The pandemic has, in a way, boosted webcam innovations. Webcam has emerged to become an essential tool during these trying times. We have seen quite a handful of cool examples over the last few years but believe me when I tell you that the Insta360 Link AI-powered 4K Webcam is unlike any webcam you have seen.
Insta360 Link blurs the line between a webcam and a video camera because it is not merely a webcam. It is place is not relegated to the top of a computer monitor. It is a lot more.
Even the aesthetic is a departure from the traditional webcam design. It looks more like a camera system plucked out of a drone, and it may very well be because the Insta360 Link is on a 3-axis gimbal. This allows it to rotate 360-degree, and tilt up and down.
The webcam also touts an unusually large image sensor, a 1/2-inch item, and boasts precise AI tracking to ensure you will always stay in frame and true focus, featuring Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) for fast focusing and auto exposure to ensure the video looks natural when focusing.
There is also a top-down view. In this mode, it automatically corrects the angle, much keystone correction in projectors, and presents to the other party a bird’s eye view of what you are presenting.
And then there is the whiteboard mode which you can activate by raising your hand with a peace sign (v). When you do so, the camera automatically focuses on the whiteboard with the pre-applied marker stickers.
As we have mentioned earlier, it is more than a webcam. It is a video camera for your streaming and social media needs too. For this purpose, it also supports portrait mode and simple gestures control so you can stream in uncropped 9:16 without the need for a camera person.
While it does not have a privacy lens cover like Creative’s but because it tilts, it enables a unique privacy mode when it is not in use: the camera will rotate downward. Pretty neat feature, IMHO.
If you are down, the new Insta360 Link AI-powered 4K Webcam can be had as we speak for US$299.99 a pop.
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All images courtesy of Insta360.