focal length of a lens is beingn transferred and your flash head adjusts accordingly. distance means that the camera reads how many feet or meters the lens is focused on when you hear the beep. and this is what is not being transferred from some Canon lenses and most likely from all non-Canon lenses. and it is to me the best new feature in ETTL-II since you can focus, recompose and the light metering system knows that the power of the flash needs to be adjusted for the distance to the main object (considering, of course, that the main object is the one that you put in focus
)
for the record, some other features that drove me into emptying my pockets:
-double switching between AF and MF on the lens (forgetting the little switch wrecks your lens'es internals when you turn the focusing ring)
-lack of weatherproofing
-L lens fosuses faster and in lower light conditions, theoretically it should not, because they are both 2.8, but possibly Canon lens is more contrasty
-and, of course, the sharpness... my copy of Sigma was very sharp, but when I looked at my picture that is shown in the first post I almost fell off the sofa
Fujifilm X-T1, XF 35mm 1.4, XF 60mm f2.4, XF 50-140 f2.8, XF 16-50 f2.8, XF 55-200 f3.5-5.6, EF-42 flash