topic Re: Distortion Correction in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 14:37:46 GMT

Distortion correction is disabled by default on the r5 mark2. In what situations would you want to enable it?

I plan to only use the single lens I have which is the 24-70mm F2.8.

I use Affinity Photo 2 to edit my cr3 images, should I use the "lens correction" (profile for my lens) and the "remove lens vignette" features? They are both enabled by default.

Thank you,

Re: Distortion Correction

p4pictures — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 10:17:40 GMT

If you shoot in RAW and do lens corrections in your editing software, there is no need to enable lens corrections in the camera. This setting is more useful if you shoot JPG in the camera.

Re: Distortion Correction

Waddizzle — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 11:35:17 GMT

Whether or not to use lens correction when you save as RAW is a matter of personal choice. I have lens correction enabled in the camera. I don’t think enabling it is necessary unless you are saving as JPG.

i assume lens correction is applied to the preview JPG embedded within the RAW file. Some RF lenses are designed in a way that almost requires in-body correction.

The wider angle lenses are designed for it. They exhibit edge distortion and vignetting without it. When you apply lens correction the image will crop in by a noticeable amount. The lenses seem to capture an image wider than the reported focal length just to allow room for the lens correction to work.

Again, it’s personal choice. It’s used for the embedded JPG in RAW files. That also means image playback in the camera.

Re: Distortion Correction

SignifDigits — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:13:01 GMT

Of course, the expert comments are right, but to answer your "when would you want to enable it (in the camera)" question. I would want to enable when saving to JPG on the camera - say if I were shooting casual snapshots that were going straight to a text or email.

I personally always use lens correction when processing my RAW. I use Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) most of the time. Always correcting for the lens is my personal preference. Take a look at your photo with it off and on and decide which you like best. I would personally find barrel and pincushion undesirable, but on some pictures you might want it for effect.

Vignetting is likely to be noticeable with your lens wide open at f2.8. You might want dark corners to create effect or highlight the center of your subject (for example, solo tree in snow, or a forest scene glowing in the center).

As others already implied I don't think there is an "always" answer for you on this and not an "either/or" question. Those settings are tools in your art box. I suggest using a few shots that you think are your favorites and turning the settings off and on and see how you like the shots. Then you'll know what to expect. and this will give you the experience of what the effect actually is. Who knows, someday you may look at the picture and have a "eureka" moment to make the picture look exactly like you want it to by adding back in vignette.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:26:20 GMT

Currently, I record in raw+jpeg, but that might change to only raw. When enabling the distortion correction on the camera, it's applied to both the raw and jpeg images. As I mentioned, the in-camera distortion correction is disabled by default. Therefore, I have to assume this is what Canon highly recommends. Otherwise, it would be enabled. Again, I have the RF 24-70mm F2.8 lens and only plan to use this lens.

Is there a way to apply the in-camera distortion correction to raw/jpeg I have already taken without it? For example, I'm not going to delete all the great pictures I have taken since I got my camera a few months ago. I'm also NOT going to have a mix of pictures with and without in-camera distortion correction. Therefore, I will basically never enable the in-camera distortion correction unless I can somehow apply it to all the pictures I have already taken without it. Please let me know.

Please see the pictures below. One has the lens correction feature enabled in Affinity Photo and the other has the lens correction disabled in Affinity Photo. The in-camera distortion correction was disabled for the original raw file. As you can see, there is a quite a big difference and I feel only one is accurate. Do you recommend I use it or not? I'm either going to use it for ALL my raw photos or I'm not going to use it ever. It's one or the other for me, I will not have a mix of the two.

Thank you,

Without Lens Correction (Affinity)With Lens Correction (Affinity)

Re: Distortion Correction

boelens218 — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:40:53 GMT

That would be correct unless you prefer the in-camera distortion correction over the one offered in the software. In my case, I much prefer the in-camera correction if I had to use one. This is because the correction in Affinity Photo seems much more aggressive. However, it seems too late for me to choose this option now because I have already taken a lot of photos with the default settings. Unless there is a way for me to apply the in-camera distortion correction to photos I have already taken without it.

Re: Distortion Correction

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 03:22:49 GMT

@p4pictures wrote:

If you shoot in RAW and do lens corrections in your editing software, there is no need to enable lens corrections in the camera. This setting is more useful if you shoot JPG in the camera.

Hi Brian.
Does your answer mean that if lens correction is enabled in camera the RAW file is actually changed (not just a tag that DPP would read?).

If the answer is yes what would happen if lens correction is enabled in Lightroom.

Re: Distortion Correction

p4pictures — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 07:39:13 GMT

The raw is the raw, the camera setting is stored as a tag or metadata in the file, and the embedded jpg in the raw will have corrections applied based on the camera settings. Lightroom applies Adobe lens corrections as a default, but if you switch those off you get the uncorrected image so the RAW itself is not corrected. I even found that Lightroom lens corrections are applied to fisheye lenses by default.

As a case in point I took some pictures with the EF 8-15mm fisheye lens but couldn’t see any circular images in my Lightroom catalogue. Turn the lens corrections off and now I see circular images.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

Peter — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 11:54:28 GMT

Affinity uses Lensfun, if Affinity hasn't been doing some reverse engineering.

For your lens Lensfun is missing a profile for TCA (chromatic aberration).

Distortion correction and vignetting correction exist but the latter has only been created for one distance which I guess is infinity.

The only reason to keep lens correction turned on in the camera is if you want to use the JPEG or the embedded JPEG from the raw file.

Re: Distortion Correction

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 12:36:59 GMT

Thanks. That’s what I thought. I misinterpreted what you wrote.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

p4pictures — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 16:34:28 GMT

You can process the RAW images with the free to download Canon Digital Photo Professional. It can process the images using the Canon lens profiles, but only for Canon lenses, not Sigma, Tamron etc.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

ebiggs1 — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 17:29:00 GMT

"Lightroom applies Adobe lens corrections as a default, ..."

