We perform a series of comparisons between distance-independent photometric and spectroscopic properties used in the surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) and fundamental plane (FP) methods of early-type galaxy distance estimation. The data are taken from two recent surveys: the SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances and the Streaming Motions of Abell Clusters (SMAC) FP survey. We derive a relation between (V-I)0 colour and Mg2 index using nearly 200 galaxies and discuss implications for Galactic extinction estimates and early-type galaxy stellar populations.