20 Best Action Camera For Under 100 (2022 Updated)

While this was my first action camera purchase I have been a photographer for over 40 years. Twin lens reflex, SLR, D-SLR and now an AKASO compact action camera. I was looking for something to strap on a drone for higher resolution photos and videos than what I was getting from the camera that came with my drone.

An additional bonus for me is the waterproof case. When I was talking about cameras I forgot to mention my dedicated dive cameras and housings for both SLR and D-SLR. When I saw the great price I started reading the reviews and decided to take a chance.

Man did I hit the jackpot, this little guy does everything as advertised. I have only had it for a day and it has already been flying. I will be diving with it in a couple of weeks and will post an update.

I purchased this camera to record my daughters softball games. the video is very choppy when I watch it back on my camera, or even on my phone. I don’t know if it will be smooth once I download the video or not.

I would hope it is, but also downloading the video to my phone does not work on the app either. So now I am stuck with a camera I really can’t do anything with besides take choppy video and watch it back on the tiny camera.

Also I’ve tried downloading the video about 15 times, it says it’s going to take anywhere from 15-20 mins to download a 11 minute video. every time it gets to about the 4 minute mark and then says download failed, and I’ve tried everything (fully charged camera, camera on charger, fully charged phone, restarting app, uninstalling and re installing app, etc.

I am pretty disatisfied with this camera and app.

This is my second AKASO camera. My first is the AKASO V50 Pro. Outstanding camera. On the Brave 7 LE AKASO really stepped up their game. They have added image stabilization and a forward facing screen.

The image stabilization is decent and the front screen is rather handy. Of the three action cameras on the market, with a front facing screen this is less than half the price than the OSMO and one quarter the price of the GoPro HERO9.

I am not saying this is equal in a side by side comparison with either of these other cameras but dollar for dollar it is the best action camera value on the market.

I took my AKASO Brave 4 camera on my recent vacation. It was my first time fully using it. I really liked how it was easy to use. The settings were easy to navigate. The photos taken with the camera was great and high quality.

The photos are saved as large files (20 MB) which is HD. I also took videos underwater. The underwater videos were clear and I was impressed in how it turned out. The underwater accessory that came with the camera kept the camera dry.

The battery charge held for a long time. I was also able to easily upload my photos and videos from the SD card to my laptop.

I bought this camera strictly for use as an underwater camera. It was recommended by a friend and I am not disappointed. Battery lasts quite a while and it starts up very quickly too. It did take a little learning on my end to connect the camera to the app on my phone, but once I got it, it worked great.

I haven’t tested the audio much outside the case. It sounds as you’d expect in the case underwater. Entry level and pretty user friendly.

The shipper is a joke. First off I received the shipment in a bag. There was no protective packaging and the bag was too small. As a result the bag was torn in several places and the camera box was cracked.

I did try the camera and it seemed fine; it worked. However, when trying to insert the battery the housing door broke. Before returning the camera i did try it. I captured a couple of stills and the quality was not that good.

I would not recommend buying this (or any other) item from this shipper.

First — I LOVE the DJI Osmo Action. I mean — not *love* like I want to marry it. but love as in it breathed hope back into my life that a new action cam won’t stop recording in the middle of my gig for no good reason! YAY! So.

background — I loved my old Hero 3, 4 and 5 black. then tried newer ones and they kept overheating, locking up and literally shutting down in the middle of my stage production recordings. WHILE RECORDING! GoPro support gives the standard must be the memory card runaround, but as hundreds will attest, when you turn on the high performance features of their newer cams.

they overheat and crash hard. In contrast — my DJI Osmo Action 4K has performed like a dream. – It works. Reliably. While plugged into an AC outlet or a USB battery for a 10 hour shoot — it works. – WiFi actually connects reliably – Image quality is lovely, and manual controls have high degree of precision options (e.

g. dialing in the color temp) – Used underwater on a vaca and it worked flawlessly – Rocksteady is sweet. used the camera on two one-shot sequences and it was really very smooth. Added to a gimble as a 2nd ultra-wide shot alongside my A-Cam for another and it was extra-super sweet! – Responsive — I love how zippy and responsive the menus are.

a pleasure after using sluggish menus on the competing cameras The only ONLY thing I *wish* this had was HDMI output so I could use these with my video switchers. Notwithstanding that shortcoming, I still give it a 5-star because the thing really is just.

that. awesome.

