How Far Is This????

Dogdots · August 12, 2011

I was taking some photos of the Blue Angels today and checked the distance on the info saved on my photo. It said it was ... 4294967295m. How far is this and is the Subject Distance accurate? My lens registered at 98mm.

If this is in the wrong section .. please move me

Sand · August 12, 2011

That's about 2.7 million miles. It is more than ten times the distance to the Moon. As the Blue Angels do not fly that high, it has to be a little off. I suspect the lens was at infinity and just gave you a rediculous number for the distance.

Dogdots · August 12, 2011

Sand wrote: »

That's about 2.7 million miles. It is more than ten times the distance to the Moon. As the Blue Angels do not fly that high, it has to be a little off. I suspect the lens was at infinity and just gave you a rediculous number for the distance.

2.7 million miles

Yep it gave me a ridiculous number. The planes flew right over me when I was on my deck. At 95mm I lost some of the front of the plane. Sure would like to know how close they are. Bummer.

GlassDarkly · August 12, 2011

Elevation Relative to Ground
From Wikipedia:

The parameters of each show must be tailored to local weather: in clear weather the "high" show is performed; in overcast conditions a "low" show is performed, and in limited visibility (weather permitting) the "flat" show is presented.[citation needed] The "high" show requires an 8,000-foot (2,400 m) ceiling and visibility of 3 nautical miles (6 km) from the show's centerpoint. "Low" and "flat" ceilings are 3,500 feet (~1 km) and 1,500 feet (460 m) respectively.

This gives you an idea of how high (ceiling) they will fly in the given weather conditions, but if your lens is lying to you I would try using nearby landmarks (buildings, trees etc.) to estimate how high or low to the deck they were cruising.

G.

Dogdots · August 12, 2011

GlassDarkly wrote: »

From Wikipedia:

The parameters of each show must be tailored to local weather: in clear weather the "high" show is performed; in overcast conditions a "low" show is performed, and in limited visibility (weather permitting) the "flat" show is presented.[citation needed] The "high" show requires an 8,000-foot (2,400 m) ceiling and visibility of 3 nautical miles (6 km) from the show's centerpoint. "Low" and "flat" ceilings are 3,500 feet (~1 km) and 1,500 feet (460 m) respectively.

This gives you an idea of how high (ceiling) they will fly in the given weather conditions, but if your lens is lying to you I would try using nearby landmarks (buildings, trees etc.) to estimate how high or low to the deck they were cruising.

G.

Yikes .. they weren't very high. That's scary. I do have some photos of them between the trees from my house and trees next to my house. We had clouds today, but not overcast. Storms were in the area to the west of us. Didn't check the ceiling tho. Usually do to on the weather channel. I'll do that tomorrow tho.

Thank you for the info. Learned a lot

Richard · August 13, 2011

Sand wrote: »

That's about 2.7 million miles. It is more than ten times the distance to the Moon. As the Blue Angels do not fly that high, it has to be a little off. I suspect the lens was at infinity and just gave you a rediculous number for the distance.

Yeah, I see something like that all the time when the lens is focused at infinity. My impression is that all the distance to subject EXIF data reported by Canon lenses is probably being misinterpreted by the software that's decoding it. I pay no attention to it.

Dogdots · August 13, 2011

I took a look at the other photos I took and no data was entered for distance. Why it happened on that one is a mystery to me.

Richard · August 13, 2011

Exactly the same camera/lens combination on the others? Same processing software and workflow?

Dogdots · August 13, 2011

Richard wrote: »

Exactly the same camera/lens combination on the others? Same processing software and workflow?

Yep they're all the same. Planes came so fast at me I just keep shooting and leaning back till they went over the house behind me. Haven't processed the others yet. But the one I posted I just cropped off the edges. Didn't scale to anything nor did I enlarge closer.

Orig. photo ... Mega editing was done

The sun hit this one funky so I played with it. While looking at the data is when I saw the distance listed.

puzzledpaul · August 13, 2011

Dogdots wrote: »

Sure would like to know how close they are. Bummer.

Can't you get the distance using trig / geometry?

Knowing the focal length gives you view angle.
Aircraft specs'll give you with the info necessary to get the size of space captured on the focus plane ...

Whilst there'll be some error because the aircraft aren't 'square on' ... I suspect the answer'll be slightly more accurate than 2.7m miles

pp

Edit
I get approx 456ft.

Dogdots · August 13, 2011

puzzledpaul wrote: »

Can't you get the distance using trig / geometry?

Knowing the focal length gives you view angle.
Aircraft specs'll give you with the info necessary to get the size of space captured on the focus plane ...

Whilst there'll be some error because the aircraft aren't 'square on' ... I suspect the answer'll be slightly more accurate than 2.7m miles

pp

Edit
I get approx 456ft.

I'm not a math person unfortunately. Wish I were. Your estimation sounds closer

Took this one yesterday too. My focal length was 235mm. Standing in the same spot on the deck only looking to my left to the corner of our lot.

ImageX Photography · August 14, 2011

You must have one heck of a zoom lens to reach millions of miles!!!

Must have been a sight to see them come over your house.

.... had to share this one I got last year. Exif is showing 270mm.

Dogdots · August 14, 2011

ImageX Photography wrote: »

You must have one heck of a zoom lens to reach millions of miles!!! Must have been a sight to see them come over your house.

.... had to share this one I got last year. Exif is showing 270mm.

Great photo

thumb Ah Gee ... wish I could get a shot like that :cry I need to actually attend the air show to get one probably.

As for my lens .. it sure did throw out a doozie of a number didn't it. Think NASA would be interested in it

jgoetz4 · August 14, 2011

Good Afternoon MK,
Remember, your 40D is a 1.6x crop camera. I think you said you had the 1.4x tc attached as well. If you carry the 1, then add the x & y factor, you get somewhere in the neighborhood of 520', give or take

I'm sure their fly-by was well above the minimum height requirement for a residential area. I'd still check your foundation, sidewalks, driveway, etc for any new cracks, just to be sure

Have a good afternoon

Jim...

Dogdots · August 14, 2011

jgoetz4 wrote: »

Good Afternoon MK,
Remember, your 40D is a 1.6x crop camera. I think you said you had the 1.4x tc attached as well. If you carry the 1, then add the x & y factor, you get somewhere in the neighborhood of 520', give or take I'm sure their fly-by was well above the minimum height requirement for a residential area. I'd still check your foundation, sidewalks, driveway, etc for any new cracks, just to be sure
Have a good afternoon
Jim...

Now Jim .... no x's and y's for me

They flew today and didn't fly the same route. Even flew higher too :cry

PrevailingConditions · August 15, 2011

Don't mean to get overly geeked out here, but 4294967295 is the largest unsigned value you can store in 32 bits. I'm guessing that the developer decided to use this value when focused at infinity, but that's just a guess.

Thanks,

Mike

Dogdots · August 15, 2011

PrevailingConditions wrote: »

Don't mean to get overly geeked out here, but 4294967295 is the largest unsigned value you can store in 32 bits. I'm guessing that the developer decided to use this value when focused at infinity, but that's just a guess.

Thanks,

Mike

That's really interesting. I didn't know this.

How Far Is This????

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