Insta360 deal with American Flat Track should allow “infinite camera angles”

[advrider]

Action camera manufacturer Insta360 has just announced a deal with the American Flat Track series that could offer fans a whole new perspective on the series.

Action cameras on racebikes are nothing new. Depending on your local track’s rules, you might see GoPros at trackdays or at club-level racing. At the higher echelons, national-level superbike series and MotoGP have long had cameras integrated into the riders’ motorcycles to provide unique viewing angles.

However, Insta360’s cameras offering something new: A 360-degree perspective, instead of a limited wide-angle perspective.

This technology has been around for a while now. Several action cam manufacturers are making these products, including GoPro (the 800-lb gorilla of the action camera market), Garmin, Ricoh, and lesser-known Chinese brands. However, Insta360 is arguably the best-known, partially because this is its focus, instead of a company sideline. Insta360 also has its own editing appp that allows average-Joe users to take advantage of its cameras’ unique capabilities.

So how will that work with the world of flat track racing? Michael Lock, the big boss of the AFT series, says the onboard Insta360 One X2 cameras will allow fans a new way of experiencing the races: “For the first time, our fans can now ride along with their favorite athletes as if they were on the track themselves.”

Uh, we already have first-person camera perspective at the races, so how will this be different? Insta360’s presser says  “Infinite angles from the on-board camera can be chosen in post-production by simply reframing the 5.7K 360-degree footage in any direction.”

You can get a look at this frantic onboard perspective below:

It’s neat an all, but what AFT really needs to do is, release the complete 360 video, instead of this “flat” video. This would allow viewers to rotate their way through the video and choose their own perspective. No other race series is doing this right now, as far as I know.

The presser does say that “A key element to the partnership will be a dynamic YouTube video series featuring the unique features of the Insta360 product line and how riders, teams and Progressive AFT production crews utilize the cameras to capture flat track racing from truly immersive perspectives.” So, hopefully they’re working on something along those lines.

(Click here to see rtwPaul’s write-up of the Insta360 Go 2, from earlier this year).

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