Insta360 Is Building Two Mirrorless Cameras, and One Will Have a Shape You've 'Never Thought of Before'

Insta360 is developing two mirrorless cameras at the same time, and its CEO says one of them will have a shape you have never thought of before. He also says that camera could change the way we take pictures, moving past the old routine of framing, focusing, and pressing the shutter.

The confirmation comes from founder and CEO Jingkang "JK" Liu, who spoke in an interview with Japanese outlet Mynavi News tied to the opening of Insta360's first Asakusa flagship store, as flagged by Photo Rumors. Liu was careful about how much he shared. "At this point, there's only so much we can say, but we are developing two types of mirrorless cameras," he told Mynavi News, adding, "One of them will have a surprising shape that you've never even considered before." Both are interchangeable lens cameras, and Liu framed the goal as accessibility, saying he wants "to make it easy for people who don't know how to use an interchangeable lens camera to use them by introducing new technologies and AI."

Liu himself started the speculation in January 2026 when he posted a deliberately blurred image on Weibo captioned "Heading towards new focal lengths," which set off months of guessing. By April, leaked photos that first appeared on Bilibili before being pulled, then spread through Reddit and the enthusiast site 4/3 Rumors, pointed to a compact white body with a traditional SLR-style layout and a Micro Four Thirds mount. Those leaks suggested a 20-megapixel Sony IMX472 sensor, the same chip found in the OM System OM-1 Mark II, plus physical dials for aperture and exposure compensation. None of that has been confirmed by Insta360, so treat the specs as rumor, not fact.

What Liu did confirm is a rough timeline, and it is a soft one. "We may be able to show a prototype at CP+ in 2027," he said, referring to the imaging trade show in Yokohama. There is no announced launch date and no price for either camera. If you are waiting to buy, you are likely waiting well into 2027 or beyond, and that is assuming the more radical of the two ideas survives from concept to production.

The timing is not a coincidence. GoPro already stepped into this space with the Mission 1 Pro ILS, its first interchangeable lens camera, which pairs a 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor with a Micro Four Thirds mount. That camera keeps the rugged action-cam shape and, unusually, lacks autofocus, so the two companies appear to be chasing the same idea from very different directions. Both are betting that people who own a pile of MFT glass, or who just want a bigger sensor without a full mirrorless system, are an underserved market.

The more interesting thread is the philosophy behind the second camera. Liu has talked before about a camera that gets out of your way, arguing that "the best camera is the one that disappears." That is a direct shot at the learning curve that keeps a lot of people from ever picking up an interchangeable lens body. Insta360 has real experience here, with strong stabilization, autofocus, and app-based AI features across its action and 360 line, so an AI-forward camera aimed at beginners is a believable move. The risk is obvious. "A shape no one has ever thought of before" is a marketing promise until there is hardware on a table, and plenty of unconventional cameras have looked clever in a render and awkward in the hand. CP+ 2027 is where we will find out.