1080p and 720p settings capture different viewing angles

[Lielap]

Panorama II S (firmware 1.12.06 2014-04-22 18:00):

Video captured with resolution 1920x1080:

Video captured with resolution 1280x720:

As you see the video in 1280x720 resolution is obtained by cheating - from full size 1920x1080 image is cut out 1280x720 center region. As a result the 720p mode actually does not have 154° view diagonal and X° vertical angles.

 

[Sungmoon Jang]

Cheating? It is just follow the out put from sensor. 720p format is wide than 1080p.
If the angle is same then it is cheating. We did not use cropping ways.

 

[jokiin]

more pixels, wider picture, pretty standard stuff

 

[Lielap]

The screenshots show that "cropping" instead of "scaling" is used to obtain 720p format. The view angle should not depend on resolution chosen.

 

[jokiin]

don't agree sorry

 

[lankyduke]

You need to brush up on how the optical sensor works. As sungmoon said, the sensor is just outputting the middle rows/columns to give you your 720p resolution.
The cameras don't take the 1080p image and shrink it down. That would require a lot more processing power = heat, plus added costs for nothing.

 

[Phuncz]

Cheating? It is just follow the out put from sensor. 720p format is wide than 1080p.
If the angle is same then it is cheating. We did not use cropping ways.

more pixels, wider picture, pretty standard stuff

The topic starter is correct that the image isn't being "scaled down" from the RAW input, it's just being cropped.

1920x1080 is a 16:9 aspect ratio
1280x720 is a 16:9 aspect ratio

1920 * 2/3 = 1280
1080 * 2/3 = 720


So it isn't "wider", it's exactly as wide, if you consider that pixels aren't something you measure with wideness. You can have a 1" 16:9 aspect ratio screen with 720p and a 50" 16:9 aspect ratio screen with 720p and they would be able to show EXACTLY the same image, just smaller or larger according to the distance of our eyes.

What the topic starter wants (and I along with others do too) is for 720p to use the 1080p RAW input, scaled (not cropped) to 720p.

This is already being done for the screen, BTW, unless we have a 1080p screen in there

What is different is the resolution, which is supposed to mean it reduces the amount of storage. But it also reduces the viewing angle A LOT. Also, the 720p60 (720p at 60 frames) setting should allow for smoother video and perhaps more detail per frame, but it reduces the viewing angle too much to be of much use.

I would personally use the 720p60 setting if it was not using cropping, because it offers better detail at still frames (or it should) because of less motion blur per frame.