Kids are creative and inventive. It's a good rule that if you want someone to try something or think of something you hadn't thought of, get the kids involved.
On the other hand, it's another unbreakable rule that if you want the thing you give to the kids to emerge unscathed… well, don't give it to them in the first place.
That leaves a bit of a dilemma, but one that was quickly resolved as I paused for thought with the new Insta360 X5 – the freshly established best 360 camera. How?
Well, call me a chump, but my son just really wanted to play with it and I thought (as I so often do) that I could successfully explain to him how to be cautious with it. Moreover, he has mastered the art of flying drones. How hard can it be for him to take control of a camera at the end of a stick?
To be honest, I am a little nervous about this kind of camera because of the way they are built – two fisheye lenses back-to-back (literally, in the case of the Insta360 X series) on a fairly narrow frame. That makes them very vulnerable to dropping and scratching, and on most cameras that'd be the end of the glass.
Technically things are a bit different with the X5 – the lenses are user-replaceable – but my loan model didn't have any spares in the box, so any damage would be the end of my experience with the device.
Still, well, he's my son, and he really wants a go, and he's very, very good at making that point. Over and over if necessary. Why fight it?
I didn't. I handed over the X5 attached to the end of the Invisible Selfie Stick as we stood next to the ponds in Hyde Park, London, and fish bobbed up near the surface to see what was going on.
At first, my son showed me that the telescopic pole could serve as a wizard's staff or some other magical weapon (not filling my hopes for the future of those delicate glass elements with confidence). But shortly afterward he switched on the camera and used the rod to plunge it into the pond.
That, as it happens, is far less of a problem. The camera is waterproof to a depth of 15m (nearly 50ft) and the ponds are certainly not that deep. Inside the ponds, the algea and weeds are likely softer than the surrounding concrete – plus the water prevents quite such speed of motion.
Was my son able to achieve his goals in the water, though? Well, yes and no.
Insta360 offers probably the best subject tracking in the business. But through murky British pond water tracking a non-human (and indeed non-mammalian) subject, things aren't easy.
I had some success being very cautious with my movements, but my son (who was a little more, let's say 'enthusiastic' with his grip on the selfie stick) did seem to pose more of a challenge. In both cases, though, the fail point was the join between the lenses.
When you're above the surface and the device is dry, there isn't a lot that seems to disappear from the sphere. When you're underwater and using a dive case, things can be okay. But if you're popping in and out, and staying near the surface, light will bend in a way that the camera doesn't quite cope as well with.
That, in combination with a less 'recognizable' subject, means that the fish didn't stay in view quite as consistently as you'd hope for a camera that can, theoretically, see in every direction.
That, though, is a small niggle. We were still able to lift the camera in and out of water with no worries about affecting the recording, and stick it off the side of bridges to capture special images that others couldn't.
And I managed to get a few fish on video by being a little more cautious than my son was (though it still took a while for the selfie stick to dry off afterward).
On top of that, the second I finished writing this story, a firmware update to "optimize the image in certain underwater scenarios" emerged.
Hmm, I wonder…
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Wondering what's new? Take a look at my Insta360 X5 vs X4 comparison to see how they differ.
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