The biggest issue I see with this data is that it gives me a snapshot of which camera systems have been most popular with photographers in the past, which doesn't necessarily reflect what photographers want to buy today.
For example, many mirrorless camera systems are gaining market share but are badly under-represented on this website.[1]
It would be more useful to see how the figures have changed over time.
[1] For example, right now, five out of the top 10 best-selling cameras at B&H Photo & Video are mirrorless.
Another possible interpretation of the data (as presented) is that it reflects the interest / ability of those particular camera owners in stripping EXIF data. Or, from the other side, the interest / ability of owners of low- or non-listed cameras in doing same.
Consider DPReview's reader's awards for 2015[1] - Sony A7R II, Olympus E-M5 Mk II, Nikon D7200. Not suggesting this is a qualitatively better measure, given it's on a photography-centric web site, but it's significantly contradictory to the results in this article.
Anyway, it'd be nice to see what subset of these 11,000,000 images contained no EXIF data at all (the page doesn't include the string 'exif', and there doesn't appear to be a 'no information found' category).
Facebook reports ~300,000,000 new photos uploaded daily - obviously 99% of those are likely camera phones, but it does put this 11 million number in some perspective.
The top lens for the top camera (Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS) is sold in a packaged kit with the body.
This lens is...not very good.
It's only popular because they're bundled.
I think this site is useful, however. It gives you a very quick way to navigate to a whole collection of photos of any body/lens combination. If you're in the market for a body/lens, this seems like a good source to go to. No side-by-side comparisons like an edited review, but at least an overview.
Do professionals actually post photos to the sites this scrapes from, or is it mostly amateurs using expensive gear?
What? the 24-105 is an L lens and a solid walk around choice. I bought the 24-105 well before upgrading my body. Are you thinking of the 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6?
Its a great lens. It would be my pick for the best Canon lens as an all-arounder (either that or the 24-70L, but iirc that one is much heavier). The sensors are so good nowadays that you can shoot well in low light even with the f/4 aperture.
I suspect the frequency at which zoom lenses appear at the top of the data is in part related to their inclusion as 'kit' lenses. I suspect that it is also in part a natural consequence of their versatility.
By which I mean that because a 24-105mm zoom can be set to a suitable focal length for everything from landscape to portraiture to a bit of sport, in aggregate it will be used for more pictures than any of the prime lenses one would use in each of those situations.
To put it another way zooms that cover wide angle to telephoto get used because they're really useful. Particularly when taking pictures under uncertain conditions. Any lens suitable for one of those conditions will stay in the bag in other contexts.
I have that lens and its one of the best Canon lenses. Not much distorsion, not bad vignetting, very good resolution and with an included IS for video shooting as well. Its not without reason that most serious Canon pro photographers recommend it.
Yup, you don't even see the "holy trinity"(35L/85L/135L) anywhere in the top 10. Neat data aggregation but there's a lot more that goes on in lens selection.
I'm surprised the 40mm f2.8 isn't more popular, it takes great pictures, it's cheap, and physically using it is great (it really transforms how the camera feels because it's so small). Strongly prefer it to the 50mm f1.8, unless it's super dark.
If you read pretty much any guide online about 'what lens should i get for my dslr' you'll pretty much always see whatever the 50mm f1.8 for your camera model at the top of the list. So im guessing lots of people just buy them due to that
Neat list, but What exactly does "Most Commonly Used Camera-Lens Combinations" mean in this context? I find it highly suspect the the most common camera/lens combo is the $3000 US EOS 5D Mk III kit; I'd expect the more affordable D3200/EOS t5 camera range to be more commonly used. Some more information about the methodology used would be helpful.
Probably photos published on "enthusiast" sites where camera/lens info is readily available, as opposed to stock photo agencies or major commercial publishers.
The number of photos taken using phones would no doubt dwarf the data used here, dedicated camera/lens combos are becoming something of a niche market, albeit still a sizeable one.
I use the Olympus EM-1, way down on the list. Nonetheless I found it interesting that the most commonly cited lenses used were the 12-40mm f/2.8, and the 40-150mm f/2.8. These are both excellent quality lenses, but relatively massive and quite expensive, at about $1000 and $1500 respectively.
