Many people will snack on something like potato chips. Personally, I prefer Ruffles Original. But, 160 calories from just 12 chips is unacceptable.
Here are some healthier and/or low calorie alternatives.
Celery Sticks with Garlic Hummus
The hummus comes in at 60 calories per 2 tbsp. That seems like a lot but at least they are healthy calories rather than empty ones. Celery sticks are only 7 calories per stick and they mostly contains water.
Edamame
This is an interesting type of food. It has the same amount of protein as meat. It often comes precooked so you just need to heat it up. Eating it involves removing the pod and eating the peas. The fact that you have to remove the pod can limit your consumption since it takes time. The taste is pretty neutral. Half a cup is only 94 calories.
Pasta can be a very filling and tasty meal to have. But, the pasta itself is high in carbs and calories. For example, angle hair pasta (my favorite) has 200 calories per serving.
Fortunately, there are substitutes for pasta that taste almost exactly like pasta. For example, Costco sells Healthy Noodles. On the box, there’s a recipe for Italian Marinara using these healthy noodles. The noodles are precooked and each box contains 6 packs.
Nutrition-wise, they only contain 30 calories per serving. Plus, it’s got zero carbs because all of the carbs are from fiber which doesn’t get digested by the body and simply passes through. This is ideal if you are on the Keto diet.
Preparation is very easy. Just rinse the noodles and use them since they’re precooked. I tried this out with Rao’s marinara sauce and surprisingly, it tasted about 90% the same as regular pasta. I still prefer the taste of regular pasta, but for the calories saved by using Healthy Noodles, it’s worth the small difference in taste.
You can also try Shirataki Noodles by Miracle Noodle. They sell an angel hair style noodle containing only 5 calories per serving. No wonder it’s called Miracle Noodle!
UPDATE: I actually tried making pasta with Miracle Noodle Angel Hair style noodles. The shape wasn’t like angle hair pasta at all but more like spaghetti. More importantly, the texture wasn’t particularly good. It was too sticky. I think the Healthy Noodle option above tastes better.
You can also Nasoya Pasta Zero spaghetti but like the Miracle Noodle Angel Hair style noodles, I didn’t care for the texture which tasted like rubber.
I just came back from Istanbul and wanted to make a video using my new Insta360 ONE X2 360-degree camera. To make viewers feel like they’re joining me on the trip, I wanted to include video clips showing movement from one place to another. This was easy to do using Google Earth Pro on desktop. Here’s are some examples.
In the video below, there are 4 “places”
San Francisco (zoomed in)
San Francisco (zoomed out to space)
Istanbul (zoomed out to space)
Istanbul (zoomed in)
Here’s how to make the video.
Add “Places”
To add a place, you can search for the place using the Search field. Then, zoom in or out to your desired elevation. When you like the view of the place, click the “Add Placemark” button to add a yellow pin to the place. If you want the place label to appear in the map, check the checkbox beside the place name.
If you right click on a place under “My Places” and click on “Properties”, you can rename the place, change the camera elevation (range), etc.
Record a Tour
When you’re done adding places, click the Record a Tour button in the toolbar.
This will open a record.
Click on the first place (San Francisco) and then click the red Record button. Then, click on each place in the order you want them to appear in the video. Google Earth 3D will animate from one place to another as you are recording in real time. When you are done, click the Record button again to stop recording. You’ll then see a video player control bar.
Click the Play button to play the video. If you are happy with it, click the floppy disk (seriously, Google?) button to save the video. It will add a video item to the list of places.
Export the Video
To export the video, click Tools > Movie Maker. If it is grayed out, close the video player control bar.
Specify a file path and name, choose video parameters (e.g. 1080p), and an output file type (e.g. H.264), and then click the “Create Movie” button.
Convert Video
The video will be exported but you may not be able to open it in certain applications like Corel VideoStudio even though it opens in VLC. To fix this, install Handbrake and convert the video to MP4 format.
Other Examples
You can make videos from other angles and elevations as well. For example, if you hold the Shift key and drag, you can rotate your view. Then, add a place marker at the view you want to save. Google Earth Pro will animation smoothly from each place marker. For example, here’s a video going from the Sulemaniye mosque to the Grand Bazaar.
After visiting Istanbul (aka Kebab Heaven) for 8 days, I think I’ve come up with an itinerary for anyone who only has 3 days there.
Note: check open / close times as not everything is open every day 24 hours a day.
Recommended Hotel
Mercure Istanbul Sirkeci Hobyar, Muhzirbaşı Sk. No6, 34112 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
This hotel is in the perfect location as it’s in the middle of most places you’ll want to visit and there are a ton of restaurants and tourist services nearby.
Junior Suite
Day 1
9:00 AM – Breakfast
Have breakfast at the hotel and/or eat at one of the many nearby restaurants. My favorite breakfast which most people would enjoy is Menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs) which you eat with bread.
