Lens aberration correction

[rpcrowe]

My Canon 6D Mk2 recognizes the lens I have mounted and can correct: peripheral illumination and chromatic aberration as well as distortion and diffraction...

I have two questions regarding that correction:

1. When I opened the lens aberration section in the camera menu, the first two: peripheral illumination and chromatic aberration were selected by default while the second two: distortion and diffraction were not selected. I wonder about the reason for only two out of the four being a default selection?

2. Since I always shoot RAW, many lens corrections can be accomplished in Adobe Camera RAW. Which is the best to correct RAW images: in-camera or in ACR. Will, in fact, a correction initiated in camera be applied to a RAW image opened in ACR or only to a JPEG image processed in camera or a RAW image opened in Canon DPP?

[DanK]

I would need to double-check, but I don't think either of these affects the raw image. Instead, I think it writes the correction into metadata that the Canon software can read.

I find that the peripheral illumination correction from the ACR profiles works just fine. CA requires more work.

[Black Pearl]

You will need to test it but I don't believe ACR and LR automatically apply lens corrections when initially opening most raw files. I say most as I know my Fuji RAF files are sorted automatically and I have a niggling feeling I read somewhere that Panasonic and Olympus files are treat in the same way so it may also be the sase for other systems. If not then the vast majority of popular lenses are listed in the lens correction panel and can be 'one click' corrected.

As to the in camera correction then you may as well leave it switched on for when you do shoot jpegs to speed up your workflow.

[Manfred M]

With Nikon, the in-camera database applies these corrections to JPEG files only; the raw data is untouched. I have to enable the corrective functionality in my raw converter; regardless of which one I use ACR / Lightroom, DxO PhotoLab or Phase One Capture One.

With my Panasonic mFT camera (and I believe this hold true for Olympus cameras as well) the corrections are automatically applied in both the camera for JPEGs and by the raw converter, with no way to override this functionality. ACR / Lightroom have a message at the bottom of the page where these choices can be made telling the user that this is what has happened.

[Black Pearl]

With my Panasonic mFT camera (and I believe this hold true for Olympus cameras as well) the corrections are automatically applied in both the camera for JPEGs and by the raw converter, with no way to override this functionality. ACR / Lightroom have a message at the bottom of the page where these choices can be made telling the user that this is what has happened.

Yep - thats exactly what happens with the Fuji RAF files.

[GrahamS]

Be aware that when any image is corrected for distortion in-camera, the camera's software has to interpolate certain parts of the image pixels to achieve the correction. Whether this is best done in-camera or by using PC based software such as PS or LR or ACR needs to be considered.

[Manfred M]

Be aware that when any image is corrected for distortion in-camera, the camera's software has to interpolate certain parts of the image pixels to achieve the correction. Whether this is best done in-camera or by using PC based software such as PS or LR or ACR needs to be considered.

Agreed, but remember that the camera manufacturer has the design data on both the camera and the lenses. The camera has a purpose built image processor designed to specifically handle issues like these. Third party software providers have to reverse engineer these lens characteristics using sample lenses and camera bodies. There is no knowing wherethat the equipment that they happen to have tested falls in the overall spec and the results may or may not be representative of other units out there.

In my experience, ACR / LR are not as good as DxO Photolab when it comes to this. I understand that quite a few people feel the same way about Capture One.

[GrahamS]

Agreed, but remember that the camera manufacturer has the design data on both the camera and the lenses. The camera has a purpose built image processor designed to specifically handle issues like these. Third party software providers have to reverse engineer these lens characteristics using sample lenses and camera bodies. There is no knowing wherethat the equipment that they happen to have tested falls in the overall spec and the results may or may not be representative of other units out there.

In my experience, ACR / LR are not as good as DxO Photolab when it comes to this. I understand that quite a few people feel the same way about Capture One.

Which goes to prove my point. Each to his own, including the camera manufacturers (none of whom are very good at writing software.