Library module Focus Distance not displaying on Nikon mirrorless (OK on DLSR)

[GeorgeKindt]

Lightroom Version Number

14.1.1

Operating System

1. Windows 11

In Metadata panel, under Default, then Customize you can add line items to the Metadata panel. Customize brings up a checkbox panel. Check what ever items you want in the Metadata panel. Check the box for "Focus Distance" (under Camera Info). The Metadata panel should have a line item "Focus Distance". Select an image from a Nikon DSLR/Lens, and the line item should have a value. Select an image from a Nikon mirrorless, and the field is blank. You can use "https://raw.pics.io/metadata-viewer" to verify that the image has Focus Distance in the image meta. Or use ExifTool if you are comfortable using it.
Displaying D90, D300s, or D500 and various lenses shows a value for "Focus Distance"
Displaying Z6II, Z6III, or Z9 and various lenses does not show a value for "Focus Distance"
A Non-Nikon lens, or a non-CPU lens might not show this value, but all the Nikon DSLR combinations I tried worked, and all the mirrorless did not.

 

[GeorgeKindt]

OK, thanks Karsen. I peaked at the Exiftool forum exchange, sounds like a plan. It appears that there is more than just my camera models involved. I will be looking forward to the new version of the plug-in.
G

 

[John R Ellis]

Exporting images from Lightroom will remove all MakerNotes information. I will mail you a dropbox link with a few sample RAW images.

Thanks, I looked at these sample files, and I was misunderstanding what you were saying. Your sample files agree with what I've been observing with those cameras -- the raws have MakerNotes:FocusDistance but LR doesn't display it in the Metadata panel

 

[KarstenG]

@GeorgeKindt

George - I have just released a new plugin version 2.1.0 that now supports the entire Z lineup (except PDAF focus points for Z50ii and Z f):

https://github.com/musselwhizzle/Focus-Points

Your feedback is welcome!

 

[GeorgeKindt]

Thanks, Karsten. DL'd it, and put it in LRC. Looks good. Tried both functions on Z6II, Z6III, and Z9.

The focus point shows up as a red box, not just corners as shown on GitHub write up. Location and size of the box is the same as on the camera (only checked the Z6III for this). Never seen a dot in the middle of the "Focus Point" box to indicate "In Focus". (FYI : For my 3 Nikons, in-camera, the dot in the box means focus point is center of image, and the box/dot is green when in focus) On Z6III & Z9 Metadata there is an item "Focus Result" = Focus (means image was in focus??) "Focus Result" is on Z9 and Z6III, but not on Z6II. The focus box can be lots of shapes, up and down, side to side, and almost full screen.

I like the way you can select tag words, it keeps things simple, and the ability to "open as text" to save to another doc. Real easy to find "Focus Distance" now.

Keep in mind that I only looked at these 3 Z cameras.

Great job, Karsten, Thanks.
G

 

[KarstenG]

Many thanks, George!

The focus point shows up as a red box, not just corners as shown on GitHub write up.

The "corner" display is only on macOS - I still need to figure out why on Windows there are boxes. Might be a limitation imposed by ImageMagick which is used to render the image on Windows because overlaying the corners and dots with transparency works on Apple but not on Windows (LrC SDK issue). Just a guess. Or the guy who implemented this part liked boxes more than corners

The dot becomes only visible when PDAF (Phase Detect) focus points are used. This can happen for Z cameras using a hybrid PDAF-CAF system , but it's less likely because most of the images will be focused using CAF (Contrast). And it gets less likely the more modern a Z model is.

For DSLRs PDAF focus points is the normal case. Here, the dot indicates the AF point in focus vs the selected AF points that are just boxes. See a D850 example image:

 

[GeorgeKindt]

Karsten,
For me the red box is GOOD, as that is what the camera shows for the focus area when taking the pix.
I am not concerned about the dot, just thought you should know it does not show up.
G

 

[EdWilts]

We have had an in-depth discussion in the German Olympus forum on this not too long ago, so I can contribute to this discussion

LrC offers to display the value of a "Focus Distance" field (which is part of MakerNotes as John stated) - but it actually displays something different. As an Olympus user of E-M5, E-M1 II/III and OM-1 I can also confirm that this field is always empty in Metadata panel.

However, there's an easy workaround to make LrC display this value. Run:

exiftool "-SubjectDistance<FocusDistance" FILE(S)

or (if you don't want backup files)

exiftool -overwrite_original "-SubjectDistance<FocusDistance" FILE(S)

This will copy the MakerNotes:FocusDistance tag to EXIFIFD:SubjectDistance tag - which can be selected as well in metadata panel and will be properly displayed by LrC.

And guess what - after running this exiftool command LrC does not just display the proper SubjectDistance but also the same value for FocusDistance (at least for OM-1, D600 and Z6 II). For these cameras (and probably many others as well, LrC's FocusDistance field in the metadata panel is actually mapped to EXIFIFD:SubjectDistance.

Should we be requesting a firmware update from OMD to include SubjectDistance data in the EXIF? That would provide instant satisfaction to a lot of users.

I can confirm that the SubjectDistance<FocusDistance mod definitely helps.

 

[KarstenG]

Should we be requesting a firmware update from OMD to include SubjectDistance data in the EXIF? That would provide instant satisfaction to a lot of users.

Unlike Olympus, OM System does not even provide FW updates for non-critical bugfixes so I can't believe that they would care about a request to enhance EXIF data. But of course, you can give it a try.

I have enhanced the Focus Points plugin to display autofocus relevant information side by side with the image, one of which is focus distance. If you're interested - it's currently in beta. Browse user documentation, see changelog or download the current pre-release.

However, looking at focus/subject distance one should be always aware that the precision of this information is limited. Cameras are not designed to measure distances. The values given in EXIF data are by-products of the focusing process, derived from control information to send the lens to a certain distance. Such focus step counts can be converted approximately into a distance. Whether this approach gives meaningful distance information or not can depend on a number of factors: camera/lens maker and model, shooting conditions etc. etc. You need to find out for yourself, in which situations this information can be trusted and is useful to eg. review DoF and when it's just a number without significance.

Eg. when shooting wildlife with telephoto lenses I found that the distances in general correspond quite well with how I perceived a situation. Triggered by feedback on the plugin (which makes information visible which people otherwise do not see at all) I found that the deviation for images captured using the 12-40 or 12-100 at medium focal lengths can be huge. I found one image where EXIF says focus distance is 2,84m whereas in Google Maps I measured it was 75m !!!

 

[krohag92]

You can use "https://raw.pics.io/metadata-viewer" to verify that the image has Focus Distance in the image meta

Unfortunately, this service no longer works. I found a replacement https://metadatafinder.com/ it is the fastest and easiest (nothing superfluous in the interface)

 

[John R Ellis]

There's also the Metadata Viewer plugin, which uses the authoritative Exiftool to show all of an image's metadata, including IPTC, XMP, and MakerNotes. It's faster, not requiring you to upload the image to a web service.