Sony built-in lens profile applied

[Louie Sherwin]

I recently started shooting with Sony A7R2 (compressed raw) and noticed a small alert in Lens Corrections tab in the Develop module.

This itself is surprising as I have previously turned off all three Lens Compensation options in the camera menu. When I click the "i" icon it reveals the following:

Apparently chromatic aberration correction is applied in Lightroom whether you select it in camera or in Lightroom. It seems to me that the choice should remain with the individual not forced as it seems. While generally I do apply chromatic aberration to all my images there are times, when evaluating a new lens for instance, that I want to turn it off.

I am intersted if someone more in the know can shed some light on this.

-louie

[DdeGannes]

The lens profile is supplied by Sony the Camera manufacturer and is applied by the camera firmware if you shoot in jpeg mode. If you shoot raw then the info is in thew raw file and is being applied by Adobe at Sony's behest.

[Louie Sherwin]

i am also wondering why there is no way to disable this correction? It seems heavy handed of Sony and Adobe to force this to happen.

-louie

[dj_paige]

Excellent explanation given here: Re: Lens correction in Lightroom CC: Retouching Forum: Digital Photography Review

[DdeGannes]

This is also applicable to m4/3 lenses from Olympus and Panasonic (also other mirrorless cameras) due to he very short distance from the lens mount and the sensor. Having software to correct distortion and other aberration allows for smaller and lighter lens design.

[Just Shoot Me]

No it is a Built In correction.

If it wasn't built in then you would need to put a check mark in the Chromatic aberration box to apply it.

Usually the i info reveals this.

The check box labeled "Enable Profile Corrections" should be label Enable "MANUAL" profile corrections.

With some cameras some corrections are done In Camera and passed down with the file even on RAW files.

Some Adobe has built in for most lenses for most manufacturers.

[dj_paige]

There are some good explanations of why this is done for Sony (and other) cameras in this thread, and why you shouldn't even try to turn it off

Lens correction in Lightroom CC: Retouching Forum: Digital Photography Review

[Louie Sherwin]

Ok I can see that it can make sense for the fixed lens cameras like the RX100 series. However, I am looking into the most expensive, supposedly highest quality optics, where each lens costs more than and even multiple times the price of a fixed lens camera.

Lets just stipulate that the Sony internal  chromatic aberration (CA) correction profile is far and away the best. I still want to be able to disable it to see how much CAs are present at least as part of my evaluation process.

Given that Sony's top end full frame lens lineup for the A7 cameras is across the board more expensive than the Canon and Nikon comparable lenses I don't buy the notion that having the automatic correction is some how saving me money. It strikes me more as an obfuscation of design flaws. It also bothers me that Adobe had implicitly bought into this notion. I did read elsewhere that you have the option in DXO to ignore these "built-in" profiles.

To be clear I am not expecting a perfect lens I just want to be able see what I am getting when I am laying down thousands of dollars on a new camera system.

-louie

[dj_paige]

The only thing I can say then is to address this issue with Sony and Adobe.

[Louie Sherwin]

Yes it seems so.

[johnrellis]

Adobe engineer Chris Castleberry responded to Louie's query and explained how to disable the built-in profile or apply another one: Lightroom: Unable to disable "Built-in Lens Profile applied" for raw files | Photoshop Family Custom... . He also explained that Sony firmware bakes the chromatic aberration correction into the raw file using "opcodes", and that cannot be disabled.

[ssprengel]

Chris explained how to disable an external lens profile, which you can also disable by unchecking the Enable Profile Corrections option.

Chris did not say there is a way to disable the “built-in” profile from the Sony OPCODES as the OP is asking about, here, in this thread.

[Louie Sherwin]

ssprengel wrote:

Chris did not say there is a way to disable the “built-in” profile from the Sony OPCODES as the OP is asking about, here, in this thread.

This is my take on this and it is  pure speculation. It may be that Adobe is using Sony supplied code to do the basic raw conversion and that they do not have access to change some of the way the de-mosaic happens. This kind of collaboration actually makes sense for both Adobe and Sony and the end users as it potentially makes support for new cameras much quicker.

Regardless of the implementation, based on Chris's explanation I say the the specific issue I noticed that CA corrections are always applied to raw files is a bug in the Sony firmware. Their own in-camera conversion to JPG follows the setting of the Lens Comp. -> Chrom. Aber. Comp.. For a supported lens it set to Auto the CAs are corrected in the JPG, if set to OFF they are not corrected. I believe that should also be the case for raw files.

With that in mind I have tried to contact Sony support. On my first attempt  an online chat I  got told, "No a known problem. Can't test third party software and can't look at outside websites." The agent did promise to escalate the issue but did not give me a trouble ticket or any way to track the issue further. They did suggest trying phone support.

-louie

[Louie Sherwin]

Thanks John for updating this discussion.