Grand Canyon after snow:
Processed with Canon's Digital Photo Professional with Digital Lens Optimization engaged by
dcstep, on Flickr
Canon has improved Digital Photo Professional ("DPP"), their RAW conversion software, to include Digital Lens Optimization ("DLO"). DLO corrects for barrel distortion, pincushion, chromatic aberration, astigmatism, vignetting, softness, etc. To process the above image in DPP, I rotated the horizon a fraction of a degree, added an S-curve to the RGB and applied DLO. You can link to Flickr by clicking on the image and seeing a larger file to compare to the DxO version that follows it in my Photostream. The DPP detail advantage is stunning.`
This is Canon-only, but free to Canon owners. Make sure that you have the latest version of DPP installed (dated June 2012) then open it with an image open. Go to Tools then Lens and then Update the lens inventory to match your Canon lenses. One more reason to stick with Canon lenses.
I've made this point in the past, prime lenses no longer have an big advantage over zooms in IQ, when you consider and compare images after processing with good DLO software. (LR and DxO also have DLO, but I think that the DPP version may be superior). You can't just look at MTF charts and uncorrected image comparisons. You have to examine corrected images.
Dave