Insta360 Luna Ultra Hides A Mushy Auto-ISO Flaw DJI’s Pocket 4 Doesn’t Have, Philip Bloom Finds

Filmmaker Philip Bloom has flagged a serious image-quality fault in the Insta360 Luna Ultra that the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 simply does not share: when the Luna runs in any auto-ISO mode, it boosts the image with digital gain and then scrubs the resulting noise with heavy noise reduction, leaving footage that turns to mush. The detail vanishes, and you don’t find out until you offload the cards. Bloom, a working cinematographer who was sent review units of all three cameras, says Insta360 has told him a firmware fix is coming but gave no timeframe.

That single finding reframes a comparison most coverage has treated as a straight spec race. On paper the Luna Ultra looks like the more ambitious camera, with two lenses, 8K capture, and a detachable screen. In Bloom’s hands the cheaper, smaller, single-lens Pocket 4 is the one that behaves predictably under auto exposure, and for a paid shoot that reliability matters more than a resolution number on a box.

The video is not a full head-to-head. It is a filmmaker’s read on whether the one-camera Pocket 4 still earns a place now that dual-camera rivals exist, paired with an early Luna Ultra review and a heavily NDA-restricted look at DJI’s own dual-lens Osmo Pocket 4P.

The Luna Ultra’s auto-ISO mush is a workflow trap, not a cosmetic flaw

The problem appears whenever the Luna Ultra uses auto ISO of any kind, in standard profiles and in I-Log, across 8K and 4K and both lenses. Bloom traced the mechanism: when the camera hits a capped maximum auto ISO and still can’t reach the target exposure, it applies digital gain instead of simply letting the shot fall underexposed. That digital push creates noise, the camera then cleans it aggressively, and the fine detail goes with it.

Set the same ISO manually and the issue disappears, because manual ISO uses analog gain, which Bloom says looks genuinely nice. The trap is that the degradation is invisible on the camera’s small screen. You shoot what looks like a clean take, walk away happy, and discover the mush only in post. For anyone delivering to a client or uploading to a stock library, that is the worst kind of fault: silent until it has already cost you the footage.

By contrast, the Pocket 4 and Pocket 4P handle auto exposure and auto ISO cleanly. When they can’t reach the exposure, the shot is just darker. No hidden processing, no surprise. Insta360 told Bloom it has no plans to add the kind of in-camera sharpness and noise-reduction fine-tuning DJI offers, where he runs both settings at minus-2 to tame the image. He is openly hoping the company reconsiders, because the underlying I-Log image, when correctly exposed in manual, is lovely.

The Pocket 4 trades a step forward for a step sideways on slow motion

The Pocket 4 keeps the 1-inch sensor from the Pocket 3 and adds full D-Log in place of D-Log M, a 2x lossless zoom that now works while recording rather than forcing a stop, two physical shortcut buttons under the screen, a brighter display, longer battery life, faster charging, and 107GB of built-in storage. DJI lists the camera at 14 stops of dynamic range. The 2x mode delivers a 40mm-equivalent field of view from the 20mm lens and holds up well in good light, though Bloom is blunt that “lossless” is marketing on both brands: 4K resolution survives, fine detail takes a small hit.

The slow-motion story is more mixed. The Pocket 4 can now shoot 4K at up to 240fps with only a slight crop, and it looks good. The catch is that high-frame-rate footage is locked to the normal picture profile, which Bloom finds oversharpened and over-processed even with sharpness and noise reduction dialed all the way down. The Pocket 3 let him shoot 4K/120 in D-Log M; the Pocket 4 does not. Cutting that processed 240fps footage against his D-Log clips is, in his words, hard. He calls it one step forward and one step sideways.

One gripe carries through all three cameras: none lets you change ISO or shutter speed by swiping while recording in manual exposure. You have to stop, adjust, and probably miss the shot. Switching autofocus modes means a menu trip mid-take too. Bloom wants both brands to open up far more physical-button customization, and faults DJI for refusing to let users reassign the left button at all.

DJI’s NDA leaves the Pocket 4P half-reviewed outside Asia

Bloom is in the same awkward spot as every reviewer sent a Pocket 4P sample: the camera launched in Southeast Asia, full reviews and specs are already out from creators in those regions, but with no global release date he is bound by his NDA and his non-sponsored relationship with DJI. He could only show limited footage and discuss what is already public. The 4P pairs a brand-new 1-inch main sensor, which Bloom believes is an Omnivision part rather than the Sony sensors DJI has used to date, with a 60mm-equivalent f/1.8 telephoto on a 1/1.28-inch sensor.

