Hi all,

GAS is striking again. I think I'll get myself a action camera to mount on the big housing, place on the bottom for some BTS material, take on non-photography deep technical dives for some purely documentation uses.

I'm way to lazy to do some serious post editing, if I cannot do it on my phone, I won't do it.

Now I'm struggling with:

GoPro 13 vs Insta360 Ace Pro 2.

What I found so far:

• Quality OOTB seems to be superior in AcePro2, especially in low light.

• AcePro2 seems to have a wider FOV, which causes issues with the AOI lens.

• I could not find a suitable housing (depth rating ~120m) which is compatible with the AOI lens

• I could not find any deep rated housing for the AcePro2

• Battery life is superior in AcePro2

Can anyone confirm my analysis or point me to where I got something wrong?

Any suggestions what you'd pick in my place?

Thanks all!

I haven’t been able to get my hands on the Ace Pro 2 myself, although I do know several dive buddies who own one. So I can only really speak from personal experience with the action cameras I’ve actually used for diving, the GoPro Hero 12 and the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro.

Between those two, I’d definitely pick the Osmo Action, for several reasons: larger sensor (same size of Ace Pro) and consequently better performance in low light, better color rendition (subjective, of course), deeper depth rating without a housing (20 m), very good price, especially when on sale (at least when I got mine), and excellent battery life. In my opinion, it’s clearly ahead of the GoPro 12, which is pretty similar compared with the GoPro 13.

That said, there are plenty of videos out there directly comparing footage from all these cameras. I’d recommend watching some of them so you can see real-world results side by side. Here’s one I particularly liked:

Regarding housings, there is a deep-dive housing for the Ace Pro 2 rated to 200 m, made by Isotta, although it’s not exactly cheap. As for compatibility with AOI lenses, I’m not entirely sure, but I think a one-degree difference in FOV shouldn’t cause major issues (that’s just my assumption).

In terms of battery life, both the Ace Pro 2 and the Osmo Action are a step ahead of the GoPro.

My personal recommendation: at the moment, I think both the Osmo and the Insta are a notch above the GoPro. So unless you specifically rely on the GoPro ecosystem/accessories, I’d go for one of those instead.

Given the purpose you mentioned, especially BTS material and mounting it on your main housing, I’d suggest also looking into a completely different concept: the Insta360 4X/5X. For BTS, social media, and basically showing a third-person perspective of how you shoot photos or video with your main, I think it’s a really interesting option. The video I linked above also covers it and shows some creative use cases.

9 hours ago, Fabian said:

I could not find a suitable housing (depth rating ~120m) which is compatible with the AOI lens

AOI lens is rated 60 m

12 minutes ago, richijota said:

I’d suggest also looking into a completely different concept: the Insta360 4X/5X.

Good idea. BTW there's the new DJI Osmo 360 which seems to even better of Insta for several aspects.

AFAIK flr these cameras there aren't underwater housings capable of tech dives.

Hi both, thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it!

So in conclusion, AcePro2 with the Isotta housing, the I could use the AOI lens in the shallows (found an adapter for that one) below 60m, for the deep stuff it would be just the camera. Technically clearly preferred.

Unfortunately, that brings the cost up quite a bit, as the Isotta housing is about triple the price of the Seafrogs.

Or, I skip the technical diving part and stick to a cheaper housing for the AcePro2 🤔