Action Camera Upgrade

 I post videos to YouTube of my eMTB and dual sport motorcycle rides pretty much every weekend. I posted an article about my setup here: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2025/01/my-action-camera-setup.html. The Insta360 X3 was a fantastic camera, and now they have come way down in price. I bought mine in 2023 and it has had heavy rough use since then. Earlier this year it stopped connecting via USB, but it would still charge OK. This was minor as I just popped the SD card out to process the video. More recently additional problems cropped up. Every once in a while it seemed to not interact right with the remote. Sometimes I would miss catching video. Then it started dating files wrong. The final straw was the video became jittery and blurry at times on rough terrain (most of my riding). I had been eying the X4 but decided it was not enough of an upgrade. Then the X5 came out while my X3 was having these issues. I was caught at a time of weakness so I bought the X5.

So far I like what I see. As an engineer I expect each generation of a product to take the lessons learned from the prior to make the new one even better and the X5 does not disappoint. The X3 was a great camera but I had a few gripes with it. 

The first issue is the exposed lenses were not replaceable. Scratch or break one and the camera is done. So they came out with plastic lens convers. I tried those but they were so easily scratched and they get much dustier so it was unusable for my needs. I finally just removed them. Here is a video where a branch severely damaged the lens cover, ruining the rest of the video. The X4 came with better replaceable lens covers but it was still a lens cover. Finally the X5 has replaceable lenses. Well done!

The sound was fine unless you had any wind. This has long been true for nearly all cameras to be fair. The X3 has small foam mic covers you could stuck on which helped some. I have not tried the X5 in much wind yet but they claim to have many improvements here. On the motorcycle I use an external mic with both foam and fuzzy covers which solves the problem.

5.7k video sounds great but you simply need more for 360. The X4 upgraded to 8k in 360, and the X5 continues this. Honestly I wish it were even higher. If you shoot in 360 and want to create flat video from it, you are stuck with 1080. The X5 can export 4k flat video from the 8k 360 video. This means you can shoot in 360 and still extract a great 4K frame from it. Generally I upload to YouTube in single lens 4k with the X3. Now with the X5 I can shoot in 360 and have the option to create a 4k framed video from it. You can also snapshot a 4k photo from 360 video. The X3 would only take 1080 snapshots from 360.

The X3 did great outdoors but not so much in darker indoor conditions. The X5 made several improvements here with larger sensors and improved shooting modes for low light.

Battery life was a challenge on the X3. They gave the X5 much more run-time, more than double. 

The foam case for the X3 did not work well at all. The X5 has a great zipper foam case. I can even leave my ball mount on and it zips up to it, protecting the camera well.

I was able to use the 360 remote I had from the X3 with the X5. You can also use the new preview remote with the X5. 

Here is the camera mounted on the motorcycle.

I added the external mic adapter, similar to what I had with the X3. I noticed these say they are not water resistant, and not suitable for high vibration environments. I did have the adapter come off the X3 a few times. Generally after a hard hit, like riding over a rock. I used a small Velcro strap to hold it in on the X3. On the X5 I made a small metal support that uses the 1/4" mount. Insta360 now has a Bluetooth external mic which I may switch to. I have a few hesitations with it though. It seems to have no wind protection and it is not stereo. Wind noise is a huge problem on a motorcycle. The image below shows the external mic covered with foam and then fuzzy wind protection as well. More details about the mic are in this article: https://jimroal.blogspot.com/2025/01/my-action-camera-setup.html .

Here is the first 360 video I shot with the X5. This uses the internal mic which does a surprising good job at eliminating wind noise.

I had the bitrate and sharpness both a medium when I shot that. I usually set those both to high. I use a 512GB SD card so I can fit hours of video. The camera can support cards up to 1TB. 

Here are some of the first videos I shot with this camera.

See more on my YouTube page starting June 10, 2025: https://youtube.com/@JimRoal 

Update 9-2025

I have recorded several rides now and have experienced issues with the power/mic adapter losing connection. To be fair Insta360 says this adapter is not rated for vibration. I am also concerned with the high vibration and impact on the camera. I added the Insta360 vibration mount.

This goes between the Ram Mount ball and the camera.

I also bought the Insta360 wireless mic.

Make zippers smooth in dusty environments

 I ride off-road in very dusty environments. One problem I have is with all the zippers on my riding gear, backpack, and storage bags on the motorcycle and bike. When they get dusty they are very hard to zip and unzip. They get jammed up with the layer of dust. I blow them out with compressed air and that temporarily makes them less bad but it does not take long riding for them to jam up again.

My storage bags on the bike are not waterproof. When I get done riding I rinse the dust off the bike before putting it away. When I do that some moisture gets into the storage bags. I decided it may help to Scotchgard the bags. 

It is a simple spray coating that helps repel water. It also happens to be a great non-oil based zipper lubricant which works great in dusty environments. Since I sprayed the outside of the bags, the Scotchgard got into the zippers too. I immediately noticed my zippers were smooth and easy. It was a stark difference. Even better, they stayed that way even after several dusty rides. Many of my zippers I have issues with are plastic. The plastic zippers are much worse for the dust jamming them up. However, this Scotchgard trick seems to nearly eliminate the problem and it even lasts. 

After I discovered this, I applied Scotchgard to all the zippers on my gear (riding pants, jacket, etc.), my backpack, and the bags on my bike. What a difference!