Category: Video

Any posts that contain videos that I’ve created

This year I finally got a 360 camera – the Insta360 X4.  With the image quality increase of the latest camera from Insta360 it’s not as much of a compromise to include its ~2k footage alongside 4k footage from other cameras. Especially on a sailboat – the action can be in any direction and the horizon is always tipping, so a 360 camera enables me to reframe the shot where the action is and to always have a level horizon. One of the caveats with the 360 camera filming in 8k is the battery life. When I’m on a sailboat I can’t always stop sailing in the middle of a race to change the battery or sometimes I don’t even have a dry place to keep a battery with me, so getting the most out of a battery is really important to me.

According to the specs online – Insta360 rates the battery life at 75 minutes when filming with the highest quality settings that I would most like to use for sailing (8k 30fps). While some of the online reviews sort of confirmed this, there were no comparisons between the insta360 batteries and some of the aftermarket batteries that were coming on the market. So I set up some tests for 17 different batteries from 9 different retailers for 187 tests over 227 hours to answer those questions and I wanted to share my findings.

How Long Does the Insta360 X4 Battery Last?

After running the test on 2 Insta360 batteries and 15 aftermarket batteries the results were pretty clear. The insta360 batteries averaged 78 minutes while the aftermarket batteries averaged around 72 minutes.  The insta360 batteries hit the 75 minute mark in 100% of the tests.  The aftermarket batteries only hit the 75 minute mark in 2% of the tests.

Which Battery Lasted the Longest?

If battery life is of the utmost importance – you’ll want to go with the Insta360 batteries.  If you want to save some money, don’t need as long of a duration or can switch batteries easily and don’t mind dismissing a nag screen then the aftermarket batteries will work fine.

Here’s the average runtime for each of the brands:

And here you can see the individual performance of each of the batteries.  Note the range between the minimum and maximum test along with the average.  The Insta360 batteries minimum performance was at or above the max of most of the other 3rd party batteries.

The Batteries

  1. Insta360 X4 Battery
  2. Addpower X4 Batteries
  3. JHTC 360 X4 Battery
  4. METACUCU 2Pcs Batteries
  5. REYTRIC 2-Pack X4 Batteries for Insta360 X4
  6. Aovee 360 X4 Battery with Fast Battery Charger Hub
  7. YONHUIZI Battery
  8. Rszfnjxry Fast Charge Hub with Batteries
  9. COOLSHOW X4 Battery

How did I test?

Insta360 X4 Battery Test Setup

Using the settings I’d most likely be using for sailing – 8k 30fps. I set the camera up in my living room and while it’s not recommended to run the camera at that resolution indoors, I used a small fan to mimic the airflow the camera would get outdoors and keep it from overheating. I used the same two 2-battery chargers to charge all of the batteries.

One other note about aftermarket batteries – Insta360 has introduced a nag screen about a battery anomaly the first time the camera is started after inserting an aftermarket battery. I’ve always been able to dismiss this and use the camera normally with the aftermarket battery.

To see my videos created with the Insta360 Ace Pro – check out No Quarter Sailing on YouTube.

If you are interested in the battery life of the Insta360 Ace Pro – check out a similar test I did for that camera.

Disclaimers: I purchased the camera and some of the batteries myself. Other batteries were received through the Amazon Vine Voices Program. As an affiliate in Amazon’s program I may receive a commission for product links.

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A foot injury kept me sidelined from racing in the 2024 Stingray Point Regatta, but we did get out for a while on Sunday to capture some pictures of the racing on the east course.

A1 Fleet Sailing downwind in the first race on Sunday.
A1 Fleet Sailing downwind in the first race on Sunday.

MORE PICTURES | EVENT WEBSITE

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Friday

Having seen the forecast for Friday and good conditions for some afternoon practice, I left for the ILCA Atlantic Coast Championship at Brant Beach on Thursday night and drove to Baltimore enabling me to miss DC traffic the next morning. 🙂

Friday morning I had a relatively easy drive to Brant Beach arriving around noon and going for some practice in the afternoon sea breeze.

We were able to jump into some practice races that one of the coaches were running and it was good to get practice around marks and other boats. In the evening there was a beautiful sunset.

