Nikon z7 Auto Distortion Control

Hi Everyone,

We've recently been doing some testing with our Nikon z7 camera with the kit lens (24mm-70mm).  We've noticed some issues that others may have come across, or not, relating to this new camera, whether it also applies across the other new Nikon cameras such as the D850 or is just specific to the 'Z' range I'm not sure, maybe other can advise.

So the camera has an Auto Distortion Control setting. This can be turned off, and from our testing we think it should be, however it seems that in some cases it is either not possible to turn it off or it applies the correction to the JPEG and possibly the RAWs no matter what.

If you look at an imported RAW image in Lightroom in the 'Lens Correction' tab you might see a little '!' as below:

In this case it applies to our 85mm lens using the Z mount adapter, but the same applies to the Kit Lens.  This image was shot with the Auto Distortion Control turned OFF and in RAW+JPEG Fine. And Lightroom does NOT allow you to turn this feature off.  This seems to have implication in RC.

To over come this you need to use some other software.  I've only test CaptureOne which allows you to set the image to Generic and seems to remove all applied Auto correction.  The exported JPEGs then work in RC as expected.

Would anyone from RC like to comment on this feature as I would have thought that there interpretation of the RAW images would not include and implied Lens correction in the EXIF.

Cheers  Sam