I purchased Osmo action to replace my Hero 5 right before a trip to Asia in June 2019. It was so practical in design with front facing screen and easy to navigate software. Exceeded my every expectation.

Back to States after two weeks and it become go to camera for hiking, backyard kids chasing or short videos where I felt lazy to set up my main camera. But it was used probably couple times a month. Then, right after warranty expired, I picked up my unit it never started.

Keep in mind, this was fully functioning unit just two weeks before. I replaced battery, tried bunch of tutorials online, and learnt this was common issue on early batches. I reached out to DJI, they have an organized mail in process to handle the repair.

However, things go down from there. It took them weeks before any feedback after they receive the unit. They then identified issue as main board failure. This is a 13 month old unit, used probably less than 50 times, total recording time around 3 hours.

I pointed out that there are others having same issue, that didnt convince them to bill me $250 to replace the board. I protest that new ones goes for that and requested my unit back. It is a dead unit, which I plan to use to open up and play around with components.

Bottom line, it is not reliable. My hero 5 got kids abuse, swimming, snowboarding, dropping, and it was functioning as new after many years. I can’t say the same for Osmo Action. Back to Hero 9.

Received my first DJI Osmo Action 4K to realize that the front screen is not working. When you switch from back to front, the back one disconnects so the front one can work but it would be solid black.

I called B&H they immediately sent me RMI and I asked for a replacement. Today I open the box from B&H, brand new Osmo and this one is missing the part that holds the battery in place. Obviously the QC at DJI is not good as they can’t even catch the obvious.

So I can’t give a review on the video quality as the two I received don’t work. Will be asking for 3rd one as I purchased tons of accessories for it. Hopefully the 3rd one will work.

Havent used any of the “mods” yet. Have put a lot of use into this durable little camera,mostly suberging it in water,clean pool or murky river water. And water is probably the only thing keeping it from catching on fire.

It heats up like a handwarmer. Battery charges very slow,unless you use a 45 watt or higher c type charger,its charges very fast,from 0 to 100% in about 20 minutes. As far as video quality it is great,but what camera can you find for $400 that has 5k video.

The video is incredible,if there is enough light. If it is dim or dark,forget it,its like recording with a potato. The auto shutter and iso setting is not the best adaptable for night,or day sometimes.

The time lapse for sky views is amazing,they are decent,but at night in the city even if it seems dark,its not dark enough,can get some stars and clear view of the trees nearby,still is amazing nights shots with the time lapse,but oddly not great at all for normal night video.

As far as the remote app features,it needs work. The app screen is not integrated with the sites,you just have to take the apps word that it IS streaming,and a LOT of patience,as the streaming options on the app are outdated and you have to work around and troubleshoot to even be able to stream,very broken and nothing on google pertaining on the issues but unresolved questions.

It’s just not consumer friendly,in addition to poor connenction if farther 3ft from phone,the streaming is far from reliable. I have tried using the gopro for twitch streaming but the connection is bad.

I bought a galaxy s22 ultra for faster processing speeds to compensate for lag,but its doesnt matter,since it only uses wifi or the phones data plan “hotspot”,it eats through data. I have Gigabit speed home internet with 2 asus ax3000 routers,but even so,the gopro barely recieves wifi signal.

With the phones hotspot as wifi,unlimited data plan,it slightly impoves,but not much,as there is a signal bar screen for streaming with wifi or hotspot,it never goes past 4 bars,and it has a total of about 25 bars to show signal strength.

