Insta360 Luna Ultra brings dual lenses to the pocket-gimbal fight

The Insta360 Luna Ultra has brought dual lenses, 8K capture and a detachable screen to the pocket-gimbal category, beating DJI’s rumoured Pocket Pro to the punch in the process.

But for most of us, who does it first is less important than whether those upgrades make sense for the price of an entry flagship phone.

A pocket gimbal camera used to be a simple proposition: a tiny stabilised camera, a wide lens, good tracking, and footage that does not look like your phone was mounted on a very restless corgi.

DJI has become the obvious reference point for that formula, and the current Osmo Pocket 4 recipe is already pretty spicy. On top of a compact gimbal, you get a 1-inch sensor, 4K/240 fps for super-slow motion, 10-bit D-Log for those who want to colour grade, 107GB of built-in storage and a mature active-tracking focus system (ActiveTrack 7.0).

On paper, Insta360’s Luna Ultra is the natural upgrade. Priced at SGD 969, the Leica co-engineered handheld gimbal camera features a 1-inch 8K main camera, a secondary telephoto camera, 3-axis stabilisation and a detachable 2-inch OLED touchscreen.

But what does the extra hardware actually bring to the table?

The second lens changes the pitch

The most important Luna Ultra feature is not Leica branding, AI tracking or even 8K — it’s the second lens.

Pocket gimbals are usually wide-angle-first devices, and that’s been largely fine since they often have enough pixels to crop in for a simulated zoom without losing much quality. Luna Ultra adds a secondary telephoto lens system with a 1/1.3-inch sensor and F2.0 aperture. Insta360 says Luna Ultra covers five focal lengths, with up to 12x / 240mm zoom, including 6x / 120mm lossless zoom.

That means, on top of the walk-and-talk camera thing, you now have another toolbox to cover detailed close-up shots of food, distant landscape details, and a more ‘compressed’ look where the background feels closer to your subject.

Not everyone needs that, but if you have ever felt trapped by the sole wide, slightly too close look of pocket-gimbal footage, this is your solution.

8K is useful, but not magic

Luna Ultra’s other headline is 8K/30 fps recording from its 1-inch main camera. It also supports Dolby Vision and 10-bit I-Log, while Insta360 claims up to 14 stops of dynamic range.

Most people will agree that 8K is largely unnecessary as a content standard. But here, you get more room to crop, reframe, and downsample footage (better detail) in post-production, especially since the final export is typically 4K or lower; you can shoot fairly wide and crop quite aggressively. This is ideal for people who prefer having cropping headroom or fine-tuning in post-production. That said, it remains to be seen if the video quality stands up to aggressive cropping, as it is, after all, just a one-inch sensor.

The DJI Osmo Pocket doesn’t support 8K, but it offers 4K/240 fps slow motion, which some creators may prefer for a more dramatic slowdown. Having a more conventional 4K/120 fps slow motion on the Luna Ultra isn’t quite a deal-breaker, but it makes the choice simpler for some.

A detachable monitor, controller, and mic

Luna Ultra also has what Insta360 calls an industry-first detachable 2-inch OLED touchscreen, with remote monitoring and control over HD transmission up to 20 metres.

This is arguably one of the best features for solo creators for shooting interviews or awkward low and high angles. The detachable touchscreen doubles up as a monitor, controller, and a microphone. Putting questions about latency and connection reliability aside, this addition gives the Luna Ultra considerably more versatility.

Launched with most key accessories

Insta360 has also announced a suite of accessories that most creators will likely want.

The Wide-Angle Lens expands the field of view to 108°, giving Luna Ultra a wider perspective for interiors, group shots, walk-and-talk footage and establishing scenes. That gives the camera an additional option at the opposite end of the focal length spectrum.

The ND filter is a must-have for outdoor shoots to control shutter speed and exposure, while the Black Mist filter adds a stylistic option by softening the image and highlights.

The POV Head Tracker lets Luna Ultra track natural head movements for hands-free POV-style capture when used with compatible mounts.

Singapore price and availability

The Insta360 Luna Ultra is expensive for a pocket gimbal, but it does have a clear answer to the question, “Why buy this when I can get an entry-flagship phone to do the same job?”

If you’re getting that for the cameras anyway, the Luna Ultra offers a more purpose-built video camera, complete with telephoto reach, remote monitoring, and a built-in gimbal.

Available in Cosmic Black and Stellar White, Luna Ultra is offered in six bundle options through the Insta360 Store, with Shopee, Lazada, and selected retailers also listed as Singapore sales channels. Prices start from SGD 969.