Do quoted camera field-of-view specs include lens distortion?

Question

When a camera maker lists horizontal, vertical, or diagonal field of view, is that usually the ideal rectilinear/pinhole FOV for the focal length and sensor size, or can it include the lens’s real projection and distortion?

I’m asking because with CCTV and dashcam footage, strong barrel distortion often shows scene content outside what a simple pinhole-model calculation would predict. In one example, my camera calibration gives an undistorted FOV of about 85.4° horizontal, 54.9° vertical, and 93.3° diagonal, but the published specs say 116° horizontal, 61° vertical, and 139° diagonal. That only seems possible if the published numbers are based on the distorted image.

So: are manufacturer FOV specs sometimes measured from the actual recorded image rather than derived from focal length and sensor size? And if so, does that mean you generally can’t reliably compute focal length from those published FOV values alone?

user70370 · Accepted Answer

They can do whatever they want... there is no standard/requirement that I know of.

The sensor that camera uses records a 16:9 aspect which is 1.78. The aspect they report as being recorded is 1.9; so it must include some barrel distortion **along the horizontal median line. The aspect you determined is 1.5 and would also include distortion; this time pincushion distortion.

** assuming no significant distortion recorded on the vertical aspect of a 16:9 rectilinear image.

Do quoted camera field-of-view specs include lens distortion?

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