[Argelius]

I am currently using a Tamron 18-270 lens with my Nikon D5000 and am frustrated with the marked barrel distortion it has (which I realize is a trade-off with any zoom lens of this sort). I've been thinking about getting a Nikkor 18-200 lens, hoping it is a significantly "better" lens (albeit with much less zoom range).



In the shooting menu, there's a setting for "auto distortion control" which is greyed out (probably because the feature only works with Nikkor lenses). I have tried it with a 105mm Nikkor macro lens that I also have, but cant really notice any difference with that lens.



Would anyone care to comment on how the Nikkor 18-200 lens compares to the Tamron 18-270 in terms of distortion and clarity?



Also, can anyone comment on how effective this feature is with removing lens distortion on the popular Nikkor 18-200 lens? Would love to see a "with and without" comparison...

[Brightcolours]

[quote name='Argelius' timestamp='1282483115' post='2022']

I am currently using a Tamron 18-270 lens with my Nikon D5000 and am frustrated with the marked barrel distortion it has (which I realize is a trade-off with any zoom lens of this sort). I've been thinking about getting a Nikkor 18-200 lens, hoping it is a significantly "better" lens (albeit with much less zoom range).



In the shooting menu, there's a setting for "auto distortion control" which is greyed out (probably because the feature only works with Nikkor lenses). I have tried it with a 105mm Nikkor macro lens that I also have, but cant really notice any difference with that lens.



Would anyone care to comment on how the Nikkor 18-200 lens compares to the Tamron 18-270 in terms of distortion and clarity?



Also, can anyone comment on how effective this feature is with removing lens distortion on the popular Nikkor 18-200 lens? Would love to see a "with and without" comparison...

[/quote]

The tamron 18-270 is better in the 18-200 range than the Nikon. So IQ wise, you will not gain much.

"Correcting" barrel distortion in-camera is just as effective as "correcting" it in software, so not sure that is worth getting a different lens. I guess that is personal.



The Nikon 105mm macro does not have any barrel distortion to speak of, so of course you will not notice a difference.



I would just correct in software in shots where it actually is needed.



And I would invest in better lenses which do not have such problems to begin with, not just buy more of the same as replacement.

Lenses which do not offer such a big zoom range but for the rest are compromising in every other area. It is a DSLR after all, and being able to switch lenses is a plus point rather than a drawback...

[oppitronic]

I own a D5000 as well.

The built-in auto distortion control works pretty good, but only with Nikkor lenses.

It does not provide a high sophisticated distortion control like e.g. the DXO software.

But it works very good for e.g. the 35/1.8 lens.

It helps a lot with the 18-55 and the 18-105 as well, especially at 18mm.

I love it.

[oppitronic]

Here are some sample pictures:



D5000



AF-S 35/1.8

off



on





AF-S 18-55VR

off



on







I guess the effect is clearly visible.

I don't have any samples of the 55-200VR at the long end, but it works there as well.



Auto-distortion-control is disabled with the AF-S 85/3.5VR even when set to on, but this lens doesn't need it.



Auto-distortion-control has its pros and cons.

It slows down in-camera picture processing, the photo is displayed with a delay.

When taking pictures of nature mostly you do not need it.

For a sunset over the sea it is very useful.

For architecture it helps a lot.

I would probably leave it off when taking a picture of a group of people at 18mm, because the "straightened" faces at the edges do not look natural.

And for sure it only shows effect on the camera created JPGs, not in the RAW files.

But for most purposes the D5000 produces good JPGs when you tweak the picture controls right.



Edit:

I just checked, it does show an effect on the RAW files as well...

Could that be?



Edit 2:

Yes it can be. When auto-distortion control is set to on, View NX 2 will show the NEF files corrected as well.

RawTherapee however is not able to interpret that.

[mst]

[quote name='deroppi' timestamp='1282808688' post='2187']

I just checked, it does show an effect on the RAW files as well...

Could that be?

[/quote]



How did you check that? It might well be, that there's just a flag in the file, which RAW converters interpret, but the RAW data itself is untouched.



-- Markus

[oppitronic]

[quote name='mst' timestamp='1282811227' post='2190']

How did you check that? It might well be, that there's just a flag in the file, which RAW converters interpret, but the RAW data itself is untouched.



-- Markus

[/quote]



Good point and you are right!

As you can see I first wrote "it does not show any effect in RAW" because I was sure it did not.

But then I have used the new ViewNX 2 to view the RAW files and auto-distortion control DID have an effect.

I can't verify it right now, but I think ViewNX 1 did not correct distortion. (will test later)

Now I checked with rawtherapee and auto-distortion control shows NO effect.



So it seems Nikon places the distortion control parameters in the NEF and their own RAW converters are able to interpret them. Or ViewNX 2 recognizes the lens and does a distortion control on it's own. But I doubt that.