Insta360 X6: getting started, the first hour

• Resolution. Insta360 lists three 360° combinations: 8K at 50 frames per second, 6K at 60, 4K at 100. Choose according to where the film will be shown, not according to the biggest number — if the subject moves fast, frame rate counts for more than resolution. The detail is in what 8K at 50 frames really changes.
• The colour profile. Standard (Rec. 709) if you publish as shot. Dolby Vision or 10-bit I-Log only if you intend to grade: footage shot in log and never touched is dull footage, and it is the most common mistake on a rental.
• Horizon lock. FlowState stabilisation and 360° horizon lock are the two reasons anyone rents this kind of body rather than using a phone. They stay on, always.
• The low-light mode. Insta360 calls it PureVideo and caps it at 8K 30 frames per second in 360°. It is a late-afternoon and evening setting, not a default one.

The card: keep the one in the box

The X6 goes up to 240 Mbit/s and Insta360 asks for a UHS-I V30 microSD card as a minimum. The 1 TB SanDisk Extreme supplied holds that rate; an older card, pulled out of a drawer, will cut the recording mid-sequence without warning. There is 64 GB of internal memory, 47 GB of it usable, but that is a safety net, not a place to shoot into. Last point, the one most often forgotten: the card goes back with the camera, so pull your files off before you close the box.

The lenses, the only genuinely fragile part

Both lenses bulge outward, they stand proud of the body, and they take every knock. Insta360 says they are replaceable on the X6, with a dedicated kit: that is the good news. The less good news is that the French demonstration exists for the X4 and the X5 but not for the X6 — the gesture is identical, so the X5 video does the job. Between two shots the camera goes back into its hard case, not into a pocket with a bunch of keys. What I check on return is set out in the article on our return inspection.

The first shot, and the three things that spoil it

A 360 camera sees everything, including your placement mistakes. Three are enough to ruin a take:

• A subject sitting on the stitch line, that is, on the axis separating the two lenses, along the edges of the body. That is where the software joins the two images, and that is where it shows.
• An object closer than about fifty centimetres, which comes out distorted.
• The camera too low. At eye level the scene looks natural; at hip level everyone looks enormous.

The 1.10 m invisible stick included in the box fixes all three at once, and it disappears from the image: that is the whole point of the trick, explained in the guide to the invisible selfie stick. The 3 m pole is an optional extra for the whole rental — the rate is given on the X6 product page.

The editing happens on your phone

A 360 video is not watched, it is reframed: you decide afterwards where the camera points. That works perfectly well on a phone, and the method has not changed — the app editing tutorial applies to the X6 as well. A computer only becomes useful beyond a dozen shots, or for a very high resolution export.

What I cannot tell you yet

Real battery life in 8K, the heat after twenty minutes, how clean the stitch line looks on a close shot, how the microphones hold up in wind: those four cannot be written from a spec sheet. Insta360 quotes 140 minutes in 8K at 30 frames per second with the Xtreme battery; I will not repeat that as my own figure until I have timed it myself. The rest of the practical questions — deposit, duration, collection in Lyon — are gathered in the X6 frequently asked questions.

See the available dates for the Insta360 X6