Lens profile for Fuji HS10

Question

Hi everybody, hope this is the place to finally solve my problem.
I bought myself a Fujifilm HS10 some time ago (don't laugh at me just for that).
And the Raw-Converter that comes with it (of course) works perfectly with regards to distortion correction, but is not very nice to handle otherwise.
A friend owns Lightroom and I'm totally amazed by it's workflow and simplicity.
But manually correction each image for distortion is not really an option.
Now I know, there's a profile on Lens Downloader, but I found this to be sub-optimal at best. Especially in the mid-zoom area, quite a lot of distortion remains.
Then I tried to create a profile on my own. This one yields different results. Better on some focal lengths, worse as other. But again, not really useable. (guess, because I don't have tripod and generally can't consider myself a good photographer).
So I wonder if maybe around here, there's someone who hast created a smoothly working profile for the HS10 on their own, that they might be willing to share.
Unless I find a profile that shows the same results as the boxed software, there's really no sense for me to spend money on a different software, this being Lightroom.
So, thanks for any help in advance,
Clock

Answer 1

Clock,
My understanding is that the focal length makes the biggest difference for geometric distortion, followed by focus distance (because it moves the lens elements, but to a lesser degree than for focal length.  Aperture makes little difference for geometric distortion, but can affect chromatic aberration and vignetting.  So whether you need additional apertures depends on how much vignetting and CA you see away at apertures different from what you used for the shoot.
For different focus groups and the issue of half-filling the view, you can make up for that with more shots.  It seems the important thing is the size of to squares on the target in pixels.  That's why I shot 25 images at 4.2mm, but only 9 elsewhere.  The layout for the nine was a 3x3 grid: upper left, center left, lower left, upper center, center, lower center, upper right, center right, lower right.  For the 25 shots at 4.2mm, it was a 5x5 grid instead.  For different focus distances, I would suggest using a target that has the appropriate size squares, and take the number of shots that you need so that every portion of the frame has at least one shot with a target there.
I just bought a Sony SLT-a33 with the Sony 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 zoom (SAL-18250), which isn't yet profiled, so I'm intending to do a more comprehensive shoot for that, with different focus groups.  That's what I'll probably do.  I'm going to try to get additional prints of larger size targets, though.  I can print up to 12x18 at work.
I took some shots of a rectilinear grid card at different focal  lengths and distances to have some idea of the quality of the profile,  and did note that there were some issues at some of the mid- to longer  focal lengths.
I also found it interesting that the  Fuji camera seems to be doing lens distortion (as well as CA) correction  in its processor. (Not in Raw mode, of course.)  My profile seemed  about as good as the in-camera correction, better in some areas, and not  quite as good in others.
With respect to mounting and indoors vs. outdoors, I found that didn't matter as much as you might think.  I clipped my target to a clipboard and clamped the opposite end to hold the target flat, and then propped it up at an angle under some ceiling lights for more-or-less uniform illumination.  Then I shot from a tripod at an appropriate distance away.  I could vary the distance up to about 20 feet across my living room.  The software seems pretty sophisticated, and takes advantage of the multiple shots to figure out how to compensate for the lighting variation.  So you don't need a studio/bench setup and an enormous amount of space.  You might not have to wait till it stops snowing.  What else are you going to do, anyway, when you can't really go out much?
Happy profiling!
Dave