Shiba Inu's Honest Review of Insta360 GO3 vs. GO2, iPhone, OneRS & Insta360 X3
Hello, It is your DOG Kimchi here. Today, I am going to review the brand-new doggy camera from Insta360 – the GO 3! The tiny white camera on my back, that capture my POV – OPS… BOOTY! It shoots 2.7K, super wide! It even captures my Neck Fat! I can put it on my back, or put it on my belly. So you can have a unique look at my favorite places to sniff and poo on Santa Monica Pier. Kimchi what the hell you’re doing you already have one poo! Now second poo? Here is my personal camera guy
Hugh. He always films me and it’s so annoying, but I go along with it, for a treat! Look at him, put the Go 2 and Go 3 on his silly hat and iphone in his face for a stabilization test. The real stabilization test should be this… In my in-depth review, we will compare the GO 3 with GO 2, Insta360 One RS, Insta360 X3, and even the iPhone 14 Pro, to find out which one has the best image quality. Oh birds, Birds! Birds! Birds! Gotta catch them all! Ok I’m gonna test the GO 3 in low
light – oh, that is ugly. Don’t use that. Oh no not a bath! I like being dirty! Ops, the camera has dropped. My bath
getting the perfect camera angle. So we are gonna do free frame mode. Because Kimchi is gonna move a lot. We need the max stabilization. I also can’t decide if I want to do horizon or vertical So we gonna do that in 50fps. How to check framing? We can check framing right here. Sometime it is hard to deal with Kimchi because he is crazy. Now we can see Kimchi a little bit better Here is what we found. Even tho the biggest updated feature of GO3 is this brand new 2.7K Video Mode. The stabilization is not as
good as the FreeFrame Video Mode – which is basically the Pro Mode in GO2. Even tho I set the Stabilization Level to 3, I still think the stabilization is not as good as FreeFrame. I feel like it is missing the 360 horizon Lock in 2.7K mode. As you see here, the Horizon line is not straight, and it is drifting left and right. Especially when Kimchi does that Here is FreeFrame mode and process the footage in the desktop Insta360 Studio app. The horizon line is straight. Even Kimchi does that shake – we see the Horizon line
is kept better than 2.7K mode. We later increase the difficulty of the test by putting the GO3 under Kimchi’s mouth. It is shaking badly and Kimchi is kicking the camera while he walks. But the result, it is still pretty good. Both Kimchi and I love this POV view of the world, and only GO3 is light enough to do so. B/c Freeframe captures the full image circle, and can rely on Insta360’s famous 360 stabilization algorithm they developed for their 360 cameras like Insta360 X3, we get even better results when we reframe it to 9 by 16
TikTok format simply because the software can now use more of the horizon pixel to lock down the center of the frame. Oh yes, another advantage of using the FreeFrame Mode is to shoot first, and decide the framing later. It is great for a hybrid shooter like me who publishes on both YouTube 16 by 9 and on Instagram 9 by 16. FreeFrame also gets the benefit of ProRes lossless render. If you use Davinci Resolve and Macbook Pro, you will appreciate this lossless format in both editing and the image quality increase. So, in conclusion, even tho every
other over-hyped reviewer on the Internet will tell you how great the new 2.7K video mode is, the FreeFrame Video mode is still better for most action sports using GO3. Oh, did I tell you that the freeframe mode also gives you 50fps slow motion? FPV pilot, you are welcome. Well, the FreeFrame Video mode does exactly the same and has the same image resolution as the Go 2 Pro video mode. So should you even upgrade to GO3? Well let’s compare and find out. The stabilization is super good on the GO3. The iPhone 14 Pro MAX is shaking
all over the place as expected. The GO2 has a better horizon lock, but it shakes the image and creates that jello effect which you can not fix it in post. So it is very bad. We do notice a big horizon swift right here on GO 3. My guess is the algorithm is freaking out here b/c I did a 180 turn and shook my head sideway. So yes, there is still some homework Insta360 need to fix in their firmware to get a more consistent horizon lock result like the GO2. See, no other overhyped review on the
Internet will show you that, because they are probably sponsored by Insta360. This video is NOT sponsored. And I will continue to show you everything you need to know. Good or Bad. Keep watching. Another amazing update I really appreciate Insta360 did is the ability to adjust in-sensor sharpening in the camera menu, right here. I set it to Medium just to be fair on this comparison. But in general, I highly recommand setting it all the way to LOW to get rid of that ugly action camera look – commonly found in GoPro type of cameras. As you see
here, the GO 3 has a softer look than GO 2 – but in a very good way. Let’s zoom in on Keeley’s Armpit… As you see, the line is fuzzy, and lots of artifacts around it. GO 3 has a smoother result. But still not as good as the iPhone Pro MAX main camera. Well, my iPhone 14 main camera is 48MP 1/1.28″ image sensor that captures in 4K. So it is an unfair comparison. But the fact that the GO3 is getting close to that image quality is a very good news. Let’s talk about Audio next. As
