I’m putting three small cameras to the test. The Insta360 GO 2 has been getting quite a bit of buzz - The hat-clip-magnets-stick-it-anywhere camera. The GoPro HERO 10, the world’s best known mount-it-anywhere camera. And the DJI Action 2 - Is it as innovative as DJI claims, or are the influencers right that it just isn’t worth the additional price?
Watch the full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAzuXuAtlRU
To help create visual stories from adventures and experiences I would like to find a small camera with the ultra-wide field of view I can use to capture those unique and immersive shots. Simple and convenient, but also up to the challenge of less than ideal lighting when hiking in Oregon’s deep forests. Will one of these camera’s make it into my gear bag? I hope so and I’m going to take you on the journey to make that decision. Let’s get started with the Insta360 GO 2.
The Insta360 GO 2 case includes 1/4” threads for mounting to a tripod or other accessory, but keep in mind that the case is not waterproof.
Insta360 GO 2
Of these three cameras, only the GO 2 provides automatic horizon leveling at the widest field of the view. The picture is bright and poppy, though the fisheye lens does bring some barrel distortion and stretching at the edges. Noise in the shadows can be distracting, and the glare and fringing are heavy here. My shots felt like they were coming from a premium back-up camera and that is not what I was expecting.
In one image: Heavy flaring, significant noise in shadows, blown highlights and barrel distortion.
Let’s talk about mounting the Insta360 GO 2. First off, the included mounting clips, the hat clip and the sticky-mount clip, are pretty thin plastic. I think it’s fair to say that if you drop these and step on them they are going to break. There is an included 1/4” thread at the bottom of the case, so you can attach the Insta360 GO 2 in it’s case to a mono-pod, tripod, or in my situation a SmallRig clamp. Now the problem with that is that because of the shape of the case I found that the threads only go in a 1/2 turn to 3/4 turn at the most, and it can be a bit of a trick to get them on there as well. Personally I wouldn’t feel secure having it threaded in just that little bit and hanging that off a selfie stick over rough terrain, a long drop, or over water. (Note also that the case is not waterproof, this way of attaching is not useable in wet conditions.)
Since we don’t have a screen, we’re going to need the app to compose our shot, and the camera connects relatively quickly. There are both manual controls and EV settings for automatic exposure, shutter and ISO priority are supported, and there is a histogram. I did find the preview soft, and oddly the app doesn’t support pivoting to a landscape - that 16:9 preview is awfully small when viewed across the short width of the phone.
The preview would be so much better if the app would rotate to landscape mode.
Back at home base, the process to export recordings was a bigger pain point than I expected. The combinations of the wi-fi connection and the reliance on the phone’s processor for stabilization makes for a much slower workflow. This also burns down batteries quickly, both on the camera and the phone.
Have plenty of time and patience ready when downloading and processing files from the Insta360 GO 2.
This might be a great camera for capturing those interesting fun moments, especially when the sun is out. But how is that different than the camera that is on our phones, that’ s already in our pockets. But that ultra wide always-level horizon, that’s a trick and that’s what had me take a look at this camera.
It’s cute and small, but the Insta360 Go 2 may not provide any value beyond the camera already on your mobile phone.
So that magic level horizon was not enough for me to keep the Insta360 GO 2. And if the influencers were right that the DJI Action 2 isn’t worth the difference in price, well there’s a growing possibility I won’t be keeping any of these three cameras.
DJI Action 2
While waiting for the GoPro to arrive, I took the DJI Action 2 on a quick outing to our local park and was pleasantly surprised by the results. The light this evening was fantastic!
Shooting directly into the sun, the DJI Action 2 creates a sharp realistic image with beautiful color tones.
These are conditions where many cameras will shine, yet a few things immediately stood out. Both the front and back screens can fully control the camera, but the app itself is phenomenal. An excellent preview is displayed in landscape mode. Camera data is clearly shown including shutter and ISO. Manual modes are simple to dial in. The lens is incredibly wide with very little distortion, a fantastic picture.
The DJI Action 2 app is executed well, a true extension of the camera.
Working with the magnetic mounting system of the DJI Action 2 is pretty cool. The included 1/4” tripod adapter is built really tough. Just add this to the bottom of a tripod or my Small Rig here, and once I feel everything is secure and ready, then I just need to click the camera on top. Neat!
Either the top or combined unit can be magnetically snapped onto the provided mounts, such as the hardy and well designed 1/4” adapter.
As the light faded to twilight I was able to capture static shots that, one the iPhone, were pretty rough.
I returned in the morning to a beautiful frosty scene, and yes, that is a white fogbow. The overexposures are rolling off nicely, the flare is controlled well, this is a really good ultra wide view.
The DJI Action 2 rendered this fogbow exactly as it should - pure white.
The DJI Action 2 has a horizon steady mode, that comes with significant crop factor and is probably useful for vlogging, but how do we get those ultra wide shots level? Well, this can record in full 4K resolution in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and what that means is that in post-production we have a lot of lee-way as we re-crop that to our 16:9 frame. All that extra vertical space means we don’t need to crop in significantly when we go to correct an off-level horizon. Just eye-ball it in the field, bring it in and fix it up. In fact that is what I have done in many of the shots in the review video.
The DJI Action 2 does not shoot HDR, yet it handles this high contrast scene well with room to lift the shadows without introducing noise.
Speaking of post-production, access to the micro-so card for transferring files is very simple. Or connect a USB-C cable to make this into a card reader for your iPad, Mac or PC. As for the recordings, I am able to season to taste without the image falling apart. Add some gamma, some shadow lift, some sharpness - this is doing great for 8 bit video.
