I have bought myself my 1st DSLR camera (Nikon D3100) as i now want to shoot Raw instead of Jpeg. I've always shot Jpegs in the past with my old cameras. The in-camera Jpegs from my new Nikon don't show any lens distortion. However, when i open the Raw (NEF) files in Lightroom and tick 'enable profile correction' in the Lens corrections section, the distortion correction seems too much and i have to manually adjust it every time.
The lens profile comes from Lightroom itself (not from other users), & so this doesn't seem quite right to me that the correction is somewhat wrong each time.
I'm wondering if i'm doing something wrong or that maybe its even normal to have to adjust the correction further yourself each time (and perhaps most users have to do that too)?
I've included 3 Jpegs of the same image to demonstrate the problem (detailed below):
1) The export from Lightroom with the lens distortion corrected by Lightroom (note the straight red line).
2) An exported Jpeg version of the uncorrected Nef from Lightroom (to show the full original lens distortion)
3) The original in-camera Jpeg (obviously the distortion corrected by the camera)
I've drawn straight red lines on to the images to demonstrate the differences.
Any ideas?
^ above image is a Lightroom exported Jpeg (from NEF) with lens correction ON (note the red line along the top of the roof)
^ above image is a Lightroom exported Jpeg (from NEF) with NO lens correction yet, thus showing original distortion.
^ above image is the ORIGINAL in-camera JPEG showing no distortion at all (note the red line along the top of the roof).
P.s i've taken different shots too and the problem is the same for them all (at least at 18mm anyway).
Additional information:
The Nikon D3100 has an APS-C sensor (I'm not sure if that's significant or not). Also the lens described in the profile correction matches the one from my camera.
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Thanks for the reply 
The lens of my camera is the kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR DX NIKKOR). In lightroom the lens automatically selected says: Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55 mm F3.5-5.6G VR, and the profile is Adobe (Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5 -5.6 G VR).
P.s the day i got the camera i updated the Lens Distortion control data in the firmware as advised (not sure if that's significant or not)
Sounds like you have the correct profile - even if it is not quite correct (
).
Yeah, DxO is unfortunately a package deal - no way to take advantage of DxO's superior lens correction technology without having to use their raw engine too.
For a time (circa Lr2) I started in DxO, then exported a linear DNG to Lightroom - not a bad compromise back then, since I could still use raw white balancing and the full complement of Lr's raw camera profiles - not unlike smart previews in Lr5 actually. I did minimal processing to assure a relatively neutral (and consistent) starting point in Lightroom. (and one could still do that, in cases where lens correction is #1 priority in a Lr-centric workflow).
But since Lr3, I stopped doing that.
Maybe DxO will find a way to do a lens correction plugin for Lightroom 
.
Cheers,
Rob
Personally I'd concentrate on learning how to better use the lens correction tools already in LR! With the new Defringe tools in LR4/5 I'm getting outstanding lens corrections.
Here's a screenshot of an image shot with a Canon 8-15mm F4L lens, which while an excellent lens exhibits high CA. I doubt DxO can do any better!
(click on image to see full-size)
W/O Lens Corrections With 'Remove CA' and Defringe
Pbeck1 you want the 'Lens Profile Downloader,' not the 'Lens Profile Creator:'
Just keep in mind that correcting distortion and vignetting by 100% (i.e. Perfect?) is generally not necessary and can even cause image degradation.
Distortion correction forces cropping of the image to retain straight borders, otherwise they would appear bowed. You will need to account for that during the shoot, since you are effectively increasing the lens focal length. When using ultrawide angle lenses it can also cause elongation or stretching of objects near the image edges and image softening in these areas. In most cases this can look worse than simple geometric distortion.
When Vignetting is corrected 100% it can cause the image to take on a less natural appearance, since we are used to seeing some vignetting in most pictures. Ultrawide angle and fast lenses (F2 and wider) tend to have significant vignetting (up to -3EV). With 100% vignetting correction you are increasing the exposure significantly across the image, which raises noise levels and makes CA, astigmatism and other aberrations much more visible. In short it can noticeably deteriorate the image quality.
This is why I set my Lens Profile "defaults" for Vignetting at 50% and Distortion at 0% and only set higher for images that "visually" require it.
Once a raw image has demosaic processing applied you lose the ability to do any further highlight recovery. It appears DxO Linear DNGs fall into this category and perhaps another reason to stick with a 100% LR or 100% DxO workflow. Other than for critical copy work a small amount of residual lens distortion should not detract from the image, except of course unless you draw a red line across the image.....
Hi Paul,
I'm really not sure exactly what DxO outputs when you choose DNG:
It's not raw data, yet preserves some ability to do raw things in Lightroom, like white balance and camera profiles.
I dunno about pulling from highlight/shadow "reserves", but note: it's different than a DNG-wrapped tif or jpeg, it may be able to pull from the highlight/shadow reserves as can be done via the DNG used for smart previews - I just don't know.
trshaner: do you know for sure that a DxO DNG hard-clips shadows/highlights, or are you just "extrapolating/assuming/educatedly-guessing"?
Regardless, DxO has some auto shadow/highlight recovery (for those extreme black/white tones) that is quite good - don't sell it short.
Sorry - I don't remember the settings I used to use.
Truth betold, one can achieve excellent results (at lower ISOs and/or if not peeping too deep into the pixels), when using DxO as front end to Lr.
I still think about it when Lr's lens corrections are wonky. But my problem with Lr's lens corrections have more to do with vignetting than distortion (because I mostly shoot nature, not buildings...), and I can add manual correction and/or a dab of paint to the automatic corrections, which saves me the complication of front-ending via DxO. If distortion is your primary concern, consider balancing auto with manual distortion corrections (I've not done much of that, so no guarantee...). Also, there's the upright feature in Lr5...
PS - For most pics, Lr's (auto/lateral) CA correction is excellent (I've heard about cases when it's not, but in my experience - it's been very, very good).
PPS - DxO's purple fringe tool will get the fringe out without the artifacts of Lr's global defringer, however it may also take away real image color sometimes, and can't be done locally, so one may ultimately get better results in Lr if willing to spend a while painting local defringing.
R
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