How Good is the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 Action Camera for Deep Wreck Diving?

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Over the last few months, I've been
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putting this new Insta 360 Ace Pro 2
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through its paces. As you'd expect from
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me, I've been doing it on some proper
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deep British Isles wrecks. So, this
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isn't the usual shallow water holiday
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video. This is UK deep wreck diving.
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Cold water, really limited visibility,
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not much in the way of ambient light,
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strong currents, and obviously I'm
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taking it to depths where very, very few
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of these cameras get properly tested.
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And we all know as technical divers that
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it's super important that our kit works
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when we need it. Often the chance of
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going back and doing something again is
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basically zero. So whether you know
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you're poking around on the Lucatania or
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diving an unidentified wreck in 80 m or
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as I'm doing here trying to find out
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what exactly this roll is made of. Now
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the simple fact is when you're doing
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this kind of diving you need your kit to
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work. And I'm sure you'll have seen
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plenty of examples in my videos when
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that hasn't happened. So, I've had
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torches fail. I've had cameras fail.
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I've had divers, most notably myself,
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fail on several occasions. So, in this
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video, you're going to get some good,
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honest feedback on how the Ace Pro 2
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performs in the real world of British
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deep wreck diving. There isn't going to
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be any marketing fluff. I'm not going to
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magically transport you to the
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Caribbean, although if anybody would
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like to send me there, I'd be really
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happy to do that. No, you're just
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getting some uh honest feedback from
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somebody who's actually used it in some
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pretty demanding conditions. And I
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really hope and I think that's going to
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be useful for a lot of people who do
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similar diving to myself. So, let's not
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mess around. The bottom line is it's
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great. But I think you probably knew
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that all already. You know, there's the
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internet is full of people telling you
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how fantastic these things are. And uh
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you know, that's pretty much what I
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found as well, although a few caveats.
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Uh later on we'll get to that. So, but
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first of all, we're going to have a look
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at some stats. So, it does 8K 30 frames
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pers or if you go down to 4K, it will do
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120 frames per second. I mean, that's
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that's incredible. Probably overkill for
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diving where nothing really happens that
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quickly. One of the things that I really
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like though is that it is waterproof. Um
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without doing anything else to it, you
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can take it to 12 m, which is pretty
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deep. And if you've got the uh the case,
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the uh the standard case that they
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supply, that will go down to 60 m. As
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you've probably already seen from my
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dives, I've had that down to nearly 80.
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Um I'm pretty confident it would go
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deeper. I just uh haven't uh haven't
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risked it, but that's a really nice
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touch as well. Um it's got a Leica lens.
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It's got a dual AI chip. There's two
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batteries in the box. It's really good
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at picking up sound through the uh
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waterproof housing. And probably big
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confession here, I love the selfie stick
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that's available as an optional extra.
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As you'd expect within the camera
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itself, you can change loads of
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settings. You can put it in all the kind
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of standard different modes that you
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want, you know. So, there's a
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photography one, there's a slow-mo one,
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there's obviously the standard video
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one. And the one that's particularly
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interesting is the pure video mode,
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which is um really good in low light.
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And that's obviously particularly
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relevant for what I'm going to be doing
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with it. It's got uh smooth footage. So,
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it's got a pretty cool stabilization
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system. And it's got a screen on the uh
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on the back that you can flip up, a 2
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and 1 half in flip touch screen that you
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can use to uh to do selfies and control
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it and everything. Unfortunately, once
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it's in the the dive housing, none of
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that works. But we I did use it. Uh I
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tried it out when we did the review of
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the uh the Jetpack and uh that was
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pretty awesome. But of course, what you
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really want to know is how does this
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thing perform in real life? What's it
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been like on the majority of my dives?
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You can see this video of an octopus was
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nearly 70 m down. The Ace Pro 2 is
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mounted on the front of my scooter and
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I've got a couple of video lights, but
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you can see what I've the quality of the
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footage I've got here is is really
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really nice. The octopus is nice and
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crisp even though it's kind of
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camouflaging itself against the sand.
