Insta360 - Why I bought the genuine ring remote
Something I've found quietly inconvenient since buying the Insta360 X5 last year. It was the inability to operate it at hand.
For example, when shooting with the selfie stick extended, it goes like this: power on -> start recording -> extend selfie stick -> shoot -> shorten selfie stick -> stop recording -> power off.
If you're holding it by hand, this is fine, but when mounting it to the rear of a motorcycle, it becomes quite a hassle. In that case, it goes like this: get off the bike -> power on -> start recording -> extend selfie stick -> get on the bike -> shoot while riding -> stop and get off the bike -> shorten selfie stick -> stop recording -> power off.
It's such a pain...
Insta360 videos are quite heavy, reaching several hundred MB in just 1-2 minutes, so I want to repeat the process of shooting for a few dozen seconds when the moment is right, but stopping the bike and doing the aforementioned operations every time is just too much of a hassle.
Also, although it's rare, when I go SUP on the sea or a lake, even if I fix it to the front of the SUP board, it's quite a hassle to shorten or extend the selfie stick and operate the power or recording while on unstable water.
In the midst of all this, I set my sights on the genuine ring remote. With this, I can operate it at hand.
It allows me to "easily turn recording ON/OFF."
This is the key. The Insta360 X5's storage fills up really quickly while recording, so the comfort of being able to instantly say "shoot just now" or "save just this part" is a huge plus.
Since it's a ring remote, you wear it on your finger like this. It's more compact than I thought.
When using it while riding a motorcycle, it seems better to wear it inside the glove rather than outside. Since you can tell it's working by the vibration, it doesn't seem to be a problem even if you can't see it. Actually, wearing it over a glove is difficult.
The other day, when I went for a bit of a long ride on my motorcycle, I tried out the usability of the ring remote. Here are the things I noticed.
The left hand is a no-go 👎️ The right index finger is better
The reason is that the left hand grips the clutch lever. I grip it harder than I thought, so I often end up pressing (or having it pressed) the button.
Take your finger off the handlebar for a split second when operating
This ring remote gives you feedback via vibration when you operate it, but since there's a lot of vibration coming into the fingers gripping the motorcycle, you can't feel the remote's vibration at all while holding the grip 😅 You can't tell unless you take your finger off the grip when operating.
You really have to be constantly aware of the operation status
When you operate it from the Insta360 ring remote, it tells you the status via voice, but... it's drowned out by the sound of the motorcycle and I can't hear anything.... You have to imagine what kind of movement is happening when you press the button. Originally, you can tell if it's recording by the ring remote's light, but if you wear it under a glove, you can't see that either...
For now, I tried using it, setting aside the riding aspect. I was so distracted by the operation that my riding felt a bit wobbly halfway through 😅
Charging is done by attaching it to a dedicated USB Type-C charging adapter. Once aligned with the connector, you clamp it with a clip. Still, this remote is extremely compact, tiny! I guess that's its selling point, but I feel like I'm going to lose it.
I'll be careful not to lose it.