Insta360 Luna Ultra and Luna Pro Review (2026): Steady Does It

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Rating:

7/10

Not long ago, the idea of a compact, capable, and affordable camera gimbal seemed unfathomable. But then DJI pioneered this space with the Osmo Mobile, a gimbal for filming with your phone, and the Osmo Pocket, a gimbal-camera combo that's proved extremely popular. Now, Insta360 has joined the party with two competing gimbal cameras, the Insta360 Luna Ultra and Luna Pro.

You'd be forgiven for mistaking these Insta360 cameras for the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 and 4 Pro. In fact, the two companies are currently butting heads in a US court over these and other cameras. Oddly, given the lawsuit, neither of DJI's cameras is currently available in the US, which makes Insta360's Luna series a more compelling buy. Throw in great gimbal performance, excellent 4K footage, and, with the Luna Ultra, a zoom lens, and you have probably the best gimbal camera you can buy in the US.

Ultra Mega Pro

Insta360 launched the Luna Ultra in June. Looking like Wall-E, the Ultra features two lenses: one wide-angle main lens (developed with Leica) and one zoom lens. In September, Insta360 added the Luna Pro, which is largely identical to the Ultra but lacks the second zoom lens. Think of the Pro as the Ultra's budget-friendly version for those who don't mind sacrificing the zoom feature for cost savings.

The two cameras have more in common than they do different, so I'll highlight what they share before I get into what makes the Ultra a touch nicer than the Pro, and, for that matter, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4.

Both Luna models use a 20-mm equivalent lens with a wide, bright f/1.8 aperture. That main lens records to a 1-inch sensor, which means you're effectively shooting at the equivalent of a 20-mm f/5 lens on a full-frame (35-mm) camera.

The main sensor is the same 8K-capable 1-inch sensor found in the Insta360 X6 camera, but the Luna cameras deliver significantly better image quality because of the lens (or lenses, in the Ultra's case). In fact, the video from the Luna is vastly superior in almost every situation I tested, except in bright sunlight, where the Luna Ultra and X6 are roughly equivalent. The Luna's narrower field of view makes for sharper, clearer video. That 8K also means you can shoot with the main camera's digital 2X zoom and still get pretty dang nice 4K footage. On the other hand, the more durable X6 can handle shots you wouldn't want to risk with the more fragile Luna cameras, plus 360-degree photos and videos.

The Ultra's design mirrors what DJI has done for years with the Osmo Pocket series: a handle grip that houses most of the internals, a flip-out screen to turn it on, and a gimbal that holds the camera head at the top. It's a design that works well for filming both yourself and the world in front of you.

The three-axis gimbal not only keeps shots steady, but, as you'd expect, lets you smoothly pan, tilt, and roll without physically moving the entire camera or your body. You can set auto-tracking so the lens follows a subject automatically. The gimbal performed well in my testing, delivering stable shots. I occasionally had to recalibrate if I bumped or jarred it too much, but the process is quick and easy.

What sets Luna apart from the Osmo Pocket 4 is a detachable front panel with the OLED screen, buttons for record, zoom, and pan, plus a microphone. This means you can set up the camera and then use the screen remotely to frame yourself properly and control it from afar (up to approximately 66 feet, according to Insta360). This is extremely useful for anyone filming themselves.

The Luna cameras top out at 4K/120 frames per second (fps) for slow motion, which lags behind the Osmo Mobile 4's 4K/240 fps, but—and this is a big but—the Luna Ultra can shoot 4K/120 fps in log, whereas the Osmo Mobile cannot. If you color-grade and want slow motion, the Luna Ultra is the clear winner.

All of Insta360's advanced filming modes can be found in the Luna cameras, along with the usual color options, including the default 10-bit color profile and I-Log (Insta360's proprietary log format) recording for those who want to do their own color grading. In the default color profile, you can choose from about a dozen different filters. I find the default color mode oversaturated, especially in blue skies, which look extremely fake much of the time. I shoot almost exclusively with the Leica Natural color filter or in log and color-grade later.

Battery life seems pretty even for both Luna models. I recorded 4K/24-fps footage outdoors for two hours and 55 minutes. Ambient temps were about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and I kept the camera out of direct sun for the test. The handle got pretty warm, but it didn't overheat. Even indoors, in a continuous shooting scenario like an interview, I don't think you'd have any issues with battery life or overheating on either camera. Sadly, the battery isn't replaceable, so you can't quickly swap one when it's dead. You can use a portable battery to keep it charged, but that makes the setup cumbersome.

Ultra Zoom

The Ultra's telephoto (zoom) lens uses a second but smaller 1/1.3-inch sensor. It has a 3X optical zoom (60-mm equivalent on a full-frame lens) but can reach up to 15X via digital zoom (300-mm equivalent). The Ultra launched with 12X digital zoom, but a firmware update increased it to 15X.

At first, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the zoom lens. If you're filming yourself (which I am loath to do, but never mind that), you don't need a zoom lens; the 20-mm is just about perfect. The zoom really comes in handy when shooting B-roll. Another scenario Insta360 touts is recording concerts or other live events from far away.

As you'd expect, image quality suffers considerably with the digital zoom. The processor does its best to keep the image sharp, but even in the best scenarios, the loss of quality is noticeable.

If your videos benefit from a zoom lens, consider the external zoom attachment Insta360 recently released, which adds 1.5X to the optical zoom (4.5X total), or the equivalent of a 90-mm lens. Unlike digital zoom, the image remains much sharper, but in my testing, I found almost no discernible loss of image quality when I used both optical and digital zoom with the telephoto attachment, at up to 200 mm. If you max out the digital zoom, you'll be shooting with the equivalent of a 450-mm lens, but the image does start to get softer.

When it launched, the Luna Pro featured 4K vertical video, while the Ultra did not. But now Insta360 has added 4K vertical video to the Ultra with a firmware update.

Over the Moon

First, who needs the Luna or the Osmo Pocket products? The target users include solo filmmakers, journalists, and content creators. That's why you often see them used by YouTubers and multimedia journalists.

Second, which Luna should you buy? The Luna Pro is probably the better value for most users. You do lose the zoom lens, but that's about it, and you save $170. The Ultra only makes more sense if you want to shoot with a longer focal length, but I don't think going beyond the 3X optical zoom is worthwhile.

If you're primarily interested in shooting yourself while moving—think walking, riding, skateboarding, etc.—it's also fair to consider Insta360's X6 in this equation. It can shoot similarly stable video by cropping its 360 footage. While both Luna cameras produce marginally better-looking video, the X6's 360-degree footage lets you pan around the shot in post, offering considerably more flexibility. Coupling the X6 with the folding selfie handle gives you an experience similar to the Luna. The X6 is also waterproof and virtually indestructible, so it can function as an action camera and 360 camera. To my mind, the main question is, do you need the higher-quality video of the Lunas? If you do, then the Luna cameras are the clear winner.

Finally, there's the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 and 4 Pro (the latter also called the 4P). Neither is officially for sale in the US, but you can find them on Amazon through third-party resellers. However, if registration, repair, support, and warranty matter to you, the Insta360 Luna series is your safer bet. If you want the absolute max dynamic range, the Osmo Pocket 4P boasts 17 stops of dynamic range and supports DJI's D-Log 2 log format. That's better dynamic range than all but one or two other cameras on the market. If that's what you're after, there's no competition, though remember color grading will crush much of that range anyway.

Beyond dynamic range, the Luna and Osmo Pocket cameras are pretty evenly matched, and since only one is officially available in the US, this is an easy choice.