Non Fisheye GoPro - Remove Distortion Effectssachange lens telephoto drone quadcopter 4k rc 4.35mm 5.4mm

GoPros are great cameras but the 170 degree fisheye lens is not suitable for all applications. It produces lots of distortion effects around the edges of the scene. This is fine for action sports, where you want to include as much peripheral vision as possible. For other pursuits such as drone photography or for a general purpose camcorder we prefer a narrower non fisheye lens. It is difficult to find GoPro action cameras that have a non fisheye lens, as most come with a fisheye 170 degree lens as standard.

There are two approaches to removing distortion effects. You can modify your existing Gopro camera to add a non fisheye lens, or you can buy a Gopro style camera with a narrower non fisheye lens pre-installed. We tried to change the lens on an SJCam SJ4000 and found that the process is difficult. We therefore set about sourcing a Gopro type camera with the gopro non fisheye distortion effect lens pre-installed. The result is our Vision camera that is designed to be a general purpose camcorder for both action and non-action uses.

Modify your GoPro Camera

It is possible to modify a GoPro or SJCam to change the lens for a non-fisheye one. However the process can be difficult and there is a risk of damaging the camera. You have to unscrew and remove the original lens. It is fastened with an M12 thread and threadlock has been applied at the factory. It takes a lot of force to break the threadlock. You have to grip the original lens with pliers to unscrew it, and there is a danger of damaging the mount by applying too much force. Also when installing the replacement lens it has to be screwed in to the correct distance to set the focus. This can be challenging, and sometimes you meet resistance from the old threadlock that stops it screwing in correctly. We know this because we fitted a 4.35mm replacement lens to an SJCam SJ4000 ourselves to give a linear image. We also modified another model. You can see test footage from our modified camera on this page.

Buy a Camera with the Lens Preinstalled

A more simple and reliable solution is to purchase an action camera that comes with narrower lens installed. That is what we set out to achieve with our Vision model. We chose 120 degree diagonal FOV (3.3mm) to be halfway between the very wide 170 degree, and the almost linear 4.35mm. The 4.35mm lens is good for general purpose photography and drones, but less suitable for action as the vibrations are magnified. By going halfway between the two the ~100 degrees horizontal view is suitable for both action and general purpose photography. There is still some curvature at the edges of the image, but it is less noticeable than with the standard super wide angle viewpoint.

The big advantage of the Vision is that it comes with great replacement optics preinstalled.
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