Bill MN Loc: Western MN

When opening a photo in Microsoft Office Picture Manager under properties the subject distance does not show. Double clicking on the photo, the right side shows the information. The other camera settings show how the camera was set but not distance. Is there a setting somewhere to turn this feature on? Cameras are Nikon D90 and D7000.
Thank you
Bill

FOTOSTAN Loc: Ca..NYC..Fla.

HUH.... why do you need the distance info ???

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

Wild life photography to learn to judge distance better.

FOTOSTAN Loc: Ca..NYC..Fla.

Is it the photography you need or a mileage indicator?

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

I need someone to answer the question. Microsoft says it's the cameras fault and the camera maker said its Microsoft's problem.

Ridesthewind Loc: The West

Whats with the flippant answers guys. It's a great question, to which I haven' the slightest clue.
Sounds like your talking to the wrong people when you reach these guys. Have you tried asking for someone with a little more knowledge at the other end. I've had a little luck sticking with it till I get someone who knows. Good luck.

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

Thanks for being honest. I tried to get to someone awhile back that may have know at Microsoft or Nikon with no luck. Someone reading this topic here may know the answer.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

First off I have never heard of such a reading. If you right click on photo you get the Metadata.. Camera type, flash, Focal length ect. but not distance to subject. If at all it would have to come from the cameras software and not some software that you open it with. Call Nikon and ask for Tech support, If anyone can answer Tech support could. PS I have the Nikon D7000 and I don't get the distance imfo either.

alaskanfrog Loc: Alaska

Distance to a camera is not logged in or calculated by any camera that I'm aware of. This is an excellent question and is one worth answering.

Someone asked why do you want this information? There are many good reasons for calculating and logging distance between a camera and a subject. Perhaps the most important reason for needing this information is for consistency. Knowing how far away a subject is from the camera is important if you want to repeat the pose or shot and make a specific type of shot repeatable in any situation. Unfortunately the only way to achieve this is to do a physical measurement by using a tape measure or other measuring device and "Make" a physical record by writing it down on a piece of paper.

Distance information is critical if you want consistency in doing photography if you're doing portraiture or want to achieve repeatable affects when taking photos. No camera on the market creates accurate "Distance" metadata for any kind of photography, whether it's still shots, or video. That is probably because it's a bit complicated to incorporate into a camera and the complex algorithms would limit the camera's abilities and make it more complex to use than is really necessary.

In answer to the question, no there is not any metadata recorded into your camera for distance when you take photos. You need to do this physically by measuring the distance between your subject and the camera and then write and keep this information in a logbook. Hope this helps answer your question. I don't think this resolves your problem, but it might be a solution you're seeking.

One other suggestion: If you're shooting photos with a telephoto and your subject is a fair distance away, is to use a "spotting scope." Many expensive spotting scopes and a few of the economical ones have distance calculations built in and you can estimate the distance between you and a subject through the spotting scope. It doesn't provide accurate distance right down to the inch, but provides a close estimate on how far away a target is located. That's important information many hunters use, or people that do target practicing in order to achieve more accurate shots. It might actually be a good device to use in photography, but it's not one I've ever found a need to try.

BBNC

Perhaps this will simplify the above answer. Your lens has a mechanical focusing movement of inches or less. There is no way for the camera to know if the subject is 10' away, or a mile.

If knowing the distance is important to you, get a laser rangefinder used by bow hunters. And have that all-important piece of must-have photographic gear...notebook and pencil.

Audie Thornburg Loc: Eureka, Kansas

After reading all the replies to your question, I was pondering a response and the thought came to mind that some of my lenses, (not all), have a ft./m guage built in with the focus ring. Look on the top of your lense and see if you have one. In agreement to a prior response, you would have to manually record the information but it would give you an approximate distance.

dtjames Loc: Orlando

Another thought for measuring distance is to stop by most any golf retailer or golf pro shop and they can show you some of the different golf range finders. I believe that Bushnell makes the best but there are several manufacturers including Nikon. They will accurately within +or- 1 yard tell you how far subject is - and that can be up to 1500 yards.

Dria Loc: Ohio

WAIT! How about just looking at the "lens mm" focus distance-
if you focused on the bird (etc) it will tell you what your zoom was to focus. That will give you a rough indication of how far you were from it.

Patw28 Loc: PORT JERVIS, NY

May not be your problem but what lens are you using? The older NIKON lenses did not transmit distance information to the camera or to the SB600, 800 OR 900 FLASH UNITS. A D lens or a G lens does send the distance info. I I don't know if the manual mode transmits distance info.

You might download the free program, EXIFTOOL and serif the camera is recording distance.

Good luck!
patrick

JohnnyRottenNJ Loc: Northern New Jersey

I have a D300 and a D7000, and neither one shows distance to a subject. Older manual cameras would have a depth of field indicator on the lens barrel, that way at certain settings the camera would have a subject in focus from say 30' to infinity. The newer auto-focus cameras don't seem to worry about that as much. If you want a lot of depth of field, just shut down the aperture a bit. Your D7000 can almost see in the dark. If you set your ISO to 6400 or higher, you can get a fairly fast shutter speed AND a small aperture and still hand hold the camera in fairly low light. I hope that answers your question.