Understanding Action Camera FOV

bendervideos

I'm looking for some guidance with understanding FOV measurements advertised by action camera manufacturers.

I currently use YI Action Cameras and they have a reported FOV of 155 deg.  Last night I tested an Akaso EK7000 camera and was expecting to capture more since it's reported FOV is 170 deg.  As you can see in the two examples below, the opposite happened.

Is anyone able to help shed some light on this?  I'm looking for an alternative to the YI cameras because it appears they may be discounting that line.  

YI Action Camera 4K - 155 DEG FOV - 4K ULTRA 24FPS 16:9 Setting
                                                                                                                                                 

AKASO EK7000 4K - 170 DEG FOV - 4K 30FPS
                                                                                                                                                 


                                                                                                                                       

stearman65

My SJ6 Legend has an adjustable FOV. The problem with a wide field of view is the barrelling effect. I set my SJ6 to 120 degrees, which cuts out the barrelling effect with no black bars at 16-9 aspect ratio, 1920x1080 pixels.

mikes48

I think some mfrs quote diagonal FOV, while others quote the lateral (?) FOV. How much difference that makes though I don't know

12harry

Setting the FOV may affect the filesize, but unless this is an issue you can crop at the Edit stage, which may help frame action that moves quickly. I believe some software is available ( expensive?) which can make a reasonable pass at reducing the distortion - but if you are following action, maybe it doesn't matter.
IMHO it's a great shame action cameras don't offer different Optical Lens views, although as you go narrow the Focus becomes more critical.... and usually this is fixed somewhere about the "near distance".... i.e not exactly at infinity, to achieve reasonable close-focus (( BUT that is where I think action cameras fail, unless you have one of those metal case/covers that allow external filters to be screwed-in...e.g. like a CU lens ))

Cheers.

Terfyn

Corel's VideoStudio Pro has a section for lens correction including a range for GoPro cameras and manual correction (expensive??? £54.99 for Pro and £69.99 for Ultimate) As usual there is a 30 day free trial to test the lens correction action.