Image Editing, Workflows

Lens correction in Capture One: The Essentials

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

Lens corrections is hardly a new phenomena in RAW converters these days, but there are some subtle differences between how they can be handled.

By default, the Lens Correction tool sits in the Lens tool tab in Capture One.

To correct optical errors in the lens, you either need to know how the lens behaves under certain conditions or create a profile for that lens, if its behaviour is unknown.

In Capture One we can use both methods to correct lens errors.

If we look at the Profile drop-down menu, the complete list of profiled lenses is shown. These are lenses, which we have had on the test bench at Phase One and created a profile for.

We believe our methods give an excellent profile for lens corrections. We don’t just rely on one or two captures to profile a lens. It can take anywhere between 50 to 200 captures. For example a very wide zoom with a large range requires more captures.

Fortunately it doesn’t stop there!

Some manufacturers supply enough data in the RAW file that we can use to also correct for lens errors.

For example Sony, Micro 4/3rds cameras and Fuji Cameras.

This is when you will see Manufacturer Profile in the Profile drop down menu.

The main difference between a Manufacturer Profile and a Capture One profile is that we additionally correct for Sharpness Falloff. This is why the slider is greyed out when using the Manufacturer option.

The benefit of using a manufacturer profile is that any new lens is instantly supported in Capture One. For example if you are a Capture One (for Sony) user, then as soon as Sony add a new lens to their line up, you can be guaranteed we support it in Capture One. No waiting around for a new profile or having to create a profile for yourself.

Better Chromatic Aberration Correction

One issue with profiling lenses is that unfortunately there is variation between samples. i.e. one lens might perform better or worse than another lens.

Distortion and light falloff are less likely to change between samples, but chromatic aberration is more prone too. However we can correct for this issue with a bespoke analysis. Next to the Chromatic Aberration field is an additional menu.

Clicking Analyze will improve on the Chromatic Aberration correction by examining the image for Chromatic Aberration artefacts of your specific image and sensor combination. It is a relatively quick process and worth performing on your images.

The additional good news is that this process can be performed on a batch of images. This was an improvement made in Capture One Pro 8 over version 7, where it could only be done one image at a time. You can appreciate this is now significantly faster in version 8!

To perform a batch analysis, simply select a number of images and choose Analyze as shown above.

It’s a good idea to do this at the start or the end of your workflow. Its a quick operation and can only improve image quality.

If you want to learn more about the Lens Correction tool, check out the Tutorial on lens correction

Best regards,

David

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David Grover

David Grover is part of the Capture One team, bringing you help, advice and education on a variety of subjects and platforms. David can be found on most weeks delivering live Capture One Webinars or anytime on our YouTube Channel.

Comments (68)

Christoph Breitkopf

Despite the growing number of supported lenses, lens support is weak compared to some other raw converters.

If your lens is not supported, certain problems such as a moustache-type distortion just can’t be corrected in C1. For example, I have a good copy of the Samyang 2.8/14, but having to correct the distortion outside of C1 is a big distortion in my workflow.

I understand that Phase One can’t spend too much effort on analyzing 3rd party lenses. Because of that, support for community-provided (like presets/styles) lens profiles with some more parameters, for example as in panotools/lensfun, would be a great feature. I would understand that such profiles might be distinctly marked as “not from Phase One, of dubious quality, …”, but having the option to use them would be nice.

On a positive note, thanks to your tutorial link, I just discovered the “movement” tab, and am looking forward to re-correcting a few images taken with the 3.5/28 PC Nikkor.

Sameli Rantanen

Thanks David, great article.
+1 for support for 3rd party lens profiles. Now I make a roundtrip to PTLens which is a pity since it breaks the non-destructive editing workflow too early. Only one of my lenses has a Phase One profile and unfortunately it is not the one that needs immediate correction.

Sameli,

I’ve got teh same problem. As a RAW-converter C1 is great but the support for lens profiles is very weak. I also make the roundtrip to DxOViewPoint (distortion correction) and afterwards to PTLens for corrections of CA and vignetting. So it would be very helpfull if we could do all this in C1 …

David Grover

Thanks for your comments Rob.

