The Panasonic LX3 and Leica D-LUX 4 automatically correct in-camera JPEGs for barrel distortion and color fringing. The two cameras also ship with RAW converters, Silkypix and Capture One respectively, which apply the same automatic corrections. However, using a third party RAW converter, one can see marked barrel distortion and significant color fringing.

Below, you will find some files for download. I chose a high contrast scene to challenge the camera's dynamic range.



The "Converted RAW" file is a JPEG processed from RAW using Raw Developer (Mac). It shows the uncorrected barrel distortion and purple fringing at ~28mm equivalent and 3:2 aspect. Note that the barrel distortion is even more severe at 24mm equivalent and/or 16:9 aspect. The "In-camera JPEG" file demonstrates the file as corrected in camera. The third file is RAW. To convert the RAW file using Raw Developer, you must first change the extension from .RWL (D-LUX 4 extension) to .RW2 (LX3 extension). There is a fourth file to download, "SDIM0492", which is a Sigma DP1 ISO 100 image of the same scene. You can process this Sigma RAW using Lightroom/ACR or Sigma Photo Pro if you want to see how it compares to the D-LUX file.

Below, you can download the ISO 400 files for the same scene. Once again, a Sigma DP1 RAW file is included for comparison. At both base ISO and ISO 400, the converted RAWs contrast the in-camera JPEGs not only from a standpoint of color fringing and distortion, but also noise, color, and highlight retention.