Insta360 Ace Pro 2

It’s not an all-conquering GoPro-killer or a DJI-vanquisher, but Insta360’s latest flagship action cam is just as good as its rivals in most respects. The 8K video recording option is nice to have in its locker, but it’s the 4K capture that really shines here alongside superb quality audio recording from the built-in mic.

Introduction

The Insta360 Ace Pro was the first 8K-capable action camera, comfortably besting the video resolutions offered by its GoPro and DJI competitors.

Its successor, the Ace Pro 2, maintains this pixel-packed video option and even improves upon it slightly. The camera perhaps retains it as its headline-grabbing feature, but there’s a lot more going for it than what amounts to a somewhat gimmicky and impractical video mode that few people actually need.

Insta360 has made small improvements across the board here, resulting in what (on paper, at least) appears to be a very tempting alternative to other recently launched flagship action cameras. I’ve spent the last week testing it out in a variety of scenarios and weather conditions to find out if the impressive spec list translates into impressive performance.

Design and Handling

• 71.9 x 52.2 x 38mm in size
• microSD card slot and USB-C 3.0 port
• Replaceable lens guard

The Ace Pro 2 looks like most action cameras. It’s small, lightweight, squared-off and built to be bashed and splashed as it documents your adventures, sporting exploits and so on.

The doors protecting the battery port, USB-C 3.0 port and microSD slot are all sealed against water and dust and the lens is protected by a replaceable and water-resistant guard, which allows the camera to be taken underwater to a depth of 12m (or 39ft).

It also has a nice new wind guard, designed to stay on the camera at all times (except when it’s underwater, in which case you slide it off and replace it with a smaller cover).

The wind guard’s grille is lined with acoustic foam, which helps reduce audio interference on blustery days. I live on the coast so almost every day is a blustery one and found the guard to be remarkably effective at killing wind noise – especially when paired with the AI-powered wind reduction audio mode.

As mentioned, there’s a microSD slot here and, with no built-in storage, you’ll need to use it. Neither of the basic launch bundles for the Ace Pro 2 include a memory card, but some of the pricier specialist bundles do.

The onboard controls are simple: on the side is a button that switches power on and off and, when tapped, cycles through the Ace Pro 2’s various shooting modes. Up on top is a larger shutter button which can be pressed to take a photo or stop/start video recordings.

All other controls are handled by the 2.5-inch rear touchscreen and most of them can be accessed very quickly via a couple of swipes or taps. At times I found the screen a bit unresponsive to my tapping but, in general, it works just fine. 

The screen’s most interesting facet is its ability to flip up 180º to face forward. It’s a nice differentiator from the Ace Pro 2’s nearest rivals the GoPro Hero 13 Black and DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, which both feature small front-mounted screens. I don’t always think it’s the best or fastest solution to have to flip the screen up, especially if you’re switching quickly between front and back facing (for example while vlogging), but it does mean you get a larger front-facing screen than the Ace Pro 2’s rivals offer.

The camera supports a magnetic clip system for the quick mounting and dismounting of accessories like selfie sticks, mini tripods and bike mounts. It’s a fast, secure solution that’s been adopted by GoPro and DJI for their flagship action cameras, too.

Performance and Features

• Removeable 1800mAh battery
• Usable as a USB webcam
• FlowState stabilisation plus horizon levelling

Insta360 has upgraded the battery capacity from the Ace Pro’s 1650mAh to 1800mAh on the Ace Pro 2. Coupled with improved power management, this equates to longer battery life. In the new Endurance Mode (which turns off or limits certain functions) with video set to 4K/30p, my testing showed the camera could record for 140 minutes before the battery died. When I set it to its regular operating mode and 4K/60p with electronic stabilisation and Active HDR turned on, it managed 69 minutes.

The battery also supports reverse charging, allowing it to be used to top up the battery of a smartphone or similar device connected via USB. When hooked up to a computer, the USB-C port allows the Ace Pro 2 to act as a webcam.

The camera isn’t immune to overheating, but I only experienced this when continuously recording 8K footage for 43 minutes. I find that acceptable, even if it is another strike against the Ace Pro 2’s headline 8K recording feature.

Like any good action camera, there’s some good quality electronic image stabilisation available here. The Ace Pro 2 features Standard and High levels of FlowState stabilisation, applying a progressively larger crop to the field of view for each, and they generally work well.

Standard is ideal for vlogging and other gently paced activities, while High works better with more frenetic movement like sports. There’s also 45º and 360º horizon levelling for truly extreme sports activities which works as advertised by keeping the picture level no matter how much the camera moves.

The Ace Pro 2 also comes with a gaggle of quality-of-life features like gesture and voice controls and the ability to pair with Bluetooth microphones for higher-quality audio recording.

It’s compatible with the superb Insta360 mobile app, which links your smartphone and the app via Wi-Fi and enables remote control, file transfer, on-the-go editing and sharing. It’s a slick and user-friendly app all in all and makes for a great way to get footage and photos posted onto social channels quickly.

Video and Photo Quality

• Video up to 8K/30p, 4K/120p or 1080/240p
• 180Mbit/s maximum video bitrate
• 50MP and 12.5MP still photos in JPEG and DNG

Insta360 has fitted the Ace Pro 2 with a new image sensor and two imaging chips – one for denoising and other processing functions and one for AI-controlled features. All in all, says Insta360, the new model offers double the processing power of the old one.

The 1/1.3-inch sensor is the same size as the original Ace Pro’s, but its purported tweaks do result in excellent all-round image quality, including a dynamic range of up to 13.5 stops.

I’ve shot footage in all weathers and times of day and at all the various resolutions and frame rates offered by the Ace Pro 2. It all looks very impressive to me, especially the 4K material I shot using the flat I-log colour profile before colour grading and correcting myself on my computer after the fact. The straight-from-the-camera footage is clean and detailed enough too, especially in decent lighting.

I will say that I see 8K, while nice to look at, as a bonus feature rather than the main course here. Almost nobody is watching videos in this resolution anyway (very few people even have the means to do so) but besides that, the demands of 8K capture do require some restrictions to be put on the Ace Pro 2. When you capture 8K footage here, you have to reduce the field of view to smaller than 4K’s, use Standard image stabilisation and are limited to a 30fps or lower framerate. You also can’t use Active HDR or the I-log profile, either.

4K is where it’s at, essentially. It gives you access to a nice wide field of view, all stabilisation and colour profile options and is even supported by the low-light PureVideo mode. You can see some 4K clips taken in sunny, cloudy and night-time conditions in my sample video. The night footage is good by action camera standards, but a close look shows it’s still exhibiting lots of noise and some distracting artefacts. A small sensor like this can only do so much in the dark, so I would never expect miracles and the Ace Pro 2 still manages to deliver decently watchable footage in tricky conditions.

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