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Panasonic GH2 w/ 14-140mm and Adobe Lightroom

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wigginjs

Guest
I'm doing a 30 day trial of Adobe Lightroom 3 and I'm concerned because the Panasonic 14-140mm lens is not listed in the "lens profiles" for automatic lens distortion correction. I was hoping to use Lightroom to develop my RAW files instead of the Silkypix software that comes with the camera. Any GH2 owners who are using Lightroom? Does anyone know if there is a way to add support for this and other Panasonic lenses to Lightroom?
 
I have been using Lightroom for about six months now.

First for a G1 and now for a GH2.

Until you made this post I never considered matching it to specific lenses. I just use it as it comes and the images are great.

Tony
 

Terry

New member
Lens corrections are built in to the m4/3 files so you shouldn't need to correct through Lightroom. What you see in LR should already be corrected.
 
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wigginjs

Guest
TEBnewyork:

This is true for JPEG files, but RAW files from the GH2 are not corrected for lens distortion. It is just the direct output from the image sensor with no processing. You can see this by opening a RAW file in Silkypix and disabling the lens correction.
 
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wigginjs

Guest
Did a little more reading and I think TEBnewyork is spot on, I just didn't understand what he meant. From the DPreview GH1 review where they analyzed the 14-140mm lens. This may be a non-issue, but for a somewhat complex reason:

"One of the more controversial aspects of the Micro Four Thirds system is Panasonic's decision to integrate software lens aberration correction as a fundamental component of the imaging chain (which the company has unfortunately chosen not to publicly document). For most users this is completely transparent - the camera corrects both the viewfinder image 'on the fly', and the JPEG files it records. Also, both the supplied SilkyPix software and industry-standard alternatives such as Adobe Camera Raw convert raw files correctly too (the relevant correction parameters are encoded directly in the raw file, and Adobe has recently revised its DNG open-standard raw format to accommodate them properly too). However users who like to experiment with more obscure raw developers which are unable to apply the requisite corrections will find themselves with highly distorted images, mainly when shooting at wideangle."

So, it appears that while the RAW images are distorted the correction information is encoded into the file and Adobe Camera Raw (used by Lightroom) has the ability to read and correct the files automatically. Maybe the reason why there is no lens setting for the Panasonic m4/3 lenses is that the lens profile does not have to be specified manually, it is automatically detected and corrected?
 

Terry

New member
Correct. Panasonic embedded lens corrections into the RAW files before Adobe had lens corrections available. So yes, everything RAW and jpeg are corrected without needing to use it in Lightroom. There are a few RAW processors that don't recognize lens corrections. If you want to see how much correction is baked into the lens you can use one of those and compare the results to Lightroom.

Lens corrections are an integral part of the m4/3 system and part of the way they keep some of the lenses small. Some people object to this decision. For me it is the end product that matters most.
 

m3photo

New member
Re: In-house Corrections

Lens corrections are an integral part of the m4/3 system and part of the way they keep some of the lenses small. Some people object to this decision. For me it is the end product that matters most.
Exactly. That's what makes the kit lens one of the best and that's why the 20mm is, together with this perfect in-house electronic matching, unbeatable. Who cares how it's done?
 
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