Insta360 recently added to its GO series of lifestyle-oriented action cameras with the GO Ultra — a more powerful addition to the series that solves many of the drawbacks of previous models.
The Insta360 GO series won many plaudits for the tiny size of the cameras, enabling users to record life hands free without the bulk and mounting hassles of a traditional action camera. Insta360 never marketed the GO cameras as out-and-out action cameras, though they were capable of doing double duties when required.
Until now, the GO cameras did have a few drawbacks that limited them for some users. To begin with, the tiny size meant that battery life in the standalone camera was quite limited. In order to get longer runtimes the camera needed to be mounted in the charging pod, which made it about the same size as a normal action camera. The second was that they had a fixed amount of storage. Once that was used up, you couldn’t use the camera again until you’d offloaded it and reformatted the internal storage. So, for holidays where you might not be offloading regularly, or you might want to wait until you get back home, they weren’t that practical.
Enter the GO Ultra, Insta360's solution to all those problems, as well as introducing a healthy dose of new features too.
The GO Ultra is slightly bigger than the previous models in order to accommodate a bigger battery and swappable micro SD storage. Despite the increase in size, the standalone camera is still one of the smallest and lightest cameras of its type on the market today.
The standalone camera is fully waterproof down to 33ft, while the Action Pod that it sits in to charge back up is splash proof to the IPX4 standard. Insta360 says that the camera can record for 170 minutes in 4K when mounted inside the Action Pod, and for 60 minutes at the same resolution as a standalone camera. That’s a big improvement over previous models, giving nearly double the runtime of the GO 3S.
The GO Ultra features many of the capabilities of the more action-based Ace Pro 2, including a high resolution 4K Clarity Zoom, a 5nm AI chip for image processing, Active HDR, Pure Video low light mode, and a 156-degree maximum FOV. Some of these features need to be activated from the Action Pod, but more on that later.
Other notable specs include the 1/1.28” sensor, 4K recording up to 60fps (compared to 30fps on the GO 3S), an ambient light sensor, and the latest in Insta360’s audio wind filtering technology. The GO Ultra is also compatible with Insta360’s Mic Air wireless microphone system, making it an extremely incognito vlogging solution.
The GO Ultra is nicely built, as you’d expect from any Insta360 camera these days. It follows an established design aesthetic that is quite consistent across the company’s range.
Powering the camera on is fairly fast, taking around 2-3 seconds until you can start recording. DJI’s cameras are still the kings of fast switch on times, but the Ultra is still faster than most of GoPro’s devices.
Power on time is quite important in an action camera, or any camera for that matter, because action cameras can often be used in situations where you really do need that camera to start recording instantly or miss the moment. Luckily the GO Ultra, like many other models today, features a pre-record option that will record up to 30 seconds of footage before the record button is pressed. Although it’s worth remembering that this will eat into your battery runtime.
The GO Ultra uses Insta360’s familiar user interface, controlled via a large flip up LCD screen on the Action Pod. It's easy to follow, clear and responsive. Although there’s no 10-bit recording or log option, the Ultra can be set to use different lifestyle focussed image profiles that do everything from softening skin to giving a baked in ‘film look’.
Control of the standalone camera comes in the form of a single button on the front. This can be set up from the Action Pod, and it's worth taking the time to make sure that your settings are correct. By default the standalone camera is set to record in specific modes depending on whether you perform a single press or a double press.
I was caught out early on because I assumed that the camera would record in the last setting I had used on the Action Pod. The result was that I recorded a lot of kayaking POV using the linear lens mode rather than my preferred Action setting, which gives a much wider FOV.
I now have a single press set up to record in the Action view mode, and a double press will record in slow motion. You can also enable or disable the pre-recording option with a triple press.
Pressing the record button on the standalone camera gives a reassuring haptic feedback buzz, so it’s clear that it is recording, even when the camera is out of sight when mounting to a helmet etc. The trouble is however, that I found it very easy to accidentally press record when I was simply taking the camera out of a mount, or even taking it out of the Action Pod.
One thing I’m very glad to see is the wider lens. The GO 3 and GO 3S had rather restricted FOVs compared to the previous GO cameras, making them less suitable for POV. The lens on the GO Ultra has been brought into line with the Ace Pro 2, making it one of the widest standard lenses available on an action camera at 155-degrees.
Mounting the GO Ultra onto a helmet for POV use is incredibly comfortable and light. It is barely noticeable, and the haptic feedback leaves you in no doubt as to whether it is functioning or not. Battery life for the standalone camera in 4K mode is around an hour, which puts it on par with cameras like the GoPro HERO13. If you need to charge it, just pop it into the Action Pod and 12 minutes later you’ll have 80% power available to you.
Because it's so small and light, using the GO Ultra is a lot of fun. The magnetic body means you can attach it to a lot of objects without even needing a mount. If you do need to mount it in a specific situation, then Insta360 has seemingly got one available for every situation. One of these is a sticky pad mount, which you can stick to pretty much any surface and then clip the camera directly to them. Great if you find yourself in a ‘sticky’ situation and quickly need to attach the camera to something!
