Video camera... no Fish Eye

Quick question....Looking to get a video camera to record some downwind runs. I've watched a lot of other videos and one thing that seems to take away from the experience is the extreme "Fish Eye" impact.

I know the GoPro Hero's are great cameras; it seems a lot of folks use those, are they prone to the Fish Eye effect? Is there another camera that doesn't have that or is there a way to configure the GoPro so it doesn't have such a Fish Eye effect?

I saw a video the other day on Blip.TV that the user was doing a downwind run and the recording had a nice "Flat" angle to it. Some videos you can see the extreme curvature of the field in front of the paddler and it just seems to take away from the visual impact of what an actual downwind run feels like.

Any suggestions would be appreciated,
Aloha,
-Rich

I went back and checked out some of those videos....They are from WaveChaser1, awesome videos WaveChaser, if you're out there reading this, any tips on how you set up your camera to get rid of the Fish Eye effect?

Here's one of the videos; www.blip.tv/file/4296885/


Your videos are great and good inspiration, thanks for the stoke WaveChaser!!

Thanks!
-Rich

Howzit Rich

There are no lens settings on the GoPro, only settings to control recording format etc.
From playing with my GoPro its clear that the 'fish eye' effect only presents itself when the camera is higher than the water or ground (eg when mounted on your head). When the camera is mounted close to the water as in the video you shared, the 'fish eye' effect is not visible.
Have a look at the GoPro page on youtube and by watching different videos with different camera mounts you will see what I mean.
Nothing beats the GoPro HD for quality!

Good luck
Cheers

Go-pro makes both a wide angle and "regular" lens digital camera. That probably accounts for the differences.