For twitch it keeps bugging out on the “start stream” button with an almost inescable error,about not having the correct “game catergory”,which is usally just the title of the game your playing or whatever title you want,there shouldnt be any restriction but if you dont use a video game title,letter for letter,it will keep giving the error,and when you do have a right working title,you have to use the same title on the actual Twitch app FIRST by starting a stream on the twitch app,while having open the GoPro app open,and praying it hasnt exited you from the “start stream” page ,starting the stream from your phone on the twitch app then switching over to the gopro app while streaming,to avoid the error that will eneavitable delay you another 20 minutes,as you have to enter the wifi password on the app,everytime.

The GoPro 9 is a very good camera, I have taken some nice footage so far. I would give the camera itself 5 stars, what is my issue is trying to find a way of editing the footage that doesn’t entail signing up and paying for the privilege.

Especially since you can’t even try the prospective packages to see if they work or are easy to use or not. All of the ‘free’ software packages are only free trials. then you have to sign up and pay, pay pay! I would have thought, buying a camera, you would be able to at least use the footage, simple cutting and trimming, without having to pay a yearly subscription.

Had I known, I wouldn’t have made the purchase. Phones are so much easier to use and use the footage. So, my view is that the camera is awesome, but using the resulting footage, if you are not experienced with post production and the costs of being able to do it, is a terrible experience without any sort of guidance and everywhere you look to be able to achieve results are just ad after ad for subscribing and paying.

Very disappointing. Even the GoPro app isn’t supported on PC any more? I just want a simple means of cutting out the unnecessary bits of the footage, or joining desired scenes together. nothing fancy.

Unless you are a teenager or very cluey on technology (or willingto learn), and not worried about handing out money hand over fist to purchase subscriptions to different editing suites until you find one you can use, I would steer clear of these cameras.

Research the post production costs before you buy, otherwise, you will likely be left disappointed like myself. Unless I can work out how to edit and use the footage, I fear the camera, as great as it is, will be just a technologically advanced.

paperweight.

GoPro: “Be a HERO. ” Catchy isn’t it? GoPro, a camera that attaches to your body and sports equipment, has advertisements that are mesmerizing, even for those outside of the action-sports world. In the ads, the camera and the editing place you in the athlete’s shoes.

Viewers get to see the sport in the first person. This is powerful. Their advertisements work. When I was young, I saw GoPros on the heads, limbs, and equipment of my favorite athletes: mountain bikers like Brandon Semenuk, Sam Pilgrim, and Emil Johanson; surfers like John Florence, Noa Deane, and Mick Fanning; and Skiers like JP Auclair, Seth Morrison, and Tanner Hall.

These athletes have risen to the top of their respective sports, truly masters of their chosen art. GoPro recognized their influence and the control these athletes could have over the market. The company decided to use lifestyle branding to connect these action cameras to the abilities that suchathletes have.

I was enthralled and convinced that my videos would turn out like theirs. Twelve-year-old Nick saved up for a month by doing odd jobs. Then he went out and bought a used GoPro Hero 4 black. After my first mountain bike ride, I ran inside to watch the footage I had just recorded, and it was grainy, shaky, and frankly nauseating to watch for any length of time.

I was disappointed, to say the least. I ran to the Internet to see what I had done wrong. I watched videos on what frame rate and shutter speed to use, and I spent yet more money on a bundle of attachments to mount the camera in different locations.

After playing with the settings and moving the camera around, I was still disappointed. This is because the marketing worked. No matter what setting I used or where I placed the camera, it wouldn’t look like the advertisements.

This is because I wasn’t as skilled as the athletes I watched growing up, but also because GoPro ads are shot using thousands of dollars in peripheral equipment, gimbals, lenses, and drones. Most importantly they are edited professionally, so the colors pop, the video is stable, and the location looks even more appealing.

This means that the videos shown in their ads are unachievable because of user skill. This is even more so because of the camera’s real abilities. The consumer-level products just aren’t that great. I have since purchased newer GoPros in hopes that they have improved.

They have, but only marginally with slightly better stabilization and picture. So I stand by my position that the look of those ads is unachievable for a day-to-day consumer, like me.

