Field of View (FOV)

The field of view or angle of view of a camera refers to what the lens sees, like what you see when you look at something. The FOV measurement is specified in degrees and is typically shown in either Horizontal x Vertical or a diagonal measurement. The larger the field of view the larger the area that can be viewed.

Don’t be fooled by specs that only list the diagonal field of view. This is typically done to give the appearance that the field of view is larger than it actually is. While the specification may be true, it is ultimately misleading. Take for example the diagram below. The INTEC CVC470HXL camera (Full Picture) has a 125° Horizontal x 100º Vertical field of view. If we calculate that to the equivalent diagonal FOV we get 160º.

At the same time an INTEC competitor (shown in the shaded area) lists their FOV at 130°. This is the diagonal FOV and when converted to horizontal by vertical we get approximately 104° H x 83° V. If we calculate out the difference in FOV we find that, in this case, you will see approximately 33% more with the INTEC camera than the competitor’s.

There are formulas for calculating the true horizontal, vertical, and diagonal fields of view but you need a master’s degree in mathematics to figure them out - just kidding, though they are a pain to work out. To simplify things you could look at it this way, the horizontal measurement is approximately 80% of the diagonal measurement and the vertical measurement is approximately 75% of the horizontal.

While this does not give us the exact angle it works out to be within just a couple degrees, which is sufficient for our needs.

The following images clearly show the difference between INTEC's FOV (left) and that of one of our competitors (right). Note the safety mannequin's standing near the rear of the truck? You don’t see them in the competitor’s image and would you really want to see them for the first time when they are directly behind your vehicle?

         
                            FOV from an INTEC Camera                                                    FOV from a competitors camera

Side to side and top to bottom, nobody delivers more viewing area than INTEC and with our matched aspect ratio between the camera sensor and display, you’ll see more, sooner and with less distortion.