Insta360 X4: One-Camera Motovlogging, Now A Reality

Next time you watch a motorcycle video on YouTube, try to count all the cameras at play. One on the helmet for that POV shot, one on the bars looking back up at the presenter, maybe even one in a chase van — and, more often than not, an Insta360 X3 mounted somewhere on the bike for the occasional ultra-wide angle or fancy panning effect. For those looking to get into content creation, all that hardware can be a struggle.

Those cameras need to be mounted, wired for power, and something needs to be recording audio both in your helmet and on your bike without getting blown out by wind noise. If only there were a single camera that could capture everything, mount anywhere, and record straight from the comms system you’ve already got. Well, now there is: The Insta360 X4.

Full Disclosure: Insta360 sent me an as-yet-unreleased X4 camera to review, complete with every mount and adapter and lens protector that a motorcyclist could dream of. The company then sent me another, after the first package was mysteriously rerouted to a random address in California. Thanks, UPS.

The Insta360 X4 is the successor to the X3, a camera you likely know if you’ve watched nearly any motorcycle video on YouTube — even ours.The company is big on sending cameras out to folks who’ve already built up a following, and it’s garnered Insta360 some incredible name recognition within the segment. When you talk about 360-degree action cameras, the GoPro Max is no longer always the first thing that comes to mind.

With that kind of name recognition, it would be easy for Insta360 to phone in an update to the X3 — grab a marginally better image sensor from a supplier, figure out a percentage increase in battery life, and ship it. Luckily, that’s not what Insta360 did.

The image sensor is better, with the new camera capable of filming in 8K resolution for 360-degree shots. This will still end up smaller once you trim it to a 16:9 frame, but the higher resolution gives you more freedom to crop without sacrificing quality. Of course, the downside to 8K resolution is the file sizes — don’t expect to be sending such massive videos over to your phone or computer instantaneously.