I Didn’t want to spend the crazy money for another brand, this camera had good reviews, so I purchased it for a motorcycle trip up the sea to sky and side roads. Riding a Ducati on not smooth roads, with the camera mounted on a mirror, the video is stable and clear, nothing like the actual bouncing around that was going on.

That tells me the video stabilization works very well. I haven’t tried the waterproofing yet, but plan on using it underwater on vacation this month so I can update that too. The remote came with a long velco strap which made it easy to mount on different places.

I am very happy with this purchase.

This camera is a major upgrade over the AKASO BRAVE 4 camera I purchased 2 years ago. The build quality is excellent, and the amount of accessories included in the box adds immense value. I was very impressed by the image quality and the simplicity of the setup; the batteries charged quickly, and the camera was ready to use within a minute.

The external mic was a great purchase as well, easy to use, and simple to attach/detach. Highly recommended!.

I really like the compact factor, the convenient and easy mounting options. The quality and stabilization of the recording is also top notch for something at this price. I would say this is comparable to a GoPro in terms of video quality and stabilization.

However, the biggest problem that ruined the Insta360 GO 2 for is that it overheats. It’s suppose to be able to get about 30 minutes of video recoding with its onboard 32GB if recording at 2k 60 fps.

However, I mounted this on my bike and it was only able to record 5 to 8 minutes at a time, then the yellow light would start to blink, indicating that the camera is overheating. I was willing to overlook the lack of 4k recording due to its size and the quality of the video.

30 minutes of recording isn’t even that long, especially because there is no removable battery either, so you would have to stop, put the camera back in its charging case, wait for it to charge in order to record again.

I was still willing to overlook this. However, overheating while I’m riding on my bike is unusable. A lot of action cameras will overheat, but they tend to work just fine when I actually use them for action, moving around, biking, etc.

Yet, the Insta360 GO 2 still could not record longer than 8 minutes for me. How unfortunate.

This little camera is pretty handy especially it includes a lot of features and can just pop and shoot. After a few weeks of using, I noticed that it gets really hot (I read it is a regular thing for this camera) and when it reaches a certain temperature it shuts down.

Be careful and make sure that you got your shots because sometimes it just shuts off without you knowing. That is why I connect it to the app while using so I know what’s happening real time. I haven’t figured out about the battery life yet ’cause as I have said it just shuts down so sometimes I don’t know if it is from the battery or high temperature.

The box comes with a charging cable, magnetic necklace, a clip accessory and a cam holder that sticks anywhere. This is a good and convenient camera for quick shooting. If you wanna shoot whole day, you can work it out by having breaks and constantly checking on the camera.

Used for snorkeling on vacation and a tubing trip. Waterproof case works great. A little difficult to use underwater at first. Ended up taking video instead of photos. I think this will improve once I’ve used it a little more and am comfortable with the controls.

Battery life is just OK and batteries are a little difficult to change. (Had to bring a small screwdriver on vacation with us for this purpose). Went on our second day of snorkeling, looked like we had enough battery life, 3/4 way full.

Drained super fast just taking mostly photos and it ended up dying, so I missed some of the best shots. Hadn’t brought the back up battery, because I thought we were OK and didn’t want to deal with the screwdriver situation at the beach.

Lesson learned. Overall, happy with this camera. It does what I needed it for. Just don’t leave behind your spare battery on an important outing.

I just got it yesterday. I do like that there are a lot of accessories. I had a fair bit of trouble connecting it to several apps that are recommended, one (Akaso Go) that includes auto play of other users’ videos that you can’t pause or turn off, and points for retail? I don’t need that.

There appears to be more than one user manual online, but I think I found the most complete one on the website, the link for which was in the Quick Start Guide. The more glaring issue is the lack of onboard sound.

I was going to use it for getting footage and talking to an audience (not necessarily live, but wanted that option too) with it, so I wanted to test it by having a video chat with my husband. After a while, I managed to get video to work when I plugged it into the desktop via USB, but there was no sound.

