Insta360 - Insta360 X5
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Mar 17, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
32
11
"Update 2: PureVideo mode 8K is the way to go for indoor medium to low light. Definitely low sharpness for every lighting level for me going forward."
"Low-light performance has been my one complaint for sooo long. ... You say that you shoot in sunny days, but I find that a lot of my use cases are low-light, indoors where the performance hit has been hugely impacting. ... Gymnastics meets and dance recitals with my granddaughter, plays with my grandson. School events. Birthday parties. Family game nights are a blast with the camera sitting in the middle of the table capturing the fun. Camping, especially sitting around the camp fire, or capturing the beautiful night sky in the mountains. Nighttime swimming parties with family and friends. One of my favorite videos was in an aquarium with the grandkids petting rays in a shallow pool, in very dimly lit conditions. Even treks through heavily wooded areas can be dark enough to cause issues."
"I shot in *really* low light last night for the first time with this camera and the results were great."
3
0
"At first I thought it was a gimmick, but actually being able to reframe a shot is more than just liberating: it's actually increased my confidence to record just about anything and reframe later. ... I caught stuff I didn't even know happened at parties, for example. It's amazing. Truly. ... With this thing, I recorded the whole interaction, didn't worry about 'where it was pointed', and reframed afterwards I ended to with footage IMPOSSIBLE to get on an iPhone due to the removed friction."
"ability to do all the reframing and floating drone shots"
"Does well in bright water and you don't have to worry about the framing cause it captures everything"
32
1
"The x5 let's you replace the lens yourself. It's a big big plus."
"Swappable lenses. So if you biff it and smoke the lens—no sweat. Just slap on another one."
"Being able to swap lenses on the X5 when you scratch them makes it worth it alone."
11
3
"built in wind noise device is particularly useful on a motorcycle, when people want to hear the engine."
"The sound, omg the sound. the sound is SO FREAKING GOOD for something this size. ... I was a VERY LOUD show the other day, and was able to still record me talking to people. I have no idea how it works, but it works. It's VERY good, much much much better than iPhone. I'm honestly blown away."
"X5, excellent for recording my band on stage."
4
0
"Not many people say it, but this thing is as hands free as it gets. The stabilization is SO GOOD, I just stick the whole thing in a backpack and press 'record'. That's it. It's that stable. ... even if it's shaky AF, the stabilizer does an incredible job."
"Not many people say it, but this thing is as hands free as it gets. ... The stabilization is SO GOOD, I just stick the whole thing in a backpack and press 'record'. That's it. It's that stable."
"the x5 will certainly outperform in a bunch of other areas (like stabilization and color, I'd argue, visible here)"
Disliked most:
32
14
"Everything else in low light is useless unless you carry LEDs. ... In the dark, it's noisy, and it actually ghosts, something I hadn't seen in years. ... I tried 1080p single lens 24 frames in my house because I thought it would help, but no, it doesn't. it's something to do with the sensor itself I guess. ... If you're holding off on the x5 due to the low light, you're right - it's bad."
"The low light quality was terrible i ended up just using my phone and returning it."
"Unfortunately, the recording quality is just abysmal. ... Problem is - anything deeper than 6-8 meters in Latvia and you get really little light. ... It’s fair to say that for that specific use case a different camera can be used better, but this is what I have."
4
3
"and they also overheat. It could be that I'm in Australia, but I've mounted my Insta in my car to record random stupidity and then find it's off and recorded a minute or two before dying. ... Just Google Insta overheating, and it's an issue they are 100% trying to hide."
"the x5 generates heat that im kinda concerned about it ... when in POV mode, i choose 2.7k 60fps so it doesnt heat up that much ... Yes ive tried 4k 30fps and its really hot after some time."
"recording in 8k with purevideo mode will overheat the x5 within 30 minutes if its stationary."
3
10
"360 video is significant effort to edit. ... Yes, the X5 captures the best image for a 360 action cam today. Does your brother know you expect him to do the editing? It is a lot of effort. ... And yes, the editing is always extra work, for sure. ... But do realize that editing is a lot of effort. you basically have to go through the entire video to decide what you want "in frame" on your output video."
"The X5 being a 360 camera could offer the most options but will have very long edit time/effort requirements as all the video needs "reframed" afterwards, which will be a big undertaking if filming a long day (been there, done that)."
"This is not a point-and-shoot camera. ... To get optimal results the user needs to invest some time in learning the camera's quirks and limitations *before* recording so that they're not left banging their head against the screen in editing."
1
2
"the guards are unusable in sub 20 degree weather (which is where I mainly use an action cam) ... the lens guards absolutely cloud up in those conditions."
"And the biggest reason to avoid the Insta cameras is lens damage. ... The X5 just got a replaceable lens, and they carry on like this is genre-changing. Yeah, welcome to 2020 when GoPro did that."
