When I test webcams, I often adjust the lighting in the room, both ambient and artificial. I do my best to get rid of autofocus and white balance to see how the webcam adjusts and responds. I leaned back even further in my chair, dangling like a bowling pin.i got more oh oh and ah ah From my co-workers as they were amazed at how smoothly the Link refocused on my face. I’ve tested a lot of webcams with poor autofocus, but the Link doesn’t. It was able to focus on my face as close as 4 inches (10 cm) to the lens, which is closer than I need to be close to a webcam.
The Link can zoom up to four times, but it’s a digital zoom. This means that zooming in will create a more pixelated picture the closer it is to a subject. However, this is a 4K webcam, so by supporting such a high resolution, you can zoom in a bit and still maintain a sharp image. On the high end, the Link supports 4K resolutions at 24, 25 and 30 frames per second. For less bandwidth or a faster frame rate so the video looks smoother, you can downscale to 1080p at 50 or 60 frames per second, among other options.
24 frames per second may sound redundant, but 25 is an option, but it’s the gold standard for filmmaking, so capturing at this frame rate is essential for anyone recording themselves on camera to later upload to YouTube or for Anyone with a film project is desirable. There’s also support for High Dynamic Range (HDR), which helps check bright lights in a frame without under- or over-exposing. It’s optional, but only available in 1080p or 720p at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second.
Most webcams come with really bad microphones, but the dual noise-cancelling microphones on the Insta360 Link made me sound pretty good (according to my colleagues). That said, I still prefer a standalone USB mic like the Blue Snowball Ice.
There’s no physical privacy shutter, but the Link automatically swivels its gimbaled head down and away from you, preventing hackers and weirdos from taking uninvited peeks at your webcam. This happens 10 seconds after the webcam is no longer in use by the conferencing application. When you start a video meeting, Link reboots and wakes up again to start streaming (it supports Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and more).
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Photo: Insta360
question? Three hundred dollars is a lot of money for a webcam. It also has competition. There’s the Obsbot Tiny 4K, another PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) webcam that does many of the same tricks (albeit with less polish) for less money. The excellent Logitech Brio 4K webcam is usually under $150 and delivers almost as good image quality without all the motion.
The question is whether you need automatic tracking and gesture controls. If the answer is no, then even the slightly better video quality of the Link won’t be enough to justify spending almost twice as much as a webcam like the Brio, which is already an expensive webcam. For $50, you can get a great, simple webcam.
Still, if you record video a lot, or if you do virtual demos on a regular basis — or if you just want to film your dance practice — the Link is a solid choice. It solidifies the basics (great video quality) with a nifty suite of extras, like auto-tracking, gestures, and what I call a privacy dip. It’s not a bargain, but it’s the best.
