Insta360 is becoming one of the better-known names in 360 cameras, with their tiny Nano and Air, and their impressively-featured One, which I reviewed recently and enjoyed.
Like the previous generation Nano (and its cousin, the Air), the Nano S is a slip-on iPhone accessory, looking a bit like you gave your phone a backpack. This saves on size and cost, letting the Nano S do 4K 360-degree video for $240.
Hardware
The Nano S, like its predecessor, snaps on to the back of the iPhone and connects to the Lightning connector. I didn’t review the Nano, but I did review the similar-but-for-Android Air, and found this arrangement has its pros and cons. It’s easy, simple, and fast, but it does mean that everything is a selfie (more or less).
The Nano S goes one step further, though. There’s a memory card slot and a rechargeable battery. This should make the S more usable in a wider variety of settings. It doesn’t seem like you can trigger it remotely, like more expensive 360 cameras, but at least you don’t always need it connected to your phone, which is nice. The main benefit in keeping the Nano S connected when recording is it will access the iPhone’s on-board gyroscope to stabilize the footage.
The 4K video gets recorded at 30fps (specifically, 3840×1920/30), which as good if not better than all but the most expensive 360 cameras. Photos are “20 megapixels,” or 6272×3136. This is less than the One, but as good if not better than most other 360 cameras.
Software
Where Insta360 excels is with their software. Compared with regular cameras, the software with 360 cameras is crucial to their overall usefulness. The Nano S, not surprisingly, lets you do FreeCapture edits, like the One. This lets you select the most interesting part of the 360 footage you shot, and create a standard 16×9, 1080p video. Pans, zooms, Tiny Planets, and more are all easily created in the edit process. Here’s an example of FreeCapture edits I created during my review of the One and some similar cameras:
The new MultiView feature seems promising. It lets you create a sort of collage using the best parts of the 360 you captured. This is like Instagram’s Layout app, but for pieces of one video. In the example they mentioned, you could have a Tiny Planet in one frame, your face in another, and what you’re looking at in another, all running at the same time in the same standard video frame. Sounds cool.
Another new feature for Insta360 is the Nano S’s 360 Video Chat feature. As the name suggests, you can make a video call and the recipient can see not just your face, but a full 360 sphere around the camera. To start a call, the Nano S’s app will generate a link you send to your intended recipient, which will open their web browser. This extra step isn’t ideal, but it’s likely the only way to do it without getting Facebook et al. to update their chat apps to do 360 video.
You can also live-stream to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter/Periscope.
The Nano S is available today on Amazon and their website, in silver or black.
Nano S: $240
Insta360.com
