Image Distortion with 18-300 Lens?

70LPStandard

New member
I have a D5300 with the 18-300 lens. This is my second SLR, the first being an old 35mm Minolta from the 80s that took great pictures. I'm generally pleased with the pictures with my 5300 except for a recurring problem where the lower left corner of each image appears to droop. Put another way, the image looks slightly rotated to the left, especially when you look at the lower left quadrant of most shots.

To investigate the matter, I took straight ahead shots of graph paper with lots of horizontal and vertical lines at focal lengths of 300mm, 105mm and 35mm. In each shot I was careful to make sure the horizontal lines in the auto focus boundary seen in the viewfinder lined up perfectly with a horizontal line on the graph paper. In all shots, the image falls off at the edges, but more so to the lower left.

I know this lens tries to do it all, and probably does so with a lot of compromises. Could the lens be creating this type of distortion, enough so that it makes images appear rotated? I understood that the 5300 had lens distortion correction software, but haven't been able to figure out how to use it with the 18-300 lens.
 
First off welcome to the forum.

need to answer a few questions first.

1. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG?
2. What are you using to process your photos?

With RAW and a post processing program like LightRoom it will apply corrections take will help with distortion.

It will help if you will upload a few photos that show the problem. Follow the directions below to upload so it will include the EFIF data

Guidelines to adding a photo to your post.

1. Resize photo to 1000px on the long side.
2. Resolution set to 72ppi (Pixels Per Inch)

These guidelines will be good for viewing on a computer but will not be good for printing. This will help safeguard your copyright.







 

70LPStandard

New member
Hello and thanks for the quick and detailed reply. I save the images in both JPG and NEF (RAW) formats. Here are the graph paper shots and some casual shots that, to my eye, seem like everything is rotated slightly counterclockwise, especially when you look at the lower left quadrant.
DSC_0111.JPG

DSC_0112.JPG

DSC_0114.JPG

DSC_0025.JPG

DSC_0029.JPG

DSC_0087.JPG
 
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70LPStandard

New member
I did get a disc with the camera, but haven't used the software. I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that the 5300 had onboard lens correction software.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Recording format (raw or JPEG) has nothing to do with correcting lens distortion.

Are you sure the camera has lens correction turned on?

Also, because of variations due to manufacturing tolerances, not all lenses of the same model are precisely the same. Correction software is preset to the average of the lenses, not yours specifically. This is the downside to mass production.

However, in the sample shots you posted, such minor distortion will be rendered unnoticable.
 

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
What are you using on the computer for post processing? Lightroom, for isntance, will correct lens distortion through lens profile information.

I have the 18-300, and have a love/hate relationship with it. It has to be a big bag of compromises to have that kind of focal length range. It sure is a handy lens, though. :)
 
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