What are the differences between the various sharpness settings of the Insta360 ONE RS camera? You can choose between Low, Medium, High and Very High sharpness, but what is the best choice?

Let's start saying that pixel peeping is not the best practice to choose the preferred sharpness, neverthless we start by showing a 200% enlargement of the details taken from two frames; a 4K and a 2.7K one. Sharpening filters are a type of image processing that enhances the contrast between neighboring pixels, making the edges and details more visible and defined.

With a low setting of the sharpness, the image details look soft, but beware that this belltower roof is just a small detail of the entire 4K frame (see below for the full image). In the second detail you can see how the foliage is rather blurred. Consider that you may want to soften the image on purpose, e.g. to hide the skin imperfections of a person in a close-up shot.

At medium sharpness the details of foliage may be still too blurred, but you have to check the overall effect instead of check the single pixel.

You need the very high sharpness setting to see the lightning rod on the roof of the belltower, but the pattern of the stones becomes by far less natural. Also look at the edges of the car window: the contrast between the light and dark areas has been increased a lot in an unnatural way by the software filter.

You are encouraged to view the full frame at whatever enargment you expect to see your footage. I think that generally you may want to choose medium or high setting.