0
13
"Image quality on stills is basically terrible compared to the iPhone 16pro max, due to the fact that the 72mp are spread on a 360 sphere which means each 16/9 'slice' is going to be a lot less pixels. ... Low light is unusable, and I have no idea why would would want to use burst. Use an iPhone instead."
"Video quality has issues not only in low light performance, but also for fast moving objects (like propellers) - strong chromatic aberrations become visible (black propellers become red, green and blue)."
"Video quality, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. ... I was not overjoy with the grainy areas (even when I was under excellent sunlight, I was wearing a dark blue jacket and it looked terrible) ... The grainy/noise is still too distracting to look at. ... right now the video is a bit blurry."
2-buck 1.0EUR! Right. I guess I was thinking Black Friday was just a us thing. X5. It’s not just the battery life and low light but also the detail. It lets you zoom in more on the fun accidents. I’m not a fan of the air because of the battery life. Not that I’m selling you on an x4 but the lens guards work fine. The stitching is fine. I use an x4 as a dashcam on my bike helmet. That and also for snowboarding and rock climbing. So same kinda thing. I just edit vids of friends and family. My friends have GoPros and we edit the vids into one. The x4 is impressive because it captures every accident. But I do wish it had more detail for zooming in. So the X5 might be worth it. Forget the Osmo. DJI’s software isn’t there yet. About the editing. Once you get it, it’s easy. But the refraining is still an additional step. I use the giro in my phone to record the framing. There are several ways to reframe and the software is impressive. But it’s hard to offer all that without making it fiddly. I got the x4 for $320. My guess is insta will have a better deal than 389 EUR soon
7_87 1.0Insta360 X5 4k@120fps vs Max 2 4k@100fps / 72mp still camera vs 29mp still camera / Both sensors on the X5 are almost double the size of Max2 / Deeper water resistance / Bigger battery / Longer battery life / Removed lenses / Better software...
Before I do, I'm not just listing off specs. I'm giving a true representation of both units. You just lied about saying some software features don't exist, even though they do, you just don't know how to use them. You then listed off your opinion with 1 spec that doesn't actually affect any outcome of use. Well your software points is completely null and void. You think the GoPro software is good because it's so old and crap, that's not what most video editors want. Saying a software is better because it's featureless and old makes you sound old and out of touch with current tech. Regarding this nonsensical 'true 8k' marketing... If you understood cameras, you understand that it's null and void. Given then your packing that small amount of extra 'true (LOL) 8K' into tiny sensors. Both insta360 sensors are almost double the size making the actual real world results way better.
7coloursummer 1.0Ah man, sorry for your loss. If it makes you feel any better, now you have a reason to get a new camera 😁 I got the X5 at the end of last year, my RS One remains my hand mounted camera for grabbing bike share bikes (don't trust myself to attach something to the bike and remember it when I get off). But the X5 is awesome and I love it for everything else.
AaronTrent- 1.0Right cause the max 2 blows insta x5 out of the embarrassing water
abadmachine 1.0If your not going deep the insta 360 X5 is great. Does well in bright water and you don't have to worry about the framing cause it captures everything
abekislevitz 1.0A lot of components of a product have to work together. Grabbing a sensor off a shelf and plugging it in unfortunately isn’t how it works. If you want a sensor/processor combo it’s a few years of lead time development. X5 isn’t a perfect machine, the sensors are limited in resolution so they have to upscale to reach 8K. Their processors also can’t support 10-bit. If you are in need of night 360 that’s fine, either instax5 or DJI osmo360 have a larger pixel size.
Abstract_Entity86 1.0I just received my insta x5... my first 360 camera, its blown me away and I haven't tested properly yet. I bought for the exact same reason as you! We are off to Costa Rica in 5 weeks time.... I can't wait to use this. Jungle hikes, quad bikes, ziplines, snorkelling, diving, jumping off waterfalls.... the list goes on!
acarelesscalm 1.0I've had the same problem. I've tried zooming in to certain objects and the quality suffers greatly.
According-Rush-7704 1.0If it’s your first just go for the x5. I’ve used the x4 for more than a year and as long as it doesn’t break there very little incentive to move to the x5 on the basis of low light performance
Tbh I think it is a a very multi dimensional tool in a anyone’s arsenal if they are willing to learn the ropes on how to utilise the camera for both single and dual lens modes. It can work as an action cam, car dashboard camera, vlogging cam, all without having much editing required or with full control of your edits. If you’re willing to spend time with your camera and learn the ins and outs and features, it will definitely be a great tool for you. Just to share I’ve used it as an action cam in single lens mode. As a b-cam for a futsal game in single lens ultra wide mode. Vlogging with both dual and single lens modes and even photos of fireworks in dual lens mode. If you’re willing to put in the work to learn every single part of it.
account-suspenped 1.0it depends what you feel comfortable wearing. and from which pov. personally I prefer the x5