The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is one of the better action cameras currently on the market. It has some unique features that make it stand out from the competition, including its surprisingly good low-light capability and its flip screen that we find to be very nice and very helpful. But while it is great as an action camera for video, is it any good for photography?
Short answer - not really. The longer answer is that it can be, if it's what you have with you and you need to get the shot.
First, some details.
The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is the latest action camera from the company best known for its 360 degree cameras. Engineered in partnership with Leica, this gives the impression that the camera should have some reasonable capabilities when it comes to old-fashioned photography. You can shoot either 12.5mp photos or 50mp photos, which makes it seem, at least on this stat, ready to compete against professional cameras like the Canon R5 or R5 Mark II. But don't let this stat fool you.
As you'll see, a fairly simple DSLR that is more than 15 years old is a much better tool for photography -- in terms of image quality -- than the Insta360 Ace Pro 2.
But, before we get to that, the Ace Pro 2 isn't all bad when it comes to photography, that is, if you accessorize it just a bit.
Xplorer Grip Kit for the Insta360 Ace Pro 2
Insta360 recently released a cage with shutter "lever" for the Ace Pro 2 that was created by Tilta. For those familiar with that name, you know you can expect a quality product as a result, and the Tilta Xplorer Grip Kit for the Ace Pro 2 does not disappoint. Once added to the camera it makes the Ace Pro 2 a point-and-shoot stills camera that is easily hand held for both photos and video. It is a high-quality design that works well and is fun to use. It is so good, in fact, that you'll use it even if you have a good smart phone camera because it gives the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 a standard camera form factor that is just plain better in use than any smart phone.
Even though it was mid-April, winter hadn't given up for the year and overnight produced a slight dusting of the white stuff. It could have been worse than dusting. A few miles deeper into the Lake Superior snow belt the big lake was sending a special delivery in the form of a winter storm. That could have been here if the wind had been right. I wasn't interested in having to use the snowblower again so it was nice that the main snow stayed 30 miles away!
But the coating of snow on the conifers along the river bank made for potentially nice images, or at least images worth of testing the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, so that is what I did. I shot these using the sensor's full 8k resolution, then reduced them in size for display in the online gallery for this article. Here are the samples after shrinking them down to 2k:
Insta360 Ace Pro 2 Image Quality
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of distortion inherent in these images, thanks to the super wide-angle lens of the Insta360 Ace Pro 2. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of. You'll either need to fix this in post, or use this to your advantage when composing a shot in the first place. It's just something to be aware of that is part of the action camera package.
Worse, though, is the softness of the image captured by the Ace Pro 2 and the terrible color fringing. Here's a closer view of the image softness cropped from one of the full, 8k resolution files:
The softness is not terrible, and perhaps it's acceptable since this camera is a video camera first and foremost (at which it excels, by the way). But, the softness is something to be aware of if using this camera for photography.
Then there is the color fringing which gets worse as you get to the edges of the frame. But that color fringing starts to show up even relatively close to the center, as seen here:
Again, maybe this fringing performance shouldn't come as a surprise given that this is not a purpose built camera for still photography, but rather is an action camera for action videos and vlogs. Again, it excels at those things for which it is designed and it's not as good as a dedicated photography camera.
Ace Pro 2 versus iPhone 16 Pro Max and Canon 1D Mark IV
For comparison purposes, here are some photos shot on the iPhone 16 Pro Max using that camera's automatic settings. These were shot at 48 megapixels, then I reduced them to 2k for display here, as with the images from the Ace Pro 2.
Finally, for additional comparison, here are similar images, shot moments later, on the Canon 1D Mark IV, a unique camera introduced in 2009 for use by professional sports photographers, wildlife photographers and photojournalists. It is unique because it was the last professional camera, or any camera, to use an APS-H sensor, meaning a crop factor of 1.3 from full-frame. At the time, the camera performed very well compared to its competition, and it remains one of my favorite cameras today. Both the autofocus and the image quality remain quite good today and we do not hesitate to use this camera for client shoots even now.
For these samples, I paired the camera with the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art lens in order to give a somewhat similar wide field of view to the 1D Mark IV images. On the APS-H sensor, this works out to 26mm with the 1.3x crop factor.
Conclusion
What to think of this? For us, if we are out with our action cameras documenting some activity or other (we ride long distances on- and off-road with road bikes and mountain bikes), then we'll use an action camera to get a photo if the opportunity arises. We have the older Insta360 One RS Twin Edition which also offers a high resolution photo mode (48 megapixels) and performs similarly to the Ace Pro 2 when taking photos, but the Ace Pro 2 is just a bit better. So, we'll use the latter.
If we have the iPhone 16 Pro Max with us, then it's likely that we'll use that for photos instead. With three lenses built in, it's more versatile by far, and the image quality is somewhat better, though not drastically so.
Finally, it's no contest if we need to take high quality imagery. Of these three cameras, the Canon 1D Mark IV is leagues better. This isn't surprising, even though the Mark IV dates to 2009 which also happens to be the year when GoPro introduced its first HD camera with built-lithium ion battery in the form of the GoPro HD Hero.
In the end, don't take this review of the Insta360 Ace Pro 2's shortcomings in photography as a warning to avoid the camera. The truth is that the Ace Pro 2 is not a photography first camera. It is an action camera and a vlogger's camera and we bought it for both of those purposes.
An additional purchase consideration for us was it's low-light video capabilities, something we badly needed since some of our cycling and other activities take place in low-light settings and we needed an action camera that could perform under those circumstances. The Ace Pro 2 has not disappointed us in the least and, in fact, has even exceeded our expectations. We have now used it even in low-light event conditions for client video shoots paired with the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k Pro, the Canon EOS 1DX Mark II and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV when we needed an additional camera mounted in an otherwise impossible place to put a camera. We were thrilled with its performance.
Used as intended, the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 is an amazing camera.
Equipment Used & Affiliate Links
We used the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 which is available direct from Insta360 and from other retailers, including Amazon. To support us and get your own copy, you can use our affiliate link for Amazon: https://amzn.to/42FWTTs
We also used the iPhone 16 Pro Max which is also available on Amazon here as "renewed": https://amzn.to/3Y3AAWe
We have never purchased a "renewed" product from Amazon, so caution is recommended. But if you are looking for a deal this might save you some money over buying it direct from Apple, as long as you don't mind the risk, whatever it may be, of ordering a refurbished phone.
Of course, we also used the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV camera with the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art Lens.
The 1D Mark IV was Canon's professional sports and wildlife camera dating to around 2009 and was the "flagship" in the lineup until it was replaced with the EOS 1DX. The Mark IV is a phenomenal camera that is highly weather sealed, shoots 10 frames per second and has an accurate and advanced autofocus system. For the time, it was one of the best cameras for shooting in low-light situations that you could buy from any company, and it still performs well today. I have no reservations about shooting this camera for professional results.
The Sigma 20mm Art lens is a phenomenal addition to any lens collection. It is fast and sharp, and like all Sigma Art lenses, the build quality is as good as it gets. For any wide-angle needs, this lens delivers best in class image quality. It is available for almost any camera system including Canon, Nikon, Sony, and the L mount.
If you'd like to get your own copy of this camera and lens combo, and support us a bit at the same time (which we appreciate), we recommend shopping at MPB.com.
