In near-field optics, the use of vertical vibration of the probe is of great interest in order to prevent the tip crash, in tapping mode. The optical signal is often obtained through a lock-in amplifier using a feedback on this vertical vibration. Therefore, harmonics of the optical signal are available. The reconstruction of the near-field signal, from these harmonics, enables the knowledge of the vertical variations of the near-field signal, without the use of the slower technique of approach curves or the use of photocounter. In this work, we use this reconstruction to measure the vertical decay lengths of the near-field data with the Prony's and the simplex methods. We compare both methods and we discuss the results in terms of filtering by the lock-in. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.