This sensor supports 13.5 stops of dynamic range, which is particularly good for shooting in a mix of sunlight and shadow, and in low-light scenarios. As with the first Ace Pro, Pure Video mode is what you want for low-light videos. Insta360 has increased the maximum frame rate in Pure Video mode to 60fps, which is good for slowing things down in low-light conditions.
Low light is one place where I think the Ace Pro 2 is better than anything else on the market. Reviewing test images of both, I found that the Ace Pro 2 did a slightly better job of preserving detail than the DJI Osmo Action 5, which is otherwise very close. Both blow the GoPro Hero 13 Black out of the water. If you want to photograph at night, don’t buy a GoPro.
Some of the impressive nighttime and HDR capabilities may be due in part to the dual-chip processing architecture, which splits tasks between primary and secondary imaging chipsets. One of these chips is the same one that was in the Ace Pro, but it’s now joined by a second chip, which can process noise removal, dynamic range, and the like separately. Whatever happens under the hood, the results are pretty good.
That said, Insta360 has significantly increased saturation on the default settings, making it even worse than the last model. Maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t like oversaturated videos, but in my opinion, the default color saturation mode on the Ace Pro 2 has a hyperreal quality that only Jean Baudrillard would love. Maybe it’s just me.
However, there are two new color modes to shoot in, and both are nice: Leica Natural and Leica Vivid. When I wasn’t shooting in log mode, I shot with Leica Natural, which is less saturated and produces a more realistic image, at least to my eye.
The Ace Pro 2 is, to my knowledge, the first action camera to do something I’ve done on my own for years: incorporate a windshield over the microphone. Yes, I often put in some felt or even some spare “fur” from a dead cat on the microphone input of my action camera. It’s not perfect, but it helps, especially on a day with little wind. Well, the Ace Pro 2 includes a nice windshield with some foam to cover the microphone and it works. Shocking, I know. Audio Engineering 101 wasn’t lying. The advantage here is that you can leave out digital wind noise reduction, which never works that well in my experience, and still record decent audio in light winds.