Why are the corners of the camera image curved?

This article explains why the camera image is curved or looks like it has a slight fisheye effect.

What is causing the camera image distortion?

If your camera is showing an image with circular corners, it is because of barrel distortion. The term "distortion" refers to alteration of an original image. Barrel distortion results in image magnification as you move further away from the line of vision.

The shape of a camera lens is circular. If the camera is installed to show a wide-ranging image, it results in an increase in barrel distortion or "Fisheye Effect". A wide frame view (WFV) lens provides an extensive scope, but there will be some barrel distortion as the edges of the lens are symmetrical. This is one of the functions of using a wide lens.

If your camera is mounted at a high distance and is focusing on a short point, then it results in Fisheye Effect. Fisheye effect occurs at a wider viewing angle. The effect produces an image that appears distorted. Instead of showing a straight cut image, it shows a curved image.

How can a straight image be produced?

A dewarping function is used to automatically correct the curved fisheye image and convert it into a normal image.

However, most processors cannot undertake the dewarping feature. Dewarping technology results in shifting of pixels. The processors cannot do extreme image correction because it only crops the image marginally.

The modified image is pulled from the original camera image. Hence the corrected image is just cropped to remove the fisheye effect. The modified image results in a smaller field of view as part of the original image is cropped. This is the trade-off between having a wide frame view lens and having a fairly straight image.

When you "correct" the image, you are losing the benefits of having a wide frame of view lens/camera. Fisheye distortion repair is possible through dewarping mechanism which will tend to shift the image insignificantly.

How can I configure distortion from the Lorex App application?

Currently, the Field of View (FoV) of a camera is neither configurable through the Lorex App nor is it controlled by the recorder. Dewarping is not embedded into Lorex’s surveillance systems just yet.

However, there is one solution to resolve the distortion issue. Instead of setting a high field of view angle, you can set a lower field of view to reduce the fisheye effect.

Lorex Technology’s wide-angle lens gives you an ultra-wide view of your property, while overcoming an inherent flaw of dewarping: cropped images.