Saturday

Saturday started with breakfast in the clubhouse and a postponement until the wind filled. After about two and 1/2 hours the sea breeze looked like it would fill and they sent us out around noon. I managed to be the very last boat to leave the beach, but had plenty of time to sail 1nm to the course and they postponed on the water for another 15 minutes or so as the wind settled and the course was set. After a general recall we got started under I-flag and I had an okay start by the boat. I went middle right and the folks that went hard left and started at the pin made out. I was mid-fleet and picked off a couple boats on the ensuing legs finishing 22nd.

Race 2 was another start under the I-flag. I had a great start pretty close to the boat and I was able to tack out to the right early and get in clear air. I stayed with the leaders and found myself 6th at the top mark. I didn’t play the reach very well and the fast guys went right around me downwind and I continued to drop back to the mid-20s.

For the final race of the day the wind continue to increase and the waves got sloppier. I didn’t have a great start down by the pin and found myself duking it out and just trying to find a good lane to go fast in. The rest of the race was uneventful and I finished 28th.

That evening we had a cookout in the clubhouse while the sun set behind the island just off the club’s waterfront.

Sunday

Sunday started with another postponement on shore as we waited for the sea breeze to build. This time it was a little earlier and a little stronger when it did come and we were racing by 12:30.

The starts today were a lot more competitive and I didn’t have nearly as clear of starts as I did yesterday. That meant I was tacking more and trying to find clear lanes of wind. So for race 4 I finished 29th.

In race 5 the wind increased into the double digits. I started down by the pin and went left and everyone to the right seemed like they were climbing over us so I worked my way back to the right. At the top mark I was mid fleet and I rounded the offset and tried to duck a stern to go downwind; only I mis-judged it and tapped my bow on the back of the rudder and had to do turns putting me further back in the fleet and I finished 30th.

By race 6 the wind was up to 14-16 and hiking conditions upwind. The sloppy waves from yesterday had returned and we started under U-flag. I started in the middle of the line with Eric and Andrew just below me who just flew right by me and I found myself having to tack behind everyone to look for clear air. 2 legs later we were coming into the leeward gate and I had George overlapped and just outside of me. As we hit the 3 length circle he lost control of his boat and rounded up into me. I rounded up to crash tack and avoid him as he ended up tipping on top of the right gate mark and blocking my path from rounding. I ended up in irons outside of the mark and had to go back upwind to get around him and the mark. Another boat just behind us rounded George and the mark and as they turned upwind, the side of their boat glanced across the top of my rudder leaving a gouge in their boat. I would realize later that my rudder pin was bent on the force of the impact. I would go on to finish 25 in this race and ended up 28th overall.

It was good to be back in the boat and get 3 days of sailing. I have definitely gotten out of sailing shape and have a little work to do there. I appreciate all of the people at Brant Beach who made this event possible – it was very well run and they made it easy to attend.

EVENT WEBSITE | RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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We had a small fleet for a summer race to Wolf Trap Light House and back. There were 6 spinnaker boats and the two boats in the PHRF-A fleet were us on the J99 Battle Rhythm and the J109 Afterthought.

We started in the Piankatank just off Gwynns Island and had winds in the low teens out of the SSE and mostly sunny. There was a bit of traffic at the start with all of the boats piling up at the starboard end of the line which happened to be the government mark. We had to dodge a few boats and once we got clear we hung with Afterthought upwind on the way out of the Piankatank.

Once we cleared the river we continued upwind south to Wolf Trap light. With the current going out of the bay it was advantageous to continue on starboard all the way out into the bay. We got to the layline a couple miles from the lighthouse and tacked onto Port.  Afterthought had continued to inch further away from us and was about ½ mile ahead of us by the time we got to the light house.  And the wind out here was around 6-8 knots.

At Wolf Trap we rounded and set the A2 spinnaker and headed downwind. We sailed this spinnaker for a bit hoping the wind would build into its range, but it didn’t come and we decided to do a spinnaker change to the A1. While Kevin, Len and Carrie got the old spinnaker down, I grabbed the tack and halyard and got it hooked to the new spinnaker and after Kevin wrestled the chute into the hatch and Len hooked up the sheet I jumped the halyard on the mast and we had the new spinnaker flying in just over a minute.

Another new trick for this race was having the chart and instruments on the iPad. We also set up some time graphs with one of them being VMG and so after we changed spinnaker we were able to see from the chart that we were getting at least a tenth more VMG.

We continued North to the Piankatank, saw a huge pod of dolphins  and eventually rounded into the river where we went somewhat upwind to the finish off Gywnns Island. On corrected time we would be about 14 minutes behind Afterthought.

