Insta360 Ace Pro 2 vs DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro Camera Comparison

Today I have another camera comparison video for you guys. I know I’ve been on a roll lately, but we have a brand new camera, so we need to talk about it. This is the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, and we’ll compare that to the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro and figure out which one is the real Pro Camera.

If you’re wondering, this is a pre-production unit that I’ve been testing for just over a month now, and this is not the final consumer camera that you can order if you go and purchase it from Insta360’s website. This does not have the Ace Pro 2 letters here on the front, but internally it works the same exact way as the consumer camera, which by the way I will receive in a couple of days or so. This has been through a lot of firmware updates, a lot of changes, but with the final Firmware Update, I was able to test it out against the Action 5 Pro. This is how these two cameras have been sitting for most of their time, comparing footage side by side with different modes, different settings, different things which you will see in today’s video.

Forest Testing

Can you believe it’s 3:00 PM in the afternoon? It’s very dark and gloomy here in the forest, but that’s why I’m here. I want to see how the cameras will perform in not very bright and sunny conditions. It’s quite dark here in the forest, so without exposure, the cameras will have to boost up the ISO, and I want to see how they would do that, whether there would be any noise, what the temperature would look like, stuff like that. And also the wind reduction feature, because it’s also a little bit windy here, so the audio is of course a very important element in the videos. I want to see how that works on these cameras as well. I’m a little bit out of breath, I’m sorry about that, but I’m getting close to my car.

Resolution Settings

I want to see how these cameras are dealing with everything that I put them through. Both cameras are now shooting in their highest resolution possible. The Osmo Action 5 Pro is shooting in 4K 25 frames per second, whereas on the Ace Pro 2, we have 8K 25 frames per second. I’m not sure how much difference there will be, but maybe we’ll have to pixel peep, zoom in, and check the details for a final answer.

Insta360 says that 8K is only usable in bright and sunny conditions such as these ones that we have right now, so that’s the reason why I’m checking it out here where the conditions are subpar. It will be less than ideal to use 8K, and I don’t really see the point of using 8K in regular scenarios unless you really want to crop in later. But maybe for some action sports, for some scenarios where you want to crop in and kind of isolate the subject without losing a lot of resolution, then the Ace Pro 2 will really take the win.

Car Stabilization Test

For this quick stabilization test, I decided to try out something new and film from the inside of my car. I attached both cameras together simultaneously on the sunroof of the car. You will see the car moving up and down and left and right a little bit because the road was very bumpy, so I think it was a good way to test the stabilization process of both cameras. I think both cameras did pretty well, and I’m really happy with the results. I’m going to give the edge to the Ace Pro 2 simply because I think the stabilization looked a little bit more natural and also the footage was not as cropped as the Osmo Action 5 Pro, but as usual, you let me know which one you think did better.

Drone Testing

All right guys, it’s time for some big boy stuff, and for that, I have exactly what I need. This is the iFlight Helong 10 rocking both cameras at the same time, and it will be a very interesting test to fly both cameras at the same time on the same drone doing the same movements and see which one will perform better.

I’ll be running two tests one after another. First, we’ll be all in automatic camera settings, letting the camera decide what to use – what white balance, what settings, what shutter speed, what ISO, everything without ND Filters, everything out, the built-in stabilization as well. So I’m super curious to see which results from which camera would look better.

FPV Performance

Now here for the FPV shots, I was really pixel peeping to see which camera would perform better because for me this is the most important use case of these action cameras. I use them mostly for FPV as you guys know, so the FPV performance is probably the highest priority for my personal needs.

Here I’m checking out the footage from both cameras at the same time. I’m doing this side by side footage so you can pixel peep as well, maybe if you want to pause the video and check out the details, check out the different colors. Keep in mind this is a normal color profile, all in automatic camera settings, so I’m not touching anything on the footage. I haven’t color graded it at all, and you will see that too in the next test which is coming in a minute or two.

Color Comparison

Now you can see the Osmo Action 5 Pro looks a little bit darker, especially when you take a look at the water and the shadows. They are a little bit brighter and more visible on the Ace Pro 2, but the colors are also a little bit different. On the Osmo Action 5 Pro, we are seeing kind of warmer tones, whereas on the Ace Pro 2, we have a little bit more blue, a little bit more green that is a little bit more saturated in the footage, and that is just personal preference on what you prefer, what you think looks better and more natural.

To me in real life, the colors looked a little bit more like what we’re seeing from the Osmo Action 5 Pro, so it was a little bit warmer. It wasn’t as blue and green as we see it on the Ace Pro 2, but still, both cameras are giving fantastic images straight out of the SD card with the built-in stabilization as well.

Stabilization Performance

This is something that I normally don’t use on an FPV drone, but I’m starting to think there is no point of using Gyroflow anymore with these new cameras and the way they stabilize the footage because it’s really smooth. There are not that many artifacts or no sudden jitters and movements when you’re doing a turn, when you’re yawing, the camera sometimes jitters a little bit because of the built-in stabilization. Now we don’t see that anymore, or at least not as harsh as it was before.

For this particular test though, I think the Osmo Action 5 Pro is doing a little bit of a better job in terms of keeping the colors more natural and more true to what you’re seeing in real life, especially when you don’t want to color grade and you want to have an image that is ready to be used straight out of the box. This is more natural, more realistic, and personally something that I think looks a little bit better.

