The Insta360 Link brings much needed innovation to the webcam market with 4k resolution, AI tracking, whiteboard mode, and much more. In fact, it’s the best webcam I have ever used, but is all of that functionality worth the steep price?
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– Buy the Insta360 Link webcam directly from Insta360: (This is an affiliate link. Purchasing through this gives me a small commission to support videos on this channel. The price to you is the same.)
⌚ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
1:03 What you get
2:36 Camera quality
3:14 Resolutions
3:35 AI tracking
4:10 Whiteboard mode
4:34 Overhead mode
4:53 Desk view mode
5:17 Manually pan and zoom
6:28 Image settings
6:43 Gesture settings
7:13 Tracking settings
7:36 AI Zoom
8:04 Additional settings and hotkeys
8:22 Privacy mode
8:33 Third party app integration
9:44 OBS Studio
10:22 NVIDIA Broadcast
10:53 Things I don’t like
11:58 Wrap up
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#stratvert #insta360 #insta360link
The Insta360 Link is hands down the best webcam I
have ever used. It's made by the company Insta360 And they're most well known for their 360 action
cameras, but they're now taking that expertise and They're applying it to webcams. It's basically
like if you were to make a wish list of all of The things that you would love to see in a webcam
and all of those things show up in this webcam. You get beautiful 4K images through a half an inch
sensor. You can also ensure that you always stay In the frame, even as you move around through the
magic of AI. You could also demonstrate things in Front of you on your desk using something called
Desk View. Those are just a few of the features That this webcam has. As full disclosure before we
jump into this, I received this webcam for free, But this is not a sponsored video and I'll also
share things that I don't like about this camera. Let's start with what you get. The camera itself
is fairly small in size. Here it is side by side With my cell phone. The camera is attached to
a gimbal and this allows it to rotate around And keep the subject in the frame. On the base,
you have these two holes and these are the dual Microphones and you use those to capture audio.
In between those, you have a tap pad and if you Tap it once, it'll start tracking the subject.
If you tap it twice, it'll recenter the camera. In back of the base, you have a USB-C
port. The camera also comes with a USB-C Cable and you also get a USB 3 adapter, just
depending on which ports you have available. You also get these four stickers and you can place
these in the corners of a whiteboard and this way You can focus in and zoom in on the whiteboard.
You can also pick up an optional $30 tripod that You can attach this camera to. To set up your
webcam, you can attach it to the top of your Monitor using the included clips or you could also
attach it to a tripod using a quarter inch screw. Once you plug the webcam into either a Windows
or a Mac PC, it'll just automatically detect it. Here I am in Microsoft Teams and I see it as one
of my available webcams. Of course, if you want to Take advantage of the full functionality, they
recommend downloading the 360 Link Controller Software. You can download it directly from
their website. Let's open up the software to see What's possible. Here I am in the Link Controller
software and right away you see the preview right In this area so you can see how good the camera
looks and personally, I think it looks pretty Good. Now, one of the things I like testing out
is how quickly the camera can focus and one of the Neat things is here I can hold something up to the
camera and you'll notice how quickly it focuses On that. Now when I pull it away, it'll rapidly
focus on me again. In the bottom left-hand corner, You can turn the preview on or off and especially
if you want to use this webcam with Zoom or Teams Or OBS, you have to turn off the preview in this
app before you could use the video feed elsewhere. To the right of that, here you can choose the
resolution and this is a 4k camera. So here I see the highest resolution possible. One of
the really neat things is you could also choose Portrait orientation. When I select this, it
physically rotates the camera and now I see myself
In portrait. This is especially good if let's say
your audience is connecting on a mobile device. To The right of the resolution, this is where we have
some of the advanced functionality of this webcam That truly differentiates it from the competition.
First off, we have something called tracking. And When I enable this, this is now identifying my
face using AI. And as I move around, the camera Physically moves to follow me and to track me.
It's not cropping in on a certain section of the Photo, it's actually physically moving the camera.
And the range of motion is truly impressive. Here I can turn off tracking by clicking on this button
again. To the right of that, we have whiteboard Mode. So here I'll hold up a whiteboard, remember
order your cookies. And I placed these stickers in The corners of the whiteboard to help the camera
identify where the whiteboard is. Now I can turn On whiteboard mode, so now it's looking around
and it's finding the whiteboard and look at this, It zooms in on the whiteboard so my audience
can see it very clearly. That's pretty cool. To The right of whiteboard, there's also something
called overhead mode, and when I click on this, The camera will point downwards. Right now,
it's just looking at the base of the camera, But here if I pull it out, it'll simply look
down at wherever I position the camera. This Works especially well if let's say you have your
camera mounted overhead. To the right of overhead, There's also something called desk view mode,
and this one is really neat. Here when I click On desk view mode, the camera rotates to about
a 45-degree angle and it'll show whatever's on My desk. So here I could write some notes or I
could demonstrate something and my audience will Be able to see perfectly. And it also uses tech
to adjust the image so it looks like an overhead Shot. This one's pretty impressive. Now that
we've looked at some of the special modes, I Also want to show you how you can manually adjust
the image. Right up here we see the preview of me. I could use my mouse to adjust the position of the
camera. So here I could pan from side to side. I Can also use my mouse wheel to scroll in or here
I could scroll out. That was a little bit close. Right over on the right-hand side, I can also
use these controls to make slight modifications To where the camera looks, or here I can make more
drastic changes to the positioning of the camera. Over here I could also zoom in and out and this
goes a little bit quicker than using my mouse Wheel. So, let's say I really like this shot right
here. I mean, it's got me centered in here. It Looks good. Right down here I can click on this
plus icon and this will add it as a preset. So, This way I can jump between my presets very
quickly simply by clicking on these different Buttons. Also, once I'm all done and let's
say I want to go back to the zoomed out, Just default view. Right up here I can click to
reset or I could simply double tap on the camera And that will also reset to the default position.
When I'm all ready to record, right down here, I Could either take a screenshot by clicking on this
button or to the right of that I can also record a Video. In the top right-hand corner, I also have
some additional settings that I can configure.
Here I’ll click into image settings and here I
can adjust things like the exposure, the white Balance, and all these different settings to get
the image to look exactly how I want it to look. On the far-right hand side, I also have more
settings and these are some really interesting Ones. Right up on top, I have gesture settings
and here I can use a gesture to kick off different Modes on the camera. Here for instance, I can hold
up my palm and this kicks off active tracking. I can also position my hand in an L and this way
I can zoom in by lifting up my hand or here I can Lower it to zoom out and I can also jump into
whiteboard mode. So lots of different options There. Down below I also have some tracking
settings. Here I can adjust the tracking Speed. I can turn on auto tracking simply by
positioning the camera at a subject. So here I can manually position the camera to look at
me and then it knows that it should track me. I Could also simply position myself in the camera,
single tap, and then it'll know to track me. So, There are lots of different ways that
you can turn on the auto tracking mode. Down below this is one of my favorites. There's
also something called AI Zoom. Here I'll turn This on. So, the AI automatically detects
where my head is. Here I'll turn on tracking Mode and now when I lean back here, you'll see
it zooms in and frames my head within this shot. Here if I switch to half body, it'll zoom out a
little bit more. So, the software understands and Identifies the different parts of my body and then
you also have the whole-body option. Down below You also have many other settings that you can
configure, so well worth looking at what you can Do with them. Up on top, one other setting that I
want to call out. If you click on the ellipsis or The three dots, here you can also access most
of these features just by using hotkeys. So, It makes it really quick to access all of this
functionality. Once you exit out of the app And you're no longer using the camera, it'll
automatically go into privacy mode where the Camera points down and it'll no longer pick up
any images. One thing that I really like about The Insta360 Link is that you can use it together
with many different third-party apps. To use my Insta360 Link in an app like Microsoft Teams
or any other app like Zoom or Discord, simply Go down to where you can select your camera. Here
I'll click on these settings gear and right here I can choose my camera. Make sure to select the
Insta360 Link. You can also choose the Insta360 Link as your microphone. Now before you turn on
the camera in the third-party app, make sure to Go back to the Link Controller software. In the
Link Controller software in the bottom left-hand Corner, make sure to turn off the preview within
this app. Back now in Microsoft Teams here, I can turn on the camera preview and here I
see the feed from the Insta360 Link. Now one Thing you might be wondering is, well, how can I
zoom in or how can I turn on the different modes? Let's go back to the Link Controller software. In
the Link Controller software in the top right-hand Corner, we can click on this icon and this turns
on miniature mode. Down here on the bottom, I
Have this mini bar and it gives me all the primary
controls of the Link software. Here for example, I can launch my different modes. I can jump to my
different presets. So, I have all of these same Controls directly in whatever app that I happen
to be using. You can also use your Insta360 Link Directly in software like OBS Studio. And this is
perfect for streaming to say Twitch or YouTube or Facebook. Right down here, simply click on this
plus icon and select video capture device. Here I can select my device and I'll pick the Insta360
Link and then click on okay. And right here, I see My image directly in OBS. If you're interested in
learning more about how you can use OBS Studio, Be sure to check out the video right up above.
Down in the bottom right-hand corner, here I can Start streaming or here I can start recording so
many different options. Lastly, you can also use The link together with NVIDIA Broadcast and this
really enhances the functionality of the camera. You can use this if you have an RTX graphics
card. Right here, I have the camera selected And you can apply all of these different effects
to your image. Here for example, I can blur the Background and this gives it this really high end
DSLR look. Down below, I can also apply all of These other effects to my video. So, it's another
way to enhance or extend the capabilities of the Link webcam. All in all, this is the best webcam
I have ever used, but there are some drawbacks. The first one is that you cannot use this with
Windows Hello to log into your Windows PC. To be able to use that, you need an infrared
sensor, and this camera does not have that. The second thing is it includes some built in
microphones and they're pretty much what you Would expect for a webcam. They get the job done,
but they're not amazing. This is what the audio Sounds like directly through the webcam. If audio
really matters to you, you'll probably want to Use an external microphone. Lastly, and probably
the biggest deal breaker is the very steep price For this webcam. It's significantly more than
most other competition in the webcam market. That being said, you get a lot more functionality,
but maybe the tracking doesn't matter to you. Maybe you don't need desk view. Maybe you
don't need a 4K camera. If that's the case, This camera is likely overkill, and you could
find something cheaper. All right, let me know Down below in the comments, what do you think
of this webcam? At least for me personally, This is going to be my primary webcam moving
forward. To watch more videos like this one, Please consider subscribing and
I’ll see you in the next video.