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And as you can see, it's about to head
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off shortly. And even as that happens,
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you can see it really distinctly heading
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off into the distance. Now, I'm sure
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many people will point out that it's
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easy to get good quality video when
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you've got strong, powerful video
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lights, and that is of course the cor is
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correct. The great thing about the Ace
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Pro 2 is it also performs well in low
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light environments. So to kind of do a
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bit of a comparison, I've attached it to
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my helmet alongside a paral lens vikita.
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In fact, alongside two paral lens
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vikitas. So you can see um the different
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quality of footage that each generates.
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And I think you'll agree that it is um
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you know, absolutely
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incredible the difference between the
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two of them. And it is a proper test cuz
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they are mounted both in the same place.
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And I, you know, I haven't uh I haven't
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artificially, you know, fudged the
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results or anything. This is exactly as
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it came out of the um out of the
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cameras. So, something that's really
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cool is the editing software. This is
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Insta 360 Studio. You can see I've uh
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I've brought a file in. It's taken a
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standard video mode. There's some other
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details and stuff about it there. But
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what I want to do is obviously sort it
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out because clearly it's a bit drab um
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at the moment and not really, you know,
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particularly colorful. Doesn't reflect
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what I saw down there. So, the first
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thing I've done there, you probably just
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seen is mark the start point of the
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video. And then I've got these different
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switches here. That's color plus, which
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uh as you can see has has improved it,
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you know, quite a bit. But there's other
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things I can do if I want to. You can
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see you can change exposure and uh all
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the other bits and pieces down there.
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So, I'm mcking around with the
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highlights and everything. So, that's
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really nice for helping improve your
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video. But the stuff that's a really big
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guns, the stuff that really works well
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is down here. So, you can apply an LUT
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to it. And you can see there that has
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transformed the uh the quality. Um
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there's a whole load more color in it.
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Looks really nice. And the other thing
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we've got is this AI Aqua Vision. You
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can see it gives you four AI presets
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depending on what it thinks looks good
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down there. Um, for me, A and D are two
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extreme. B and C are the the kind of
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best ones. You can also apply the the
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strength um to to to get what feels
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right for you. And for me about half
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strength seems okay, but obviously
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that's entirely personal preference. But
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you can so you can see there I mean the
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results of what I've just done there are
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absolutely uh phenomenal. So, just to
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kind of show you what it would have been
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like otherwise. You can see I've turn
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I've turned off everything. So, that's
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what it was like before. And this is
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what it's like putting stuff on. You can
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see I mean it's a huge change. There you
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go. Turning color plus on disables Aqua
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Vision. So, for me, you've got to go
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with the Aqua Vision.
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And that's a really really nice touch I
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think. So, to see what it looks like,
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we're just going to play it a bit more.
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Uh you can see that big old link coming
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towards us. He's uh has, you know, lots
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of lovely color to it. Um really nice,
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really good texture and everything. And
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then when I've got to the end, decide
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that's enough. And obviously I can click
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the export button and that will push out
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a file to wherever I want it. And here
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it is. Final result. As you can see, I
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think that looks uh looks particularly
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lovely. Shows you what a nice
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combination the camera and the software
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is. So, the next thing I'm going to show
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you is something that I found as a
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negative, and I have fed it back to
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Insta 360. It's to do with um software
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processing, I think, in the in the pure
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video mode. So, I've got two clips, one
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with pure video on, and one with pure
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video off. This is a pure video off one.
