A new sample surfing video from the Insta360 One X (reviewed here) shows its performance when used with the Dive Case, a protective hardcase to enable the One X to be used underwater.
Almost all 360 cameras use fisheye lenses which necessarily protrude from the camera’s body and are vulnerable to being scratched or worse. This makes it harder to use 360 cameras as action cameras, notwithstanding their incredible stabilization and third person view capabilities.
Fortunately, some 360 cameras have either replaceable lenses or a protective hardcase accessory. In the case of the recently released Insta360 One X, there are two hardcases – the Venture Case, a protective hardcase, and the Dive Case, intended for use underwater.
I’ve previously posted a sample from the Dive Case underwater, but in the meantime, Insta360 released a new video showing how the Dive Case performs above water. Here’s my analysis of the video.
just found out there is the Venture case (“down” to 5m underwater) which is cheaper than the dive case (quite price).
But it look rather different, wondering if those two have a different (optical?) performance….
Venture case is better for surfing, as it has whole view clear with no nadir patch and you have a lot more angles to choose from. It is a bit more sensitive to lightness difference between lenses (more than DC) and it is visible in most cases. It is also smaller and what is the most important – using VC you can actually see LED and the display which with Dive case is almost not possible in sunny weather – i often did not knew if camera is on or off.
I use VC for surfing. Used DC once, but that led to breaking my board during wipeout, as the bottom wall is quite large ans eventually broke my board.