Breakfast at the hotelMenemen
10:00 AM – Baklava
If you have time, stop by and get some Baklava. One famous place that you’ll find all over Istanbul is Hafiz Mustafa just around the corner from the hotel.
If this is your first time in Istanbul, it’s helpful to go on a quick tour to get an idea of where everything is and what the city is like. The BIG BUS will also cross the bridge connecting Europe to Asia. If you’re staying at the Mercure hotel, then catch the bus at 11:00 AM at Eminonu which is just 10 minutes away by foot.
Note: in the screenshot below, Google Maps says you need to walk across the bridge and back and that the walk would take 27 minutes. That’s incorrect. You don’t need to cross the bridge, and the walking time is more like 10 minutes.
Note: The first stop is at Sultanahmet Square and the 2nd stop is at Eminonu (near the hotel). Most people will get on at Sultanahmet Square and sit on the upper deck. By the time the bus gets to stop #2 (Eminonu), the upper deck will most likely be full. You can wait until someone goes down (usually at Dolmabahce Palace) and then move to the upper deck. Or, get on the bus at the starting point (Sultanahmet Square).
https://www.bigbustours.com/en/istanbul/classic-istanbul-tour-ticket 1 Day: $56 per person 2 Days: $67 per person 3 Days: $75 per person Red Route: First Tour: 11:00 from Stop #20: Sultanahmet Square Last Tour: 17:00 from Stop #20: Sultanahmet Square Full Circuit Duration: 2 hours (approx.) Bus Frequency: every 60 minutes (approx.) Bus Stops
Stop #2 is Eminonu
1:00 PM – Get Off at Sultanahmet Square
Sultanahmet Square is between the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sophia. The Aya Sophia is next to Topkapi Palace. Get off the bus here so you can visit all 3 places at once.
1:15 PM – Grilled Corn on the Cob
The Blue Mosque is closed to visitors during prayer times. Whether it’s closed or not, pick up some grilled corn and have a snack at Sultanahmet Square.
1:30 PM – The Blue Mosque
Walk over to the Blue Mosque and check out this building which was built in 1616.
Note: there is often construction going on so some or all parts may be inaccessible.
2:30 PM – Aya Sophia
Check out this building which was built in 537 as a church. It later became at mosque and then a museum and then a mosque again in 2020.
3:30 PM – Topkapi Palace
This is a palace. Personally, I didn’t care for it much, but for the sake of completeness, we checked it out anyway. Some of the rooms were interestingly decorated as were some of the ancient items on display.
5:30 PM – Dinner
When you leave Topkapi Palace, there is a nearby restaurant you can have dinner at. I haven’t eaten there yet but the food looks good and the place looks exotic.
The Han Restaurant Cankurtaran, Alemdar Cd. No:20, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
Try the Testi Kebap, which is made in a clay pot, or the meter-long Kebap
Testi KebapMeter-long Kebap
8:00 PM – Shisha and Sahlep
Right in front of the Mercure hotel is a cafe. Stop by for shisha and sahlep before calling it a day.
Day 2
9:00 AM – Breakfast
If you can, try to find a place that has Katmer, a pistachio pastry. It’s really good but hard to find.
11:00 AM – Egyptian Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı)
Walk 10 minutes to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. It’s a very photogenic place.
If you are still hungry, try Tantuni (chicken or beef sandwich or roll) located just outside the bazaar.
or, try Pide with eggs nearby.
Mavi Halic Pidecisi Sarıdemir, Kutucular Cd. No:28, 34134 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday: 8 AM to 6:30 PM Google Map Order kıymalı yumurtalı pide
Walk from the Egyptian Spice Bazaar to Mavi Halic Pidecisi
12:30 PM – Go to Sulemaniye Mosque
You can take a taxi, but traffic may be so bad that you’ll end up walking part of the way. If you walk from the Egyptian market to the Sulemaniye Mosque, you’ll be walking through an ancient market for part of the way, but you’ll also be walking uphill, which can be tiring.
1:30 PM – Visit Sulemaniye Mosque
Check out this building, which was built in 1558.
2:30 PM – Walk to the Grand Bazaar
From the Sulemaniye Mosque, you can easily walk to the Grand Bazaar as the walk is either on level ground or downhill. For half the way, you’ll be again walking through a VERY busy, ancient-looking market.
3:00 PM – The Grand Bazaar
Check out this labyrinth of colorful covered markets that was built in 1481.
Grand Bazaar Kapalı Çarşı Beyazıt, Kalpakçılar Cd. No:22, 34126 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey https://www.kapalicarsi.com.tr/
Since you’ll have walked a bit, take a break in the bazaar for some delicious Turkish coffee.
7:00 PM – Whirling Dervishes Show
The Hodjapasha Cultural Center is located near the Mercure Hotel (5-minute walk). If you’re curious, you can watch a whirling dervishes show where Sufi Muslims spin around without getting dizzy and falling.
Note: I watched this because I was curious, but I was also bored and fell asleep. Watch at your own risk.