In the manual, it only mentions there is no sound when the waterproof casing is on it. Came to find out that several people have had to take the unit apart to install a 3. 5mm jack. I’m not proficient in that sort of thing, so I have packed up everything and I am sending it back.

It may be good for someone who doesn’t want it for, say, streaming with sound on Twitch or something (unless you have a separate mic attached to your laptop/desktop, which many do, I realize), or filming footage and then doing a voiceover later.

but in my case, I do want to be able to talk to an audience and edit that footage I already knew I would probably need an external microphone for that, but not having some sort of onboard sound, even poor, is a disappointing oversight.

The included batteries seem to lose power pretty quickly. I charged them up, and then used one when it was ready. When I was done (and, as I mentioned, I had connected it to my desktop via USB, so I didn’t use much power anyway), I decided to charge them up before packing it away into the box for return.

I didn’t think it would take long, especially the second one I didn’t even use, but it did, so I gave up.

The camera video and photo is good in daylight. Obviously for the price it’s not going to compare to the go pro but it works and it’s well worth the money. Point to remember. It records sound just fine when out of the case but inside of the waterproof case it’s muffled.

When using it underwater do not take the remote with you unless you waterproof it yourself. Guess how I know?I ended up exchanging it for the reason that the remote was not waterproof hoping that it was poor QA and it was not sealed.

But the new one that came in also had same issue with gasket less remote. If you take it apart and silicone the inside it will work well underwater.

The GoPro Hero 9 Black has been a real pain. The camera struggles very hard to update, I’ve had to restart updates many times when they havent gone all the way through wasting hours of my time. Downloading pictures and videos to my phone also takes hours and you cant leave the app not to mention the gopro’s screen will randomly go black if you dont touch it every so often(yes I turned the screen darking off in the settings it still does it) and then you have to start the download over.

I’ve tried to setup the “auto upload” feature many times and have never had success. And recently the gopro just randomly deleted over half of the videos and pictures I took while diving. Considering I make money off the videos it was quite devastating.

And “waterproof” is just a flat out lie I had mine break in a couple feet of water and it took months and a horribly long process to get a replacement. If you plan to use it underwater at all you need a waterproof case.

You also need to prepare to spend good money on extra batteries and chargers because it dies ridiculously fast. I’m not impressed when I’ve paid $500+ for this camera and accessories.

I have owned my Hero 9 for a couple moths now, and I really want to love this camera, but there are just to many issue plaguing it. I updated to firmware version 1. 52 (I believe) when I first got it, which was the latest version at the time.

When shooting in certain video modes, you could clearly see a vertical line going down the middle of the footage because one side of the footage was sharper/more colorful then the other. The GoPro support system is a joke.

The only way you get any support is via E-Mail that could take 2 to 3 days to get replies It’s more or so faster to get answers to your questions or issues you are having by posting comments on their community forums.

When I did this, I discovered there are a large number of users who had the same issue as I did. The vertical line issue was acknowledged by GoPro staff on the forums as far back as December of 2020.

On February 25th, 2021 GoPro released a new firmware for the Hero 9 to fix random bugs and the vertical line issue. I did not update the firmware, because a huge amount of users came back and said the issue was not resolved for them after the firmware update.

I am still on the first firmware version, because it is the only version that is stable for me to avoid this vertical line issue. Another issue I experienced that others are still complaining about on the user forums is that the extra GoPro battery charger that charges 2 batteries at once is not charging the batteries to 100%.

Sometimes it only goes to 90% or 95%. Again, the user forums have multiple complaints about this, with many users getting exchanges for new units that are still having the same issue. I got so frustrated with this camera’s issues, I stopped reading up on the forums.

I no longer am hopeful these issues will be fixed anytime soon. The customer support is just God awful, and the only replies GoPro team members leave on the forums is candid replies like ‘We are aware of the issue and working towards a fix”.

The reason why I did not return the camera is because it works for what I need for under the original firmware version, and after hearing so many positive things about GoPro for years, I bought a bunch of accessories for it when I ordered it.

