Although the Pro dome is much much better than original the x5 footage still isn't good for anything else than vertical socials IMO. There are stitching artifacts usually where it matters :-) and the quality in low light is still poor and mushy. Apart from stitching artifacts - dome reflections - for the documentation I would say yes but then it gets quite big that PRO dome and so It gets in the way... So I would stick to action cam as a B-roll or fun dive camera.

Here is link to full frame footage scaled to 4k https://youtu.be/721F2hq9XoQ

and here is a screen grab converted to jpeg, the HDR version looks better.

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by RomiK

I find that the procase is usable for more than just Social, although it is hard to judge when it will have an artifact from the case or will be usable. In particular, in the shallows there seems to be some reflection/refraction that it can't always deal with. So after the fact, it can produce some nice footage.

Here is a clip showing what it looks like in a darker situation (exported to 4k in non-360) - https://youtu.be/SPpYkaQvh1Y

Not amazing but sooooo much better than with the regular case. That was with Pure mode on and for context - to similarly expose the ice with a still shot @ F/10 and 1/50th - I was shooting ISO 8000. So dark.

Just wondering, has anyone tried taking a picture with the x5? I see from the spec sheet that it does 72mp and was wondering how good (or bad) that is. The reason I'm asking is because I'm building some 360 virtual tours for some resorts and I'm wondering if this might be an acceptable way (image quality-wise) to produce 360° equirectangular images. I was hoping a combination of the x5 + pro housing + dive buddy could be an easy solution to take 360 images underwater - if the quality is good enough.

Otherwise I'll be embarking on a really complicated journey on finding a way to build a rig with an 8mm fisheye, rotating at the nadir point, shoot 6-18 images and stitch them together.

On 6/23/2026 at 11:05 PM, Paulkzk said:

Just wondering, has anyone tried taking a picture with the x5? I see from the spec sheet that it does 72mp and was wondering how good (or bad) that is. The reason I'm asking is because I'm building some 360 virtual tours for some resorts and I'm wondering if this might be an acceptable way (image quality-wise) to produce 360° equirectangular images. I was hoping a combination of the x5 + pro housing + dive buddy could be an easy solution to take 360 images underwater - if the quality is good enough.

Otherwise I'll be embarking on a really complicated journey on finding a way to build a rig with an 8mm fisheye, rotating at the nadir point, shoot 6-18 images and stitch them together.

I don’t think the tech is ready for 360 images out of 360 cams. Insta 360 Pro housing is not good enough even for video and Nauticam’s case while superior in terms of sharp seas still has issues with stitching plus produces very nasty flare if there is sun ball in the image. For docu video it’s ok. But not for what you need.

On 6/27/2026 at 2:32 AM, RomiK said:

I don’t think the tech is ready for 360 images out of 360 cams. Insta 360 Pro housing is not good enough even for video and Nauticam’s case while superior in terms of sharp seas still has issues with stitching plus produces very nasty flare if there is sun ball in the image. For docu video it’s ok. But not for what you need.

Thanks for replying! Sounds like I’d need to starting build a real rig for a mirrorless camera then!

I wonder if anyone tried taking photos and can share a fullres image that I can try inspecting.

I fully agree that till today, the 360 cam are not ideal for the underwater use. I also have the X5 with both dive case, the normal and the Pro, but indeed none of them are really good.

Actually the Pro, depending on the environment, could be even worst than the normal one due to much higher internal reflection on the dome, even if the images are more clear and sharper than with the normal one.

To get the best out of them you have to handle them in a certain way, for instance by keeping the closure seam always aligned with the sun orientation, and excluding some portion of the 360 view when composing the video in post.

My first time with the X5 and the Pro case, I didn't take into account the sun orientation but I was holding the camera thinking about framing and in fact, there are a lot of reflections. And I did minimize them in post, by careful framing otherwise it would have been much worst.

In two weeks, I will be in Tenerife for a diving vacation and I will give it a last try to the X5 and the Pro case by trying to handle it properly and will see if it the end result will be more acceptable.

On 12/7/2025 at 10:53 PM, RomiK said:

Although the Pro dome is much much better than original the x5 footage still isn't good for anything else than vertical socials IMO. There are stitching artifacts usually where it matters :-) and the quality in low light is still poor and mushy. Apart from stitching artifacts - dome reflections - for the documentation I would say yes but then it gets quite big that PRO dome and so It gets in the way... So I would stick to action cam as a B-roll or fun dive camera.

Here is link to full frame footage scaled to 4k https://youtu.be/721F2hq9XoQ

and here is a screen grab converted to jpeg, the HDR version looks better.