I Took the Insta360 Luna Ultra on a Black Forest Road Trip

So together with my girlfriend, we're doing a little road trip here in Schwarzwald, also known as Black Forest in Germany. It's actually quite close, around one and a half hours away from where we live in Switzerland. And I had to decide between the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P or the Luna Ultra. And I decided to go with the Luna Ultra for one reason, the detachable remote controller, but I'm gonna get into that later. Now, we rented this tiny house. This is gonna be our toilet for the next couple of days. So we were really looking for a unique experience and we decided to come out here because we've never been here and do a little road trip. Let me just show you our room. Ciao, ciao. Bye. So I thought I'm gonna bring this camera with me, do a little travel vlog and share with you guys some tips on how I use this camera. And because I'm filming this entire video on the Luna Ultra, this way you can also see how it performs. It's actually really hot right now. That's why I'm using this umbrella. And right now we're gonna do some mini golf. Oh, shoot. Now, as we played the mini golf yesterday, I tried to capture a few different angles of me playing. The Luna Ultra really made it easy to set up the camera and capture different angles. The best setup was actually the head tracker, which just allowed me to be really in the moment, but I did also capture different perspectives using the built-in tripod legs and this made just a more dynamic shot. So I'm about to enter the black forest line, which is this long bridge you're seeing. And what better way to capture this with a POV shot? I've already got the earpiece mounted and the neck mount. So let's see how that looks like. I'm really glad I brought the POV head tracker with me because, you know, especially on a shaky bridge, you can easily lose the Ultra. So honestly, I'm really liking the POV head tracker. It just makes it so convenient to get POV shots as I, you know, have my hands free, really allowing me to just live the moment. And the setup is pretty straightforward. I can just hook it onto this neck strap and it holds pretty securely. And with the head tracker, it will follow my head movement. With the recent update, you're able to flip the Luna Ultra upside down so that when looking downwards, the gimbal isn't in the way. What I also realized is I can just leave the Luna Ultra on this neck strap. And whenever I need to quickly grab a shot, I could just pull it off and quickly grab that shot. And when I'm done, place it back in, which is super convenient. So the best way to achieve smooth camera movements with the Luna Ultra is to walk in a steady pace heel to toe. This way you avoid these up and down movements. And when you're starting out, it's best to just focus on linear camera movement where you move the camera, you know, from left to right, or starting at a low position and moving upwards or pushing forward. This way you can introduce camera movement into your shots without over-complicating things. I always like to add a bit of foreground so that those camera movements are more emphasized. And for more advanced shots, you can also try pushing the camera forward while tilting the camera up. Now a really cool feature of the Luna Ultra is the detachable remote controller that I'm using right now. And also it has a built-in mic, so this way I can record clean audio from a distance, which is great. The Luna Ultra makes it really easy for solo creators to film themselves as I have a live preview of what the camera is seeing. So what I'm gonna do next is film myself walking across this beautiful bridge, and I'm gonna use ActiveTrack for that. So I'm gonna double tap on my face and now ActiveTrack is enabled, and now I'm gonna capture the shot. And now I can also check if it's still following me and you should still be able to hear me right now. So everything is working perfectly right now. The other thing I wanna talk about is audio. Most of the time I use the internal mic like you're listening to right now. Whenever I'm close to the camera and do handheld vlogging, I think the internal mic sounds really good. And sometimes I switch over to the built-in mic on the remote controller, but you can actually also connect the Mic Pro from Insta360 if you do want a hands-free setup and even allows you to record internally as a backup. What's also great about the Mic Pro is that once I turn it on, it immediately connects to the Luna Ultra, no receiver required. So right now you're listening to the Mic Pro and I've hooked it on to my sling bag. I can now talk hands-free and the audio quality should sound pretty good. I would say 80% of the time I use the internal mic since it sounds really good. And if I do need a hands-free setup, I switch over to the Mic Pro. So this castle or once a castle, it's now a ruin, is called Hohenschrammberg. And