I was interested to find out what the difference was between filming with and without the Yi’s inbuilt lens distortion correction, once additional correction of the barrelling from the wide-angle lens had been corrected in After Effects.

The result (once all barrelling is removed) is very similar between the two. However, as the correction entirely in AE means that the image is being digitally blown up, a better image quality is probably obtained by using the camera’s inbuilt correction.

Additionally, when using the camera’s distortion correction the raw footage has less distortion in more distant objects. For some footage without near objects with identifying barreling features (such as straight lines), it may be possible to avoid using the AE effect entirely.

The first Yi camera that completely stopped working in the last test is now working when both the back of the camera has been removed, including the battery. The picture above show both front and back removed, although I have since reattached the front (which allows me to use the makeshift focus ring), and it also works like this.

I have now numbered each camera (just visible on the photo in the previous post), in the order they were purchased. Each camera has a different version of the firmware, and the later two are a different model to the first.

Using the found card model on the previous post, I noted each camera’s performance. Continue reading →