All in all it was a good day of racing. Learned a few more tricks on the boat and had fun racing with Kevin, April, Carrie, Todd, Len, and Ann.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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Today I got to join a group from nearby Mathews Yacht Club as they visited Washington DC and the Clipper Round the World Race that had a stopover there. One of their members, Klas, is racing aboard the Quindao boat. He and a few other crew gave us all a tour of the boat and told us what life was like aboard.

It was fascinating to see how these boats were setup and how constrained the space was down below for the 24 people they typically have aboard at a time.

CLIPPER AROUND THE WORLD RACE | PHOTOS | VIDEO

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The FBYC Offshore Spring Open consisted of 2 days of racing with the first on Saturday being buoy racing and a distance race on Sunday.

Saturday – Buoy Racing

We arrived to a light drizzle on Saturday. Goin’ couldn’t get the hoist to work, so a couple from their boat joined what was going to be a short-handed crew on Battle Rhythm. Winds were in the 15-17 knot range out of the east as it continued to drizzle.

In the first race we were about a minute late to the start as we thought the other fleets were starting first. We started with 1 reef and were at the first weather mark about the same time as Corryvreckan.

Downwind we didn’t fly the spinnaker and as we sailed down the course we saw the wind dropping and shook the reef out. We finished the race without the spinnaker and finished 6th of 7.

For the second race we had a terrific start right at the boat, right on time, with a nice lane to leeward and we managed to shut the door on two other boats trying to start at the boat-end of the line.

In the 10-13 knots of wind we worked on tuning the boat upwind and got a little more in the groove. We rigged the spinnaker and had to shuffle people around – Todd went from the helm to the bow and Dennis drove downwind while Jon stayed in the pit. We did pretty well and held our position with Afterthought ahead and Sting behind us. We did another lap of the same and although Sting got pretty close to us and we ended up correcting behind Nanuq by only 26 seconds. In the end we finished 6 and 4 putting us in 5 overall after the first day.

Sunday – Distance Race

Sunday was the distance race – which was basically east out of the Piankatank and then North up the bay and then the triangle back to where we started.

The start was from FBYC-A which meant that the boat was on the port end of the line and the starboard end was the government mark. We had a pretty good start on starboard while many of the other boats were on port. We carried starboard to the north to have a better angle on the next mark, while the boats that were already on port were pretty tight upwind to make the first mark.

We rounded the first mark with many of the faster boats very close to us. From there we stayed upwind while many other boats cracked off to a close reach on a coarse for the next mark. Only the current was streaming down the bay and the boats that cracked off quickly found themselves getting swept and having to sail upwind again. The wind was still pretty light and our angle and positioning to the North allowed us to carry much more speed and catch the new wind to the North and rounded the next mark in second with our entire fleet behind us. Mad Hatter in the B fleet played the current even better and beat us to the mark and the C fleet boat Wendas was just behind us.

The next leg took us roughly upwind and up current to the North. There wasn’t much relief from the current but we went to the west side of the course along with Mad Hatter. Afterthought had caught up to us, but split to the east and lost a couple minutes by the time we got to the north.

On what was the final rounding to the finish, we rounded and set the chute. In process of getting the sail set, we lost track of where we were to be heading and spent a few minutes going downwind further than we should have. Had we kept on a tight reach, we would have been able to sail longer on a straighter course to the finish. But because we went low, we had to douse the chute a little earlier and go back to an upwind mode to fetch the finish. At times the wind was barely nothing and the current continued to rip down the bay making it hard for us to get anything in the sails. Eventually the wind filled, but Afterthought would correct to almost 25 minutes ahead of us and Nanuq corrected to 5 minutes ahead of us. We managed to stay enough ahead of Corryvreckan to correct over them by 30-some seconds for 3rd place.

PICTURES | DAY 1 RESULTS | DAY 2 RESULTS | VIDEO

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On Saturday, I helped Todd deliver his J99 Battle Rhythm from its winter home in Irvington VA to Deltaville for the summer sailing and racing season. Ann was along as well and we had a nice motor down the Rappahannock River and did some sailing when we reached the Chesapeake Bay in the lightish winds.

Leaving the harbor in Irvington aboard J99 Battle Rhythm
Leaving the harbor in Irvington

PICTURES | VIDEO

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