Lightroom doesn't apply lens correction by default. LR only applies it automatically when it can identify the lens and camera make from the EXIF. if you want to make this automatic for all imports you need to create a preset. If you don't want LR to ever do any lens correction upon import you need to also create a preset for that.

Personally I have a LR preset that applies lens correction and a few other things to every image I u/l to it.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 01:18:24 GMT

I don't understand your response. I feel I was very clear with my questions. I will just contact Canon and not use this forum again. Very disappointing..

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 16:27:04 GMT

"I feel I was very clear with my questions. ... (and) not use this forum again. Very disappointing.."

Every so often we get a person that says that and I never understand why. Everyone has given you answers. Sometimes the answer is one you may not like or don't agree with but it is an answer just the same. The amount of experience that lives on this forum has got to be measured in centuries not years or even decades. We are just folks trying to help.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

SignifDigits — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:58:40 GMT

I re-read his question. I think he wanted a "yes/no" answer and we might have overcomplicated things. IMO the answer is "Yes" - at least MOST of the time.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 21:08:34 GMT

@SignifDigits wrote:

I re-read his question. I think he wanted a "yes/no" answer and we might have overcomplicated things. IMO the answer is "Yes" - at least MOST of the time.

I would disagree. His question was:

Distortion correction is disabled by default on the r5 mark2. In what situations would you want to enable it?

I plan to only use the single lens I have which is the 24-70mm F2.8.

I use Affinity Photo 2 to edit my cr3 images, should I use the "lens correction" (profile for my lens) and the "remove lens vignette" features? They are both enabled by default. "

The response he complained about said:

"The only reason to keep lens correction turned on in the camera is if you want to use the JPEG or the embedded JPEG from the raw file." Since he said he was editing his .CR3 files he could conclude that there was no reason to turn it on.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

SignifDigits — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:59:01 GMT

You're right. I was only answering his second question with probably "yes"- mostly. That said, I bugged out on this thread as I have zero experience with Affinity Photo 2 and didn't want to express an uneducated opinion. I had already weighed in on the first with "I would want to enable when saving to JPG on the camera - say if I were shooting casual snapshots that were going straight to a text or email." And that's essentially the same answer- ish, though yours is much more precise (not my strong suit in communications, I'm afraid).

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:20:31 GMT

I apologize for being impatient. I'm just very frustrated with this and it's been going on for months. I've been back and forth with Affinity so many times it's ridiculous. At first, they told me the lens profile (for my lens) is for the EF version and not the RF version. Therefore, they sent me a xml file that is an updated profile for my lens to use with Affinity Photo. However, this did nothing and have the same results with the lens correction feature in Affinity Photo. After letting them know this, they told me nothing is wrong with the lens profile for my lens! I don't seem to be getting anywhere with Affinity, so I gave up with them for now. I was going to mention this in my first post but I though it's best to keep things simple.

As I mentioned, for my camera (R5 mark2) and lens (RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM) the default Lens Aberration Correction settings are below.

Peripheral Illumination Correction = ON
Distortion Correction = OFF
Digital Lens Optimizer = Standard

Therefore, I have to assume this is what Canon recommends. However, the lens correction feature in Affinity is enabled by default. Therefore, I have to assume this is what Affinity recommends. Correct me if I'm wrong, I understand the distortion correction feature on the camera and the lens correction feature in Affinity are essentially the same thing. They do have different results but are doing the same thing in their own way. Basically, this puts me in an awkward situation because Canon is recommending not to use it and Affinity is recommending that I do use it. Either way, I am unable to move forward and start editing my files because I don't know whether to use it or not. I understand the lens/distortion correction feature is somewhat subjective and can come down to opinion. However, I feel one has to be more accurate than the other, but I am unable to determine which one that is. I could literately be here forever not knowing which one is more accurate. The reason I got upset is because posted a photo with and without the Affinity lens corrections and simply asked which I should use. My question or photos were never even acknowledged. I will try to be as clear as I can with my questions below.

First thing, why would the format matter with distortion correction? For example, why would you recommend enabling the distortion correction on the camera only with jpeg files? If I should be using distortion correction, I want to use it regardless of the format I'm using. As I mentioned, the distortion correction feature on the camera has a different effect that the lens correction done in Affinity Photo. I assume the effect of the correction is slightly different with all software. However, that's not important because in my case I'm only using Affinity Photo. Therefore, I can enable the correction either on the camera or in Affinity after the fact. My point is the effect is different, and if I prefer the correction on the camera, I will want to use it, even for raw files.

Please look at the images I posted with and without the lens correction feature in Affinity. Do you recommend I use it for all my photos (regardless of focal length) or not? As I mentioned, I either want to use the lens correction feature in Affinity for all my pictures or none of them. For example, I don't want to end up with a mix of some having the correction and some not. I tried to contact Affinity and go over this, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. Therefore, I thought I would just post some before and after pictures of the lens correction feature in Affinity and get a professional's recommendation.

Note all the photos were taken with the distortion correction disabled, which is the default setting on the camera. I just recently took one picture with the distortion correction enabled and compared it to the correction being done in Affinity. They are different. As I mentioned, it's too late for me to use the distortion correction feature on the camera even if I wanted to. I downloaded DPP and applied the correction to a raw file but was unable to save it with the correction applied. I don't even know if the DPP correction has the EXACT same effect as the camera because I couldn't save it to compare.

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:35:16 GMT

Without Lens Correction (50mm)With Lens Correction (50mm)

Re: EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

boelens218 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:34:19 GMT

Without Lens Correction (35mm)With Lens Correction (35mm)