Don’t forget you can correct for the CA in Capture One.

David

You can use RawTheRapee for lens distortion and it is free.

Martijn van Eeten

Indeed, it’s a shame that third party lens support is very limited. I.m.h.o. at the very least correction profiles for (semi) pro f/2.8 lenses such as the 24-70 and 70-200 from brands like Tamron and Sigma should be included.

John Jørgensen

I agree. I have invested in Tamrons lenses because of quality equal to, or better than Nikons, and 50% less spending. I am testing Capture one at the moment, finding it very interesting, but sad to find no lens profiles for Tamron.

Agreed. The 70-200 VC and 24-70 VC by Tamron are extremely popular now.

I need lens correctiuon for sony sal 28-75 1: 2.8 this lens don´t relacioned with manufacturer profile.

David Grover

Hi Marco,

It is probably before Sony could write needed lens data into the RAW file.

David

Markus Bolliger

Dear David

If that is really the case:
“For example if you are a Capture One (for Sony) user, then as soon as Sony add a new lens to their line up, you can be guaranteed we support it in Capture One” –

why I don’t find any profile in Capture One 9.1.2 for these two lenses:

– Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA
– Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

???
Thank your very much for your response!

Kind regards from Switzerland,
Markus

David Grover

From the article itself..

“Some manufacturers supply enough data in the RAW file that we can use to also correct for lens errors.
For example Sony, Micro 4/3rds cameras and Fuji Cameras.
This is when you will see Manufacturer Profile in the Profile drop down menu.”

I think the key message about lens corrections is -> only useable in RAW format. I also could not figure out why the lens correction was not accesible but googled it and found this blog ( thank you – tons of useful info here!! ). I picked up on “…hardly a new phenomena in RAW converters…”.

Chris Lee

I found this to be extremely helpful. I’m a C1 Pro user with a Sony system. I had noticed that there is a relatively small number of Sony lenses specifically listed, but had also noted the “Manufacturer Profile”auto-populating for several of my unlisted lenses and apparent corrections being applied to all of my Sony lenses. I was curious about how this was working. I’m glad to know that the correction data is embedded in the RAW file. …….makes me wonder why Aperture never made use of this data……. I’m glad I made the leap from Aperture to C1.

David Grover

Good to know Chris!

Aperture certainly makes use of this data, at least in my case for m43 lenses. It just doesn’t make a song & dance about it. And you can’t disable it, if for some reason you might want to.

However, C1 Pro 8 certainly does NOT show “Manufacturer Profile” for the unsupported m43 lenses I have. For example the Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6EZ, as identified in the Info panel, gives me a choice of “Generic” (i.e. do nothing), or nothing. Under “Generic” in the lens list I can indeed select “Manufacture Profile”, but (a) this has no effect, and (b) it certainly isn’t the top level of the profile drop down menu.

You obviously have a better version of C1 Pro than me, Mr Glover….

Martin Andersen

To be fair, Aperture uses the built-in profiles from Micro four-thirds and similar systems to correct lens distortion automatically, there just aren’t any controls for it, as it is a feature of the System RAW converter.
So the same lenses that use Manufacturer Profiles in C1 are also corrected in Aperture. By extension, any program like Photos which use the System RAW converter in OSX will have those profiles applied. A moot point however since Apple chose to concentrate on the consumer rather than pro market and their Cloud strategy.

Mike Coffey

I second Christoph’s suggestion that Phase One profile the Samyang/Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. This is a very popular lens.
Have a look at Kirk Tuck’s blog about discovering this lens and then that someone had made a profile for Lightroom:
http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2015/08/since-buying-of-lenses-has-become-akin.html We shouldn’t need Adobe to get the best from this remarkable lens.

I have been using Capture One for about a decade. David, your webinars are the first thing I point friends to as I help them transition to Capture One. You are doing a great job.

David Grover

Thanks Mike! I appreciate the nice comments.

Ok – I will have to look at one of these lenses!

On a general note, I know it would be good to have every lens profiled. We are working hard to improve that.

