Insta360 have revealed the X6, the latest version of their flagship 360 camera, and this time the firm have clearly had motorcyclists in mind – headlined by a smaller body, bigger sensors and a hidden microphone tuned to capture engine noise. The X6 is available now and costs £619 .
The 360 camera has become a common sight on a motorcycle, whether it’s being used to show off your latest ride or as an over-engineered dash cam . Insta360 have been rapidly developing their X-series, providing serious competition to the previously ubiquitous GoPro models.
Part of the appeal for riders is that you can simply press record and stop worrying about where the camera is pointing. The whole scene is captured, so you can decide afterwards whether to show the bike, the road, the rider – or the car that has just pulled out in front of you.
Every previous X-series camera got more capable, but also bulkier. The X5 stood around 4.9in tall, earning riders who mounted them to their lids the nickname ‘unicorns’.
The X6 goes the other way. Having used one ahead of launch, the first thing we noticed out of the box is how much shorter it is, at roughly 3.9in tall – around an inch down on the X5. That brings it much closer in size to a conventional action camera, which is good news if you’re planning to stick one on a motorbike helmet , your bars or the end of an invisible selfie stick.
Despite the smaller body, the X6 gets bigger sensors – two custom 1/1.1in Sony units that Insta360 say deliver “1-inch equivalent” imaging, with 33% more total sensor area than the X5.
For riders, the biggest benefit will come when the light starts to disappear. A larger sensor gathers more light, which means cleaner footage with less noise when riding early in the morning, at dusk or after dark.
The X6 also supports 10-bit colour across all modes, plus an I-Log flat profile and native Dolby Vision – which Insta360 claim is an industry-first for a 360 camera. You don’t need to understand colour grading to appreciate the point: there’s more colour information and greater flexibility in the final image, particularly in tricky light.
It shoots 8K 360 video, with Insta360 quoting a maximum of 50fps. In practice the camera is built around 8K 30fps – that’s the recommended setting and the figure Insta360 use for battery life. It’s also worth knowing that Dolby Vision and I-Log are currently supported only up to 8K 30fps, so you can’t combine the top frame rate with the flagship colour options.
The bigger sensors don’t just help video. The X6 can capture 120MP 360 photos – roughly 120 million pixels of image data. For a rider, the useful part isn’t the number, but what you can do with it afterwards.
You can take a wide shot of the whole bike, then crop into the engine, rider or badge while keeping far more detail than you’d get from a conventional image. It’s almost like choosing where to point the camera after you’ve taken the picture.
Processing all that data are three chips: two dedicated imaging chips handling noise reduction and colour calibration, plus a Qualcomm 4nm processor doing the heavy lifting of image processing, stitching and stabilisation. Insta360 claim the new system delivers 500% more computing power than the X5.
For a rider, the takeaway is simply more processing power working away in the background to produce cleaner, more stable footage, particularly in difficult light.
Video is only half the job – on a motorcycle, audio matters just as much. The X6 u…