8:30 PM – Rhythm of the Dance Show
This show is also at the Hodjapasha Cultural Center. This show was very much worth watching. Highly recommend!
9:30 PM – Dinner
Since the recommended restaurants below are next door to the Hodjapasha Cultural Center, you can have dinner before or after the shows. One place that gets many good reviews and that I personally liked is
Şehzade Cağ Kebap Open every day 11AM–10PM except Sundays Hoca Paşa, Hoca Paşa Sk. No:6 D:4, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
Though tasty, it’s not very filling. At $3.50, consider it an appetizer, then go next door to fill you up with something like Iskendar Kebap or mixed grill at
Kasap Osman Hoca Paşa, Hoca Paşa Sk. No:22, 34110, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
Iskendar Kebap
Day 3
9:00 AM – Breakfast
For a change, walk 4 minutes from the Mercure Hotel to this restaurant.
Near Taksim Square, on Istiklal Cadessi, have lunch at Sütiş Kebap Dünyası (Kabab World).
Note: Don’t eat too much because there’s another place nearby you have to try.
Sütiş Kebap Dünyası Katip Mustafa Çelebi, İstiklal Cd. No:13, 34433 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
I had the Iskendar Kebap and Domatesli (Tomato) Kebap and both were extremely good.
Iskendar KebapDomatesli Kebap
2:00 PM – Walk Along Istiklal Cadessi
This street is closed to vehicles except for trams that run along its length.
2:15 PM – Lunch (Part 2)
I know you just had lunch, but this second lunch is light if you eat it without the bread. The place is right off of Istiklal Cadessi.
Lades Menemen Katip Mustafa Çelebi, Mahallesi, Sadri Alışık Sk. 11/12 11/12 11 D:12, 34435 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey http://lades.com.tr/ Open everyday 7AM–11PM Google Map Order Menemen with Turkish Sausage or mixed Menemen
2:45 PM – (Turkish) Coffee Break
Continue walking along Istiklal Cadessi and stop by this cafe for some Turkish coffee.
Continue walking along Istiklal Cadessi until you reach the Galata Tower (built in 1348).
5:00 PM – Galata Bridge
Continue walking along the main path until you get to the Galata Bridge. Walk across the bridge to the other side.
6:00 PM – Bosphorus Tour
Near the government ferry terminal you’ll see a Bosphorus Tour boat. Pay 25 Turkish Lira for the 90-minute tour. Boats leave every hour on the hour.
8:00 PM – Dinner
Walk across the Galata bridge then to the right where you’ll see a bunch of waterfront restaurants. Pick one where you can dine on the top floor with a nice view, e.g.
Paradise Restaurant Karaköy Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa, Rıhtım Cd. 25/A, 34425 Karaköy Beyoğlu/Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
9:30 PM – Baklava
Continue walking a short distance to
Karaköy Güllüoğlu Kemankeş Cad. Katlı Otopark Altı No: 3-4, 34425 Beyoğlu, Turkey Open every day from 7 AM to 1 AM Google Map
Have some baklava and Turkish tea. Then, buy a lot of baklava to bring home.
More Food
If you have time, here is some more food to try.
Dönerci Şahin Usta Mollafenari, Kılıçcılar Sk. No:5, 34120 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday 11 am to 5 pm except Sundays Google Map
Ayla Tantuni Asmalımescit Tomtom, İstiklal Cd., 34433 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday 24 hours Google Map
Dürümzade Hüseyinağa, Kamer Hatun Cd. 26/A, 34435 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday 10AM–1AM Google Map
Van Kahvaltı Evi Kılıçali Paşa, Defterdar Ykş. 52/A, 34425 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday: 8 AM to 5 PM Google Map Order Gozleme
Tarihi Leziz Pide Fırını Demirtaş Mahallesi, Kuvel Oğlu Han, Kıble Çeşme Caddesi, Fatih, İstanbul (Near Sulaimaniye Mosque) Instagram M-F: 10 AM – 7 PM Sat, Sun: Closed Google Map Order Pide
Karadeniz Döner Asım Usta Sinanpaşa, Mumcu Bakkal Sokağı No:6, 34353 Beşiktaş/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map Open everyday 10:30 AM to 6 PM except Sundays Order Doner kabab
In October 2021, I visited Istanbul, Turkey to indulge in Turkish food. Below are some of the places I visited with my personal rating of how good each food tasted on a scale of 1 to 10. Some of the restaurants we visited were highly rated by others but we found them to be not as good as some unknown, hole-in-the-wall places. You can find the same type of food all over Istanbul as there are restaurants and street vendors everywhere. But, the pictures on display can be deceiving as the taste can vary greatly from one place to another.
Cağ Kebap
Şehzade Cağ Kebap Hoca Paşa, Hoca Paşa Sk. No:6 D:4, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Google Map
Rating: 9
This place specializes in Cağ Kebap. The cost for 2 skewers and lavash bread is TL 34 (US$ 3.83). The meat was especially good. Unlike traditional doner kabab on a vertical spit, this one is on a horizontal spit.
