Insta360 Link 2 & Link C Webcams Review: DSLR Quality Without Bulk

what's up guys I'm random Frank p and today we're going to be checking out two brand new webcams from insta 360 who

just continue to dominate the webcam market and this is the brand new insa 360 link to webcam giving us DSLR light

quality but it's anything but no capture cards no bulky setup a nice compact webcam giving incredible quality pop

this off here so in today's video we're going to over both the brand new link 2 models as well as the link C show you

guys the video quality the audio run you through the software all the important stuff cuz if you want a webcam that

looks as good as this does you're definitely going to want to pay attention let's check it out okay so

first up just checking out both models before we dive in with the link 2 and Link C they're similar but also

different they they really each have their own intended use cases with needing to be tracked and in frame with

the gimbal of the link to or if you're at a stationary setup while streaming and you don't need the gimbal they have

a more affordable link C option but I know lots of people love the tracking feature so starting out with the link 2

you'll see the halfin f1.8 4K Sony sensor mounted on the two axis gimbal here with a noise cancelling microphone

in the middle and up top and this new magnetic base has a few things like the USBC port to power it up this also has a

touch sensor integrated for quick functions but we'll demo that all coming up in just just a minute now also Inside

the Box you get the magnetic bracket that folds in and out which is great for you know attaching this to a tripod or

stand with that quarter-inch thread underneath or if you just want to use that lip and pop it on the screen of

your laptop very nice and simple giving you some flexibility quite literally here then also is your USBC cable with a

usba a adapter to get this up and running cuz it's all plug andplay no HDMI or capture card needed you also

have the product guide and warranty info some stickers and the Whiteboard recognition markers included as well for

you so all in all pretty tiny and compact but again the gimbal for the link 2 is going to be the main selling

point for this model and if you don't need that then the link C is going to be more your speed because it's that same

sensor same voice cancelling microphone just minus the two AIS gimbal now this does actually have a built-in manual

privacy cover on the side but in terms of image quality it's the same the link to is $199 and the linky 149 which is

really good if you guys know anything about the webcam Market that's half the price $150 less than the Elgato FaceCam

Pro or if you're just comparing the link 2 model that's $100 less than Elgato and $100 off the original insta 360 link

that came out two years ago and again you guys see the quality leader of the pack but now we're going to dive in show

you guys the software the obvious video quality cuz that's what mainly important right let's check it out okay so showing

you guys here we have the insta 360 link 2 and we are inside their link controller software we're going to run

you through uh most of the main settings the adjustments but this is how everything looks raw stock out of the

box no further color Corrections or color editing done inside the software everything is currently on the auto

settings again is a 4K half inch f1.8 Sony sensor here and it looks so good stock out of the box so to note before

we move on what you've been hearing this whole time is the microphone with the built-in microphone it's noise

cancelling and it sounds really good from what I've heard there's a few different audio modes that I'll show you

but this is the uh the voice mode pretty much focusing on my voice and doing a background elimination we're on 4K 30

there's lower quality modes but why go low quality when you can have 4K 30 here uh there's a portrait mode which is

really cool because once you flip the camera itself gives you that full portrait orientation instead of just

cropping in because the camera itself is actually vertical so it's just adjusting the image vertically for you instead of

having an image like this that would be you know artificially cropped in you'd be losing out on so much but here you

get that same quality in the vertical orientation now with this being the link to with the gimbal right now I currently

have it off because I'm stationary and there's a few different ways to turn this on uh the first one would be inside

the software on the bottom of the page there is an AI tracking you can just tap that and now just like that whenever I

move it'll follow me around in frame I'm going to turn it off to show you the other way you can do that by tapping the

touch sensor on the base of the camera so a quick little tap you see the light will blink and then now again if I get

up I could walk all around and with that two axis gimbal it's going to follow me it's going to track me it's going to

keep me in frame despite moving beside it behind it all that stuff so that's the second way another way you can do

this is with a gesture so if I just put my hand up you will see it blinks that lets me know that I'm being recognized

and yet again I could just quickly move around it'll keep me in Focus all that good stuff but the gesture is definitely

one of the easiest ways to do this it's hands off you're not touching the software you're not touching your

computer you're not touching the actual webcam itself so the gesture is a good one for sure so

that's the first thing here and as we've seen with their previous link controller software we do have the manual

adjustments for the gimbal Under The View adjustment setting so this is how it is with the AI turned on let me just

disable it for this demo if I wanted to manually correct this without you know touching the actual gimbal itself you

have the joystick in here to either drag over if I wanted to adjust where it is or you can just simply tap the little

like the little buttons there for more fine adjustments another thing you can do is if you note the ad presets under

adjustments is have set locations of where you want the gble to quickly turn to at the Press of a button it's pretty

much automatic this is good if you have different scenes during your live stream or if you're in like a big conference

room and you can even control the gimbal remotely from your phone it's web based so you just scan the QR code inside the

software and now you can completely adjust the Gimbal and the camera all on your phone lots of ways to adjust this

here then we do also have a desk View mode so if you want to show what's going on on your desktop you do have to flip

the camera facing down a bit you can do that either with the included stand they give you or what's recommended would be

like using a separate Des stand like a little tripod adapter or something because that will give you not only more

height but more flexibility to then bend it over just good for showing off whatever is on your desk and there is a