Night Performance

Now jumping to the night footage, and you will see the footage once again side by side on the Osmo 5 Pro and the Ace Pro 2 from Insta360. This one is super super close, very similarly to pretty much all the other tests before. This one is very close in terms of colors, in terms of highlights. The shadows, not so much – you will see the Action 5 Pro keeps the shadows a lot darker, so the Ace Pro 2 is doing some digital work I think to bring up the shadows in this Pure Video Plus night mode, which is the specific night mode that the Ace Pro 2 has.

Of course, the Osmo Action 5 Pro is also using the specific night mode which is Super Night, or I’m not sure if that was the name – I think it was called Super Night, but I think both cameras are neck and neck when it comes to the video quality that they can provide for you at nighttime.

There’s a little bit more sharpening that you can see on the footage from the Osmo Action 5 Pro, whereas on the Ace Pro 2, we have a little bit more bloom on the highlights, which some people would prefer, some people would not like. For me, both look great. Maybe the Ace Pro 2 looks a tiny bit better in some scenarios, but in some other instances, I think the Action 5 Pro is doing a better job. It’s really close, so I can’t really decide, and that’s one more thing that I will leave for you to decide which one takes the win.

Physical Features and Mount Comparison

A couple things I want to mention after using these cameras for a while. First of all, like I said in the beginning of the video, this is how they have been mounted for the majority of the time while comparing them side by side. One thing I have to say is that I love that both these cameras come with the magnetic mount, which is something that GoPro unfortunately did not do, and they missed a huge opportunity here. Just being able to remove the camera and put it back in a matter of a second is a game changer for my usage and for my experience, which really helps me to achieve more with these cameras and be a little bit quicker when I’m changing mounts.

Talking about mounts, there’s one thing I need to mention, and that is the fact that the Osmo Action 5 Pro does not move whatsoever when it’s being mounted on this magnetic mount, whereas the Ace Pro 2 kind of moves a little bit and it’s wiggling a little bit front and back. It’s a little bit annoying when you are maybe running with it and you kind of hear it wobbling front and back, but like I said, it’s not really a big deal.

Ace Pro 2 Features

On the Ace Pro 2, I love the fact that you can swipe up from the top of the screen and you can enable or disable HDR. So if you don’t want to use HDR on your footage, it’s not automatic like it is on the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro.

Something else which I really like is the fact that you have so many different modes and so many different field of view options that you can choose on the Ace Pro 2, which could even be a little bit intimidating because you have so many different things to choose from. For some people, that might be a little bit of overkill, and they would be confused by so many different options, but for me as a creator, I love having that flexibility to choose whichever field of view I feel is the best for my needs.

Also, there are so many different shooting modes. If you go through each and every one of them, it’s just never-ending – swipe to the right to get to the next mode, which again could be intimidating but it’s a positive thing in my book.

Wind Reduction Feature

To me, a very groundbreaking feature I would say is the fact that the Ace Pro 2 comes with this mesh here on top which is detachable and it acts as a windscreen. It is an actual windscreen to protect the camera from recording a lot of wind noise. It is something that is being put on the camera – you can remove it, you can just put a mic cap on it. I really don’t want to remove it because I don’t even know if on this pre-production version it can be removed. I tried but it doesn’t move, but Insta360 told me that on the final version of the camera it is removable and it is something that will make your audio a lot better because it kind of removes the wind noise automatically to a large extent.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro Advantages

These are the things that I really really like on the Ace Pro 2, whereas on the Osmo Action 5 Pro, the fact that this is so much smaller and I would say lighter as well, it is a little bit more portable. It has those two screens on front and the back – they are OLED, whereas with the Ace Pro 2, you don’t have a working front screen where you can see yourself. You only see what your shooting settings are, and of course, if you want to see yourself, you need to flip up the screen like so.

I mean, it’s not a big deal, but in some scenarios, you don’t really have the time to fiddle with the screen and to pop it out. Sometimes you just want to see a quick glance over your frame, what is in frame, what is not in frame, and you can do that on the Osmo Action 5 Pro straight away without even thinking about it, whereas on the Ace Pro 2, you have to flip up the screen and then see what you’re actually filming. Small thing, but I have to say the Osmo Action 5 Pro really wins with the double display here, and that is also in very very good quality. I prefer that to a large extent over the Ace Pro 2.

Something else which I really like on the Osmo Action 5 Pro is how quickly it turns on. It takes 0.2 seconds to power on the camera and start recording, whereas on any other action camera it takes a lot longer than that. Small thing again, but in these types of videos, in these types of comparisons, small details really matter and in the long run they do matter the most in my opinion.

Audio Integration

And finally, the fact that if you want to have better audio, you want to record with an external microphone, especially if you have the DJI microphone, it works straight out of the box and connects automatically to the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro. It happens automatically and it’s ready to go as soon as you power on the camera. You don’t have to fiddle with any settings, you don’t have to tweak anything – it’s just on as soon as you power on the camera. You can start recording great audio out of the box and it just works perfectly fine.

Conclusion

So those are the things that I really like about the Ace Pro 2, those are the things that I really like about the Osmo Action 5 Pro, and now it’s time for you to decide which of those things matter to you the most, which camera speaks to you more, and which one of these is the better value for you now that you have all this information.

Links for both of these cameras will be in the description. If you want to support me, help my channel grow, and help me make more videos like this one, you already know what to do – drop a like, drop a comment, let me know what you think about these cameras. Subscribe for more videos like this one. Thank you so much for watching, and I catch you very very soon in my next video. Ciao!