This place specializes in Baklava. I found their to be just okay. Definitely not as good as Karaköy Güllüoğlu. The triangular baklava costs 17 TL ($1.85) and the square baklavas costs 14 TL ($1.53).
This place is well known as one of the best, if not the best, baklava restaurant in Istanbul. They only have one location in Istanbul, unlike Hafiz Mustafa, which is everywhere. Karaköy Güllüoğlu does have really good Baklava BUT their ordering process is chaotic.
For to-go orders, you can order first and they charge by weight. The problem is they are so busy that it’s hard to tell them which type of baklava you want because there’s so many people in your way. For to-go orders, they will shrink wrap the boxes or aluminum containers with plastic so nothing leaks.
For dine-in orders, you have to pay first. The problem is they will charge you for whatever items you ask for regardless of whether any of the items are still available. I ordered a few different types of baklava and paid for them but when I gave my receipt to the workers behind the counter, they said that they ran out of a few things I paid for and had to substitute them with other things.
For one of the best baklava shops in Istanbul, they really need to do a better job with their ordering process. Maybe have a numbering system where you take a number and just wait to be called rather than have people walking all over the place looking confused. The ordering process was so lame that I didn’t even want to eat there so we just ordered to go and ate at the hotel. The baklava is really good though so we had to buy a bunch to bring back home.
Kofte (Turkish Meatballs)
Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi Selim Usta Alemdar, Divan Yolu Cd. No:12, 34110 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Open every day, 10:30AM–11PM Google Map
One food guide recommended this place which is located across the street from Sultanahmet Square. It’s supposed to specialize in Kofte (Turkish meatballs) as the name of the restaurant has the word “Kofte” in it. Ironically, the Kofte was just okay. Instead, the shish kabab was actually pretty good and tender.
Kofte Rating: 5 Shish Kabab Rating: 8
Left: grilled Kofte. Right: Shish kabab
Shisha and Sahlab
There’s this cafe directly in front of the hotel we stayed at (The Mercure Istanbul Sirkeci). Among other things, they offer shisha (hookah) and sahlab / sahlep. Both were exceptional.
One food guide recommended this place for its pide. Unfortunately, I found it to be just okay.
Mavi Halic Pidecisi Sarıdemir, Kutucular Cd. No:28, 34134 Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey Open everyday: 8 AM to 6:30 PM Google Map
Pide Rating: 10
This place is located in a small alleyway full of shops in what looks like an ancient marketplace. This time I ordered the pide (Turkish pizza) with eggs on top. The eggs were cooked just how I like them – somewhat runny. The entire pide including the eggs was very good.
Menemen (Turkish Egg Scramble)
Lades Menemen Katip Mustafa Çelebi, Mahallesi, Sadri Alışık Sk. 11/12 11/12 11 D:12, 34435 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey http://lades.com.tr/ Open everyday 7AM–11PM Google Map
Menemen Rating: 10
This place is located just off of the famous Istiklal Cadessi (Independence St). They specialize in Menemen (Turkish eggs scramble) as the word Menemen is in its name. I ordered the kind with Turkish sausage. It was exceptionally good. I would have ordered it twice but was afraid I’d get too full to try other food on the schedule for the day. If you visit Istanbul, definitely visit this place as you will most likely visit Istiklal Cadessi. It cost 25 Turkish Lira (US$3).
Kokorec (Intestines)
We weren’t planning on eating grilled intestines but since the place we intended to eat at was closed, we gave this place a try. The grilled intestines looked good but I didn’t really care for the taste.
This coffee shop is located in a small alleyway just off of the famous Istiklal Cadessi (Independence St). A visit to this place was totally worth it as the coffee was exceptional.
In Istanbul, you can find many street vendors selling Turkish Coffee in ancient looking stands.
We stopped by this place to try their meat. I’m glad we did because it was some of the best meat we’ve had in Istanbul! It cost 53 Turkish Lira (US$6).
This place is a little pricey for Istanbul standards – probably because it’s in the tourist area. The food there is okay.
Tantuni (Turkish Meat Sandwich)
Tantuni Rüstem Paşa, Yeni Cami Cd. No:39, 34116 Fatih/İstanbul
Beef Tantuni Rating: 8.5
This place specializes in Tantuni (Turkish sandwich). They offer both chicken and beef sandwiches. I ordered the beef. It was pretty good.
Kunafe (Turkish Sweet)
We found a Kunafe shop near Misr Carsisi (Egyptian Spice Market). We ordered Kunafe with cream. It was pretty good.
Kunafe Rating: 9
Sahlep (Hot Turkish Milk Drink)
We found this waterfront cafe in the Karakoy area of Istanbul facing the Bosphorus Straight. Whenever you see these golden dispensers, you’ll normally find sahlab. Unfortunately, this one didn’t take very good at all.
This place has some of the best kababs in Istanbul. We tried their Domatesli kebap which means “Kebab with Tomato” and it was especially good! It cost 55 Turkish Lira (US$6).
