FPV camera, wide or narrow lens?

[Bartman]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to build an FPV quad and I'd like to use my GoPro1 for the camera. The camera needs a rebuild and I've got the choice of a standard lens or a Sunex lens with a more narrow field of view. What would be better for FPV? I'm guessing the wide angle lens. Opinions?

THanks to tstrike and rtryder for the replacement lenses.

Thanks,
Bart

 

[RTRyder]

Having done it with both stock and Sunex lens, you want the stock wide angle lens for FPV. I'm using the GoPro for the pilot cam on both my QAV500 and Talon Tricopter, the biggest disadvantage vs. a dedicated FPV camera is the GoPro doesn't handle changing light conditions as well, flying towards the sun or any light source will washout most of the detail making flying difficult. When you turn away from the bright light then the contrast and detail return, angling the GoPro down slightly helps but doesn't cure the problem.

Ken

 

[Bartman]

thanks Ken. Maybe I"ll get to that tonight then. it needs to be flying soon so i can field an entry in the next contest.

 

[helloman1976]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to build an FPV quad and I'd like to use my GoPro1 for the camera. The camera needs a rebuild and I've got the choice of a standard lens or a Sunex lens with a more narrow field of view. What would be better for FPV? I'm guessing the wide angle lens. Opinions?

THanks to tstrike and rtryder for the replacement lenses.

Thanks,
Bart

Personally I dont like wide angle lenses for flying but I do for recording. I use 2 separate cameras, Go Pro knock off for recording and a 650TVL camera for flying. Wide angle lenses make "objects in your lens look closer than they appear" if you remember reading that on your car mirrors. They warp your view and it makes it hard to see where you are going exactly or get a good idea of how far away things are. Too much wide angle and you're flying in a fish bowl and you can't see if you are tilting down slightly or flat etc. I use a variable focus lens that allows me to use 2mm to 14mm and focus accordingly so I dial mine in the way I like it which is almost normal vision with a slight amount of wide angle for a better view.

View attachment 8551

 

[DucktileMedia]

My inexperienced opinion would be to use just wide enough that you can see your arms for orientation. And this is another reason a separate cam is better since you really can't fly without OSD and nothing in the fov. If its just for this video contest or fun use the stock lens. If you want a clear picture on your final product you will need 2 cams.

 

[kloner]

I stared out flying gopro live output so got used to really wide FOV's like 120 degrees is considered narrow to me, then i got into cctv cams and have em from 120 degree to 90 degree and i like the 90 degree stuff best now. it has more detail on whats out ahead without getting to narrow making it tunnel vision. the lower and slower the wider view works better