# Subject distance in EXIF data



## handyp (Sep 1, 2011)

I don't seem to be able to find 'Subject Distance' in the EXIF data in Lightroom 3.
Should it be/Is it there?
My camera is a Canon 1D Mark 4.
I can find the information in Bridge but was wondering if it is there in Lightroom.
Thankyou.
Pam


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 1, 2011)

Hi Pam, welcome to the forum!

Lightroom only displays a limited amount of metadata, and I don't believe that one's on the list.  If you feel strongly about being able to see additional camera data in LR, I'd suggest posting it to the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum so that other people can vote on the request too.


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## handyp (Sep 1, 2011)

Thankyou Victoria. That has clarified my burning question.
I shall post to the Official Feature Request as suggested.
Thanks again for your help.


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## jid9p80vph (Sep 1, 2011)

Hi Pam,

The subject distance is available in LR, but for some reason it is not included in any of the default metadata presets. You can use Jeffrey Friedl's Metadata-Panel Preset Builder (http://regex.info/Lightroom/Meta) to create your own metadata preset, which can include the subject distance (it's in the "Time and Place" category) .


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## PeteGB (Sep 1, 2011)

Availability of subject distance seems to vary a bit depending on camera body (and or lens ?) as well as version of LR.

LR 3.0 with Canon 550D gives subject distance with all 4 Canon lenses I own. Earlier bodies (450, 400) don't.

I've got LR 3.4.1 on a test machine and same Body/Lens does not give it. Presumably that makes it a design decision.

A pity, it's useful when trying to improve, using the data to work out depth-of-field to answer "why is that not sharp" questions about my pictures.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 1, 2011)

Interesting Pete - so just to be clear, are you saying that 3.0 showed it but 3.4.1 doesn't, on the same image?  Welcome to the forum, by the way!


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 1, 2011)

I know that the later 2.x versions introduced it (but again not for every camera/lens combination), and it has definitely dropped out of LR3....but I thought it went AWOL from 3.0. Maybe it didn't, maybe it was 3.2....yet another example of my failing memory!


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## PeteGB (Sep 1, 2011)

Victoria,

Yes, I've just checked and can confirm.

A Canon CR2 file from a 550D with 70-200 f4L IS USM imported into LR 3.0 on XP SP3 does show Subject Distance.

The same RAW file imported into LR 3.4.1 on W7 x64 does NOT show Subject Distance.

So far as I can see with a quick visual check other EXIF data is the same.


Thanks for welcome. Currently wondering how I've not found these forums before, been using LR since V1 (just ordered the your book !!)


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 1, 2011)

Well we're very pleased to have you here!  And while you're busy signing up for forums, I'd also report it over at the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum so that it gets it in front of the engineer's eyes too.


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## jid9p80vph (Sep 1, 2011)

PeteGB said:


> A Canon CR2 file from a 550D with 70-200 f4L IS USM imported into LR 3.0 on XP SP3 does show Subject Distance.
> 
> The same RAW file imported into LR 3.4.1 on W7 x64 does NOT show Subject Distance.
> 
> So far as I can see with a quick visual check other EXIF data is the same.



Interesting... I'm using a 7D and LR 3.4.1, and I do see the subject distance in both the original CR2 and the converted DNG for two of my Canon lenses, but not for the third (50/1.8 II).


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## PeteGB (Sep 1, 2011)

Feature Request/Bug Report completed.

Marc, For info with 550D the following Canon lenses all report Subject Distance in LR 3.0 :

EF24-70 f2.8 USM; EF70-200 f4 IS USM; EF-S10-22 f3.5-4.5 USM; EF-S18-55 f3.5-5.6 USM

A quick check of my other cameras shows that surprisingly, my first ever Digital, the Canon IXUS V does show subject distance, but the much more recent Canon Ixus 850 IS and Canon G10 do not.

Beats me.

Cheers


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## jid9p80vph (Sep 1, 2011)

I see subject distance info for the EF-S15-85 and the EF100-400. I suspect it is a combination of camera body and lens which determines whether or not the subject distance is stored in EXIF.



PeteGB said:


> Marc, For info with 550D the following Canon lenses all report Subject Distance in LR 3.0 :
> 
> EF24-70 f2.8 USM; EF70-200 f4 IS USM; EF-S10-22 f3.5-4.5 USM; EF-S18-55 f3.5-5.6 USM



But not in LR 3.4.1? That's very strange... Shame we don't have any of the same lenses, to compare results. But it is pretty clear that something odd is going on.


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## Mark Sirota (Sep 1, 2011)

I suspect what's happening is that in some cases, the distance information is stored in MakerNotes and in other cases it is stored in the standardized EXIF field SubjectDistance.  Lightroom may only display the latter.

And Lightroom's behavior may also be camera/lens specific -- it could be the case that LR will dive into MakerNotes for some supported cameras but not for others, in order to facilitate Lens Corrections.  But I'm just guessing about that.


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## jid9p80vph (Sep 1, 2011)

Yes, that sounds plausible. In my case, LR shows the subject distance stored in the EXIF data, not the information in the maker notes (and the 50/1.8 doesn't have any EXIF distance data).

So it appears to depend on:
Whether or not the lens transmits subject distance to the camera, and
The subject distance is stored in EXIF or maker notes or both


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## PeteGB (Sep 1, 2011)

A very quick reply from Adobe to my 'Feature Request'. Ben Wardie from Adobe replied as per below. Pretty clear position.


Hi Pete, 

This metadata information was not reliably accurate, and we removed its display from Lightroom at the request of camera manufacturers. 

Thanks, 
Ben​


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## jid9p80vph (Sep 1, 2011)

That explains why it disappeared from LR 3.x. But Adobe only removed it from the metadata panel, not from the catalog, so you can still display it by using a custom metadata field list (as generated by Jeffrey's preset builder).


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 1, 2011)

Great to have a definitive answer to that one!


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