- It seems like a lot
of people want to know whether Insta360 X4 or the Osmo Pocket 3 is the better toice for vlogging. Toice? Is the better choice for vlogging. So I'm gonna give you my opinion based on me having used
both of these cameras for vlogging recently. What I will say though is that there's one specific scenario where it had be an absolute no brainer to pick up one of them over the other. But before I get onto that, there are a few things that I consider that I'll go through in this video when vlogging with either
of these two cameras. What we have to bear in mind though is that these two cameras
are drastically different from each other. So the look that you get from both of them is very much going to
differ across the two, and the workflow's
completely different as well. There are more steps to
go through with the X4 than there is for the Pocket 3. The Pocket 3 is a lot
more straightforward. But with that said, let's jump in. So the first point of consideration is what you can actually see in the frame. A lot of people seem to be very keen to have more of the background
in focus whilst vlogging, and I myself actually
lean more towards that way in some scenarios. But it just depends where I am and what's going on around me. So this is something that's
completely subjective and there's no right or wrong, it's just based on your
personal preference and what you like. But the DJI Osmo Pocket 3
has a narrow field of view with a slightly blurry background, which gives quite nice separation if you like that kind of thing. Whereas Insta360 X4 completely
has everything in focus all the time and it has a
very large field of view. And you can either set that in the camera or you can manipulate it in the edit when you go to reframe the footage. So you can do that
either in the mobile app or the Insta360 Studio app. I'm a big fan of the image quality that comes from the
Insta360 X4 over the X3, but I still don't think it
rivals the image quality that comes from the Osmo Pocket 3. It's good, but it's just not as good. The Pocket 3 when shooting in
auto does such an amazing job at evenly exposing the footage. And don't get me started
on manual settings because there's definitely
something weird going on there, but that's a rant for a different video. But with the Insta360 X4, you get the best image
quality when shooting in auto, and that's what I've found. So when both are compared
in auto exposure settings, the Pocket 3 just looks more pleasing and high quality to me. But both do a great job in dynamic range. But because the X4, like
many other action cameras, needs a decent amount of light to produce great image quality, the same isn't necessarily the case for the Osmo Pocket 3. And you can kind of see that when you're shooting on an overcast day when it's just not very bright. I found that the Pocket 3
just gives better results. (gentle music) So whilst I'm on the
subject of video quality, there's no denying that the Osmo Pocket 3 does a much better job
than the X4 in low light. There's just no competition
here whatsoever. The Osmo Pocket 3 has a gimbal, meaning that a drop in shutter speed isn't gonna give you unstable footage, and it's also helps that the fact that it's got a larger sensor. But like I said earlier,
the X3 really does need to have decent light in order
to get the best quality image. So for low light, it's just not the one. (gentle music) Now, the next point for me
is where the Insta360 X4 kind of comes on, comes out on top, and it's one of the reasons why I kind of liked the
Insta360 X3 so much as well. So the Osmo Pocket 3
obviously has active track and it works well, but it
also does have limitations. And there are some times actually where it is a little bit jittery and it's not as smooth as I
would have hoped it would be. And one of its biggest limitations is the fact that the
gimbal doesn't rotate 360. (gentle music) Now with the Insta360 X4, it doesn't have tracking in the camera, but it's a 360 camera. And so this is something
that you can just do in post and it's the biggest benefit
of using a 360 camera. You can just hold it up
or set it down somewhere, press record and reframe everything later and know that you've got what's happening from every single direction. And this is the benefit of
it over the Osmo Pocket 3, that full, unobstructed, 360 degree view. And the reframing also
works incredibly well when you want to shoot a time lapse because you can, again, just set it down, shoot your time lapse, and then just choose
whatever part of the frame you want the time lapse. So you can create quite
a nice creative shot with your time lapses as well. (gentle upbeat music) However, with the Osmo Pocket 3, you can actually get nicer
looking time lapses, I think, because you can use ND filters and even if you apply Motion ND in post with the Insta360 X4, when
you shoot a time lapse it's not quite the same as if you actually just use an ND filter and slow down the shutter
speed to get natural or just creative motion blur. So that one is kind of a tricky one. (gentle upbeat music) So this next point isn't to
do with vlogging specifically, but it's about the photos and there's absolutely no way that I would pick the Insta360 X4 to take photos over the Osmo Pocket 3. The photos, they're just not
great. They're not that great. And the Osmo Pocket 3, surprisingly, takes incredible photos. There have been many times
where I've actually used it to take thumbnails from my videos or just use videos on social media. So on Instagram I've
just used the Pocket 3 and the results have been amazing. Mostly when you shoot in RAW and then edit the photo afterwards. But the Pocket 3 definitely
does a better job. And also the Insta360 X4 takes so long to process the photos, which I guess is to be expected when you're shooting in 360 because it's stitching
everything together, but it just takes quite a while to actually process that photo. It's cool being able to
frame the shot on the screen, but that took a really long
time to process the photo. Another photo. Processing, processing, processing, processing, processing,
