Nikon Distortion Control Update

JBPhotog · Jan 20, 2020

FYI, Nikon have released new Firmware for the in camera Distortion Control.

Find it here; Nikon | Download center | Distortion Control Data

tirediron · Jan 20, 2020

Thanks!

RowdyRay · Jan 20, 2020

Forgive me if these are stupid questions. I recently acquired a D7100. Haven't updated the firmware yet. c:1.02 is out. Mine is c:1.00.

It is listed in compatible models. Is this included in 1.02? Or do I update to 1.02 and then install this? Can't seem to find an answer.

Thanks.

Braineack · Jan 20, 2020

What exactly does this do? Does it matter in raw? Or is it just data for things like Lightroom?

JBPhotog · Jan 20, 2020

RowdyRay said:
Forgive me if these are stupid questions. I recently acquired a D7100. Haven't updated the firmware yet. c:1.02 is out. Mine is c:1.00.

It is listed in compatible models. Is this included in 1.02? Or do I update to 1.02 and then install this? Can't seem to find an answer.

Thanks.

Yours and many other Nikon DSLR's have two different firmware modes, C: for camera, L(LD): for lens. To check which versions are currently installed,

Turn the camera on.

Press the camera MENU button and select Firmware version in the SETUP MENU to display the camera firmware version.

Check the distortion control lens data version (“L” or “LD”).

Turn the camera off.

The latest Distortion Control firmware is 2.018 so L or LD will become 2.018.

Caveat* Please read the info on Nikon's Support page for proper installation procedure, fully charged battery and no lens attached are required.

JBPhotog · Jan 20, 2020

Braineack said:
What exactly does this do? Does it matter in raw? Or is it just data for things like Lightroom?

Many cameras have an Auto distortion control option in the SHOOTING MENU, this and most likely the Vignette Control take data from this new firmware and apply it in camera. Leaving this up to Adobe to correctly profile your lens is IMO not the best idea since Nikon makes the glass.

RowdyRay · Jan 20, 2020

JBPhotog said:
Yours and many other Nikon DSLR's have two different firmware modes, C: for camera, L(LD): for lens. To check which versions are currently installed,

Turn the camera on.

Press the camera MENU button and select Firmware version in the SETUP MENU to display the camera firmware version.

Check the distortion control lens data version (“L” or “LD”).

Turn the camera off.

The latest Distortion Control firmware is 2.018 so L or LD will become 2.018.

Caveat* Please read the info on Nikon's Support page for proper installation procedure, fully charged battery and no lens attached are required.

Thank you. L is 1.008. I'll look into this as well.

dunfly · Jan 21, 2020

I am not sure what this does either. Does it apply distortion control to the RAW file or in the conversion to JPEG? I use DXO which has distortion adjustments for different camera/lens combinations applied to RAW files. Would this affect what DXO is doing?

JBPhotog · Jan 21, 2020

When you turn Auto Distortion Control On in camera it reads the EXIF from the attached lens and applies optical corrections to the JPEG and writes these corrections into the Raw EXIF data. Whether your particular third party Raw developer actually can read this data is up for question, I suggest you do some tests with it turned on and off and then process them to see for yourself.

For those who use Nikon's software such as ViewNX-i or Capture NX-D this in camera ADC will be applied if you turned it on. The result is the cameras LCD will have applied this to the JPEG which may help you decide correct camera orientation. Additionally, if you don't need the heavy lifting of Capture NX-D and want to convert your NEF's to JPEg's with minor adjustments to exposure etc. in View NX-i, your files will be automatically corrected and there is no ability to alter this in this application. If you process your Raw NEF's in Capture NX-D it will be enabled which is one less thing to remember when finishing up your processing.

As I pointed out in my earlier post, you should test your Raw developer to see if the lens corrections they have written for your Nikkor glass are identical to what Nikon has provided by this in camera firmware update.

dunfly · Jan 21, 2020

Thanks

RowdyRay · Jan 21, 2020

Thanks for the explanation. Not sure I'll need it, but like to keep my things updated. You never know.

After more research it seems I need to update C to 1.02 before I can apply this L 2.018 update. So for anyone curious, check the compatible cameras list. If compatible, it will tell you what A, B or C needs to be at to apply this L firmware upgrade. That's where my confusion came in. Hope that helps.

JBPhotog · Jan 21, 2020

RowdyRay said:
Thanks for the explanation. Not sure I'll need it, but like to keep my things updated. You never know.

After more research it seems I need to update C to 1.02 before I can apply this L 2.018 update. So for anyone curious, check the compatible cameras list. If compatible, it will tell you what A, B or C needs to be at to apply this L firmware upgrade. That's where my confusion came in. Hope that helps.

Whether one needs this really depends on your workflow and desired outcomes. If you like to run every image through a post processor and apply corrections at that point then I guess you could do it later. I do quite a bit of proofing before the selections get processed so in camera corrections to my proof JPEG's is a critical step. The beauty of this update is, you can turn it off anytime you want and the latest batch of Nikkor lenses will be included in the update.