Camera to Subject Distance within EXIF data

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dinners

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Phil
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I was going to ask this the other day but can't for the life of me remember if I did. Quick look back over my posts and it seems I didn't :bonk:

Anyway - What I'm wondering is how ( or if ) you can get a reading in your EXIF to show your camera to subject distance.

I've read a few bits and bobs about this but am none the wiser.


Thanks

Phil
 
You can't make it happen, but it just happens automatically if you have the right equipment. Here is a random example - the subject distance is recorded in the EXIF data (about 15-20 lines down).

EDIT - My 40D doesn't seem to do it. But as that Flickr example showed, the 50D does.
 
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I see it Stewart - Subject Distance 3.05 m

Thanks for that.

You obviously have access to more kit than most - is it simply down to the camera or (as I read somewhere) the camera / lens combination.

Quick look at my Flickr and I see no entry for 'subject distance' with either a 40D or 1D mk2 shot using a 100-400.
 
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The 40D subject distance shows up in the EXIF from Bridge in Photoshop.

You need to be a bit careful when reading the distance as over a certain range as they are not accurate in my experience - I was out shooting birds the other day (7D) and noticed that over about 10 metres the distance was grouped into about 3 of 4 distinct distances with nothing in between eg. you may get a group of several at, say,11.3 metres another lot at 17.8 metres but nothing in between, at extreme distances everything seemed to be 46.4 metres (infinity with my lens/converter combo I guess).
 
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OK, a bit of digging around in Flickr shows that:
* the 450D doesn't record the subject distance but the 500D does;
* the 40D doesn't but the 50D does;
* the 7D does;
* the 5D doesn't but the 5D II does;
* the 1D II and 1D IIN don't but the 1D III does;
* the 1Ds II doesn't but the 1Ds III does.

So it looks like Canon introduced the capability to the 1D/1Ds range in 2007, and it has filtered down to be incorporated in all Canon bodies since 2009.

It doesn't seem to be lens dependent, because I've seen examples of the distance readout using the 100-400L which was introduced back in the 1990s.

I don't know about Nikons.
 
Thanks folks

So it may be down to the software......

Edit (as Stewart just posted) - might be out of luck then with my models.
 
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The body records all the exif so I doubt the lens has anything to do with it?!?!?
 
StewartR said:
That's interesting. It doesn't show up in Lightroom, which is why I thought it wasn't recorded.
Click to expand...

Lightroom used to show focus distance, once upon a time, but that feature seems to have disappeared quite some time ago. Quite what, or which release, broke the feature I do not know, but it's a pity it's disappeared.
 
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