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RX100 Built-in Distortion Correction for JPEG
Like many compact cameras, the JPEG output of the Sony RX100 is corrected for optical distortion, as well as lateral chromatic aberration, and possibly other optical shortcomings (Sony does not say).
The RX100 also has certain tonal range compensations (shadows/highlights); I set the camera to enable DRO/Auto HDR to .
Shooting RAW (ARW) corrects neither the distortion nor the lateral chromatic aberration. It’s regrettable that lateral chromatic aberration is not corrected directly in the RAW, but there are good reasons not to correct distortion in RAW.
Micro contrast and distortion correction
My approach to distortion correction tends to be one of avoidance; it has the potential to reduce the micro contrast of fine detail in areas that have to be “stretched” to correct the distortion, e.g. one source pixel has to cover 1.1 or 1.2 or 1.3 pixels of area once corrected. In camera correction potentially can do the very best job at minimizing this loss, since the camera designer knows the characteristics of the lens precisely, and can perhaps apply specialized processing as well.
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