Overall, when it works correctly, it’s great. Sharp, crisp footage, really solid audio for a built in mic, and plenty of shooting options in resolution and frame rates. But the issues it is plagued with are just too much.

This is my first GoPro, and it will be last.

I had a Contour camera that stopped working properly and decided to “upgrade” to Gopro (which put Contour out of business, I presume). The Hero is a power-eating machine that eats batteries for breakfast.

Picture quality is great – but you have no idea what mode your camera is in unless you are holding the camera – which defeats the entire purpose of having a Gopro. If I am going to hold a camera, the Gopro – which is small and has no attachment points of any kind – is a very poor choice.

But once it is mounted, you can easily change from video to photo with the SAME BUTTON that you use to start the video! So you press the button and either you get a video or nothing (because the first press changed modes instead of starting the camera).

then you press again and instead of a video you get a photo. It’s like Russian Roulette with your memories. Good luck getting the shots you want. I spent a day skiing with my new Hero 10 and the MOST IMPORTANT SHOT ended up in “Time Lapse Mode” – which is to say it is useless.

Their desktop app crashes and they email me every day asking if it is somehow working even though they have offered NO SUGGESTIONS as to how to fix it except – you guessed it: “Try reinstalling the same software program (and leave us alone since you already bought the camera and we don’t really care what you think)” Their tag line should be: Lose your memories – and your mind – with Hero 10.

Positives: Small, Durable, Versatile, Water-Proof, Easy to use adjustable settings. Video stabilization is awesome. Negatives: File sizes are insanely huge, take up lots of memory fast and no good way to really tone it down.

Go-Pro Color is completely off, over-saturated, and unnatural to reality. One can however turn that off providing some improvement. Quite a bit of digital distortion/fragmenting around moving subjects.

Does not come with a plug in charger for the wall or much else for that matter. Still images lack detail zooming in and are about the equivalent of a cheap smartphone. No built in stereo mic? Less expensive Sony cameras had that 10 years ago along with other features this does not have.

Final Conclusions: Great for what it’s built for (Durability/Action shots but certainly could use some improvements on some things less expensive cameras from other brands were already doing 10+ years ago.

Decent enough little camera but I feel just a tad over-rated. AVCHD Sony video from 10 years ago has better color, less fragmenting, overall more pleasant and natural looking to watch. Simply having higher video resolution isn’t everything when it comes to overall video quality.

Certainly beats what I’ve previously owned when it comes to image stability though.

Great camera for the price. Has better features than cameras costing much more. However, the accompanying accessories are of poor quality. The frame that allows you to attach the camera to a mount has badly aligned openings that prevent the USB and SD card hatch from opening, thereby making it impossible to attach an external power supply when the camera is mounted.

The camera requires you to download the AKASO GO app in order to do the initial set-up of the camera so if you don’t have a smart phone your options with the camera are limited. The app is similar to the accessories – it’s flaky at best and often loses it’s connection to the camera.

Sadly, the camera itself performs well, especially in 4k and slow motion. It even take 48megapixel photos in RAW and/orjpeg – giving you the means to shoot time-lapse sequences in 8K, but the overall experience is lessened by the poor quality of accessories and a flaky app.

Bought this camera specifically for underwater and wet area usage on a boat. Nothing below 3 feet. First test underwater in my spa the lense cover leaked, even though it has an o-ring. However, camera did not fail.

Second underwater test, after really tightening lense cover, the same area leaked again. However, camera did not fail. Third test underwater and the lense cover failed again. Camera failed to turn on following day.

Returning for new camera. Underwater images were amazing, except when the lense leaked and everything became blurry. Even above water images were amazing. The camera cover, which let you mount the camera to various accessories, is actually a great holder to extend the antenna.

Search for UNDERWATER WIFI and you will see several ways to stick your camera underwater yet view the video from a remote phone using a very thin coax cable. Works like a charm. Hopefully next camera will be water tight.

This is a great value for money product. I love that the action camera comes with multiple attachments and the remote control feature is awesome. Water proof case looks good and the large buttons on the waterproof case seem to be really handy for when I will need to use them (I have not used it underwater yet).