vertical correction mode inside the software but cool to have and it's right here for you so real quick we're going

to go over to the the uh the effects tab with some of the color adjustments like I said everything in here as you can see

is manual so it's going to adjust the the exposure the autofocus for me the color temperature and real quick

speaking of which one of the things that I've always loved about these insta 360 cameras is how good the autofocus is

like just bringing up a little Geodude figure here uh it immediately recognizes that and gets super super close

and you can see the nice natural bokeh of the rolloff in the background like it keeps this in Focus uh the background

gets nice and blurred just giving you guys more example uh and that's where that f1.8 sensor is going to come into

play by having that really nice soft background blur here but again if you want to have a manual focus you can do

that but color-wise everything here so far is stock and auto you can also do color presets which means if you want to

sort of create your own color you could save it and you know have like more contrast more sharpness more saturation

save that as as a color preset and there's uh different filters in background modes so I'm not going to

spend too much time on these because you mainly want to see how this looks stock out of the box right but you can add

some artificial blur now it's it's decent I I think just the natural blur on this itself is fine but if you really

want to crank it up as you can see uh you can do that to just blur whatever you have going on in the background

there's also a boka mode which pretty much does the same thing as you can see uh but it's a bit more natural looking

so I kind of like how that looks but again disabling it and turning the boka mode on it's not all that different but

it does help give you more of that background blur and there's things like you know background replacement with

some of these but we don't need to check out the fake backgrounds so now we're going to go down to the different filter

modes and there's six different built-in filters or you know like Luts if you will which will just slightly change up

the the colors adjust those make things pop a bit more there's a portrait a daylight two vintage settings a neon and

a clear and again they're really not too bad because you can also with those filters on adjust the colors even more

inside the effects Tab and then save that as a as a color preset if there's one that just you know makes it more

flattering on camera or just makes the scenario pop a bit more you can save that you can configure it but I really

really like how this all just looks natural Auto no filter on everything stock then for the more settings this is

where you can go and configure those gestures so like I showed you before with the tracking gesture the way you

turn that on there's also a whiteboard setting I don't have a whiteboard to demo this but if you wanted it to really

focus on the Whiteboard and have that as like your main uh portrayal for like a business call or a conference call

there's a setting for that as well in a zoom mode so let me just show you guys real quick I'm going to walk back a

little bit when I put the L up you can see it blink that's letting me know that Zoom is on and I go up it'll go in when

I stop it'll zoom in and again it's 4K it's still going to look really good I'm going to put the L up again it'll blink

again then if I want to zoom out instead I just bring the L downward and then it'll be stock zoomed out all the way

and then you have uh two other things we're going to touch on really quick so first off is the mute in privacy mode

with this camera if you want to put it in privacy mode there is a setting inside the software which will just put

the camera pretty much to sleep uh that will do it in the software you can also just flip the uh camera down and it will

go to sleep as well or if you're idle for a few minutes it goes to idle as it is but there's also a setting to have it

be muted in privacy mode which I have on so that's that for you then the audio mode so right now we're on voice Focus

like I said picking up my voice and doing a background elimination we then have a voice suppression mode which

eliminates the voices of others so there's like a busy room with a lot of people talking it would take out their

voices and focus on yours and then a music balance mode which sort of balances your voice and the music in the

background so not necessarily an aggressive background elimination this is going to be good for streamers so

again voice focus focuses on your voice specifically eliminates background noise then the actual

uh voice suppression focuses on your voice by eliminating background voices and a music balance a good Ambience

balance pretty much of background and your voice but this is all on the voice mode setting or the voice Focus setting

okay so this has been the link to going to switch over real quick to the link C okay so now we're over on the link C

webcam with the main difference being there's no built-in gimbal so all the stuff in the software with that gimbal

control is gone it's pretty more uh much more simplified here but you still do have some gesture controls because you

still do have the ones like I said before if I want to zoom up and down you'll see I still have those options

with the gestures but what's also cool is this side on the right side of the camera this is a button this lets you

zoom in and you can in the software then adjust where you want to zoom in so a bit of a different sort of functionality

here but you can tap to zoom one of the cool things and like I said before this does have that Milt the uh the built-in

privacy cover so if I flip it down can't see anything the screen's blacked out flip it back on it'll auto adjust the

quality to the lighting and you're good to go but yes the same camera here the same built-in microphone same quality

just without the added functionality of the gimbal for $50 less here so wrapping it all up as you guys heard

and saw by the quality of the webcams these are seriously impressive especially at their price range in the

webcam market like 150 for the link C or even 200 for the link 2 is more than fair and I would take the quality of

these over any other webcam in the current market right now which as you see are starting from about $100 to $150

more than these are the quality is so good that you really can and I say this as somebody who's used multiple

different cameras and options over the years for streaming this could very easily replace a DSLR in your setup and

it's nowhere near as bulky nowhere near as expensive and it's going to look incredible my only critique that I would

have for insta 360 would be on the link C model with it being able to be mounted vertically on the stand I would love to

just have the side of the cam also be magnetic so I can just snap it on the included base and be good to go I think

that'd be a little Nifty and useful integration going forward but guys that's going to wrap it up if you want

to pick up one of these insta 360 link webcams to immediately upgrade the quality of your streams I'll have them

listed for you guys in the description down below if you like this video give it a big thumbs up to show your support

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you all enjoyed have a good day