Scott Cannon

Rokinon / Samyang 14mm profile requested.

Philippe Rouquet

Thanks David for this very useful article. Like a growing number of nature and wildlife photographers, I moved recently to C1 One Pro since it is gaining recognition as being one of the best derawtizer on the market. Are there any plans to add support for Nikon long lenses such as:
-Nikon 300mm 2.8 VR II
-Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR II
-Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4E FL ED VR
-Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR

Peter Ibbotson

I am happily using the Nikon listed data for lens corrections. BUT the list does not cover either the old or the new version of the 80~400 zoom lens. Puzzled.

Alan Huntley

For years now Phase One has had blog entries and videos regarding lens correction, and how Sony, for example, builds correction data into the RAW file for their lenses. And, yet, one of the more popular lenses (especially for the travel photographer)–the Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3–apparently has no correction data along with the RAW file and has remained unsupported for years! If I can help get this lens supported, please let me know what’s needed.

Andreas Spangenberg

Hi! I´m missing profiles for my Canon EF100/2.8 Macro (not the EF100/2.8L IS), and the Canon EF180/3.5L Macro – two big lenses in product photography if you are a Canon-user.

This is what I use C1 for – tethered shooting and RAW-conversion. For some product shots and all other work I still use Bridge & Photoshop – they have more lens correction profiles. Would love to see more profiles for Canon. Thanx!

Mike Helliwell

Have recently returned from wildlife trip (Romania) and have been looking for a lens correction tool for my Canon 100-400 II IS. The older version is profiled. Is there to be a profile for the new available to Capture One 8.2.2 users?

David Grover

Hi Mike (and others),

If there are any lenses that you want added, the best way is to log a support case so its recorded.

Go here ->

https://www.phaseone.com/en/SupportMain.aspx

David

David,

The fact of the matter here is that Phase One doesn’t acknowledge any request to add lens support! I’ve asked, at least, a couple of times for the Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 to be added, but here I am at Capture One Pro 8 (like 2 versions since I’ve asked) and no profile.

Therefore, asking folks to submit a support request is rather academic; unless, of course, it’s a REALLY popular lens then, maybe, end users might see support for it by the time the next version of the lens comes out.

Please don’t misunderstand…I love C1, but Phase One is light years behind other lens databases such as the one included with Lightroom.

David Grover

Hi Alan,

We get a lot of requests so unfortunately we can’t acknowledge them. But please rest assured they are logged.

David

Hi David,

Perhaps “acknowledge” was a poor choice of word. I have no doubt that they’re logged, but the facts are that I posted a request for support for that Sony lens probably 2 – 3 years ago and, yet, to this day (and as of C1 8) it remains unsupported. Since lens support is so slow from Phase One, it would be VERY helpful if lens profiles from other databases could be utilized. For example, all of Adobe’s profiles are readily downloadable and they do support my Sony lens. Just sayin…

Edward Statham

Still can’t find a lens profile for the Canon 100-400 mk2. PLEASE can we have a proper lens profile for this lens? It’s a very popular lens by all accounts. One of the reasons I invested in Capture 1 vs other software was because it really does produce the finest images. But to do that, we really need a lens profile.

Brant Bady

Add my two cents for a profile for the Samyang/Rokinon/Bower 14mm F2.8, and also the ability to point to an external source of lens profiles.. the latter would be brilliant move

Will you have a lens profile for the Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 Zoom?

Brant Bady

David, your column stated

“For example if you are a Capture One (for Sony) user, then as soon as Sony add a new lens to their line up, you can be guaranteed we support it in Capture One. No waiting around for a new profile or having to create a profile for yourself.”

So I am calling you on that, where is support for the Sony 24-240mm, it was released in the spring, and its now December..??? I am using version 8.3.4.19 and will upgrade to 9x in the spring

also no Voigtlanders at all? Seems to me that Voigtlander is doing a pretty decent job in producing lenses that can be used on the Sony A7x series.. and they appear to be quite popular.

Also, I want to push again on opening up your API somehow to support external lens profiles.. good for PhaseOne and good for us users!!! Its 2015 after all.

