Question about in-camera distortion control

desmobob

Senior Member
Nikon released a lens distortion control update on 01/16/2020 to be added to our cameras' firmware. I love it when I can update the firmware that runs hardware!

The way I understand it, the Nikon in-camera distortion control is applied to JPEG files only, not to RAW files.

I shoot RAW+Basic and use Nikon's Capture NX-D for post processing. When I do post-processing work on a RAW file, one of my NX-D tools is a simple ON/OFF toggle for "Distortion Control." Does this bring forward the distortion control Nikon provided for the specific lense the image was shot with?

I guess I'll have to shoot some images with my AF 18-35mm D and compare a straight-out-of-the-camera JPEG vs. a RAW file post-processed in NX-D and then converted to JPEG.

Edit to add: I also sent this question to Nikon support and I'll post their explanation.
 
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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Distortion control indeed is only applied to JPEGs in camera. For raw files Capture NX-D, Adobe Camera Raw and others apply it to the raw image if selected and the lens used is found in the database. In general firmware updates like this are to add new lenses and not to fix those already covered, so unless you've bought a newly issued lens it's probably not something you need to do.
 

desmobob

Senior Member
Here is the response from Nikon Support:

Thank you for contacting Nikon. With regards to this matter, the Auto Distortion Control would be applied to both RAW and JPEG images saved to the camera as they are taken.

I would have guessed it would only be applied to the JPEG files. Interesting.
 

pforsell

Senior Member
Here is the response from Nikon Support:

Thank you for contacting Nikon. With regards to this matter, the Auto Distortion Control would be applied to both RAW and JPEG images saved to the camera as they are taken.

I would have guessed it would only be applied to the JPEG files. Interesting.

The "applied to raw" in this case means that a metadata tag is written in the raw file but the pixel data is not modified in any way. You can verify this with your own camera in less than a minute.
 
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