Shooting distance in Exif

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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Not on here but i have seen references made to checking camera to subject distance in the Exif,well i cant find it in mine,is it there or is it only some camera models/makes that record it.
 
B

Blacktop

Senior Member
mikew said:
Not on here but i have seen references made to checking camera to subject distance in the Exif,well i cant find it in mine,is it there or is it only some camera models/makes that record it.
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Look in your EXIF on Flickr. On shot DSC-0588(your latest image, it is showing a focus distance of 8.41ft or meters. What ever unit the camera is set for.

Untitled.jpg
 
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D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
it is buried in the exif data but from what I understand and have seen it is far from accurate. With some online EXIF viewers you can see it. I also read that using Bridge that you could see it there but I could not find it.
 
W

wornish

Senior Member
If you have Photoshop.

Open your image then go to

File - File Info this opens a new window.

Select the bottom Raw Data tab on the left menu.
if you look at the data on the right just below the lens information you will see <aux Approximate Focus Distance and some numbers

( doesn't have to be a raw file, works on any file I think)
 
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W

WayneF

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
it is far from accurate.
Click to expand...

J-see said:
it is unreliable.
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This is one of my pet peeves, a problem in the Nikon flash system. All the lens can measure is focus rotation, supposedly corresponding to focus distance. It's not too bad in prime lenses, but the cheaper zooms are terrible. They focus differently at different zooms, so it's a crapshoot, mostly a far wrong distance is reported.

The bigger problem is the stupid Nikon flash system uses it anyway (you'd think their engineers would know it's wrong). Only affects TTL BL direct flash, not for real TTL mode or bounce, etc. But direct flash typically sees a dark background (inverse square law), and a dark background will generally overexpose a shot, trying to brighten it.

So the bright idea is that if the metered flash reads too strong for the guide number distance (the distance indicated by the lens), the flash is reduced accordingly. Which seems a good thing if the lens distance is accurate, but usually it is not, so we get dark flash shots (TTL BL direct flash). No harm if the lens distance is greater than true (it is ignored), but it screws up the shot (TTL BL direct flash) if the reported distance is shorter. And it often is, esp at wide angle zooms. This is a routine default case, TTL BL direct flash, wide angle (but longer zooms are not immune).

So, it is a genuine flash problem (TTL BL direct flash) that we have to overcome. The flash head tilt switch triggers this issue.

A page at Nikon TTL BL flash - D-lens distance data accuracy is about this.

Also non-Nikon flashes seem not to suffer this problem ( Non-Nikon brand flashes solve the TTL BL Zoom Problems ) ... no head tilt switch.
 
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