Vignette control in D3

[walterh]

Hello - I wonder if anybody tested out the vignette control function of the D3.

 

My first impression is that it is not applied in a "smart" way - tuned to

individual lenses or tuned for zoom lenses according to focal length and f-stop?

Perhaps I am missing something but is it always applied in the current setting

even for lenses(f-stops) that do not need it?

[bjørn rørslett]

My understanding is that this is done on a lens-by-lens basis (if the camera understands what lens is present). But I could be mistaken.

 

However, since the operation is only on in-camera jpgs and you need Capture NX for the NEFs (third-party conversion software don't know anything about this control), the usefulness of this feature is questionable.

[walterh]

Bjorn I do occasionally exercise myself in using Capture NX in the firm belief that one day I will be patient enough to use it routinely for batch conversions into *.tif files to be processed in PS. In this case such a feature would come in handy. Until now I always gave up pretty soon and waited for the next update in the hope that NX might finally grow into a software with a manageable user interface. I was frightened enough from the last NX update to ask here and not try the vignette control in NX myself^^. I only tried it out one time for an image taken with the 70-200mm AFS VR wide open - deliberately forcing some vignetting. With vignette control on I got rid of some vignetting but the result was uneven. I can do better manually in PS - HRRR

 

Another point is that pt-lens (that I frequently use for reducing distortion but potentially useful for this task as well) is not updated yet for most lenses on FX format so I might just as well use PS or NX for vignette control.

[ilkka_nissila]

Well the usefulness of 3rd party raw conversion software itself is not certain for the D3 (IMO).

I still use lightroom but not for nefs.

 

If the correction is based on typical characteristics of each cpu-equipped lens as deetrmined

by Nikon then it could be useful. But there is some variability in this too, my 70-200 had a

darker right bottom corner than the rest.

[walterh]

"... my 70-200 had a darker right bottom corner than the rest."

 

Ilkka unless the effect is minor this would call for adjustment by Nikon.

 

To RAW conversion: If the user interface of NX would allow me to see the changes while I set the parameters for automatic batch processing I would process all my D3 NEF files via NX into *.tiff. But If I cannot visualize the settings while these are applied NX seems rather useless. In consequence I only fight NX when absolutely necessary. Other than that I use Adobe ACR.

[ilkka_nissila]

Walter, I've been told Nikon doesn't do adjustments of element alignment in Finland. They'd send it either to Japan or to some other country in Europe, maybe the Netherlands. It'd cost many hundreds for me, and the lens would be away for weeks or months. Not worth it for me since the other corners weren't so great either. I am waiting for a new design which isn't made with the giddy-with-greed-for-this-years-sales-never-mind-the-future philosophy. If a lens is so sensitive to alignment errors that a lens which hasn't been knocked around has this kind of issues, its probably not built well enough to hold the elements precisely enough in the first place, so I'd have no guarantee the adjustment would actually stay perfect in use. I am getting excellent results with my AF-D prime telephotos though, even at very wide apertures, so I do not "have to" have a fast telezoom, but it would be nice for sports and landscape work (where I would stop it down obviously).

 

I can understand the dislike for the NX interface. I love the Lightroom user interface (and the new 2.0 beta has nice local adjustments that work well) but at high ISO, the conversion results aren't good enough IMO, and the color needs adjustment. I need to play with the LR conversion settings more, but I probably will never use it for high ISO NEF conversion, and for consistency across images I will use NX most of the time with low ISO also. I just generate JPGS or TIFFs using Capture NX and then load those into Lightroom. This is a bit clumsy though and there is a loss of quality with subsequent adjustments, if they are considerable.

 

I would like to like the images from LR but I don't feel Adobe cares enough about conversion quality with individual cameras to make different algorithms depending on what is best with a particular camera. Nikon does.

[kari_karhu1]

I take NEF and best JPG. I know how they are kept together in LR. Even edits in PS are

grouped nicely. But can attach a conversion in NX to the corresponding images, already

in LR?