The camera took very nice and clean shots and also the WiFi ability to transfer pictures to my phone worked effortlessly. It is not as good as a Go Pro but can’t compare the two given the price of this camera is less than half of a Go Pro.

Also delivery was super quick, got it the second day after placing the online order. The only con I found is that there is no Micro SD but that is on me as when I later re-checked the prodcut description, it is mentioned that the micro sd card is not a part of the product.

I suggest buying one separately when you are buying the camera itself.

The camera is cool but there’s some hidden downsides you don’t expect until going through it like me. My last comment is probably the most critical to this review. Buy one battery length because the cases only fit one size and it sucks to lug an extra case along with needing to swap it over.

The extended battery has/had one real case option when I bought mine in the fall of 2020. It is the Ulanzi metal case. For the small batteries you get about half (45 mins one the 360 Camera. The Extended is 1 1/2 hours)The extended battery has two metal tabs that flip out but the mounting spot of the tab feels and looks like a weak point and when mounting the tabs bend inwards when tightening due to the fitment of the female side having too much play.

I would suggest roughing it out with multiple battery swap outs with the cons of the larger battery being what I listed in this review and extra bulk, case price, and extra weight (every ounce counts when in your head)but there is no case for the manufacturer for the extended battery has no lens protector for its aftermarket case and you may not be able to fit 3m covers over the lens while at the same time swapping back to the small battery and case with the stronger protector that is both thicker and distributes the shock through the case not the camera.

Lastly I had rarely used the camera and had it scratch up due to the lens being exposed. I went to remove the scratch with a felt too dremmel bit and buffer. I accidentally heated it up to much and cracked the lens when I went pretty slowly, gently, and carefully.

They offer no repair service for the 360 camera mod; nor do they offer just a lens for a diy. The replacement is $100 and they must know 80% of the cameras will develop a scratched lens with in a small time frame.

Poor judgment on their customer service to have people that are spending a big chunk of money on getting a camera to need to completely replace something over a piece of glass. Imagine it like as if a cracked, or simply scratched, phone screen caused you to have to replace your entire phone at full cost.

I really like using this. There are a few things that are slightly challenging about it. The one that comes to mind is changing the FOV which I think has to be done in the app which is fine once you realize it but not after searching for 10 minutes (it’s ok) but the modularity of it is fantastic! I suppose I should get the extended battery for the 360 since that one pulls the most power.

Oh and don’t be afraid to get an external small audio recorder and sync it up later. The mic adapter that you can get for this doesn’t sound the best straight out from recording. Which can very likely be fixed in post with a few tweeks.

On the subject of the app, it is actually really nice, you can do almost anything from it. Total reframe and putting in keyframes, in addition to using the gyroscope on the phone to track where and what you want to be shown.

Just try not to get too dizzy if there is a lot of moving.

I have the 360 1r for 3 months now and haven’t been able to get a quality video. The problem I was having was flickering in the video and blur, I also had trouble with the camera freezing, a few problems with the screen turning white and vignetting There were also problems in their desktop app which gave me an error message when I tried to download them.

I had contacted support which was terrible, it was like dealing with a form letter. I had sent them copies of the videos and the only thing they came up with was to shoot at 1/200 of a second and from their analysis or the video, there was nothing wrong.

I still get blurring and flickering. I’m sure other people had a good experience with this camera but if you do it’s a major problem. I bought this camera because of the Leica Lens (which I found out the cheaper models of Leica use lenses made in China).

And also because it had 5k and was more expensive and, I felt you get what you pay for. I had watched all the YouTube reviews but found out later most Youtubers won’t really give bad reviews only a sprinkling of things that the company can improve on.

They do get free products from the company and get a portion of the sale if you buy it from a link on their website even though they tell you they’re independent. To sum this up, I wasted over 500 dollars on this camera when I could have bought the Go Pro and saved money or even bought a gamble and used my phone which has much better quality than the Insta360 1R.