Setting the field of view

- Depending upon which GoPro you're shooting with, you'll have different fields of view. Another factor that affects this is going to be the resolution that you're recording at. Now, field of view is just a technical way of saying, how much fits in the shot? How wide angle is the shot itself? Are you seeing a very wide angle, or is it cutting in and seeing less? The GoPro is able to actually show you a lot of action in the shot at once. In fact, some of the effects are actually a fish-eye type shot, where there's curvature to the camera.

Now, there are a few settings that can actually correct a lot of this, and you do have some great choices, depending upon the model that you're using. If you're using the GoPro Session, for example, you have fewer choices than you do with the newer GoPro HERO6. I'm going to show you some of these options on the HERO6, and just keep in mind, that depending upon which version of the camera you're using, you may have different choices in the menu system. Now, I'm going to use the GoPro app, so it's a little bit easier for you to see what I'm doing. And I'll just fire open the app. And right now, I am in a photography type mode, and you'll notice that we're seeing a lot of action in the scene.

If I check the settings here, I see that right now, I've got different resolutions. 12 megapixel linear, and 12 megapixel wide. Well, if I switch to the wide view, and we go back, you'll see that it's more of a fisheye type effect, and that the curvature at the side is showing us more of the scene. If we switch back to the corrected view, which you'll notice is a different type of shot. Here we go. The linear view, and it's got a straighter horizon.

Now, on the newer GoPro HERO6, I can actually push in there using the slider and it's like a digital zoom. Let's switch between that other shot type and go back to the wide shot there. And we'll tap done. You'll notice on the uncorrected shot, the typical wide angle, that these straight lines are bowed a bit at the edge. In fact, if I move the camera around a little bit, you'll actually notice that the curvature has increased at the edges, less in the middle, but then as we move that back in the other direction, it starts to curve at the edge.

Let's go ahead and set it up back up there. It's important to realize that this is how the lens, by default, behaves. Now, the features when shooting a time lapse are very similar, 'cause you are using photo mode, but let's switch to video mode, which has more choices. I'll tap on the icon at the bottom and then switch to video. And if we go to the settings, you'll see a lot of choices. Now, you'll get the most choices if shooting something below 4K. So let's go with the standard 1080 signal.

And under field of view, you'll see linear, wide, and superview. Let's try a different resolution here, like 4K. And you'll see that there's only wide and superview. That's because, depending upon the resolution that you're shooting, there may not be enough information on the sensor to punch into that smaller, linear field of view. Now, another nice option, only available currently on the GoPro HERO6 or newer models, is the ability to zoom.

You'll see a little slider there, and this allows you to smoothly transition between the different fields of view, allowing you to frame up the shot, and even move to those smoothly. You're looking at a streaming preview here, but the recording on the camera is actually pretty smooth. In fact, while the camera's recording, that change goes away. You're not actually able to zoom while recording if you're recording directly. But we can adjust that. Frame up the shot, and then trigger the record again.

And you see it engages. Now, the GoPro HERO6 and the HERO5 handle the naming of the field of view a little bit differently. On the GoPro HERO6, it's simply delineated as linear versus wide. Linear is going to be corrected, so some of the wide angle distortion is minimized, and since the GoPro supports zooming, you can just adjust the type of composition that you want, with the simple slider. If you want to see more of the field of view, then the wide option is going to work for you.

On the other hand, if you choose superview, there are no zoom controls, and it goes to an ultra wide position. Now, on the other hand, the GoPro HERO5 and earlier takes a slightly different approach. Let's just go ahead and frame that up. And you'll notice with field of view, we have choices like linear, which is corrected, medium, wide, and superview. These behave just a little bit differently depending upon how you're shooting.

If we go back to the settings here, it's all controlled by the resolution. So linear and medium are going to be corrected, while the wide angle view and superview are going to show more of a shot, but with a little bit more distortion. The same type of shooting is still really possible on both cameras. The big difference is that the GoPro HERO5 and earlier just gives you presets to choose from, while the HERO6 is a little more flexible, giving you a zoom slider, allowing you to choose a custom composition in between.