Sony Action Cams have some desirable features than GoPro such as image stabilization. However they opted to use really wide angle 170° lens. This created a nasty fish-eye effect on the recorded videos.
All recent Sony Action cams (AS100V, AS200V, FDR-X1000V) use this type of lens.
We can correct this issue as shown here. The left image is highly distorted (look at the trees) and the right picture is the corrected video.
To correct it :
- Download install VirtualDub. Choose the 32 bit version due to plugin compatibilities
it is a popular free video editing tool - Download and install the filter pack from Emiliano Ferrari
one of the filter is "barrel distortion" which we will use
Also you can download from my mirror - Load the video and add the Barrel Distortion filter
Video > Filter > Barrel Distortion - Configure Barrel Distortion filter with the following values:
Alpha: -0.33200
Beta: 0.08800
Aspect ratio: untick
- Save the video as AVI
Video without correction
Video with correction applied
The tall trees are quite telling.
