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I couldn't find anything that would explain plainly what this is, and do I need it. I have Nikon D5300, Firmware version C - 1.00, L - 2.009, and it is with the kit lens 18-55mm VR II.

First, what is Auto Distortion Control, and should I turn it ON on my camera?

EDIT: Ok, I have made some pictures, with setting the Auto Distortion Control on the camera ON and OFF, here is the album. PLEASE NOTE, the pictures without a text in them I forgot what was the option, but you can see there isn't a difference. If there is something that I should be aware of that I can't notice, please tell me. ALSO NOTE that I have been changing the IN-CAMERA option Auto Distortion Control ON and OFF

Sartheris Stormhammer
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There is a Nikon support article here explaining it: What is distortion control?

It will correct distortion in supported Nikon lenses and apply the correction to your JPG files. If you are shooting in RAW format, you would need to correct for distortion in your editing software, which is easy to do.

It's up to you if you want to correct distortion, as in most lenses it isn't very noticeable. If you are shooting JPG I don't see any reason not to enable the feature.

Looking at reviews, your lens has quite a bit of barrel distortion at 18mm, so probably worth correcting if you are taking photos of anything with straight lines, whether it be landscapes with horizons, architecture etc, where non-straight lines may become apparent.

The only negative aspect is that after correcting for distortion, the edges of the resulting image would not be square, so the image may be slightly cropped to square it off again.

MikeW
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