists cluttered up the great sights. Of the languages I heard, almost everyone spoke German. A few Russian. And a few spoke English.
Early or late in the day — or, especially, in the rain — I had the huge plazas nearly to myself even at the end of August.
Unlike Florence which is swarming with tourists at all times, my photos were mostly unpopulated.
For fun I decided to experiment with editing in black & white (Noir filter) and see if I could capture a feeling of the old East Germany.
Artificial Intelligence photo editing is getting scary good.
Here’s a recent photo of myself on a good day. Followed by one IMPROVED with the old Lensa photo editing app.
Processed with Lensa with Auto Adjustments & PT2 filter
Bigger, brighter eyes. Smaller nose. Fewer wrinkles on the face, if not on the neck. 😀
This is the regular Lensa app on MacOS. First 4 photos are free.
All the rage as I post is the Lensa AI app on iPhone and Android. U.S. $35.99 a year, with an extra charge of $3 to $12 for packs of avatars. Price has been going up.
You might be able to try it for a week, not continuing with the annual subscription.
This was actually my 3rd time stopping in Seville. It’s the essential transit point between southern Portugal and Andalusia, Spain.
I really do enjoy the city.
Seville got very, very rich after being named the royal monopoly port for trade with the growing Spanish colonies in the Americas and the influx of riches from them.
I’d walked the famous Cathedral in the past, so this time signed up for therooftop tour. Very cool.
The technology in how they made this massive structure is fascinating.
I’d recommend rooftop over the regular tour as you actually do walk through the Cathedral coming and going to the top, as well.
My guide swears this is the REAL tomb of Christopher Columbus. But there’s another in the Dominican Republic. One or the other might be the brother of Columbus.
Rick McCharles 