you've got this really beautiful viewpoint from up here. But the big problem is that it's super hot right now. It's around 32 degree. So it's not really fun to walk around right now. And this brings me to my next tip is to find a shaded area when you're vlogging. By filming in a shaded area like I am right now, the lighting is more even. I don't have to squint my eyes and I don't sweat as much. Whereas when I stand in the sun, vlogging isn't as fun anymore. I lose a lot of energy, potentially getting sunburned. So that said, always try to find a shaded area like so. So now we arrived at the old town called Schiltach. And I'm actually gonna capture some shots of the old town during sunset. That is where the sun is at its lowest and you get more of that soft lighting and also vivid colors in your shots. When you film during that time, every shot just looks cinematic. And they say that this is one of the most beautiful old towns in Schwarzwald. And I do think it is. It's really charming. You got these old houses and you got this beautiful river and it's just really peaceful. Now, what you have to try when you come to Schwarzwald is the Black Forest Cake. Here we go. Now, one thing to mention is when you're filming in a shaded area, you also want your background to be in shade. Otherwise, it'll have this high contrast and the background will be blown out, which won't look as pleasing. So to give you an example, let me just change my position. And as you can see, when I film towards this side, you can see that the background is blown out. So try to avoid that. So right now we're zip lining. And in order to film myself, I'm gonna use the ultra wide angle lens and attach it. So right now I'm using the main lens, which gives me a 20 millimeter focal length. And when I now attach it, you can see that we have a wider field of view. This way I can fit more in the frame. I'm also gonna track myself by double tapping on my face. This way, when I move my head, it keeps me centered in the frame. So this is the zip line. So super excited. I'm just waiting for the last person to arrive and then it's my turn. Now, also important is to have a wrist strap. This way your camera won't fall. All right, time to go. Side fly, attach it. This looks secure to me. Whoa! Holy ----! That was good? Yeah, let's move on to the next one. Yes! Look at the view, guys! Now regarding camera settings, I haven't mentioned it in this video because I've already made a video about it, which I'll link in the video description below. Now, if you ever come to Schwarzwald, go check out the zip line. It was a lot of fun. So this is our last day and we're now at Schluchsee and we brought our stand-up paddle with us. So I'm gonna set this up. This is actually a good example where you need a wireless mic, as I need my hands free to set up the stand-up paddle. Super nice here. Now, like I said before, the Luna Ultra isn't really ideal for water sport activities. An action cam that is waterproof would be more ideal for this scenario. But yeah, so for my last tip, when I talk about something in my vlog, I usually think about also the B-rolls that I need to capture. So as an example, when I talk about going out with the stand-up paddle, I show how I set it up, go out into the water. You don't have to capture that many B-rolls, just a few. And speaking of B-roll, I actually happened to capture establishing shot of the Schluchsee. So as an example, I'm gonna capture this little hut up there. And what's also cool is that I can zoom in if I want to, and that's it. Now, by the way, if you're interested in the colors that you're seeing right now, I created my own iLok LUT pack where you can instantly achieve a cinematic look with one click. You don't need a conversion LUT, you can just apply it to your iLok footage. There are actually two packs available. The Essential LUT pack, which will give you a natural look in your video. And you have three options. There's standard, rich, and fade. And then there's the iLok Creative LUT pack, which gives you a stylized look in your videos. Also included are my go-to settings for the Luna Ultra. This way you can set it once and forget. And these also work really well with those LUTs so that you can achieve the same results as you're seeing in my videos. So if you're interested, the link is in the video description below. So I think I'm gonna end this vlog for today. We really had a great time here in Schwarzwald. I'm definitely gonna come back here again, probably during autumn. I think it's gonna look really nice. But other than that, it was really fun taking the Luna Ultra with me. I think it's a great camera for capturing your travel vlogs. It's just super easy to use, convenient, and fits in your pocket. Now, if you guys have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you so much for watching, guys. I'm gonna enjoy the rest of the day. Take care and see you in the next video.