Real Fruit Juice
We came across this fruit juice seller near one of the entrances of the Egyptian Spice Market. We ordered the mixed juice and it was really good.
Mixed Fruit Juice Rating: 10
Conclusion
If you’re going to visit Istanbul, I highly recommend you visit the places.
Lades Menemen (order mixed Menemen)
Sütiş Kebap Dünyası (order Iskendar kebab, Domatesli kebap, and pretty much any other meat item)
This article is based on using the Insta360 ONE X2. Let’s say you want to make a video tour of your house. You’re not a pro, you don’t want to spend a lot of money, you don’t really know what you’re doing, but you do want a video tour of each room of your house for marketing purposes, for example. Here’s an example of a house tour but only showing one room (area) – the backyard.
Here’s one easy way to do it using the Insta 360 ONE X2.
Put the camera on a tripod in a room
For this example, I put the camera in the backyard as shown below.
Start recording and leave the room
In post editing, we’ll trim the beginning of the video so you’re not in it.
Wait a while, e.g. 40 seconds
It’s up to you how long you want to wait. In the video above, the duration is 18 seconds. If you mess up and the video is too short, you can slow it down in post editing to twice the duration or 4 times the duration. In the example backyard video above, the duration is 37 seconds.
Go back into the room and stop recording
In post editing, we’ll trim the end of the video so you’re not in it.
Transfer the video to your computer
I just use a USB-C cable to transfer the video. Note that each video has 3 files because the video is unstitched and has the proprietary .insv (Insta360 Video) file extension.
Edit the video in Insta360 Studio
Open the video (you can just open one of the 3 insv files) and start editing.
Enable Flowstate Stabilization (although maybe that’s not necessary since the camera is static on a tripod)
Move the left trim marker to where you want the video to begin (the point after you’ve left the room)
Move the right trim marker to where you want the video to end (the point before you reenter the room)
Set the aspect ratio to 16:9 (standard TV screen size)
Add 5 keyframes (indicated in yellow circles) on the timeline with the following specs
Keyframe 1
Timestamp = beginning of video in timeline Pan angle = 0° View = Natural view
Keyframe 2
Timestamp = 25% of the duration of the video from the beginning Pan angle = 90° View = Natural view
Keyframe 3
Timestamp = 50% of the duration of the video from the beginning Pan angle = 180° View = Natural view
Keyframe 4
Timestamp = 75% of the duration of the video from the beginning Pan angle = 270° View = Natural view
Keyframe 5
Timestamp = end of the video in the timeline Pan angle = 360° View = Natural view
Insta360 Studio converts 360° to 1×0°.
Choose a transition
Between each keyframe, you can click on the yellow line to pick a transition type. The default is “Smooth Dissolve” which is recommended.
Adjust video speed
If the video is too short or too long, you can slow it down (2x or 4x) or speed it up (2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 16x, 32x, 64x). Just click the lightning icon and drag from the beginning to the end of the clip. Then click on the pink bar to change the speed.
Export the video
In the dialog box, you can choose either H.264 or H.265.
H.265 produces a smaller file size but takes longer to render compared to H.264 for the same level of video quality.
For example, for an 18 second video
H.264 – 85 MB
H.265 – 55 MB
If you’re just going to upload the video to YouTube, then you might want to just pick H.264 since the time to upload a larger file may be quicker than the extra time to render in H.265. Rendering the video will stitch the video together and produce a mp4 file which can be opened and viewed in most video applications.
Repeat for each room or area of the house
Once you’ve editing the videos for each room and exported them as MP4s, you can use any regular non-360 video editor to combine the clips together, add background music, text overlays, etc.
Here’s an example of the master bathroom with additional rotation to show the ceiling.
Again, the camera was just placed in the center of the room.
Have you ever wanted to take a picture of something but weren’t sure if it was allowed or felt unsure if people would be offended if they saw you point your camera at them? If so, one way around this is by taking pictures using a 360° camera like the Insta360 ONE X2.
Since the camera can take a picture of everything around you, you can point the camera at a 90° angle or 180° away from the object you want to take a picture of. Then, in post editing, just drag the picture around to face the object of interest and click the snapshot button to export a regular, flat picture. By pointing your camera away and looking away from your object of interest, no one would know that you’re actually taking a picture of something else.
This is my usual workflow when filming and editing 360 videos using the Insta360 ONE X2/X3 and Corel VideoStudio Pro.
Hold or Mount the Camera
Selfie Stick in Hand
When I’m walking, I like to hold the selfie stick in my left (or right) hand with the stick extended such that the camera lens is at face height. Optionally, the point of interest could be behind me. In post-production reframing, I could rotate the view to sometimes face me and sometimes face some other direction.
Selfie Stick on Tripod
In certain situations, I’ll turn the selfie stick into a tripod and place it on the floor/ground or on a table.
