Insta360 has released a new AI-powered 4K webcam with a host of intriguing functions. I’ve been running tests on it to see how it performs. Compared with others, it's good, but would you need the improvements I suggest?
This new version of the Insta360 Link 2C is an Arctic White webcam. It arrived in smart packaging wrapped in a thin plastic wrapper. Inside the box were the webcam, a magnetic screen or tripod mount, and a high-quality USB-C cable with an adapter to convert to USB-A. There was also an instruction manual and four small stick L pads for identifying a whiteboard. More on that later.
The webcam came wrapped in plastic too, and I was left wondering whether that was necessary. Most of the equipment I receive doesn’t have any plastic wrapping. Nevertheless, it all feels very well made.
The camera attaches to the stand using a strong magnet. The camera's body has a lens, a large microphone grille, an indicator light, and a touch key that allows some physical control over the Link 2C. A privacy switch on the side closes the lens but not the microphone.
Plugging the device in automatically prompted me to download the correct Insta360 software; there are different versions for PC and Mac. That, in turn, prompted a significant firmware update for the camera. The software provides a wide range of functions that may be useful to the user.
Testing the Camera
All the parts seem very well made. The magnet holding the camera in place on its mount was strong, and the mount itself hooked firmly on top of my computer screen. I also tried it on a tripod, and that worked well too.
You are advised to plug the camera’s cable into a dedicated USB port to avoid power problems. Overloading a USB port is not a good idea. Therefore, you should not use it with an unpowered USB hub. Another 4K webcam I have avoids this by detecting the power supply and automatically limiting the camera’s resolution if there is insufficient power for 4K footage. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case with the Insta360 Link 2C. Therefore, I plugged it into a spare USB 3 port on the rear of my desktop. The heavy-duty USB cable was long enough to reach from the top of my 24" screen to my floor-level PC.
The recorded footage was clear, and at default settings, it was crisp. The lens is good quality, and the larger-than-average ½" sensor helps with resolution.
The recorded sound was pretty good too. The mic’s sound processing has built-in noise cancellation, which helps isolate the speaker from background noise. That works well. The sound quality was not of the same standard as my unidirectional desk mic, but I wouldn’t expect that. However, my voice was loud and clear enough and not muffled in the way some noise-canceling mics deliver. If I were to use it with a laptop computer instead of a desktop, the Link 2C's mic would be nearer to me and provide even better sound recording.
What Insta360 hopes for this webcam is that it will be bought for its AI functions, and it has a fair selection of them. The auto-framing works well. It digitally pans left to right and up and down as I move in the frame. I selected a head-and-shoulders view of myself, and the camera zoomed into that. It also followed me as I moved from left to right. The camera’s True Focus is good as well. It functions similarly to a camera's continuous autofocus with all focus points selected. There’s barely any delay before it refocuses when holding something up in front of the camera, and I found it pretty quick to switch focus from my face to the object.
I don’t have a whiteboard to test, but the camera will recognize a whiteboard in the background and fill the frame with it. I tried it against the white doors of the cupboards behind me, and it worked well. The recognition L markers help the camera detect the board automatically. You can set up the whiteboard manually too, and if the whiteboard is not parallel to the camera, you can correct the perspective using the software.
Equally useful for teaching is the desktop mode, which corrects the perspective when looking down at, say, 45° onto a desk.
You can blur your background and add bokeh. Both of these are adjustable. You can also change the background to an image. Although this functionality comes with many meeting and streaming tools such as Zoom and Teams, the artificial backgrounds are imperfect. In comparison, the Insta360’s
Link Controller software was slightly better but still not flawless, with some odd effects appearing around the edge of my image.
I found that the software didn’t always want to load a background image that I selected, yet a similar file-sized image would.
One of the AI effects I found a bit gimmicky was adding makeup; I don’t look good with digital lipstick. However, the subtle filters are flattering, and even without a filter applied, the result didn’t emphasize the warts-and-all cragginess of my aging face, unlike some other cameras I have tried. That doesn't bother me much, but it might be a more important factor for some.
Although it is possible to change the exposure and white balance and there is a tone curve, other basic adjustment settings were not available. There was no saturation setting. Consequently, I could not stream a black-and-white image when running online monochrome workshops. Also, with my usual camera, I like to have myself well-lit and the background darkened, which is easy to achieve. I couldn’t so easily do that with the Link 2C. However, there was a software update that didn't automatically install. So it's worth looking for that.
What I Liked and What Could Be Improved in the Future
What I Liked
- The Insta360 Link 2C is very well made.
- The design is smart, and it’s small enough to be transportable.
- Crisp image resolution is far better than a laptop’s built-in webcam.
- Flattering tones and colors. It does not emphasize red blemishes on the skin.
- The sound quality is good, and the noise cancellation works well.
- Tracking and autofocus are better than most webcams.
- AI background effects work better than many I have tried.
What Could Be Improved in the Future
- Uploading background images was a bit hit-and-miss.
- The magnetic mount doesn’t have much leeway for rotating the camera.
- The privacy switch hides the scene from the camera but does not mute the microphone.
- Although there was relatively little single-use plastic, it could have been reduced further.
In Conclusion
If you are seeing a good quality and portable webcam, then the Insta360 Link 2C does the job and it does it well. If you are a university student and want to hide the mess in your room and the noise of the party in the next room from your parents on a Zoom call, then this would also be a good option. Furthermore, if you are a professor and want to avoid the smell of stale tobacco and alcohol carried into the lecture hall by said students, this would also be a good choice as you can easily deliver the lesson remotely. Joking aside, at the height of the COVID pandemic, this tool would have been invaluable.
It's a superb little webcam, although some AI features are a bit gimmicky, and it could benefit from more manual controls. It's already widely available in black, but keep an eye out for the white version that has just been released.
