Index: /trunk/ippconfig/recipes/psphot.config
===================================================================
--- /trunk/ippconfig/recipes/psphot.config	(revision 41443)
+++ /trunk/ippconfig/recipes/psphot.config	(revision 41444)
@@ -337,4 +337,7 @@
 # it overrides).
 LINEAR_FIT_VARIANCE_MODE	    STR  CONSTANT
+
+# Use the covariance factor in the linear fit (true) or set factor to 1.0 (false)
+LINEAR_FIT_COVAR_FACTOR             BOOL  TRUE
 
 PCM_BOX_SIZE                        S32   8
Index: /trunk/psphot/src/psphotFitSourcesLinear.c
===================================================================
--- /trunk/psphot/src/psphotFitSourcesLinear.c	(revision 41443)
+++ /trunk/psphot/src/psphotFitSourcesLinear.c	(revision 41444)
@@ -203,4 +203,15 @@
     // XXX do not apply covarFactor for the moment...
     // covarFactor = 1.0;
+
+    bool use_covarfactor = psMetadataLookupBool(&status, recipe, "LINEAR_FIT_COVAR_FACTOR");
+    if (!status) {
+        use_covarfactor = true;
+    }
+
+    if (!use_covarfactor) {
+        covarFactor = 1.0;
+        psLogMsg ("psphot.ensemble", PS_LOG_MINUTIA, "Manually reset covariance factor: %f\n", covarFactor);
+
+    }
 
     int Nsat = 0;