Hey all, writing this from some new experience.
I recently broke off the glue that holds the stock lens of the CT9500 in place and replaced it with my older CT9500 lens which is different and a new Runcam RC25G lens. I was super excited about the Runcam RC25G lens since it is a F2.0 which I thought would be larger than my stock lens and the 2.5mm would be wide angle with less distortion. The results of my tests are in and below are each lens:
1) Runcam RC25G
Great looking lens. The glass looks really high quality and the all metal construction looks premium. Unfortunately that's where it all ends. Center sharpness is good but the edges are out of focus and you need to actually defocus the center to get the edges into focus, clearly the lens wasn't made correctly. Highly disappointing and I wouldn't recommend.
2) Stock CT9500 lens from the newer 4k50fps camera
It's actually a really good lens. The only thing that really stands out is the distortion is really bad because the lens is SOO wide.
3) Older CT9500 lens from the 2016-2018 version of the action camera
This lens actually appears to have the best qualities. The aperture is similar to that of the newer CT9500 lens. The sharpness is the best of all 3. The field of view is the most narrow of all 3. The MP isn't too terribly high, however, I think the new CT9500 lens gets away with it by having such a large FOV.
One thing I found interesting was the new CT9500 with the IMX458 did not have a lens with a IR filter in the back of the lens... I found this really surprising as I thought all cameras had to have an IR filter...apparently not... so I'm wondering if my older CT9500 lens should have the IR filter in it or not... I actually hoping to remove the IR glass which is glued in...I'll probably have to shatter the glass to get it out would be my guess... My thought is with the IR glass removed, it will be 1 pane less of glass and a slightly sharper lens...
I recently broke off the glue that holds the stock lens of the CT9500 in place and replaced it with my older CT9500 lens which is different and a new Runcam RC25G lens. I was super excited about the Runcam RC25G lens since it is a F2.0 which I thought would be larger than my stock lens and the 2.5mm would be wide angle with less distortion. The results of my tests are in and below are each lens:
1) Runcam RC25G
Great looking lens. The glass looks really high quality and the all metal construction looks premium. Unfortunately that's where it all ends. Center sharpness is good but the edges are out of focus and you need to actually defocus the center to get the edges into focus, clearly the lens wasn't made correctly. Highly disappointing and I wouldn't recommend.
2) Stock CT9500 lens from the newer 4k50fps camera
It's actually a really good lens. The only thing that really stands out is the distortion is really bad because the lens is SOO wide.
3) Older CT9500 lens from the 2016-2018 version of the action camera
This lens actually appears to have the best qualities. The aperture is similar to that of the newer CT9500 lens. The sharpness is the best of all 3. The field of view is the most narrow of all 3. The MP isn't too terribly high, however, I think the new CT9500 lens gets away with it by having such a large FOV.
One thing I found interesting was the new CT9500 with the IMX458 did not have a lens with a IR filter in the back of the lens... I found this really surprising as I thought all cameras had to have an IR filter...apparently not... so I'm wondering if my older CT9500 lens should have the IR filter in it or not... I actually hoping to remove the IR glass which is glued in...I'll probably have to shatter the glass to get it out would be my guess... My thought is with the IR glass removed, it will be 1 pane less of glass and a slightly sharper lens...
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