A couple of surprises

I’ve been searching the blogosphere, vodcasts & twitterverse looking for social web photograph inspiration (not to copy but to colour my blog customization) I was struck by all the black & grey (a la lightroom) and such vitriolic warfares between nikon .vs. canon or the the apple mac .vs. windows. Then I realised I was looking at the past, “so 2010 really”.

The vast majority of those that have read my blog last month where using windows (and the same ratio goes back forever). And what is this one person used an iPhone  and another an iPad? Is this a new trend?

The most popular camera for uploaded images on flickr is about to become the iPhone 4, not a nikon or canon!

So here’s the rub I’m neither a nikon or a canon fanboy, I have windows computers and thus use and write about windows software, I don’t have an iPhone and I think black or grey backgrounds make what I write very tedious to read.  Call me “uberly unpretentious” but I think I’ll stick with the simple blogger template (with a couple of personal touches on the header) and just keep writing about the same stuff that I find interesting about digital photography. With a few photo projects thrown in for fun. Alas the new blogger page view graphic is reading about 40,000 views light but it looks neater and I’m not so worried about view counts anyway.

Camera finder on flickr

I have avoided writing about specific cameras, and most specifically about buying a digital camera. Not because I don't want to, not that i don't get asked (it is the most common question after "do you have photoshop?") it because i am more than suspicious about the camera reviews. They only seem to talk of special features and statistics that have little relevance to the final photo image. what I think is important is what to other people used and what to the photos they get look like. Well flickr now has a great resource called the "most popular cameras on flickr". Apart from the obvious fact it selects a nikon (nikon now sponsor flickr, see their logo on the main login page) which infact is not the most popular camera(if you scroll down you will see at the time I wrote this it was Cannon's EOS digital rebel). Popularity is measured directly by number of contributing members uploading photos using that camera. The details are taken from the EXIF information in your file header.

The good bit is; if you are interested in a particular camera or want to compare cameras you can see the photos other have taken under a range of categories. it allows you to good and look at what other people used. There are also links to reviews and price comparisons if you want that sort of stuff.


It also has reserve links from flickr's more properties screen, this is where you can see the EXIF data, of any photo back to the appropriate camera finder page for the camera used.

This is actually a great resource, for those who want to make up their own mind and not just depend on potential biassed reviews.