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And as you can see, 4K 30 frames pers,
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etc. And if you have a look at the
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video, you can see that it's um it's
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really difficult for a camera to deal
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with because there's a whole load of
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stuff going on. There's loads of lights
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and uh it's pitch black and there's
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loads of flashing stuff and people are
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shining lights at the camera and all
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sorts of things. The camera needs to try
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and make sense of this. What we can do
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is obviously uh use all the stuff that
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we've done previously. I can turn on the
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UT and I can choose aqua vision if I
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want to. And you can see there that's
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kind of uh that improves. It makes uh
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you know makes it look a lot nicer,
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which is what we've seen already. So
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that's great. Slight red tinges maybe
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there in some of the in some of the
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torches, but but not particularly uh
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bad. This is the kind of environment in
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which you'd expect pure video to be
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absolutely brilliant. You know, this is
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kind of what it's designed for, this
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kind of low light environment. So, um,
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this clip, I think, was taken shortly
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after the one that you've just seen. I
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switched the camera into pure video
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mode, and here it is. And it kind of it
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looks better, doesn't it? I mean, you
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can see more. There's kind of more
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definition, everything, which is exactly
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what you'd expect for the pure video
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mode. But what you also get is, as you
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can see there, you just uh every now and
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again, you can see red um kind of halos
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really. And this is what I've noticed is
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when the uh the light changes
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dramatically, you often get red halos.
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So you can see one from the strobe in
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the top. You can see one from my torch
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in the bottom left. And the guy in front
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of me, you can see one from his torch
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there as well. Now obviously we've got
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all the same tools available to us. So
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we can turn on aqua vision. And you can
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see there that that makes it um a lot
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lot better. It makes it better full
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stop, but also gets rid of a lot of the
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uh the red halos, which is ideal. It's
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just just what you want. But what I
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would say is I don't think it gets rid
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of it entirely. So, for me, that's
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enough of a negative that I'm not going
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to be using the pure video mode. Now,
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I'm sure it is outstandingly good in
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other scenarios, and I know I've got a
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very uh niche user case, but what I will
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be doing uh for my videos is I will be
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using the standard video mode and then
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using the outstandingly good Aqua Vision
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uh AI stuff to kind of bring it to life
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uh as you can see in this video. So,
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let's finish up with some final thoughts
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on this thing, the uh lovely little
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Insta 360 Ace Pro 2. What do you buy an
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action camera for? Well, it's all about
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the quality of the uh the imagery and
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the video it produces, isn't it? And
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it's great. You've already seen that
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through the video. The other thing
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that's really nice is the image
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stabilization. Obviously, that works
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really well. I do like the software. I
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particularly like the fact that you've
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got that uh Aqua Vision on it. And even
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in the time that I've had this, they've
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upgraded from Aqua Vision 2 to Aqua
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Vision 3, which has made a significant
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improvement. And so therefore, I'm
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expecting uh more to come. So come on
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in. I'm expecting more to come. I'm sure
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they'll be doing that cuz clearly this
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is a really competitive market. What is
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uh what else is good? Well, I uh I like
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the uh the flip screen. That's uh that's
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really interesting in certain
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circumstances. Maybe not so for so much
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in my diving, but some of the surface
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stuff that comes in really handy. Love
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the fact that it's waterproof. I think
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that's a really useful uh capability.
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Love the fact that it actually captures
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really good sound through the uh through
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the casing. That does add a surprising
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amount to diving videos, I think. Um,
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right. What's what what else to talk
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about? I guess at 60 m housing, I would
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we know it's kind of good to 80 and and
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possibly more. I would love that to be
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100 or 120 or something else, but um,
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you know, I guess that's a that's a
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fairly niche thing. I love the selfie
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stick. You mentioned that already. Um,
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what what else? Well, there's the I
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would love to be able to use pure vision
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all the time. And I kind of hope that
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they're going to sort that out through
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um through, you know, further software
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improvements that will that will remove
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that kind of red haloing effect. And I
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guess it's probably worth mentioning
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that lots of other cameras that have got
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any form of color correction have
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exactly the same thing. So, I turn it
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off on all my other cameras as well. So,
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um Insta isn't isn't uh isn't the same
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with that. So, a few things to kind of
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improve there. Nothing is ever perfect,
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but but frankly, um this is a pretty
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awesome piece of kit. And if you're in
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the market for uh an action camera that
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you want to take diving with you, um you
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know, this should be should be something
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that you take a good long hard look at,
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