Macro Lens (Close-Up)for Insta360 AcePro 2
Insta360 AcePro 2 with Macro / Close-Up lens installed on the camera
Probably all action cameras have one common problem: lack of autofocus, due to cheap approach of action cameras manufactures - let’s use wide angle lens. This approach has advantages:
price is lower
no additional motors / autofocus parts which could fail
For this reason objects in distance up to about 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) from camera are not sharp. This is because wide angle lens have extensive (deep) depth of field, so from some distance all objects are in focus. But, for objects very close to action camera sharpness is usually not sufficient.
In a real scenario it means, that when you are recording yourself keeping the camera in hand, the distance between camera and your face is too close, and your face will not be as sharp as it could be. It is somehow sharp, probably enough for what you want it to use for, but it is not as sharp as objects further away.
To solve this problem you can buy some add-ons for action camera lens, usually produced by third party companies. The optical addons modify action camera ability to get proper sharpness for objects in some, usually fixed, distance.
Insta360 decided to use more sophisticated approach. They produced optical lens, with manual focus variable between 10 - 75 cm. So, it means, it works both for vlogging scenarios, and also for macro, where you can be as far away as 10cm from object and you get very sharp image.
What about objects further away than 75cm. Well, due to nature of wide angle lens, the objects are still in a satisfactory focus, so there is no need to change lens for objects at distance beyond 75cm.
Where to buy?
In general I recommend to buy a new lens, so you can be sure that surface is scratch-free, see the link below:
The quality of macro lens produced by Insta360 for Ace Pro 2 is very high, and it is made of metal and glass. After lens installation camera Ace Pro 2 provide colour picking. However, the focus estimation is based on contrast, and taking into account that we have vide angle lens with extensive depth of field, it means that the colour picking is not always reliable. Most of the time you can see that almost all is in perfect focus, which is not true.
Fortunately, that distances between 10cm and 75cm are usually easy to estimate. On top of that - a good news - when you set distance on the macro lens to 75cm, also objects beyond 75 cm are in satisfactory sharpness, and there is no need to replace macro lens with standard lens.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
very high build quality
manual focus functionality for distances 10-75cm
The lens solves problem not only for macro but also for close-up as such
comes with dedicated lens cap
solves problem of macro and video in general for distances below 1 metre (about 3 feet)
for most scenarios there is no need to replace the lens for objects much further away than 75cm
firmware provides focus peanking functionality, as much as possible for contrast based peaking for wide angle lens
Cons:
price (for United Kingdom it is £120 at time of writing the article), however, the price can be somehow justified due to the lens functionality and very high build quality
Would I recommend the lens? Yes, absolutely, macro and close-ups are very important for video.
