Nikon Continues to Make Misleading Claims about Optical Distortion In Its Lenses
Related: distortion, distortion correction, Fujifilm, Fujifilm medium format, Glenn K, Lightroom, medium format, Nikon, Nikon mirrorless, Nikon Z8, optics
re: Nikon Z8
Distortion correction damages micro contrast and sharpness where pixels are stretched apart. It guarantees less than full sharpness where this stretching occurs (often a very large portion of the frame). This is a BIG DEAL on a high-resolution sensor.
UPDATE 2023-05-31: at least with the Nikon Z8 and the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S, ACR allows correction (or not) of distortion.
....
Back in 2019 I complained about mandatory distortion correction for just about every Nikon NIKKOR Z lens, including its "S" professional-grade lenses.
Nikon makes marketing claims about distortion that IMO are at best highly misleading, if not outright fraudulent.
Claiming “virtually no distortion” or nonsensical/impossible claims* like “Corrects for wide-angle distortion” (Nikon Nikkor Z 26/2.8) are strewn through Nikon lens marketing material.
This marketing diarrhea has run amok, propaganda on endless loop. It is now 2023, 4 years later since I first discussed this distortion of the truth.
Hide the behavior and hope no-one notices?
In fact, the EXIF info for most (all?) Nikkor Z lenses mandates** sharpness-robbing distortion correction to correct distortion. Which is often quite strong.
Not to mention an outlandish level of lateral chromatic aberration in some lenses, which is also flagged for mandatory correction.
Too many Nikon lenses expect the camera or computer to do the heavy lifting to cover-up the optical deficiencies. Which it does, at the cost of sharpness.
No wonder Nikon is stuck for 5 years now on a 45-megapixel sensor!
* "wide-angle distortion" is inherent to perspective; it cannot be corrected by the optical system! The claim is both idiotic, and fraudulent.
** Whether Adobe Camera Raw allows distortion correction to be controlled or not seems to depend on which camera was used, even with the same lens. Shoot with a Nikon Z7 and you are locked out. Shoot with a Nikon Z8... maybe? TBD. I ran into this issue, which persists today, with the Fujifilm GFX100 (no control) to Fujifilm GFX100S (allowed).
Glenn K writes:
As for lens corrections, Lightroom allows me to apply chromatic and distortion corrections for both Sony and Nikon lenses. Interestingly though, even when I don't check the boxed, Lightroom shows an "information" blurb saying that a built-in lens profile has been applied.... but it clearly hasn't since the check boxes work!
The Nikon lens corrections in Lightroom are really screwy. I had shot the Nikkor Z 24-70 f/2.8 S in fall of 2021, and in Lightroom it shows a dedicated profile for that lens.
When I try to apply that same profile to some shots I did last week with that lens, it doesn't show profiles for any of Nikons Z lenses? I need to play with this more, but it's a mess.
DIGLLOYD: Glenn is not making mistake here; Adobe Camera Raw (in LR or PS) is buggy.
I first ran into this issue with older Fujifilm GFX100 files where ACR won’t allow the lens profile adjustments (distortion, vignetting) to be controlled. Modify the RAW file so that the camera is "GFX100S" instead of "GFX100" and suddenly it works. Ditto for the same lens shot on the GFX100S.
The same goofball situation applies for older vs newer Sony and Nikon and probably Canon cameras too.