processing, still processing, and now it's done. Processing, processing, processing, still processing, still processing. Now it's done. If however, you shoot in single lens mode with the X4 to take your photos, then the processing isn't as slow. It's actually a lot quicker, but then you don't get the
benefit of having the 360 and being able to choose
whatever part of the frame that you want later on. And the thing is as well
with the single lens mode, you can still take a photo whilst it's processing the next one. So I just pressed it
twice, the shutter button, so it was processing the
photo that I just took and then I took another one
whilst it was processing and it still took the photo. Whereas in 360 mode, it has
to completely finish doing, taking the photo before you can even start to take another one. So it's definitely a
lot slower with the X4. And just from the image quality alone, I probably wouldn't look to use this over the Pocket 3 for taking photos so. So this is what the audio
sounds like with the mics from the Osmo Pocket 3. And then this is what the
audio sounds like with the mics from the Insta360 X4. Both cameras, obviously, you can attach an external mic or connect an external mic via Bluetooth, and they both work with
the DJI Mic 2 Transmitter, which I'm currently
recording too at the moment so that you can hear what
the audio sounds like when you record to that microphone. But like I said, you
can connect both cameras to the microphone via Bluetooth. And Pocket 3 sounds a lot
better than the Insta360 X4 in terms of the Bluetooth connection. But it's still really convenient
to be able to do that. If you aren't too fussed and quite happy with the way
audio sounds from the X4, but you just want to get better audio, than you can connect the DJI, no, sorry, the Rode Wireless Pro (indistinct) too or Rode Wireless (indistinct) and plug it into the X4 And with the Pocket 3, I would
just connect it via Bluetooth to the DJI Mic 2, and it's also records
externally to the MIC 2 as it records to the Pocket 3
as well, which is very useful. But yeah, it's just give you an idea of what the audio sounds like. With both cameras, the in-camera mics and then comparing it to
recording audio from the DJI Mic 2 internally to the microphone. In terms of batteries though, they both have removable batteries. So the Pocket 3 has the
extended battery handle and then the X4 just has regular batteries that you can take out. What I would say is if I were
going to use this all day, I'd probably get myself an extra battery. So at the moment I've got two and I feel like three
would be the sweet spot that would just pretty much
do me for the whole day. With the Pocket 3, I always
use the battery handle, and depending on how long I'm filming for and what I'm filming, it does get to the
point where the Pocket 3 could run out of juice, but I probably wouldn't
buy an extra handle. What I tend to do is just use a portable power bank and then once the battery handle's dead, then I just disconnect it, plug it in, charge it up whilst I'm
still using the Pocket 3 because at that point the
Pocket 3 is fully charged, it's 100%. And then once the battery
handle's finished charging, then I can just put it
back on the Pocket 3. And that cycle kind of
works with vlogging all day. So you don't necessarily need
to buy an extra battery handle and you probably might not want to anyway because they're so much more expensive than if you were to buy
a battery for the X4. And you don't need it because you can just do the whole power bank charging solution so. So in terms of the last point, before I get onto the one scenario where Insta360 X4 would
be a complete no-brainer for me over the Pocket 3, is just talking about accessories. Because if that's a
really big thing for you, both are very easy to attach
external accessories to. However, the added advantage
of the Osmo Pocket 3 is being able to use filters,
like I mentioned earlier,. You can't do that with the Insta360 X4. And one of the main reasons
that I like to use ND filters is to get that natural motion blur. And that's not just for time lapses, like I mentioned earlier,
but that's just in general, even though I don't do it all the time. But it's nice to have that option and you just don't have
that option with the X4. So even though you can't
attach an ND filter to the X4, it does have a setting
in the desktop Studio app and the mobile app called Motion ND and that kind of lets
you apply motion blur to the footage after the fact. But on normal footage, it kind of looks a bit strange at times and it creates a little
bit of a distortion, especially if the camera's moving around or you are moving, reframing the footage. So yeah, in that respect, again, I feel like the Pocket 3 is better. So for me, the no-brainer
benefit of Insta360 X4 over the DJ Osmo Pocket 3 is definitely not as a
main vlogging camera. I just, this would always be my go-to, I wouldn't choose this. But the reason that I would choose this over the Pocket 3 would be
to shoot behind the scenes. And I do a lot of that on this channel because having something like
this will just make my life so much easier because I can
just plunk it down somewhere and not have to worry whether
I'm actually in the frame when I'm moving around. So that is the main reason. Behind the scenes, absolutely brilliant as a second camera. And also just for getting the
odd, random, fun clip as well, I absolutely love the time
shift feature on here. It's just, it's not something that you would use continuously because it would just
get a little bit boring, but just to have one
of those clips in there every now and then just
for something a bit fun is kind of cool, so yeah. But I guess the real question is, given that the Insta360
X4 is an action camera and there is another
popular choice for vlogging being the DJI Osmo Action 4, which one out of these two is the better choice for vlogging? And if you wanna know, you
can check out my next video because I compare the Insta360 X4 against the DJI Osmo Action
4 for vlogging specifically.
