Review: Insta360 Go 3S is a tiny camera with massive potential

As the action camera market grows and diversifies, there are now all kinds of options out there. Not just brands, but size and power of camera. Much like mountain bikes themselves, you can tailor your camera to what you want to do with it. I.e. it’s not just the latest GoPro anymore. Enter Insta360 and its tiny, but powerful GO 3S. We’ve had one for a couple years now and it’s impressive.

One of the smallest cameras on the market, but still with 4K resolution, Insta360’s mighty mouse preforms well beyond its size. There are limitations, particularly if you’re using it for professional purposes. But if you just want to film your ride, this tiny camera is hard to beat.

Insta360 GO 3S: By the numbers

Insta360 has emerged as a true rival to the empire of GoPro cameras. Its done so by taking on the action cam pioneer side-on. Insta360 offers its flagship (and namesake) 360-view cameras, a drone and the Ace, an action cam that directly takes on GoPro’s Hero line. But there’s also the GO 3S. A tiny-but-mighty little camera that is roughly the size of your thumb.

This tiny camera still offers impressive stats. The camera pod itself, which attaches to a more GoPro-sized base, weighs just 39g. It still shoots in 4K resolution (30fps) with multiple field of view options from narrow to MegaView and with FlowState image stabilisation. It has a max frame rate of 200fps (1080p). There’s Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity.

Mounts and memory

To make creative use of the tiny and light camera, Insta360 offers a wide array of mounting options. Some physically hold the camera in place while others make use of the pods magnetic backing to keep it from wandering. Unlike a larger camera, the tiny size means you can mount it almost anywhere without it getting in the way.

The trade-off is that the pod on its own has a roughly 40 minute (38, to be exact) filming limit on its own. Bring the base along and that’s boosted to 140 minutes. It’s also limited to 64GB or 128GB storage on the device, with no memory card. The base itself has some flash features like a flip screen, touch screen and a few more buttons to make dialling through the settings easier without the app. But there’s also an app. The base also works as a remote.

There’s a suite of other features too long to list. These include the ability to pair with Garmin or Apple Watch devices to display stats with your video, like some sort of real life video game, a “Free Frame” feature to export…