you see I have lots of Mic attached on my body when doing this review. Let’s take a listen. After listening to all four tracks, what do you think? Comment below. Even tho the GO3 now has 2 Mic – I don’t think the audio quality is better than the iPhone, and certainly nowhere compared to a professional lav solution. What I have here is the brand-new Hollyland LARK MAX microphone with ENC noise cancellation. Check out the in-depth review right here. It is a perfect companion to the GO3 if you care about professional-sounding audio. Now, we go 1
step further to compare the GO3 with Insta360 ONE RS, X3, and the iPhone Front camera. Let’s start by saying it is unfair to compare a 4K camera to a 2.7K action camera. But a wise Shiba Inu once said, “the best camera is the one with you all the time”. And my iPhone 14 Pro is always with me in my pocket. The result, as you can clearly see, iPhone front camera is still better than any of these cameras. One RS 4K comes second. GO 3 comes third, better than GO2 and a lot better than Insta360 X3
– which is a 360 camera. I don’t think anybody did this kind of comparison except Kimchi – oh yes, it is Kimchi’s idea. So if you are new here, and appreciate our unique honesty in this over-hyped review world, consider following us, give this video a thumb up, and drop Kimchi a thank you comment down below. Kimchi checks all his comments. Right Kimchi? Let’s talk about low light and motion blur. Kimchi insists on testing the GO3 in the underpass of Santa Monica Pier … Here is the result. Yes, it is unusable. So don’t bother to use
your GO3 when there is not enough light. BUT, Insta360 does make an effort to improve GO3 low-light performance – to introduce Low-light stabilization. You can turn it on by swiping right and pick right here. It is kinda a hidden secret feature. Here is Low light stabilization turn off in a night time car ride with Kimchi. You see it is very bad. Here is with Low Light stabilization turned on. Wow, it is a world of difference. So if you have to use GO3 at night, please turn this mode on. And thank Kimchi for this extra hidden
tip! GO3 is also waterproof to 16ft (5m). As you see here, the GO 3 is under Kimchi’s dirty bathwater. He is a dirty boy! If you have watched other reviews, you know one of the advantages of GO 3 is the magnetic design. It allows you to mount the camera literally everywhere to capture an interesting perspective. But if I see one more influencer putting the camera into a chip bag, I am gonna… Wow, clam down camera guy! I am sorry, Kimchi, where is the originality these days. Everyone just copy the same viral ideas instead of coming
up with something flesh. The copycat TikTok culture has to stop in order to let true artist to shine and be discovered. The Action Pod right here it is the coolest feature for Vloggers. Because I can finally not rely on my phone. If I have my phone, and it captures better image quality than the action camera, why I even bother to use it, right? This is the biggest problem of GO2. And why you should consider updating to GO3. BUT, the bluetooth has a range. As you see the test right here, I lost the connection immediately when
I lost the line of sight. The range is like 5 meters or less. So, I hope Insta360 can improve this in the future firmware update, to really make this useful for remote monitoring in action sports. Now come to my biggest complaint as a heavy GO 2 user. GO 3 is slightly bigger than GO2. Visually you really can not tell. But when you try to fit the GO3 into all your expensive GO2 accessories, you quickly realize they do not fit. I can not use my underwater housing, or my mounts right here. So if you are selling
your GO2 for the GO3 – you need to sell all your accessories as well. They all become useless. Except, my ND Filters right here by Freewell. Lens guard and ND on GO2 will fit on GO3. BTW, ND filter is my other secret to getting cinematic outdoor footage with the GO3. If you can control your Shutter Speed outdoors, you can avoid this jello shaking artifacts in motion and have beautiful motion blur when you follow the 180 shutter angle principle. Well, Kimchi always tries to offer extra value to his viewers. So don’t forget to subscribe and like.
Thank you for being here with me and Kimchi and watch our shenanigans on Santa Monica Pier. I hope our honest review helps you to decide on this brand-new Insta360 GO3 Do you know you can get 2 GO3 or 1 GO 3 and 1 GO 2 like what you see on my hat and create 3D VR150 video for Meta Quest or the new Apple Vision Pro? 3D is going to be huge in the coming months. And if you want to know how you can create that, check out this Davinci Resolve tutorial right here on how to
create the world’s smallest 3D camera setup. If you like my new Microphone right here, the Hollyland Lark MAX. Check out this review right here. And Kimchi and I will see you in the next video.
