Insta360 Air
The company behind the Insta360 Air is, well,
Insta360. They’re a sub-company of Shenzhen Arashi Vision, and are no strangers
to the 360 camera world. Their previous device, the Insta360 Nano, was another
360 camera for use with smartphones. Reviews for it were positive, but it only
worked with iPhones, reducing its appeal.
The Air on the other hand is much more Android
friendly, though it can also function as a webcam. The idea is that you’ll
connect it to your device through a microUSB or USB-C connector, which starts
up the camera’s app. You can then record and snap 360 footage and pictures.
You can livestream the footage you capture straight
to a streaming site, or share it on your social media accounts from your phone,
and the same goes for pictures. There are several modes to choose from when
recording, like flat mode, sphere mode, VR mode and planet mode.
the Air records 2K footage at
30fps and snaps 3K photos. The device’s minimum aperture is f/2.4, and there’s
also software stabilization. Apparently it’s the unit as the one on the Nano,
so reviews of that should give a pretty good idea about what the quality will
be like.
The Air is quite portable with
its small, round body. It’s light too at just 26.5 grams, though that comes
with its own set of cons. Every order apparently ships with a rubber case,
though we’ve no idea how much bulk it’ll add.
There are some caveats to the device however. Due to
the Air’s add-on nature, it doesn’t have a battery. This means it’s completely
useless on its own. To use it, you’ll need to attach it to your device’s
charging port, so the camera sticks out at all times.
On top of that, it’s a crowdfunding project, so it’s
subject to delays when the launch date arrives. The Air is priced quite
competitively, with US$ 119 being the normal price and US$ 99 being the backer price.
It comes in four colors, namely matte black, white and silver, rose pink and
rich gold.
The Air is scheduled to begin shipping in March next
year, so we’ll see whether they manage to stick to it. If you’re planning to
get one, you can check out their indiegogo page, backing only ends next
month.
