360 Camera News and Info

Insta360 Studio update will add Deep Track advanced object tracking and Timeshift for almost any 360 camera (???)

Insta360 Studio adds Deep Track and Time Shift to almost any 360 camera
Insta360 Studio adds Deep Track and Time Shift to almost any 360 camera

You will be able to use advanced object tracking and speed ramp effects for any 360 camera from Insta360 and possibly other manufacturers as well with a coming update to Insta360 Studio 2020 v. 3.5, which will support Deep Track and Time Shift.  I’ve been beta testing it and these features work pretty well.  Here are the details.

Insta360 Studio is the desktop app for Insta360 consumer cameras such as the One R (reviewed here), One X (reviewed here), and Insta360 Go (reviewed here).  The coming update (version 3.5) will add features that the Insta360 community has long been waiting for: Time Shift speed ramp effect, which lets you transition from slow motion to fast forward and vice-versa in the same video.  In addition, Insta360 has also added Deep Track, an advanced object tracking algorithm that can track subjects even if they disappear briefly behind obstacles or turn around for example.

These features were previously available only on the Insta360 One R app but now that they’re on Insta360 Studio, they can be used by any Insta360 camera.  This amounts to an upgrade for their entire lineup, even for older cameras like the Insta360 Nano S (reviewed here) or Insta360 One (reviewed here).

To use Time Shift, drag the playhead to the beginning of the slow motion or fast forward segment, then click on the lightning bolt icon above the timeline.  Then select the point on the timeline when the effect ends.   This feature can be used on both 360 and Freecapture (non-360 reframed video) mode.

To use Deep Track, switch to the FreeCapture tab on top.  Then click on the star icon above the timeline. Then use the left-drag mouse button to draw a rectangle around the subject.  Insta360 Studio will begin tracking that subject until the end of the clip or until it loses track of the subject.  You can also interrupt the tracking at any time by clicking on the yellow Stop Track button on the bottom right.

Remarkably, Insta360 Studio has enabled these features even for non-Insta360 cameras, at least in the beta version that I’m testing.  I’ve been able to import 360 videos from other cameras as long as they are in MP4 format (H.264 or H.265) and are equirectangular with a 2:1 ratio.   I’ve tried it with an H265 360 video from GoPro MAX and 8K video from Qoocam 8K and have been able to use Deep Track, Time Shift and other features.

I’ve asked Insta360 several times about this and so far they have not removed this cross-compatibility.  It appears they may really be allowing other cameras to use these features (for now).

Insta360 Studio will be available to download from Insta360’s website.

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Mic Ty

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    • No there is not since it isnt released yet as mentioned in the article above. Please watch in the near future for release after optimization and further refinement of advanced algorithms are skillfully implemented using sophisticated hardware optimizations and workflow enhancements.

    • Hi Brandon. Sorry no. Stabilization settings are only for Insta360 camera. If you want to stabilize Theta V, I recommend Cyberlink Powerdirector.

        • Hi Brandon. After Effects has 360 stabilization but it is complicated, takes a long time, and isn’t more effective than powerdirector in my opinion. There are other after effects plugins such as Mocha that can add better 360 stabilization but they are a bit complicated, slow, and have a significant cost.

          • I’ve got an older Xiaomi misphere camera, which technically does real sensor based stabilisation, but only when you use their own (notoriously buggy and now unsupported) app first. Hopefully the output from that can then be imported into this new insta360 software.

  • Thanks Mic, works great – I dug out some of my old Nikon Keymission 360 footage, and the 3.5 studio I was able to use AI reframe just fine. Way quicker than keyframing, and final exported result looks better than keyframing too.