Finally thanks for a great product, I find C1 so much more intuitive, powerful, and better rendering than alternative products!!!

David Grover

Have you selected Manufacturer Profile for that lens Brant?

With regards to making profiles, we use a pretty complex system that can’t really be replicated in the home. We believe this gives us great lens profiles but at the penalty of not being able to create them yourself.

Thanks for the nice words! Glad you are enjoying Capture One!

Brant Bady

Hi again, certainly willing to think it might be “operator error”on my part.. or confusion about this part of the interface

if I select Manufacturer Profile does that mean the other options on the drop down are alternatives?

ie. that the 24-240 is encapsulated in that option without me being able to see it and happens automatically if I select Manufacturers Profile?

Because when the dropdown shows the list of manufacturers, under Sony, the 24-240 does not show up

David Grover

Manufacturer profile is indeed what corrections we can do based on RAW data provided, in this case, by Sony.

The options shown in the list under Sony, are profiles we have made in house. So you can consider they are alternatives.

You will notice in Manufacturer profile we cannot correct for sharpness fall off.

If I shoot with my canon 5DSr in mediumRAW mode, there is no lens correction available. If I shoot in RAW mode, the lens correction tab is available. How can I get the lens correction tab working in medium RAW mode?

Is the Hasselblad HCD 24 supported by Capture one?

Is there anyway of disabling Lens Correction in Capture perminently where tethered or shooting to card? It is annoying and alway over compensates.

David Grover

Yes. Simply choose ‘Disable default Lens Corrections’ in the sub menu of the lens corrections tool itself.

RIchard Law

I’ve been trialing C1 for a while and really like the way it handles my raw workflow but the lack of lens profile correction is a joke.

Having to break out of the workflow to switch to a 3rd party app for lens correct breaks the non-destructive workflow entirely.

I appreciate there are lots of lenses to profile, but given that 3rd party profiles are readily available, support should be baked right in. At the very least provide the community with the tools necessary to create our own profiles and share them.

David Grover

Hey Richard,

What lenses are you missing? There is a quite a few in the database not to mention that we can often use manufacturer profiles as well.

David

RIchard Law

Hi David

The first three lenses I tried that were missing were:

Samyang 14mm f/2.8 <- essential due to the moustache distortion
Samyang 135mm /f2.0
Canon EF24mm f/1.4L mk1

I also have several other Samyang prime lenses and an entire set of Canon FD primes, though I appreciate the FD lenses are ancient they still produce a great deal of character and would benefit greatly from being profiled, even if you give us the tools to do it ourselves and share with the C1 userbase.

David Grover

Hi Richard,

On a positive note we are working with many new providers to lend support. Just ask for your patience.

David

Prior to deciding what tool to use I would like to know whether Capture One does offer default lense correction for the following two Sony FE Mount lenses:
a) 24 – 70 /3.5 -5.6
b) 70 – 200 /4.0

In addition to that, I’d like to hear from users how satisfied they are with the default lense correction offered by Capture One for those lenses.

yes, lightroom does Support those, according to their web-page since the LR 5.7.1 release in conjunction with uncompressed RAW Support for my Alpha 7 Mark II.

best regards

Hubert

David Grover

Both lenses are supported with the use of the Manufacturer Profile

Tor Einar Olsen

I need a lens correction profile for:

– Sony E 16-70mm f/4 Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* ZA OSS SEL1670Z

Bought Capture One 9 Pro for this very reason. In advance, thanks

Ha…good luck with that! I’ve been waiting about 3 years and asked numerous times for a lens profile for the Sony E 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS. I realize this one isn’t a “pro” lens, but it certainly is/was a very popular lens! Why does just about every other RAW converter out there support it, except for Capture One? I’ve used C1 since v3 and it really sucks that I have to use another RAW converter when I’ve used that lens.

David Grover

Hi Alan,

Have you checked if ‘Manufacturer Profile’ is available for your lens?

David

David,

If by “manufacturer profile” you mean the list of lenses under “Sony” in the profile drop down, it is not there and never has been! I’ve been a C1 user since v3 and the only thing that bugs the heck out of me about this software is that I can’t build my own or otherwise get needed profiles into the software.

