Skip to content

Capture with Insta360

x4-new

The Insta360 camera is capable of capturing fully immersive 360 video at 8K resolution. The process includes three steps:

  1. Prepare your Insta360 camera
  2. Capture a live scene
  3. Export the video to PRISM

Prepare

Requirements: Insta360 camera, high-speed micro-SD card (see card requirements)

Insta360 makes it easy to grab the camera and start recording without needing to load any additional software on your mobile device or computer.

Camera Mode: Set the camera to video mode with the highest resolution (8K on the Insta360 X4).

insta4-settings

Ensure your camera is fully charged and that a high-speed memory card is inserted (included with your PRISM system).

Capture

Requirements: Tripod (included) or selfie-stick

Insta360 does an excellent job of automatically adjusting for scene brightness and stabilizing against camera shake. The stabilization is so effective that even handheld video capture is often acceptable.

  1. Height: Before recording, consider how the video will be experienced later. Specifically, determine your recording height. For accurate 360 experiences in PRISM, the camera's recording height should match the height at which users will view the video. For example, if users will stand in the PRISM theater, adjust the tripod so the camera is at eye level. Similarly, if viewers will be seated on the ground, adjust the tripod accordingly. A slight difference in height should not impact the experience significantly.

  2. Direction: Orient the camera so that one of the lenses directly faces your primary subject. Although the Insta360 captures everything around you, orienting the camera can improve the quality of your footage.

  3. Record: Press the Shutter button to start and stop recording.

  4. Preview: Optionally, download the Insta360 mobile app for iPhone or Android to preview the capture on a larger screen and start/stop the recording remotely. Search for “Insta360” on the app store with this icon: image-20241024221751199

Download phone control apps

Apple App Store

Google Play Store

While the app allows you to edit and export video captures directly on your mobile device, the workflow is generally faster and of higher quality when using a computer, as described below.

Export

Requirements: A Mac or PC, and a USB micro-SD card reader or USB-C cable

The Insta360 camera records 360 videos in a proprietary format that requires exporting through Insta360’s tools before the files can be used in non-Insta360 software. This step explains how to do so and provides options for trimming unwanted portions of your recordings.

Install: If you haven’t already, download and install Insta360 Studio, a free and lightweight video editor and export tool (no registration required).

image-20241024222427312 Insta360 Studio

Import: Import your camera media into Insta360 Studio. You can either remove the micro-SD card and connect it to your computer via a card reader or connect the camera directly with a USB-C cable. For the latter, make sure to turn on the camera before attempting to import media.

Edit: The basic editing functions you might need are trimming. The picture below shows where to find these options.image-20241024224052385

Export: To export your video at full resolution, go to **File > Export ** and configure as shown below.image-20241024224315462

Once exported, you can drag and drop the video file into your PRISM scene browser to start creating a new scene.

Do not reframe 360 video

The desktop tools offer some amazing features for reframing and automatically following subjects. However, if you wish to use the video in 360 mode, none of these tools can be applied. The video must maintain a 360-degree field of view, and the video's pointing direction (compass) should usually remain constant.

More Help

For further help on using your Insta 360 camera, try these guides:

Button Instructions:

Power Button

img

Camera Status Operation Descriptions
Powered off Press once - Power on camera.
Powered on Press once Long press Long press - Turn touchscreen on/off. - 2 seconds: Power off. - 5 seconds: Force shutdown.

Quick Button

img

Camera Status Operation Descriptions
Powered on Press once - Quickly access preset shooting modes and parameters. Press again to switch between different presets. - Cycle through to the last icon to add or customize presets.

Shutter Button

img

Camera Status Operation Descriptions
Powered off Press once - Start shooting with QuickCapture. - Must be enabled on the camera first.
Powered on Press once - During Preview: - Take a photo or start recording a video. - Stop recording. - In other pages: - Return to the preview page.
Powered on Long press - Quickly cancel and delete recording. - Enable "Long press Shutter Button to cancel recording" in Settings first.

Lens Button

img

Camera Status Press once Descriptions
Powered on Press once - Switch between Single-Lens Mode and 360 Mode.

You can also customize the Lens and Quick Button to start recording, switch shooting modes and more. Go to [Settings] > [Customize Button].

Click to expand Here’s some hidden content that will be shown when you expand the section. - Lists and - Other markdown elements can also be included here.
Expandable Section Title

This is the content inside the collapsible section.

  • You can add lists
  • And any other Markdown content
Expandable Section with Formatting

Here’s some bold text and italic text.

  • Bullet points work
  • And you can add sub-bullets
# Code blocks are supported
def example():
    return "Hello, MkDocs!"

Blockquotes are also supported

Table Content
Row 1 Data 1
Row 2 Data 2
Main Section

This is the main section with additional collapsible content.

Nested Section

This is a nested warning section.

Expandable Section with HTML Formatting

This text is blue and bold, using inline HTML.

More content here with standard Markdown formatting.

ACB
  1. here
  2. we

​ 

1. here we go
2. and more