DxO Optics Pro Review
by Neil van Niekerk

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DXO OPTICS ENGINE - Distortion control with a fish-eye lens

An interesting side-effect of the distortion control of DxO,
is that you have the same kind of 'de-fishing' effect if you use the Nikon 10.5mm f2.8 DX lens with Nikon Capture.

With setting the check in DxO Optics tab for distortion control, your fish-eye image becomes a rectilinear image.

Obviously there will be some smearing towards the edges (just like with Nikon Capture), as the software tries to interpolate data which isn't there.

There is one aspect of how DxO Optics control the rectilinear version of the fish-eye image, that Nikon Capture doesn't have - Max Frame.

Because DxO creates a rectilinear image from the fish-eye image, there is an area that extends outside the normal 2:3 frame. By selecting 'Max Frame' you get in essence a panoramic shot.

This might be easier to understand visually.
You'll have to excuse the sloping horizon in this image - it is tough to get the image perfectly horizontal when the horizon is curved.

Firstly, the image with default (auto) settings in DxO Pro, with distortion control disabled:

The same image but with distortion control enabled in DxO Optics, which gives us that wacky ultra-wide rectilinear perspective:

Just for comparison as to how the Nikon Capture version looks:
(Now to be fair here in judgment, keep in mind that the Nikon Capture version has had no adjustments done to it, whereas the DxO version automatically adjusts the image.)

But back to the DxO Optics version: I like the 'Saturated Reversal Film' setting in DxO Optics - it gives me that saturated Fuji slide film look that I loved. So here is the version with that setting enabled, just to give us punchier colours (with the ease of click of a button.)

But now, with 'Max frame' enabled, the image extends from the normal 2:3 image, to a panoramic image which has nearly a 1:2 aspect ratio.

Now that is eye-catching! And the beauty of it is in how simple it was to get to this point.

To my eye, the de-fished version looks very good, and if you concentrate on compositions which are very strongly central, then the edges of the frame are less important in terms of sharpness.

This really is an option in extending the possibilities of the 10.5mm f2.8 DX fish-eye lens.

As to how sharp the edges are of the image which has been 'de-fished' to the rectilinear version - as I said, there will obviously be smearing towards the edges.

Here are 100% crops of the fish-eye version, and the stretched rectilinear version:
(both are DxO versions.)