Are Micro Four Thirds lens correction tags in RAW files documented?

Asked 8/8/2010

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I want to apply the same built-in lens corrections from Micro Four Thirds cameras to RAW files in open-source software. Olympus bodies correct distortion in JPEGs, and Panasonic bodies can correct distortion and chromatic aberration with supported lenses.

Is the format for these corrections documented anywhere, officially or through reverse-engineering? Specifically, can the correction data be read from the RAW metadata so software can reproduce the same result as the in-camera JPEG or manufacturer desktop software, instead of relying on separate lens calibration databases?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

16y ago

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There appears to be a pretty rich Open Source movement in the Linux community to generate raw file format processors for linux. I've found several wiki's that are working on compiling file format details for known RAW formats, and there are a few applications that contain some code. Some formats, like Canon's .CRW and .CR2, are open specifications and you can find the details online. It seems that the .ORF format (or the Panasonic .RAW format) are not open, so the only thing knowledge that can be gleaned is via reverse engineering. I doubt that the information you are looking for is contained within EXIF data, however if it is stored, it should be available in RAW format metadata. Here are some resources:

The bulk of a RAW file format is a direct sensor data dump, either from a Bayer array, CCD, or possibly a layered CMOS (like the Foveon.) That makes the image data pretty easy to spot, as it is very patterned. The data you are interested in will likely be more complex and and random, either stored at the beginning or possibly the end of a file format. I've done a fair amount of file format reverse engineering in my day, and may be able to recognize some structure in the .ORF format for you. (I worked on an editor for Sim City 4 and the Sims 2 a number of years ago, and alongside a few others, we must have decoded some 300+ file formats via HEX. I may be able to help provide some insight if I can get a hold of some .ORF raw files from the camera+lenses you have access to.) Your best bet, if you wish to have support for lens correction added to lensfun, would be the open source movements to bring RAW processing to Linux.

UPDATE:

Alternatively, it seems like Adobe has released a Lens Profile generator that can generate lens profiles for Lightroom 3/ACR. They cover geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. I know you mentioned something that could be used with the program lensfun, but this might be a viable alternative.

Originally by user124. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user124

16y ago

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Partly, but not as an official open standard based on the answers here.

For Micro Four Thirds RAW files, lens correction data can be stored in the RAW metadata rather than standard EXIF. Panasonic RAW files have been reverse-engineered to some extent: lens distortion correction is reported in tag 0x119, containing 16 16-bit integers, and there is also a chromatic aberration-related tag at 0x011b, though that field was noted as not yet decoded.

Olympus ORF and Panasonic RAW formats were described as not openly documented in the cited discussion, so practical support generally depends on reverse-engineering rather than an official published spec. That means reproducing the exact in-camera or vendor-software correction is possible in principle if the metadata is understood, but not all fields are fully documented.

So the short answer is: yes, some of it has been reverse-engineered and appears to live in RAW metadata, but there does not seem to be a complete official public specification.

UniqueBot

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16y ago

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