Chest Mount (Body Cam)
When I don’t want to hold the camera for a long time or when I don’t want people to know that I’m filming them, e.g. when boarding an airplane, when standing in a subway car or bus, when buying something, etc, I’ll mount my camera to my chest.
This mode lets you push the shutter button to do two things at once
Turn on the camera and start recording
Turn off the camera and stop recording
While traveling, this can be really handy since you won’t have to waste time clicking two different buttons and waiting in between.
The recording mode will be the last mode used. If you switched the mode to timelapse and then turned off the camera, then the shutter button will turn on the camera and start recording in timelapse mode, not regular video mode.
Enable Standard Video Mode
This mode is for regular video shooting. Other modes are HDR, Timelapse, Timeshift and Bullet Time. HDR is only good for when you are filming on a tripod and not moving.
Disable Prompt Sound
By default, when you turn on and off the camera or start and stop recording, you will hear an annoying beep. Disable this “Prompt Sound”. To know whether the camera is on, off, or recording, just look at the light status.
Light off = camera off
Light solid blue = camera on
Light slowly flashing red = filming in progress
Press The Shutter Button to Start Filming
Fingerprints on the lenses can result it blurry videos. Always wipe the lenses with a clean lens cloth before filming.
When you are out and about traveling and you want to start filming, just press the shutter button once. Since Quick Capture will be enabled, you won’t need to turn the camera on first. Note that there is a bit of a delay before the camera actually starts recording.
Press The Shutter Button to Stop Filming
When you are done filming, just press the shutter button once again. Since Quick Capture will be enabled, you won’t need to turn the camera off as it will turn off automatically (and save battery).
Note: The latest Windows version of the Insta360 Studio app is version 4.3.0, which came out on 2022-05-24. The previous version is 4.2.2. I have found version 4.3.0 to have significant performance issues so I have reverted back to version 4.2.2 which performs just fine. See Insta360 Studio versions
Connect a USB cable between the camera and your computer. On Windows, it auto-detects the camera as an external drive. You can then copy and paste the .insv files. Note that each video contains 3 .insv files. For example, below there are actually only 2 videos.
Note that transferring video files from the Insta360 ONE X2 to your computer can be really slow. For example, when I transfer files from the Insta360 ONE X2 to my laptop over USB C, it transfers at about 30 MB/s.
Video files are huge. You may not have enough space on your laptop to store video files. And even if you did, you should have a backup, e.g. on an external SSD. I like the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable External SSD Flash Storage Drive, which claims to have a data transfer rate of up to 1050MB/s.
Import the .insv Files into Insta360 Studio
In the left pane, you will see thumbnails for all uploaded videos. .insv files are unstitched 360-degree files that can only be opened in the Insta360 Studio or mobile app.
Reframe the 360-Degree Video
In the right panel, you will have many options. Enable FlowState Stabilization so that the video isn’t jerky. If you want the video view to always face one direction (front), then enable Direction Lock.
At the top, you’ll see two icons. One for edit mode and one for view mode. Ensure edit mode is on. In the video preview window, you’ll see an option to change the video aspect ratio. The most common is 16:9, e.g. for TVs and YouTube.
To reframe the 360 video, you’ll need to first add keyframes at each timestamp where you want to change the angle and lens of the video. Drag the white vertical playback bar to the very beginning of the timeline and click the + icon.
This will add a yellow circle at that timestamp, indicating that a keyframe is there. Also, the + icon turns into an x icon in case you want to delete that keyframe. Clicking on the keyframe shows options where you can choose the lens type, e.g. fisheye, etc. Choose “Natural View”. Then, drag the video preview in any direction you want so that the video beginning at that keyframe will point in that direction.
When you click “Natural View”, the Field of View (FOV) value will change to the default value of 90 degrees.
Following is what the FOV looks like at 90 degrees.
You can increase the field of view (like zooming out) and decrease the field of view (like zooming in). Since the ONE X2 is a 360 camera with two 180-degree lenses, you can increase the FOV to a max of 180 degrees (actually 179 degrees). You’ll end up getting a circle like the one below.
The smallest FOV is 1 degree, which results in such a zoomed-in view that is just blurry, like below.
Drag the playback bar to another timestamp and repeat the steps above. You will see a yellow line connecting the two keyframes.
Clicking on the yellow line will allow you to choose a transition between the two keyframes. “Smooth Dissolve” is a good transition. If you choose “None”, for example, and the camera angle is facing the sky in keyframe 1 and facing the ground in keyframe 2, then at the beginning of keyframe 2, the video will jump from facing the sky to facing the ground. With the “Smooth Dissolve” transition, the video will transition slowly from facing the sky to the ground.
Click the lightning icon to enable Timeshift.
Then drag in the timeline where you want the timeshift to occur and choose a speed from slowing down at 1/4x speed to speeding up to 64x speed. Sections that are timelapses will have their audio muted.
Note: Creating a timelapse in a video editing tool like Corel VideoStudio is easier and comes with more options. Also, it preserves the audio.
