My NEW Insta360 Ace Pro Action Camera

On By Rick McIn cycling, hiking, photos, product endorsements, travel, video3 Comments

A Christmas present to myself 2023.

Here’s my 1st video using mostly Ace Pro footage. 

Videotaping animals and birds is particularly challenging when using cameras without much optical zoom.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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 can use the Ace Pro with all my GoPro attachments.

Action cameras are even more durable than phones.

Of the dozens of cool features available with the Ace Pro, I’ll actually be using very few for my hiking videos.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Settings

90% of the time I will be shooting:

  • 4K 30fps HDR.  Stabilization STANDARD.
  • Automatic focus.

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.

4K 30fps 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 1080p 30fps 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.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Photos

Initially, I thought I’d shoot photos on iPhone 13. Video on the Ace Pro.

Comparing different photos on the Ace Pro v iPhone 13, so far I’m MUCH preferring iPhone. Seems Apple does a much better job with photos.

On the other hand, it’s bloody convenient to take a photo simultaneously while videotaping with the new camera.  A great feature of the Ace Pro.

AND I’m thinking it will be more convenient to take selfie photos and video with the Ace Pro on the tripod using Voice Command. 

Voice Command on iPhone seems to screw up a lot for me. I probably won’t use it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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.

Still experimenting …

My CHRISTMAS PRESENT to YOU

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

A concept for YOUR future series of speculative fiction. You can write those books during retirement. 😀

Human kind is going extinct on Earth.

Elon Musk and others launch as many long range space craft as possible. Towards as many remotely feasible planets and moons that might be able to sustain life.

The ships are unmanned — aside from frozen sperm and eggs. This seems far more possible than sending folks cryogenically frozen.

Generated with AI – Microsoft Image Creator

Those (few) ships that survive the trip after hundreds of years at sub-light speed are possible story plots.

After landing, Androids start in vitro humans growing. They attempt to adapt the planet for homo sapiens.

This is something similar to the TV series Silo.

It sounds like Allen M. Steele traveled forward into the future to STEAL this idea from me in his book Arkwright (2016). 

There may have been other literary thieves. 😀

1st Music Video on MTV …

On By Rick McIn musicLeave a comment

Appropriate.

The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star

“Video Killed the Radio Star” (1979) with Thomas Dolby on keyboards.

The music video written, directed and edited by Australian Russell Mulcahy, was produced on a budget of $50,000. It was filmed in only a day in South London.

The video is best known as marking the debut of MTV, when the US channel started broadcasting at 12:01 AM on 1 August 1981.  It originally aired on the BBC’s Top of the Pops.

Hans Zimmer can be briefly seen wearing black playing a keyboard.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Love Actually – BEST Christmas movie

On By Rick McIn humour, movies, musicLeave a comment

Looking for a feel good — ADULT — Christmas flick?

Dave and Lisa Adlard recommended my favourite, Love Actually. (2003 R-rated)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) horrible Christmas variation of The Troggs’ classic hit “Love Is All Around”. (VIDEO)

Even more R-rated is the full version.   😀 

Dream Catcher Academy, Nigeria

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Dream Catcher Academy near Lagos is a school for orphaned and indigent girls. The goal is quality education, arts and leadership and life skills.

Seyi Oluyole started Dream Catchers Academy with only 5 girls in 2014. It provides free dance, drama and music classes for underprivileged children.

I’m following the school now. And will try to visit next time I get to Nigeria.

It was this dance with afrobeat superstar Davido that first caught my attention.

Murder at the End of the World

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

7 episode mini-series. VERY good TV.

Weird and unique.

89% Rotten Tomatoes. That’s about right. I’d change a few things, if I could.

Intense. But skillfully done.

Unlike typical Agatha Christie, the dialogue is believable.

Emma Corrin is excellent as Darby Hart, a 24-year-old “Gen Z Sherlock Holmes” hacker who has written a true-crime book about her past as an amateur sleuth.

She’s Rami Malek‘s paramour right now IRL.

Harris Dickinson as Bill Farrah is quite good, as well. They make a charmingly socially awkward duo.

Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must use all of her skills to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life. …

Wikipedia

I did enjoy the technology.

The show is set in a billionaire prepper’s escape hatch, the Fljot Valley Hotel in Iceland.

Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building a compound in Hawaii with an underground bunker.

OpenAI’s ousted-and-reinstated CEO Sam Altman has a stash of things like guns, gold, antibiotics, and gas masks.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman bought motorcycles, guns, and ammo to be prepared to “hole up in my house for some amount of time” if necessary and even got laser eye surgery because he thinks it’d help his odds of survival in a disaster.

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman once told the New Yorker he estimates more than half of Silicon Valley billionaires have invested in some type of “apocalypse insurance,” like an underground bunker.

Business Insider

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I did predict the killer. 

The Camera Man by Peter Grainger

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I’m a big fan of the fictional character DC Smith.

Grainger’s 2023 book has the retired detective working on a possible insurance fraud case.

A woman’s husband disappeared 5 years prior. And she wants to make a claim on his estate.

The insurance company believes the man is still alive — and hires DC Smith to find him.

As usual, this Grainger book is a slow-paced, humorous police procedural.

No car chases nor gun fights.

My Life is Murder – season 1

On By Rick McIn humour, TVLeave a comment

I tried this show because … Lucy Lawless.

Xena: Warrior Princess and her as D’Anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica.

I’m a fan of the Kiwi badass. And she’s FUNNY. 😀

Snarky.

Namaste.

  … Ya, you have a nice day too. 😀

My Life Is Murder (2019) is an Australian and New Zealand murder mystery, crime comedy-drama television series …

… follows the adventures of fearless private investigator Alexa Crowe, who solves the most baffling crimes as well as coping with the frustrations of everyday life.

Lucy Lawless as PI Alexa Crowe, former detective of the Victoria Police Crinimal Investigation Branch (CIB) . As a side hustle, she bakes bread in her kitchen for Baristas Café. …

Not bad.  Standard police procedural.

But what makes it worth watching for me is the humour. And the Melbourne scenery.

There are some personal mysteries you ponder. 

WHY is Alexa working cold cases for the police? She doesn’t seem to get paid. 

WHY does Madison — who actually does work for the police — drop everything instantly anytime Alexa needs a hacker / analyst?

I’d best continue on to season 2. For one thing, the show moves to New Zealand, my former homeland.

mmmm – Kirkland Cheese Buns

On By Rick McIn foodLeave a comment

My typical breakfast.

Either half or two half of a toasted, butter Kirkland Signature Cheese Bun. With coffee.

Buy at least 2 dozen at a time at Costco. Slice them in half. Throw them into the freezer.

Costco Kirkland Signature Cheese Buns Review