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DIY Go Pro Flat Lens - updated underwater result

Posted by oejang aja on September 1, 2011 at 5:30am

DSC07182.JPG?width=320

Go pro is very popular among the FPV pilot or UAVS builder, but not everyone like the fish eye extreme wide lense. Some people choose to buy an extra housing while other replace the standard lense with gopro flat lense. Based on our experince If you want a flat lense on Go Pro, no need to buy extra housing or a new lense... just crush your go Pro in to wall... !!!. 

 

Few days a go our plane crash while testing auto pilot, the plane hit a stadium wall quite hard.. and unfortunately we put our GoPro on the front of the plane. The camera (without) housing hit the wall directly and the lens crack. This is what the lens look like after...

 

DSC07182.JPG?width=320

 

 

What suprise us.... the Gopro lense consist of few layer. It seems that each layer magnify the image and made it wider. In our case the lense is broken except the last layer... and after removing the broken layer we found that the last layer is a flat lense... and its working. 

 

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Here the image of the lens.... (the monitor is white and black), yes its flat... and more narrow angle.. 

 

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 Corius... we do some experiment, we replace the lens with used pocket camera lens.. and it works... !!

 

GOPR3019.JPG?width=320

the image is good, but since the material is plastic its not sharp... i think if we use high quality glass lens the result will be great.... I'm curious if go pro also work with SLR lenses :D



Conclusion  

* Dont throw away your old broken camera... the lens might be useful

* If you broke your gopro lens check again... does it broken to the bottom or just the first layer

* if you want flat and narrow image... no need to buy a new lens.. just hit your plane to the wall like we did :D


UPDATE

 the modified lens work great underwater, just turn to get fix focus (the focus is diffrent betwen up and underwater) *thx to mas thoha

GOPR6094.MP4_000146920.jpg?width=400


writer : oejang, amateur pilot
the tech guy : masthoha

the camera and lense are property of capung.  www.capung.web.id 

Tags: fpv, gopro, camera, crash, flat, lens
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Comments

  • Mako Koiwai September 5, 2011 at 11:07am

    I bought a longer lens from http://stuntcams.com/shop/lenses-p-39.html

    ... to replace a scratched oem lens, but note that of course with the longer focal lengths one must carefully focus them, ie. one needs to have a monitor plugged into the GoPro. Not such an issue if you are just always at Infinity focus, but I need to focus at different distances.

     

  • Haidar Abu Bakar September 3, 2011 at 11:28am

    Using a DSLR lens on a GoPro will produce super telephoto magnification. Also you need to get the mount to CCD distant (focal length) correct. The lens mount alone is as big as the GoPro, i think the CCTV lenses are a better choice.

  • thoha muhammad September 3, 2011 at 8:52am

    @Björn Geir Leifsson, I have same idea with you, I planned to modify the gopro lens with DSLR or smaller lens for some purpose

  • Haidar Abu Bakar September 2, 2011 at 9:15pm

    Set the GoPro on HD mode to see if the lens is really sharp enough. BTW i hate the GoPro because of the jelly effect..

  • Björn Geir Leifsson September 2, 2011 at 4:48pm
    In any camera, picture quality is always a direct derivative of lens quality. I have not tried it myself but my nerdy friends say that there is always an IR blocking filter behind the lens in digital cameas. You can remove it to get an IR sensitive camera image but you should always put in a neutral density filter instead.

    I myself have plans to modify a GoPro with a longer lens and remote shutter.(via the APM relay)
  • oejang aja September 2, 2011 at 9:04am

    agree with emile.. actually we are using FPV camera lense.. (i dont know if any IR filter). This is the result... https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dhkahxsh0mBX6odCydUgt6EGdSFQZ... still need to adjust the lense , some corner little bit blur.. but overal its great :)

  • emile September 2, 2011 at 5:13am

    Beware that CCTV lenses often have no IR cut-off filters. This will cause very bad images in high sun light...

    But taking off the first layer is a good option... I have mine scratched... maybe I'll try your mod!

    Cheers,

    Emile

  • oejang aja September 1, 2011 at 6:43pm

    Thank you Bjorn...

    Agree with you, this mod recomended just for accidental purpose...  but if someone planning to change their lense this would be low cost alternative solution. 

    we're testing the camera soon.. and upload the raw image for you guys... :)

  • Björn Geir Leifsson September 1, 2011 at 2:10pm

    BTW the flat lens housing from "Eye of Mine" in the link above is not intended to alter the lens characteristics. It gives much better sharpness under water. If you change the lens of the GoPro to a longer one you can no longer use the ordinary housing. I have seen mods of it with a protective tube around the lens and somewhere I have seen an aftermarket lens cover extension for this.

    Just remember that you zap the warranty if you fiddle inside the GoPro but that of course is not a problem if its broken anyway.

    Here's one site with GoPro tips and mods: http://goprouser.freeforums.org/ 

  • Björn Geir Leifsson September 1, 2011 at 1:59pm

    A lot of people are switching lenses and doing other mods on their GoPro. Sunex is said to be the place to find lenses: http://www.optics-online.com/

    Sunex optics-online.com - CMOS miniature and fisheye lenses
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