One-Camera Motovlogging, Now A Reality

Next time you watch a motorcycle video on YouTube, try to count all the cameras at play. One on the helmet for that POV shot, one on the bars looking back up at the presenter, maybe even one in a chase van — and, more often than not, an Insta360 X3 mounted somewhere on the bike for the occasional ultra-wide angle or fancy panning effect. For those looking to get into content creation, all that hardware can be a struggle.

Those cameras need to be mounted, wired for power, and something needs to be recording audio both in your helmet and on your bike without getting blown out by wind noise. If only there were a single camera that could capture everything, mount anywhere, and record straight from the comms system you’ve already got. Well, now there is: The Insta360 X4.

Full Disclosure: Insta360 sent me an as-yet-unreleased X4 camera to review, complete with every mount and adapter and lens protector that a motorcyclist could dream of. The company then sent me another, after the first package was mysteriously rerouted to a random address in California. Thanks, UPS.

The Insta360 X4 is the successor to the X3, a camera you likely know if you’ve watched nearly any motorcycle video on YouTube — even ours. The company is big on sending cameras out to folks who’ve already built up a following, and it’s garnered Insta360 some incredible name recognition within the segment. When you talk about 360-degree action cameras, the GoPro Max is no longer always the first thing that comes to mind.

With that kind of name recognition, it would be easy for Insta360 to phone in an update to the X3 — grab a marginally better image sensor from a supplier, figure out a percentage increase in battery life, and ship it. Luckily, that’s not what Insta360 did.

The image sensor is better, with the new camera capable of filming in 8K resolution for 360-degree shots. This will still end up smaller once you trim it to a 16:9 frame, but the higher resolution gives you more freedom to crop without sacrificing quality. Of course, the downside to 8K resolution is the file sizes — don’t expect to be sending such massive videos over to your phone or computer instantaneously.

The new camera films not only higher resolution than the X3, but higher framerates. On the X3, 5.7K video topped out at 30 fps, but the X4 can handle a full 60 at that resolution. 4K gets a bump as well, from a 60 fps cap all the way up to 100. Feel free to speed ramp in post.

While the upgraded sensor is nice, the most useful changes for motorcyclists are a level deeper, in the X4’s software, which has a few new tricks up its sleeve to make our lives easier. Chief among them is the ability to pair the camera directly to a bluetooth comms system, meaning the X4 can record audio directly from the mic that’s already in your helmet, no wires required.

The sound is, admittedly, imperfect. You can hear the Bluetooth compression cutting in, and either the noise cancellation on my Cardo or the connection to the camera would occasionally leave a spoken word unheard. The syncing, too, isn’t fantastic, with audio lagging significantly behind video in test clips. Still, that’s an issue that’s easy enough to fix in Premiere or Final Cut, and it doesn’t require covering your helmet in microphone cables. The X4’s headset-audio-only approach leaves your video feeling a bit more isolated than a GoPro Media Mod, which mixes ambient audio with a built-in mic that catches wind and exhaust sounds, but neither approach is really better. It’s all personal preference.

Another benefit to motorcyclists, with our gloved hands, is the ability to operate the X4 hands-free. If the camera is turned on and can see your face, you can start and stop recording with hand signals — no need to fiddle around with buttons through your leather gloves. The functionality isn’t ideal, as helmet chin bars occasionally interferes with the face detection, but it works more often than not.

So will I, as a motorcyclists who often films her rides, abandon my other cameras and exclusively use an X4 from here on out? No. I fully intend to kit bikes out with a full three cameras for reviews, and to continue capturing audio through a separate microphone. The key is that I don’t have to deal with all that video once it’s filmed — Jalopnik’s long-suffering video lead, Dan, parses through all that footage to piece together a watchable video.

Without a pro editor by your side, though, a single-camera setup with the X4 can get the point across. The X4 captures everything, so it can replicate the sort of aim-with-your-head POV filming that comes from a helmet cam — just, frame those shots in post. Throw an X4 over one of your mirrors, and the camera will be able to do the moto-review shot-reverse shot setup all on its own, and it’ll capture all your audio to boot.

Insta360 X3 owners, don’t feel the need to upgrade your camera immediately. That model still captures some very fun shots, it still allows for angles and edits that few other cameras do. But for folks looking to get into filming their rides, a $500 Insta360 X4 can now more or less replace two $400 GoPro Hero 12s. The numbers speak for themselves.