A distortion correction method for a fisheye image is proposed based on the virtual small-field (SF) camera. The correction experiment is carried out, and a comparison is made between the proposed method and the conventional global correction method. From the experimental results, the corrected image by this method satisfies the law of perspective projection, and the image looks as if it was captured by an SF camera with the optical axis pointing at the corrected center. This method eliminates the phenomena of center compression, edge stretch, and field loss, and the image character is more obvious, which benefits the afterward target detection and information extraction.