I've had an FC40 for a few weeks now and am very pleased with it. I am not a particular fan of wide-angle lenses but they do help to minimise the appearance of camera shake / vibrations.
I have also bought a genuine SJCAM SJ4000 WiFi which has advantages and disadvantages compared to the stock camera. I was rather worried about the quoted 170 degree Field-of-View (FOV) quoted for the SJ4000 and indeed it does have a lot of barrel distortion. However, I didn't think the FOV was anything like 170 degrees so I decided to measure it. While I was at it I also measured the FOV of the FC40 camera. This too is wide-angle, but not as wide as quoted.
Measured results 27.11.1024, Horizontal Fields-of-View:
FC40 camera as supplied: Horizontal FOV = 86 degrees, i.e. +/- 43 degrees
SJCAM SJ4000 WiFi : Horizontal FOV = 112 degrees (HD 1080 video setting)
Horizontal FOV = 83 degrees (VGA 640x480 video setting)
Horizontal FOV = 112 degrees ( 2MHD photo setting)
Horizontal FOV = 98 degrees (12M and 3M photo settings)
As these are less than the manufacturers' quoted FOV figures, I can only assume they are quoting diagonal FOV to make the numbers larger. In practice the horizontal figure is the one you would use if you needed to calculate how much of a scene is going to be in view, or indeed if you are trying to keep the undercarriage out of the picture.
I don't know the focal length of the standard SJ4000 lens, but I would like to fit a slightly longer lens if available to reduce the barrel distortion. Next step however is to fit a gimbal. That's why I bought the SJ4000 as I couldn't find a reliable way to mount the stock camera on the gimbal I bought.
Hope these figures are of some interest.
I have also bought a genuine SJCAM SJ4000 WiFi which has advantages and disadvantages compared to the stock camera. I was rather worried about the quoted 170 degree Field-of-View (FOV) quoted for the SJ4000 and indeed it does have a lot of barrel distortion. However, I didn't think the FOV was anything like 170 degrees so I decided to measure it. While I was at it I also measured the FOV of the FC40 camera. This too is wide-angle, but not as wide as quoted.
Measured results 27.11.1024, Horizontal Fields-of-View:
FC40 camera as supplied: Horizontal FOV = 86 degrees, i.e. +/- 43 degrees
SJCAM SJ4000 WiFi : Horizontal FOV = 112 degrees (HD 1080 video setting)
Horizontal FOV = 83 degrees (VGA 640x480 video setting)
Horizontal FOV = 112 degrees ( 2MHD photo setting)
Horizontal FOV = 98 degrees (12M and 3M photo settings)
As these are less than the manufacturers' quoted FOV figures, I can only assume they are quoting diagonal FOV to make the numbers larger. In practice the horizontal figure is the one you would use if you needed to calculate how much of a scene is going to be in view, or indeed if you are trying to keep the undercarriage out of the picture.
I don't know the focal length of the standard SJ4000 lens, but I would like to fit a slightly longer lens if available to reduce the barrel distortion. Next step however is to fit a gimbal. That's why I bought the SJ4000 as I couldn't find a reliable way to mount the stock camera on the gimbal I bought.
Hope these figures are of some interest.