When you are done adding keyframes, setting camera angles, and adding timeshifts, adjust the picture color, if necessary. Click the media processing icon and compare the color when Color Plus or AquaVision 2.0 is enabled.
Below, you can see the difference in color between the default color and with Color Plus or AquaVision 2.0 enabled.
Default colorColor Plus enabledAquaVision 2.0 enabled
The AquaVision 2.0 setting is for taking underwater pictures. It produces a brighter picture. The Color Plus setting produces vivid, more saturated colors. It especially helps improve skin tone when the subject is in a shade.
Note: Adjusting color in Corel VideoStudio is better as you can tweak the color settings.
When you’re done adjusting for color, click the yellow Export button on the right of the timeline.
This will give you many options. Choose “Reframed Video” and leave the default as H.264. If you choose H.265, the video won’t open in certain programs like Corel VideoStudio Pro.
When exporting videos in the Insta360 Studio app, I tested various bitrate settings from 1 mbps to 200 mbps (max). I saw no difference in quality between 25 mbps and 200 mbps. I also did not see a difference in file size and quality between h.264 and h.265. So, I choose h.264 at 25 mbps.
Then, click the Start Export button.
Tweak video color in Corel VideoStudio
In VideoStudio 2018 Pro/Ultimate, double-click on a video clip in the timeline. In the Correction tab, slide the Gamma slider to the right to lighten the video. This may throw the white balance off. To fix the white balance, check its checkbox, click “Pick Color,” and click on a pixel in the video that should be pure white, e.g. a white napkin.
In VideoStudio 2018 Pro/Ultimate, double-click on a video clip in the timeline. In the Color tab, choose Tone Curve and drag the curve. Usually, dragging towards the top left produces a brighter picture.
Edit video in Corel VideoStudio 2022
Note: Corel VideoStudio 2018 used to work fine but, at least for me, it now hangs even after installing and running it on a brand new computer. Corel VideoStudio 2022, however, works fine.
This step assumes you have already reframed and exported the videos.
Under Settings, Smart Proxy Manager, ensure “Enable Smart Proxy” is checked. This will cause VideoStudio to create a small proxy video for videos that are large. This will help with video editing performance.
In the Edit tab, create a project, e.g. Korea, and drag all assets to it (photos, videos, audio, etc).
If the assets are in the order you want them inserted in the timeline, then select multiple assets, right-click, and choose “Insert To > Video Track”. This will make it quick and easy to insert multiple assets at once.
Go to Settings > Smart Proxy Manager > Smart Proxy Queue Manager. You may see a window like the one below. If you see video files in the list, that means VideoStudio is in the process of creating proxy video files. When it’s done, the list will be empty. Until it’s done, leave VideoStudio alone since editing before it’s done could be slow and possibly crash the program.
If you’ve added a song to the Music track, and you want to lower the volume of the song for a section of a video clip, e.g. when someone is talking, then do the following:
Click the sound mixer icon
Then tracks will change like below.
The white line is the audio volume line. Notice how on the music track, the volume line goes down at one point and then up at another. This was done to lower the volume of the song during that time range only. To lower the volume, move the playback marker to the point along the orange line where you want to change the volume. Then, in the sound mixer, change the dB value for the track you want to change the volume of. In the screenshot below. the music track volume was lowered to -20 dB,
VideoStudio will gradually change the volume from one point to another. If you want the volume to change immediately, then you’ll need to add another marker next to the first one.
If you want to speed up a video clip, right-click on the clip and choose Speed > Speed/Time-lapse…
This will open a dialog like the one below. Change the duration of the new clip, e.g. from 18 seconds to 8 seconds, and then click the Preview button. If the preview looks good, click OK to apply the timelapse.
Before you export the video from Corel VideoStudio, note that the input video clips exported video from Insta360 Studio have 29.97 frames (still images) per second (fps).
Corel VideoStudio may default to choosing export settings of 30p (30 fps). If you choose this setting, the audio will not be in sync with the video.
Corel VideoStudio doesn’t have a preset for 29.97p (29.94 fps).
So, you’ll need to create your own profile preset and choose a frame rate of 29.97 fps.
Workflow Summary
Take 360 videos
Transfer videos to SanDisk external SSD drive
Open 360 videos in Insta360 Studio. 360 videos have huge file sizes.
Take snapshots, if going to make video of pics.
Convert them to natural view mp4s which are much smaller. For each video,
Enable ColorPlus, if necessary
Set start and end positions, if necessary
At start position, set the field of view (FOV) to “Natural View”
Add additional FOV points to change viewing angle, as necessary
Click the Export button, chooses “Reframed Video”, set bitrate to 25 Mbps (25000 kbps), h.264 (not h.265), and click “Add to Queue”
When done editing each video, click “Export All”
When the batch of 360 videos has been converted to mp4s, select them all in Insta360 Studio, right-click, and select “Delete Original File” to delete the large 360 videos.
