Top Cameras on Flickr

Flagrantdisregard.com has a running list of the top digital cameras being used on Flickr. The list goes by model and brand. For instance, this week of August 21st, the top ten are as follows:

NIKON D50
NIKON D70
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
NIKON D70s
Sony CYBERSHOT
Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
NIKON D200

This list is generated not by camera sales, surveys or other market data, but from the EXIF information found on the actual photos uploaded on Flickr. It’s a good list in that the ones on top are those that have a vote of confidence among users, judging from the actual ownership and usage.

Of course, the data may be skewed, since some users might unknowingly be stripping off EXIF data from their photos before uploading to Flickr (say, if the photos were resized using an editor that didn’t save the EXIF along with the resized image). Also, notice that Sony cameras are marked by “CYBERSHOT,” and not by exact model–likely, photos were taken with phone-cams.

Further, you will notice that the D-SLRs dominate the list. Perhaps this is due to the sheer volume that photo enthusiasts (amateur photographers and professionals) upload on their sites, which sometimes serve as their portfolios. They’re likely the ones to have Pro accounts, too, which gives them unlimited upload capability. Casual users, on the other hand, might not be uploading so frequently, and would probably have free, limited accounts.

Still, it’s a good representation of the actual market share of the various brands, with the top ten ranked as follows: