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 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.
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!
When we bought our 2021 Porsche Cayenne back in 2023, I had been looking for a Cayenne eHybrid but could not find one. We ended up with the 2021 Cayenne which we owned for almost 2 years and 50k miles. It was a great vehicle but lacked some features I really wanted including: Android Auto, surround view, and of course the hybrid powertrain. There were also several nice-to-haves: 4-zone ATC, rear side window shades, head-up display, and air suspension. We also wanted light colored interior. I kept looking every couple months ever since we bought the 2021. In March 2025 the car we wanted showed up at the local Mercedes dealer. It was exactly the way I would have ordered it. It is a 2022 Porsche Cayenne eHybrid loaded with all the right features and the right color combination. We traded in the 2021 and bought it this week.
The hybrid powertrain offers many advantages, the main advantage for me being the power delivery. Acceleration is very smooth and powerful across a much broader rpm range. The base Cayenne has automatic engine start/stop, as most new cars do. This is a problem when using the air conditioning, which is almost year round here in Las Vegas. Since it is hybrid, the start/stop does not require starting the engine to accelerate from a stop either so you don't have the interruption you get with straight gasoline start/stop. The hybrid has an electric air conditioning compressor so when the engine turns off, the AC does not. You can also start the AC before you get in the car using the Porsche app, like you can with battery electric vehicles (BEV). It offers most the benefits of BEV but with the benefits of the gas powertrain as well. We can drive it fully electric for miles if we wanted to. I have solar on my house so the power is free. In hybrid mode it can greatly extend the fuel economy in town to about double what the gas powertrain can do. Most of our driving is in town so we will see this benefit. While most would view hybrids as all about fuel economy, hybrids are also about performance. In fact many modern supercars are hybrids. Formula One cars are also hybrid.
The rear steering makes the back wheels better follow the front and allows the vehicle to turn much sharper at low speeds. It is great when trying to navigate very tight parking lots. At high speeds it adds stability by making the vehicle feel as if it has a longer wheel-base.
Replaced the Continental TKC 80 tires with Michelin Anakee Wild. I have also replaced the rear again with another Anakee Wild (front was about 80% still). Performance is very similar but the TKC 80's lasted almost twice as long (2900 miles versus 1700 miles). I replaced them when the center of the tread is down to about 4mm. The only reason I switched was due to availability of the TKC 80. I will be going back to TKC 80 when these wear out.
Added a Garmin Zumo XT2 navigation system. My old smartphone navigation had some flaws, mainly screen brightness and size. The Zumo XT2 has excellent screen brightness and several other useful features.
Removed the kickstand sensor guard due to intermittent issues with kickstand sensor faults. I also had the sensor replaced under warranty. Worked fine for over 1,000 miles but the fault happened again just once. It has been another 1,000 miles with no issues.
Due to heavy dust on most of our rides, I went back to a factory paper air filter. No real evidence the K&N was not doing the job but just concerned it does not catch quite as small of particles as the paper.
Replaced the front bag due to the other one failing the zipper.
Seat Concepts Comfort XL seat. This does make a big difference. When you first sit on it you wonder if it was worth the $400. I long ride down the highway confirms that it is. Actually any ride where you are on the seat.
I added an external mic and fuzzy wind socks. I put the mic on the front bag to isolate it from all vibration. Now the audio in my videos is drastically better.
I track my fuel economy and I am averaging about 50mpg. It can drop as low as 35mpg on long fast highway segments. The worst I got was 33mph on a highway segment into a strong headwind. The best has been 65mpg.
I finally learned how to use the quick shifter and it is magical! It is just a habit for me to let off the throttle when shifting, a habit very hard to break. The way you ride a quick shifter is stay even on the throttle and just make the shift. It even works great at full throttle. It works both up and down, automatically speed matching via engine control. It cuts engine power very briefly to make the shift but it is so fast it feels like constant power delivery.
I like to video many of my eMTB and motorcycle rides to share with others. This way people can see what the trails are really like before they ride them. I organize playlists around both rides and by locations/trails on my YouTube channel @jimroal (https://youtube.com/@JimRoal ).
I bought a Garmin Virb Ultra 30 back in 2017 and I use that for recording in-car videos. It is great and has GPS and accelerometers in it so I can get lap times, speed, acceleration, etc. I still use that today for in car video. I tried using it for bicycling and it worked OK but had it's limitations. The smoothing has limits due to the lens size, sensor, etc. Also, this camera is obsolete and no longer supported.
I researched the latest action cameras that were available at the time (May 2023), watching many videos comparing them specially for bicycling and motorcycling type recording. I settled on the Insta360 X3 which was new at the time I bought mine (May 2023). I was a bit disappointed that the GPS was not built in at first but bought their GPS remote which solved that problem. I used it on both the bicycle and the motorcycle and found the smoothing to be excellent, magical in fact. Some of my first videos were on my bicycle helmet which is of course the smoothest since we stabilize our head taking much of the roughness out already.
I also like the 360 pictures and videos as you can pan around while watching, or use in a VR headset. However, 360 video is very bitrate intensive so you need a very high-speed connection to watch it with decent resolution.
I found that for most videos I use the single lens mode which captures 4k video with smoothing very well. Here is an example using single lens mode mounted on a chest mount (using internal mic and no wind protection).
This remote captures the GPS data and the camera records it with the video similar to what my Garmin Virb did. Having the remote is also very handy. Note that the GPS and accelerometer data can only be overlayed on traditional flat video but that can be used when the video was shot in 360 but reframed to flat too.
Here is a 360 video mounted on the motorcycle where you can pan around while watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-u0QMIwtO8 (note: the sound is just via the camera mics with no wind protection). I recommend opening these in YouTube versus viewing in that tiny window.
360 video where you can pan around while watching
Here is a video with the data in it and the latest mic setup.
The photo below shows the whole system on the motorcycle. The remote is strapped to the left mirror mount where I can easily reach it to start/stop recording while riding. I have a USB port on the bike so I can power the camera so I don't have to be limited by camera battery power. You can see the mic, covered by fuzzy wind muffs on the back of the bag.
I use a RAM Mount to mount the camera to my windshield bracket. I lower the windshield way down when riding off-road so the camera is taller and is not obstructed by the windshield.
One rather significant issue I still struggle with is in single lens mode the camera has automatic orientation. Motion side to side of the motorcycle really messes with this when you start the video recording. It sometimes will record the video sideways or even upside down. There is no way to force orientation in the camera. The video editing software does not let you correct the orientation either. I have requested both if these changes from Insta360 so maybe at least one of these features will be added at some point. My fix for now is to always start the video when still and the camera vertical. Sometimes this is not idea though.
This camera is one of the few that can create Google Street View as well, which shows up on Google Maps. I have used this feature, but it is glitchy. Many of the videos will get rejected by Street View due to various GPS data errors. Here are some of my Street View contributions that are active.
I did report these issues to Insta360 and they have been working to correct them.
The Insta360 X3 also shoots great spherical photos at 72MP. You have to use a compatible viewer, which more are finally supporting. Here is an example: https://photos.app.goo.gl/riUtLR61SLxNrojL9
The above view is likely still just a flattened image which just looks weird. Facebook supports them well now. If you open the Google Photos like above it should also view correctly where you can pan around. In Google Photos it initially shows the flattened image but if you click on it you can then view it properly.
The Insta360 X3 has many other great features. Now Insta360 has released their X4 camera which is the next generation after the X3, bringing higher bitrate support, which enables 8k spherical recording. It also has a larger battery and better lens guards, as well as a few other upgrades.