Using a content delivery network (CDN) to host website assets such as images is a well-known best practice. But, most CDNs just host these files and serve them from their nearest edge location. Developers still need to crop, resize, and optimize images. Then you have non-technical people, e.g. some blog authors or PR people, who innocently upload an image to a site like WordPress and scale it down in size (width / height) without realizing that the image file size is still huge! Fortunately, there are image-specific CDNs that will host and optimize images for you. Below are some features of imagekit.io. I chose this image CDN because I like it so far and it’s free for up to 20 GB of bandwidth per month.
Note:web.dev, which is a Google Developers site, also encourages the use of an image CDN to host images.
Following are some features of ImageKit.io.
Automatic Image Optimization & Fast (< 50 ms) Display Time
Let’s say you have a very large image that is > 1 MB in size. This, of course, is way too large to serve as is. If you don’t know how to optimize images or just don’t feel like doing it, that’s fine because imagekit.io will do it for you. To test this, I uploaded a 1.7 MB, 1800x1232px PNG image of some grass with a transparent background to my Media Library in imagekit.io. The library shows a thumbnail of the image, the file size, and dimensions. Hovering over the image lets you copy the image URL.
Below is the imagekit-optimized image embedded in this web page.
In Google Chrome, the Network tab of the Inspector reveals that the delivered image was
resized from 1800 px wide to 660 px wide
converted from PNG to webp
optimized from 1.7 MB down to 74.5 kB
I didn’t even have to open Photoshop, ImageOptim or some other image editor / optimizer!
This feature would definitely improve your website’s Lighthouse and PageSpeed scores.
Now, you might be wondering about image optimization processing time since images are optimized on demand. According to imagekit.io, images are displayed in less than 50 milliseconds globally and they have 6 processing regions backed by AWS CloudFront CDN. As you can see in the screenshot above, the Time column shows a delivery time of 40 ms.
Note: When I embedded the image in this WordPress page, WordPress copied the image and hosted it itself so the URL changed from
This feature lets you deliver the smallest file based on the image content & device with optimal format selection. For example, the image above was uploaded to imagekit.io as a PNG but when I loaded it in this page in Google Chrome, imagekit.io detected that I was using Chrome and delivered a webp-formatted image. If I were using Safari, the delivered image would not be in webp format since Safari doesn’t support webp.
If an image has transparency, then imagekit.io will only convert it to a format that supports transparency, i.e. png, webp, avif. If a PNG image does not contain any transparency, then it becomes a candidate for a JPEG. If a PNG file without transparency is smaller in file size than a JPG, then imagekit.io will still deliver a PNG. Learn more
No need to move images
If you have a ton of website images on your web server, AWS S3 or elsewhere, there’s no need to move the images to imagekit.io. You can specify the existing location of the images as an origin in imagekit.io. Learn more
URL-based Image Transformations
This feature allows you to edit an image just by changing the URL a bit. For example, the following URLs are to the same source image but the delivered image sizes or compression quality are different.
The dpr is useful for devices like the iPhone or high-end Android devices. A dpr value of 2 is the equivalent of a 2x image (retina). In the examples below, since the dpr is set to 2, then the output image width is actually 2x (twice) the width specified in the URL.
“dpr-2” means “device pixel ratio = 2”
Change image compression quality
You can also change the image quality by simply changing the q value. This is a handy feature for people who have a picky Director of Brand and Creative who often complains that images are blurry or pixelated. Instead of resaving the image at a higher quality and republishing the image, you can just change a parameter in the image URL.
There are many more transformations including width, height, aspect ratio, crop, quality, format, blue, grayscale, progressive image, trim edges, border, rotate, radius, etc. Learn more
Digital Asset Management
With imagekit.io, you get a media library where you can upload, organize and distribute image assets. You can create folders and even paste an image to upload it rather than browser for it. You can easily upload entire folders as well. Right-clicking on an image thumbnail shows many image options.
You can easily browse images as well.
Copy ready-to-use URLs
If you need to share an image with someone, e.g. by email, chat, etc, or if you need to insert an image in a blog post or a landing page, you can easily get an optimized image URL. Just upload (or paste) an image into imagekit.io, then click on the image thumbnail to get the optimized image URL.
Search for images
Easily find an image by keyword and many other filters.
Performance Monitoring
You can add URLs that you want imagekit.io to monitor for performance. ImageKit.io will crawl all images at the URL and determine if any images could be optimized and how much savings could be achieved. For example, in the screenshot below, the home page of pepperfry.com could save 1.2 MB. If you click the Fix it link, you will see a detailed report of which images could be optimized and in what way.
One of my fence posts on a rental property was leaning over due to the previous owner not securing it correctly in the ground. To make matters worse, I use the fence post to secure a ratchet strap attached to one of 4 corners of a sun shade. Since I didn’t feel like redoing the fence post, and since the back of my property is empty, government land beside a slough, I decided to just pull the fence post back into position using a ratchet strap. It was quick and easy and worked perfectly.
If you don’t feel like redoing a leaning fence post or need a temporary fix, here’s what you can do.