That new main sensor uses LOFIC technology to hold extra highlight detail, which is what underpins DJI’s claimed 17 stops of dynamic range in the new D-Log2 profile. Bloom can’t measure the figure, but comparing the 4P’s D-Log2 against the Pocket 4’s D-Log, he confirms there is visibly more range there. The annoyance is that D-Log2 only works on the main camera. The 3x telephoto isn’t available at all in that profile, forcing a menu trip to switch back to standard D-Log whenever you want reach. DroneXL’s own comparison work has tracked how the Pocket 4P, Pocket 4, and Luna Ultra stack up across sensors, profiles, and price, and the dynamic-range gap is the clearest point in DJI’s favor.

Looking at DJI store pricing in Southeast Asia, Bloom notes DJI is substantially undercutting Insta360, especially on the combo, and expects the global gap to be narrower but still real. That tracks with what is already known: the Luna Ultra sells for $769.99 in the US, while the 4P opened for pre-order in China at CNY 3,799, roughly $525 at current rates. The two companies are also fighting in US court over whether the Luna line copied DJI’s Osmo Pocket design, a fight DJI opened as the Luna Ultra reached US shelves.

The Luna Ultra wins on reach, screen, and one decisive advantage

Set the mush problem aside and Bloom rates the Luna Ultra a genuinely great camera with real firsts for Insta360: its first gimbal camera with autofocus and its first to shoot 10-bit log. He praises the 3x telephoto, the 15cm close focus that opens up macro work, on-screen custom buttons that work in any orientation, a proper 4K vertical mode that rewrites metadata for correct playback, and a hard protective case in the box. He repeatedly needles DJI to follow on that last point, since DJI dropped its protective sleeve for a flimsy plastic gimbal clip.

On color, Bloom hands the Luna Ultra a point most DJI coverage skips. Its built-in profiles, used in I-Log with less processing, produce a more natural look than the DJI pockets, whose standard profiles are over-processed to the point that you have to shoot D-Log or D-Log2 just to get a clean image. He thinks DJI could fix this in a firmware pass by dialing back the oversharpening.

The Luna Ultra’s largest advantage has nothing to do with optics. It isn’t banned in the United States. Bloom states plainly this is why you won’t see the Pocket 4 or 4P sold there officially, and he points to a US-registered brand, Xtra, selling rebadged DJI-style cameras with minor design changes, including one that resembles the 4P. DroneXL covered that near-clone, the Muse 2 Pro, when it surfaced as a workaround for blocked American buyers.

DroneXL’s Take

Here is the part that should sting, and it has nothing to do with sensors. Philip Bloom, a working filmmaker with no reason to carry water for anyone, just spent a long video documenting a real flaw in the Insta360 camera and explaining why the DJI Pocket 4 is the more dependable tool under auto exposure. And the punchline is that most Americans can’t legally buy the camera that behaves better. They are funneled toward the Luna Ultra, the mush bug and all, or toward a grey-market import that voids the warranty, or toward a rebadged near-clone from a brand nobody had heard of a month ago.

This is the FCC Covered List doing exactly what we’ve argued it does. The policy is aimed at drones and national security. The casualty is an American creator standing in front of a pocket gimbal camera, blocked from the cheaper, better-handling option for reasons that have nothing to do with the camera in their hand. Insta360 didn’t win this slice of the US market by out-engineering DJI on auto ISO. Bloom’s own footage shows the opposite. It won because Washington handed it a distribution lane the category leader can’t use. That’s not merit. That’s a regulatory gift, and DroneXL has said so since the standard Pocket 4 launched in April.

None of which lets Insta360 off the hook. Shipping a camera that silently destroys detail in auto ISO and then telling reviewers a fix is coming with no date is the same pattern we keep seeing across this category. Bloom name-checks Nikon’s still-unfixed ZR for a reason. Promise the firmware, ship the bug, hope the early reviews bank the goodwill before anyone offloads the mush. Watch whether Insta360 actually ships that fix before the DJI Pocket 4P clears its tangle of US legal and regulatory hurdles, because if the 4P ever reaches American shelves with clean auto exposure and 17 stops, the Luna Ultra’s home-market head start evaporates fast. The better camera for a US buyer right now is the one DJI can’t sell them, and that should bother everyone who cares about this hobby.

Source: Philip Bloom on YouTube.

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.