Insta360 teases its new camera, and it certainly looks different

Insta360’s made no secret of the fact that its new camera is coming, and this new teaser video shows us what it looks like… up to a point.

With some crafty camera angles and low-key lighting, Insta360 keeps a lot of details hidden – but it’s also revealed a lot about the shape. The video starts off with a device we can recognize as the modular Insta360 R camera that we know already, but then rotates and dismantles it and reassembles it into something new.

Insta360 cameras so far

The name of the company says it all. Insta360 specializes in 360 imaging, both at a consumer level with cameras like the Insta360 One X and its successor, the One X2, and with professional products like its multi-camera Pro 2 and Titan models.

360 imaging is a very exciting new field, not just for vloggers and filmmakers but for professional architects and real estate vendors. VR specialist Matterport, for example, hosts online VR walkthroughs of architectural interiors created not just with its own 3D scanning cameras but 360 cameras (from Insta360 and others) and even smartphones, via the clever Matterport Axis.

For videographers, the appeal of 360 is that it doesn’t matter where you point the camera! You can choose which subjects to follow, set up panning movements and frame your videos in post production.

Insta360 has also dabbled in 3D imaging, and not just with its pro cameras. The EVO is one of a small number of cameras that have utilized flip-around cameras to offer either back-to-back 360 imaging or side-by-side 3D.

Insta360’s teaser hints more at a modular, transformable camera, though, which is more in line with its recent ONE R and ONE RS models.

It’s not long to wait to find out, though, as June 28 will bring the full reveal!

Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com