Insta360 Link Webcam Review

I have a confession to make. I have been in this industry for a long time. I have reviewed hundreds of products over the years. For much of that time, webcams always seemed like an afterthought. I fully agree that this is probably the worst way to open a webcam review, but sometimes honesty trumps a good lede.

It's not that they aren't important, of course. It's just that over the years it's been one of those categories where "good" or "ok" has seemed pretty good. Who cares about a laptop webcam for the occasional 30 minute meeting?

I say this as someone who went into an office every day for a long time, and meetings that weren't conducted face-to-face could often be handled via email or Slack - or one of these extremely expensive teleconferencing systems throws away money.

All of this is, unsurprisingly, part of a long list of things that have changed over the past few years. A push towards video teleconferencing and various remote media spots have brought the subject into sharp focus. A broader societal shift towards remote working finally dovetails nicely with the beginnings of a minor – but interesting – revolution in the world of webcams.

Credits i mage: Br ian Heat

Laptop makers have finally started upgrading their outdated 740p cameras and taking alternative approaches to native hardware, like Apple's Continuity Camera, which outsources the function to an iPhone connected. We reviewed the Opal Camera when it was in beta, and the hardware felt like a breath of fresh air, even though it required lots of software tweaks. Fortunately, many of them were treated over the following months.

If you had told me a few years ago that two of the most exciting products I would be reviewing in 2022 would be webcams, I might have laughed. Yet here we are, with another fascinating entry. It arrives via Insta360, a Shenzhen-based company best known for its 360-degree cameras (hence the name) and action cameras. I also don't get many opportunities to review so I haven't played with any of their products in a while.

When the link was announced, it was clearly time to change that. At the dawn of an exciting era for webcam technologies, this is one of the most innovative I've seen. Not just innovation for innovation's sake, the spirit. It makes a lot of sense. In our news write-up, we compared the system to DJI's excellent Pocket System, a small, handheld gimbal that allows for smooth and easy shots.

Credits i mage: Br ian Heat

Incorporating similar technologies into a webcam makes perfect sense on the face of it...