Sony RX100: Adobe Camera RAW 7.2 RC Distortion Correction = FORCED ON
I found a disturbing bug today in Adobe Camera RAW 7.2 RC: distortion correction for the Sony RX100 is forced on.
As far as I can tell, there is no way in ACR 7.2 RC to process a Sony RX100 RAW (ARW) image without distortion correction being applied, silently and without any indication. I have not enabled ACR lens corrections, so this is a flat-out bug. Perhaps it will be fixed for a final release?
That ACR is correcting distortion is plain to see by converting the same Sony.ARW image using another RAW converter with distortion correction disabled, like DXO Optics Pro or RAW Developer.
It’s not that distortion correction is bad per se, it’s that it should be optional. In particular, it damages micro contrast of fine details when there is significant “unwarping” that has to be done.
Toggle the image below to see the difference.
NOTE: color is bad on iPhone/iPad and non-color aware devices for these images, because they are in ProPhotoRGB color space (bug in Apple iOS, etc).
Comparing distortion correction
Toggle the image to see the ACR vs DXO image, both corrected for distortion.
And here is the DXO image without and with distortion correction: