Are Nikon Distortion Control Data firmware updates critical?

Question

Nikon has released the Distortion control data upgrade for D90 and D5000 (I am an owner of Nikon D90).

The Distortion Control Data firmware upgrade is available for Nikon D90 and D5000 cameras only. This is used to correct barrel and pincushion distortion during shooting and editing. This may be loaded into cameras that support distortion control.

Has anyone upgraded his/here camera by using this firmware? Is it a critical "bug"? Has somebody seen any difference before and after?

Other updates we can see here.

Related article: Where can I find firmware updates for Nikon and how do I install them

Asked by garik

Answer

No, I don't think it's a critical bug. This is an update of distortion data for Nikon lenses. As far as I know, the distortion correction is applied through the retouch menu, which I never use - I do any distortion corrections in Camera Raw.

The corrections applied are noticeable, if you see the before and after, but unless you see them on top of one another, or have an image of something like a brick wall, it's usually very hard to see distortion in most images, apart from very wide angle lenses.

Answered by MikeW

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