EOS R5 Mark II When to use Distortion Correction?

[boelens218]

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,

[p4pictures]

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.

[Waddizzle]

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. 

[SignifDigits]

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.

[boelens218]

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)

[boelens218]

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.

[jrhoffman75]

---

@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. 

[p4pictures]

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. 

[Peter]

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.

[jrhoffman75]

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