One thing I should point out is that the GO Ultra isn’t compatible with previous GO series mounts. So, if you already own the GO 3 or 3S, you’ll need a new set of mounts for this one.
Another great touch is the tether system. For safety I always tether my action cameras to my kayaking helmet to prevent losing them in the event of hitting a rock and having the mount break or fall off.
Insta360 has come up with a great solution that it calls the Quick Release Safety Cord. You attach a little ‘tether ball’ to a built-in tether point on the standalone camera body. This ball then quickly connects and disconnects using a spring-loaded button to the main cord string. It’s simple but genius, and means that I can now finally quickly dismount the camera without having to mess around with disentangling the tether. The cord also comes in handy when you're using the magnetic pendant, which lets you attach the camera to clothing.
The GO Ultra also features a 2x ‘Clarity Zoom’. This is similar to the same option on the Ace Pro 2 and gives you a 2x lossless zoom. The caveat is that to access it you need to be operating the camera from the Action Pod. Although I didn't make much use of it, if you're making a vlog and need some different looking shots for GVs, it lets you do so without losing image quality.
On that note, as per the other GO series cameras, the Action Pod makes it easy to mount the standalone camera remotely and then check your framing, as well as being able to start and stop recording from a distance.
So, let’s say you wanted to film yourself walking along the street. You could put the standalone camera on a metal lamppost, check your framing with the Action Pod and then start it recording remotely when you’re ready.
The GO Ultra, for all its diminutive size, doesn’t appear to skimp on image quality. I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the image put out by the GO Ultra and the Ace Pro 2. As per all Insta360 cameras now, the user has full control over sharpness, so you can dial it right back to avoid the ‘action camera’ look.
In daylight the image is exceptionally clean, with strong colours and good dynamic range, which is helped by the camera’s tone mapping system. Even in backlit situations it copes remarkably well. In low light, the camera can automatically switch to its “Pure Video” mode.
Pure Video is Insta360’s low light specific mode, which it achieves by leveraging the power of its 5nm AI image processing chip. Effectively the camera is performing in realtime the kinds of noise reduction and detail enhancement you’d have difficulty replicating in any kind of post processing software.
Although the image can appear a little over processed, if you’re given the choice between capturing the shot and having something usable at the end, Pure Video works exceptionally well. It’s pretty astounding the kind of low light situations you can use it in and still come out the other side with a usable image.
I’ve performed lots of testing in the past to see if I can replicate and get better results by using action cameras in their standard recording modes and using noise reduction systems like Topaz, Resolve’s AI NR function, and Neat Video. But none of them come close to the image produced by Insta360’s Pure Video or DJI’s Super Night mode.
It's true that skin can end up appearing plasticky and the image overall has a 'processed' look to it, but that’s better than ending up with something unusable and missing the moment. The fact that the GO Ultra can auto switch into this mode takes all the worry and hassle out of things for less tech savvy users.
As I mentioned earlier, you can connect the GO Ultra to Insta360’s wireless Mic Air system, which gives fantastic audio in pretty much all situations. However, the mic system that’s built directly into the camera is no slouch, either.
Insta360 has done a lot of work in recent years to improve the in-camera audio, including building in physical wind filters into its cameras rather than simply relying on digital wind reduction. The result is that most current Insta360 cameras can record usable audio even when the wind gets up a bit.
It’s not completely infallible. I took the Ultra up onto a hill with 40mph gusts and I couldn’t hear what I was saying. But for rather less blustery conditions, I found the GO Ultra captured usable audio when I wasn’t expecting it to. In many situations, such as on a selfie stick, the audio that comes out of the Ultra can sometimes sound like you’ve used a wireless mic.
Audio is an area that action cameras have traditionally lacked performance in, and so far it appears that Insta360 is the only one of the big-three that is seriously developing its on-camera audio recording systems in a meaningful way.
The GO Ultra isn’t necessarily a full-fledged action camera, but it can certainly perform those duties when asked. So, who is this camera designed for?
If there’s one thing the GO Ultra does well, it’s getting out of the way. And that’s the point of it. You can body mount it and it doesn’t draw attention to itself. The fact that it connects to the wireless Mic Air system means that it could be a very good incognito vlogging solution. It would also work well for running videos where you might need to use a very lightweight system on dark morning or evening runs in the UK. The Pure Video mode would ensure a usable image with perfect stabilisation in a camera that’s much more lightweight to carry around than the Ace Pro 2 or equivalents.
Certainly, the Ultra will suit people who aren’t necessarily camera fanatics. Although it has been aimed at people who want a little bit more from their device than the standard GO series, it would still make for a very powerful, yet simple to use camera to document everyday life and create family memories with.
The Insta360 GO Ultra is available now from $379 on various Black Friday deals ($449 list) in either black or arctic white. Other bundles are available for everything from vlogging to cycling.