David Grover

No, thats not what I am referring to Alan,

Perhaps if you read the first part of the blog post it will be easy to understand?

“Some manufacturers supply enough data in the RAW file that we can use to also correct for lens errors.
For example Sony, Micro 4/3rds cameras and Fuji Cameras.
This is when you will see Manufacturer Profile in the Profile drop down menu.”

David,

Thanks for the clarification. I would venture to say that my answer is still no because all I see for profile is “Generic.” Wouldn’t it automatically switch to “Manufacturer Profile” if that info was available in the RAW file?

I tried manually setting the profile selection to “Manufacturer Profile” under Generic, but that selection doesn’t affect the image so I’m assuming that no data is available.

Thanks!

David Grover

Hi AlanH,

Then in that case it was before Sony implemented lens data in the RAW file unfortunately.

David

David Grover

Hi Tor,

Have you checked if ‘Manufacturer Profile’ is available.

David

Bentley Nelson

Is the manufacturer profile any different than the one Capture One provides?

David Grover

Hi Bentley,

Yes – Manufacturer profile relies on data we get from the Manufacturer. Our profile is data we gather ourselves.

I am sure we can have a long discussion about which is better! But the Manufacturer Profile should not be considered a poor substitute.

David

Tor Einar Olsen

Yes, Capture One does support manufacturer profile for that lens, but that 1670z is also famous for having uneven sharpnes. Softer on the right side. Not by much, but noticable when zoomed in Capture One. This is why I want a Capture One profile that fixes this…if possible.

Otherwise I’m gonna start hunting for a new lens. Maybe the Zeiss 24mm f1.8 from Sony.

David Grover

Hi Tor,

We can correct for some sharpness fall off, but only to some degree and its based on edge fall off, not side to side fall off.

I woud go shopping for that new lens….

David

Matus Kicka

hi im using capture one for over 3 years and i always hope for implementing lens correction data for tokina 100mm 2.8 macro lens and Voigtlander Nokton 58mm 1.4f unfrortunetly i cant see full integrations and support for this brands since i start using capture one 7 is it any chance you will add lens correction data for this wanderfull lenses?

Ed Statham

Canon 100-400 mk2 still no profile available as of 21 Jan 2017 in newly upgraded Capture One v10. Even an indication from Phase One that “it’ll be ready for download on dd.mm.yyyy” would be OK, at least we’d know.

Amazing that the Zony FE 16-35 F4 isn’t there.

Why do they not open for 3rd party profiles when they obviously can’t keep the profiles in sync. This starts to smell like Corel.
That way I could invest few days in getting the classic Zeissy Ultron profiled as well.

David Grover

The Sony 16-35 IS there and supported by the Manufacturer Profile.

I love Capture One, but I really wish they supported more lenses profiles from Nikon, such as 24mm 2.8d, 28mm 2.8d, 50mm 1.4d, 105mm f2d, 105mm f2.8d and of course, like everybody commented: some well known third parties lenses.

Reinhard Wilting

HI,
I would like to see that more lens profiles are added for the Nikon mount. The list is very short and not at all uptodate. What I personally would need is the AFS 24mm 1,8 G, which needs significant distorsion correction. Also the AFS 300mm 2,8 VRII. In addition the entire Sigma ART series of prime lenses should really be there not only for Canon mount. Luckily I don´t use zooms, but if, I might not have switched form Lightroom to C1. Manually adjusting the distorsion of a zoom must be a nightmare. So, coudl I motivate you put some effort into C1 for the Nikon users?

Emanuel Bringas

There is no lens profile for Nikkor 18-140mm. Are you planning to add it?

I’m going back to lightroom for that reason.

Mohamed Rezk

Same for me.

If you have already imported the images that you want to remove the Distortion Correction from, you can easily apply a preset to all the images. Select all the images you want to remove the correction from, then navigate to the Lens Tool Tab ().

Stephan Spunkt

The Pictures are not shown, which renders the tutorial pretty much useless… 🙁