The wide field of view gives shots like this some breathing space
GoPro HERO10 Black
The GoPro HERO10 Black. A tenth generation standard by which all other action cameras are measured. Sure, it’s larger than our other contenders, but the reviews seem to agree that this is still the king of the hill.
The GoPro HERO10 Black
Well, not so fast. I was expecting this to be the most refined of the three cameras I was looking at, and honestly I was a little disappointed. Perhaps I had too high of expectations, so lets walk through some of my top friction points.
The GoPro mounts may be excellent for high action situations, but to move this camera from mount to mount gets pretty tedious. I’m either messing with the thumb screws, which take quite a few turns to seat, or I’m screwing the entire GoPro onto a mount point, and that’s awkward.
Turns out I am not a fan of the GoPro mounting system
The larger touch screen is nice, though nearly half of my taps tended to close a menu rather than change a setting - that got frustrating quick. Somehow DJI was able to create a smooth experience on a screen less than half the size. The focal length is around 30% narrower than the DJI Action 2, and when we widen the view beyond standard lens mode the barrel distortion really shows through.
The DJI Action 2 field of view is significantly wider than the GoPro HERO10
It’s actually difficult to compare the quality between these two cameras because that field of view is so different. The GoPro app is useful to preview the shot, but it lacks any exposure control - that needs to be done at the back of the camera. And here’s the head scratcher - when recording starts, the preview goes black.
The GoPro HERO10 app preview goes black when recording starts
I found that these limitations made it difficult to compose a shot with this camera. Now keep in mind that the front screen is a preview and status screen only, to make any exposure adjustments I have to do that on the back screen of the camera. And if I were going to be mounting this in a place where I don’t have access to that back screen I need to dial in those exposure settings before doing the mounting and the app isn’t helpful at all in this area. For those manual exposure changes it’s a little fiddly, I have to dive through a couple of menus and the ISO, have to set both a minimum ISO and a matching maximum ISO to fix that in. So on the automatic exposure side, there isn’t a concept of shutter priority and that’s pretty important for dialing in those butter smooth shutter speeds. I really could go on, I have cut this list significantly to smooth this video out, but these are really surprising limitations of a tenth generation camera.
Hey, so the GoPo has some rough edges, but how does it compare with the Action 2 in a deep dark forest hike? Well, let’s go…
GoPro HERO10 Black vs DJI Action 2
These are side-by-side frame captures from video around McDowell Creek Falls Park. In this setting the DJI Action 2 rises head and shoulders about to GoPro HERO10. It’s not even a close race and that surprised me. The slightly larger sensor seems to make a significant difference. For the Action 2 shots I am able to lift the shadows, add some sharpness, a little bit of vibrancy. Where as the GoPro shots have an overprocessed look already baked in.
Something additional to note, when the front-screen module is attached to the DJI Action 2, the microphone array captures an immersive sound field. Impressive.
Conclusion
The DJI Action 2 is the ideal choice for my goals and has earned a place in my gear bag. Between the nearly distortion free ultra wide field of view, the capabilities in less than ideal lighting conditions and the app, they’ve combined to make a pretty great auxilliary camera. I’m impressed with the cinematic style footage this little cube can put out. It’s expensive, yes, but the build quality and capabilities really come through.
The DJI Action 2 earns a place in my gear bag
Q&A about the DJI Action 2
Is the front screen combo kit worth the price different?
I would say yes for a couple of reasons. First is sound, the extra microphones that are on the lower unit with the screen are excellent. Quite the difference from the single mono mic on the camera unit itself. And if you’re a blogger I can see the front screen being very useful to frame your shots. But outside of those two reasons, the app is so good that I find myself not really needing to use that front screen. One note, the front screen combo kit comes with the magnetic ball head attachment, which I think is a must have accessory. So if you factor out the price of that, the cost difference between the two is not as severe as it looks on paper.
Is it a problem that the lower unit isn’t waterproof?
I would say no. Let’s say I’m in a boat or a damp forest, I’m not going to have a problem using the lower unit. But if I’m in a condition where I might get splashed, or maybe hiking behind a waterfall, I would go ahead and take that unit off and tuck it in a dry bag until we’re safe again. The upper unit can be completely immersed. There is some neat engineering going on with the way these two units work, whenever the lower unit is attached the upper unit is pulling power from the lower unit so it’s not using it’s own internal battery. It’s also charging the upper unit if there has been any battery usage. As soon as you snap that bottom unit off it’s using it’s internal battery, snap it back on again and it’s using the lower unit battery. Also the immersive audio from those extra microphones is immediately put to use and available in the menus the instant the bottom unit is attached. It’s a pretty neat piece of engineering.
Is there anything I wish was different about the DJI Action 2?
Sure, there is always room for improvement. I wish there was a virtual horizon line on screen so I could level this out easily - both on the screens on camera, but also ideal to have that horizon line on the app. Also, I would like to lock in the automatic exposure. You can actually do this on the GoPro where you tap the screen and hold to lock that automatic exposure, just like we are used to doing on the iPhone, and then you can dial in the EV compensation from there. Now the manual controls on the DJI Action 2 are so good that this isn’t a big need, but a nice to have. I do have some concerns about the battery life. As this charges it gets pretty warm and that typically indicates some stress on the batteries. I would like to know more about the battery replacement program, so after a couple years of use how expensive will it be to refresh this and keep it’s life going?
So why didn’t I test the Insta360 ONE R 1-inch?
That larger sensor certainly would be ideal in those lower lighting conditions like we saw here. I do feel like I got a sense of what the workflow might be like by testing the Insta360 GO 2 and what the larger form factor would be like by testing the GoPro HERO 10. And I feel like in my kit, the compromise between quality and convenience was better served with the DJI Action 2.
If you found it useful please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!