Pentax's automatic distortion correction

<p>I like the distortion correction feature on my K-r 's jpg's. It's great for instant correction of distortion on my DA 21 shots. The jpg can serve as a guide for distortion correction of my RAW's. Can I count on it for correction of the mild barrel distortion of the FA 35mm f2? Has the correction been programmed in for a lens that old? I've yet to see any barrel from that 35 that's worth the worry, but just wondering.</p>

<p>It's my recollection that only the DA's and perhaps FA Limited offer this auto correction?</p>

<p>What irritates me is how much enabling the feature (as well as CA correction) slows down camera operation. I wish they'd just capture it, then do that correction in the background when the camera is otherwise idle.</p>

<p>FA Limiteds and DA lenses. I do not believe FA lenses have this feature but firmware updates did enable it on FA Limiteds.<br>

<br /><br />It really is a great feature, sadly it doesn't actually apply to the RAW image. It does it to the JPEG full size preview and also to the RAW data, but it doesn't actually correct the RAW. I think for the slow down of the camera, as Andrew noted, it should correct the RAW image for any RAW editor to display correctly.</p>

<p>I do realize there are alternative ways to correct distortion, but the in camera method is actually amazingly good.</p>

<p>I can't tolerate the slowdown either so I just do it in Lightroom.</p>

<p>See it in a positive way: you no longer need to invest in high speed cards. I compared them (10x and 4x) and it makes no difference. If you are into sports or other high speed stuff just disable it (it would be no big benefit anyway). For architecture or landscape, do you need the speed?</p>

<p>How does Nikon manage to do this in-camera without such a big slow-down? Does Pentax just need to use a better/faster image processing engine?</p>

<p>I don't need the speed all the time. In fact most of the time I don't, but it still irritates me. I like to do a burst of a few frames every so often and don't want to have to change settings to do that effectively. Especially when I can do it in post so easily.</p>

<p>But it can do AF fine tuning for other lenses. The K-r is a great little camera. Very fine low light performance, and has many such advanced features not usually found on cameras in this class. There have been complaints regarding inaccurate AF in artificial lighting, but my copy seems to be one of the lucky ones with no discernable problems, using the lenses I have tried.</p>

<p>I wonder if the correction is applied to RAW files if one uses the Auto conversion feature in Pentax software, which is supposed to recognize the camera's settings?</p>