When I first got my new Sony a7 IV camera, I was surprised at the amount of distortion I was seeing with certain lenses. Then I remembered — I had forgotten to turn on distortion compensation!
Distortion compensation automatically corrects distortion in your images. It’s essentially Lightroom’s Lens Corrections tool in your camera, fixing the distortion that some lenses have. While this might take away from the lens’ true characteristics, it’ll save you time in post-processing, and ensure that your lines are straight and things are looking good in your scene.
If you’re a real estate or architecture photographer, this is especially important.
Turning on distortion compensation, using the new Sony camera menu system
If you have any newer Sony camera body, like the a1, a7 IV or a7S III, you can turn on distortion compensation in the Shooting section of your menu (labeled with a camera icon). Then go to Image Quality and scroll to the bottom of the list. Select Lens Compensation.
Here, you can correct three different areas — Shading Comp., Chromatic Aberration Comp. and Distortion Comp.
Distortion Comp. has two options — Auto (which compensates for distortion) or Off. Note that this setting will only be active for E-mount lenses, so if you’re adapting lenses, this option will be greyed out. For some lenses, Distortion Comp. might be locked in the Auto position, too
The other two areas correct vignetting in the corners (Shading Comp.) and color fringing in your scene (Chromatic Aberration Comp.).
Turning on distortion compensation, using the old Sony camera menu system
If you have an older Sony camera body, like the a7 III, you can turn on distortion compensation in the Settings section of your menu (labeled with a gear icon). Then, select Lens Comp. > Distortion Comp. and choose your desired setting.
Here, you have two options — Auto (which compensates for distortion) or Off. Note that this setting will only be active for E-mount lenses, so if you’re adapting lenses, this option will be greyed out. For some lenses, Distortion Comp. might be locked in the Auto position, too.
So if you’re getting a lot of distortion in your shots, give distortion compensation a try!
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