Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Insta360 Air - 360 VR Camera for Android Phone (Type-C Connector), Black (Insta360 Air (Type-C)

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2017

This thing is amazing, especially for the price. I purchased it for a trip to the Galapagos, and it did not disappoint. Previously, I'd used Google's photosphere to stitch a bunch of photos together, but with this, its just a single button. I'd looked at the more expensive standalone versions (the Ricoh, the 360Fly, Nikon KeyMission, etc) and concluded that the 360 camera scene is just too nascent at this point to spend a lot of money on. My fellow travelers all wanted info on it, and the FacebookSphere was full of questions on, "How did you do that?".

In my opinion, the pros are:
* Really easy 360 photos that, for the price, are reasonably good resolution and quality.
* Incredibly easy to use
* Built in app works pretty well. Some good usability features that I didn't expect.
* Well thought out travel case.

The cons are:
* Drains the battery. I'm not sure how much is the app and how much is the device, but I just got used to taking it off as soon as I got my shot, and closing the app.
* Photos are in some kind of proprietary format. Exports are manual, and no way to be batched. Conversely, uploading to Facebook was easy, but you can only do one image at a time.

4 people found this helpful

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ratpack

GREAT 360 camera for the price. True 360 with dual camera.

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

4.5 Stars. GREAT camera for the price. I bought this to try out 360 photography and video. I am convinced that 360 is the next evolution of consumer imaging. I played with a friend's Samsung (only one camera- not true 360), and this was a way better experience.

Pros:
- True 360 with dual fish-eye lenses (can see above and below)
- Good image quality (for the price). 6k (3k x 2) for full field.
- Easy to use. (just fire up app, plug in camera to USB)

Cons:
- Poor documentation. It took me a while to figure out how to upload to FB. (download to local storage first, then upload to FB)
- Finicky USB connection. Often it took a couple of tries to get camera to connect to USB
- Does not look very sturdy. The USB connection does not feel sturdy. Always worried that it'll snap of, and possibley damage phone as well.

Overall, I highly recommend. Especially as a starter 360 camera. I'm looking forward to trying out live stream, the update for image stablization, and improved editing.

9 people found this helpful

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Stephen McMahon

Great 360-degree entry-level camera!

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

This gadget is an awful lot of fun for the price. You'll be disappointed if you're after a professional photography tool, but it's a great choice if you're after an easy, inexpensive entry point for 360-degree photography and video.

The Air is a little bigger than a ping-pong ball, and very light. You'd never hesitate to toss it in your day or hip pack, though it would bulge in a pocket. The rubber guard is well-designed and easy to handle. The fit on my pixel's USB-C was perfect; steady and solid. The app was easy to use for basic photography and video and has some amazingly fun effects (little planet, crystal ball) for your vacation selfies. Sharing (facebook, etc) and export were also easy. Insta360's desktop editor was a nice complement for simple video editing. (You'll need to transfer the files to your desktop Mac or Windows machine; no Linux.)

Still-photo exports were immediately available in google photos and viewable as photo globes in Daydream and street view. Stills were reasonably sharp, with some artifacts (blue fringe). Completely acceptable for my vacation photography. Videos were sharp for simple phone viewing, but suffered a bit when viewed via cardboard or daydream where resolution really counts. Exported videos were immediately viewable in Google Photos, but Daydream's Google Photos app won't see exported videos at this time (Google's fault, not Insta360's); I used the Daydream version of VR TV and had no problem viewing the mp4s in 360 degrees.

19 people found this helpful

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Radix Products

Good hardware that does the job but with terribly frustrating implementation

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

I purchased this to use on various hiking/camping and outdoors events and I regret the purchase. It worked great the first time I plugged it in. I was up and running within 10 minutes. The second and third time, however, was not so great. The device would constantly connect and disconnect every second or two and I was never again able to do anything with it. I kinda gave up on relying on it as I couldn't figure out why it was doing that. A month later I dug it up again and did some troubleshooting. I found out that I need to turn off all radios on my phone (basically airplane mode but also turn off bluetooth) to get it to work properly.

Secondly, the sharing process is cumbersome and poorly integrated. I really just want the saved pictures to go into my photo album, but you have to go through a fairly convoluted process to individually save each picture to your device. If you try to do multiple photo shares, it uploads it to their servers and you get a link to share. I didn't realize this and I accidentally uploaded photos I did not want on servers (pictures of the inside of my home). There's no way to delete them if you didn't already sign up for an account with them. Now I have private photos on a server somewhere that I have no access to. That sucks.

4 people found this helpful

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David B

Nice Camera - Software Not Ready For Prime Time

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

Video quality of the Insta360 Air (USB-C) is very good and works very well with the Android app for live streaming. However, I only give it 3 stars as the software is lacking and the video format is not usable for VR in the Daydream (one of the most used VR headsets).

First there is NO software yet for the Mac OS. As such you can use the camera as it shows if you own a Mac. The Mac does not even see it as a USB camera. What makes this worse is that firmware updates are done via the computer software and NOT the app. So again, if you have a Mac, you can not yet update the firmware as improvements are made.

The Android App is SO, SO, with outright issues from the start.

- Video format it records in is not known to any player and you need to EXPORT the video into MP4 to use it in any other way. This makes for issues seeing now you have TWO large files of the same video on your phone! One you exported and the original that can not be read by anything other than the APP.

- No Google Daydream support nor correctly formatted VR when trying to play it in VR mode. The APP will do a side by side VR, but it is not currently done as it is does not include optic curves to account for the VR goggles lens. This the image overlays itself when trying to use a headset. Only way around this it to upload to YouTube, which will then format it for VR use. This is not a good thing at all if you need to use YouTube every time.

- The YouTube Live works, but it needs to add more settings that allows for setting up the Live Feed such as the setting of what to tell YouTube to do with the file after your are done. (Publish copy, Private, Unlisted) So when you are done and YouTube processes the live stream, it will then publish it automatically when you may not have wanted it published. Other issue is it is not intuitive with what you need to do to actually start a live broadcast. So... You click LIVE, then it asks you to make an event so you do. Then you need to click "confirm" in the top right which does nothing but bring you back to the page asking you to "Create a Live Event". You need to then press "Confirm" again. Now you are now on the video page again where you need to click LIVE which is where you started from. But this time, it will go LIVE. Like I said, not very user friendly. But once you know it....It works. :) Just needs more options. OH...If you set a start time is is NOT set for your timezone in YouTube. I had selected 11:30AM and it was set in YouTube as 6:30 AM as Google defaults to GMT unless told.

Oh...Even in the app you will find non-english words in some places. Hummm????

I wrote to support about the issue of no Mac software thus no firmware updates can be made. He pointed me to other software they have for the Mac which were simple editors. Not what I was looking for or even asked about and addressed none of the questions.

All in all I do like the Insta360 Air camera. But it surely seems to have been rushed to market seeing the app has some issues and there is no Mac software. Also hate that it does not support Daydream and their files are in a format that can not be used by any other software so no VR software can read it. Come on, the idea here to be able to capture the moment and relive it. Can't do that without full VR support for one of the most used platforms now...Google Daydream or even Cardboard.

It is always trying to sell me the camera I already own.

5 people found this helpful

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Charles

I like it.

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Its not my first time buying this brand of 360 cam, first time I bought one, was for my Iphone.
I like making 360 videos, I am in my 40s, and to make a snapchat to friends, coworkers that are younger then me, kinda like telling the teens they need to step up their snapchat game. Plus I have a degree in art, and plan to make a few posters, to apply to a canvas. Still have my old iphone, and 360 cam for it.
Hey, its almost the cheapest known 360 cam, with apps for a phone to edit with, just buy it.

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Kurt R. Klaus

This product is good, when it works

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

This product is good, when it works. I've used this product on sailboats, at sporting events, and in other fun locations. However, when I took this product with me on vacation and had a once in a lifetime opportunity with family to capture special moments, it totally failed. Something is wrong with the type C interface plugging in to my android device. That once in a lifetime opportunity, is now gone. The device continues not to work and I can't return it because I am past the return window deadline.

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JustPaul

Great little camera

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

This camera may not take the highest resolution videos or pictures. Though for the price and quality it isn't bad at all. You install the software and then plug in the camera. After it configures the storage you are ready to go. Fun to use. You don't miss anything with a 360 degree view. If you are a photographer and want a higher 4k resolution then this may not be for you.

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Vinny Smith

I love this little gadget

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

I love this little gadget! But.... I do have a few complaints. First, plugging the camera in will not activate the app, and yes - I have updated the firmware and the app. Second - I cant figure out how to geotag the pics, not even sure it's possible. Third - when you invert the phone to place the camera above the phone the shutter button in the app should move to the (now) top of the screen. I haven't been able to figure out how to hold the phone and hit the shutter button at the bottom with one hand. Fourth - I should be able to post pics from the app anywhere on my Facebook I want but the app creates a separate album. Nope, don't like your device telling me where to put its pics. Last - why does google StreetView not accept 360 pics form this camera. Don't be fooled by the implications of the ad and reviews - Google does NOT accept these pics for StreetView! This was my specific purpose for purchasing a 360 camera for an upcoming trip.
Ok- so that seems like a lot of complaints but get over it. As of Oct '17 you will not find a better 360 camera for $150.

2 people found this helpful

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Pradeep

Good 360 Camera with stabilization - Good Customer Service

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

I love this camera, except the way you need to do firmware update. It is very unusual. On top of it, I was not able to update the firmware and as a result, camera stopped working. It was very annoying. Why manufacturer should force you to update firmware, it should be optional. I contacted Insta360 company. Both had a long and patient email exchanges, and then their level-3 support sent me the replacement after receiving the faulty camera, which I sent to them. They were asking the serial number and version number, but it was not possible since camera was not connecting the phone. It was very nice of the company to send me the replacement in spite of not having the required details.
Camera gives great results and it's stabilization works very good. I am very happy. One note of caution - Use USB-C connector very gently, because once this connection becomes loose, you won't be able to use camera effectively.

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