What Is the Same on Luna Pro and Luna Ultra?
JoSun, Everyone. My name is Martin, and today I'm comparing these two handheld cameras. Over the last few years this kind of camera got popular with vloggers and YouTubers who want something easy: pull it out, flip the screen, and shoot without a giant camera or a separate gimbal. Insta360 made two in this series: the Luna Ultra and the Luna Pro. Brother and sister. A lot of overlap, a few real differences.
At first glance they look almost the same. Both have a 1-inch sensor. Both can shoot 8K at 30 frames per second, and 4K with a slow mode. Both have that detachable screen. Those are the big similarities.
What Does the Extra $170 Get You on the Ultra?
Turn them on and the split is obvious. The Luna Pro has one camera on the gimbal. The Luna Ultra has two.
On the Pro you get a 20mm camera that goes up to 2x lossless. On the Ultra you get a 60mm side that goes up to 6x lossless, plus an attachment that unlocks Ultra telephoto mode for even more reach. The processors are different too: dual on the Pro, triple on the Ultra. How much that changes day to day, I'm not sure yet. It might help with telephoto, speed, focus, or tracking. That's part of what I went out to check.
Battery life is about four hours on both. The Pro is around 215 grams. The Ultra is around 235 grams. Price: the Pro is $600. The Ultra is about $170 more, so $770. Links: Insta360 Luna Pro and Insta360 Luna Ultra.
Why Test Them at Night in Little Tokyo?
In daylight most cameras look pretty similar when there's enough light. So I brought both to Little Tokyo at night, one of the spots you see a lot in my videos. I mounted them on a little dual bracket I bought online so I could shoot both at once and compare zoom side by side.
I also had my Insta360 GO Ultra on my chest for a third reference. It's a smaller camera, so I expected weaker low light, and it couldn't match the Luna settings I wanted: it would not shoot 60fps in iLock the way the Lunas would. That's one reason you might pick the Luna series over a smaller GO Ultra.
How Did Low Light and Pure Video Mode Look?
Around 8pm in Little Tokyo there was ambient light from shops, then I walked somewhere much darker. I was in iLock at 60fps. You don't need 60 for most people, and in that dark it may not be the best idea, but I wanted to see it. Both Lunas held up pretty well compared with the GO Ultra on my chest.
Inside my car, which was really dark, I tried Pure Video mode. That mode is for very low light. It defaults to 30fps, and you can still switch it to 60. Auto tracking still worked when I tapped my face. Pure Video tops out at 60fps, not 120. In a situation that dark I would not suggest 120 anyway. Compared with normal video mode at the same frame rate, Pure Video looked a little brighter to me. Normal mode at 60 looked a lot darker straight out of camera. At 30 in normal mode it got a bit brighter again.
How Good Is Tracking With the Mic and Detachable Screen?
I blocked my whole face with an onigiri so the cameras could not see me. As soon as my face came back, both followed me again. Both Lunas also work with the Insta360 mic: magnetic, wireless, no adapter. Same ecosystem idea as the rest of the lineup.
A big reason to use a gimbal camera is that you free up your phone, and you keep the high quality camera facing you the whole time. Both Lunas have a detachable screen you can use as a remote so you can see yourself while you record. The touchscreen still works on that remote. I could tap zoom and it zoomed while still tracking me.
How Far Does the Ultra Telephoto Attachment Go?
On the Pro, zoom tops out sooner. In my side-by-side I pushed the Pro to its max while the Ultra could keep going. With the Ultra attachment on, the camera prompted me to enable Ultra telephoto mode. It already started around 4.5x before any extra zoom. Side by side with the Pro, the Ultra frame was much tighter on the same spot.
Zoomed all the way in I hit 22.5x on the Ultra. I could kind of see the lantern and the characters on it. Best quality? Hard to say, and it was very dark. Digital zoom on the Pro versus a physical telephoto path on the Ultra is the comparison I wanted you to see.
Then I tested tracking at those extreme zooms. Both still tracked me. At max Ultra zoom I had a tight frame on myself while the Pro at full zoom still showed a small full body that was hard to see. Someone walked in front of me and it picked my face back up. I stepped behind a bush and it caught me again when I came out. Tracking was pretty impressive. The wireless screen range did not feel as far as advertised in that spot, but because it's recording in the camera, a weak remote signal does not change the final file.
Which One Should You Get, Pro or Ultra?
Hopefully the Little Tokyo night walk gives you a feel for daily vlogging and for something like a concert. People used to ask me if earlier handheld cameras were good for concerts. I would not have suggested those older ones: not enough telephoto, and voice recording was not where I wanted it. Now you've got 32-bit recording plus this telephoto reach, so it might be the way to go. I don't really go to concerts, so I can't test that for you soon, but the zoom test is a gauge.
If you need the Pro or the Ultra: either way, tracking held up. Move too fast and they can lose you, then catch you when you step back into frame. For me, if you mostly film yourself, they feel close. If you want to film things far away, get the Ultra.
Want more on each camera alone? Watch my Luna Ultra video and my Luna Pro unboxing.
Video Chapters
- 0:00 Luna Pro vs Luna Ultra
- 1:17 What's the Same
- 1:47 What's Different (Cameras, Zoom, Price)
- 3:45 Taking Them to Little Tokyo
- 5:06 Night Walk Test
- 7:00 Pure Video Mode (Low Light)
- 9:06 Tracking + Wireless Mic
- 10:22 Zoom Test & Detachable Screen
- 12:14 Ultra Telephoto Attachment
- 14:21 Tracking at Max Zoom
- 16:43 Which One Should You Get?