Comments

Byron K wrote on 12/21/2013, 11:51 AM
Interesting. It too suffers from fisheyeitis.


Why do all these action cams suffer from this disease? (;
johnmeyer wrote on 12/21/2013, 12:10 PM
[I]Why do all these action cams suffer from this disease?[/I]Because they are wearable, action cameras. The operator is not actually "operating" or aiming the camera, so they need a wide field of view to capture the action without any accurate framing. Also, they are usually subjected to violent movement. With even a 50mm field of view (35mm film camera equivalent), the camera movement would be impossible to stomach.

These same design requirements also explain why these cameras continue to push the boundaries of high resolution: this is needed for being able to pick out the portion of the frame that actually contains the interesting material, after stabilization. If you were to zoom into a 720x480 video, the result would be pretty bad.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/21/2013, 3:53 PM
If you are looking for an alternative to the GoPro, check out the Replay XD1080. It's about the size of a small flashlight.



It doesn't have the distortion problem because it doesn't use as extreme a field of view. I just bought one but haven't had a chance to really test it out yet.

~jr
richard-amirault wrote on 12/21/2013, 4:54 PM
Just got me a GoPro Hero 3+ Black.

Note: some of the formats can be switched to a smaller angle view. For instance 1080p can be "Ultra Wide, Medium, or Narrow" ... as well as some can be switched to an even wider angle than normal ("Super View") at least on the 3+ Black.
Woodenmike wrote on 12/21/2013, 5:41 PM
The ProDrenalin software by ProDad works pretty well for fish eye correction with the GoPro, although like in the stabilization software you lose some of your frame. I'm always amazed how smooth the action shots are that come off those little toy cameras! I've used mine to show a disabled person's perspective during our school's physically integrated movement workshops and get interesting shots depending on placement (which i'm still playing with) The only complaint I have is battery life with the GoPro...about 20 minutes max with the wifi on (to use the phone app) and changing batteries means resetting your mount a lot of the time.