Saying goes the merit of a photograph depends much more on the person using the camera than the camera being used.
Also note the near total absence of pro gear - no Nikon D3/D4 entries, for instance, still I would expect those cameras _on average_ sees a lot more use than your average D3100, for instance.
(Also, chances are they'd skew the lens numbers significantly - while kit lenses come and go, pro glass tend to live much longer before being upgraded. (The 24-70mm f/2.8 which you often see around single-digit Nikon bodies, for instance, was the standard zoom for 8-9 years before being given an upgrade last year)
I had the same thought. Unless I missed it, the site doesn't give the source of the data. I find it very suspect (as in not representative of broader use) that the top two cameras are late model Canon prosumer+ full-frame bodies.
[ADDED: It actually appears that this does align with Flickr stats--which is, of course, not what you'd find on Facebook or other more mass market sites.]
This measurement is going to be biased somewhat towards zoom lenses because they cover multiple focal lengths in a single lens. In other words you might have a 24mm, a 50mm, and a 70mm prime lens that each get 1/3 of your time but if you were using a 24-70mm lens instead then all of those would count as one lens.
It's by no means entirely inaccurate, zoom lenses are very popular now, and there's still some merit in seeing which lenses are actually on cameras most of the time. Just bear in mind that slicing them in this way is inherently a little biased to certain lenses rather than slicing them based on some other dimension like focal length of the shot.
That was true for a long time but some sort of medium wide to medium tele zoom has been far more common for ages. I'd be pretty sure that the percentage of people who even own a 50mm prime is pretty low these says.
With the wide assortment of imaging sensor sizes, the "normal" focal length varies accordingly. Probably better to think of it as "angle of view", typically ~45-50 degrees for a normal lens. That's usually the easiest lens to design, so typically the most compact and inexpensive lenses are "normal" primes.
Today the most popular "normals" are moderate, mid-range zooms, equivalent to 28-80mm or so on a 35mm equiv sensor.
The blog post about the infographic says that it's a crawl of Flickr, 500px and Pixabay. [1]
If you drill through to the camera/lens combination you actually get to see some of the photos that have been crawled, and then it will take you back to the original source.
Pages like this make me really convinced I need to print up frame cards for the various lenses I use. I use a lot of vintage glass when I'm shooting that obviously won't have Exif data. It would be useful for later browsing to know at a glance whether I was shooting with a Jupiter 3 or a Pentax Super Takumar.
Some strange data appears on this site, the second most popular for the full-frame D600 is a 2004 DX (notably bad) lens. No mentally sane person would ever commit such as sacrilege.
Didn't go further to investigate but this puts a serious doubt on the representativity of the data.
I've seen plenty of EOS 7Ds and 5D Mk II/IIIs with Canon kit lenses on them (of the ~$200 3.5-6.3 variety). I've personally had to tell people who came to me for purchase advise to buy either the 'enthusiast' or 'pro' tier lenses and completely ignore the bottom end.
Too many people "blow their wad" on the body and then find themselves only able to afford a couple of hundred more for a lens, rather than investing in the glass and upgrading the body (which will get upgrades every few years).
Interesting look at some public data but ultimately not all that useful. My dad has done photography for a couple decades and he really swaps lenses for different tasks. The is no single perfect lens.
I think that's what you can deduce about the data as well. I didn't look at Canon figures as I have Nikon myself, but that data clearly showed that entry-level cameras are used with kit lenses, and pro cameras are used with a larger variety of high-quality lenses.
D3100 and D5000 go with the 18-55 kit lens (which is in fact a very good lens considering the price) and have a third of their pictures taken with these. D7000 and D90, being somewhat more advanced hobbyist models, go with their respective kit lens (18-105) with 20-30 % share.
Full-frame bodies (D600, D700, D800 etc) most often have the professional 24-70/2.8 lens, but the share is still smaller, indicating that a larger variety of different lenses is in use, as you would expect with pro/prosumer cameras.
[+] [-] cs702|9 years ago|reply
For example, many mirrorless camera systems are gaining market share but are badly under-represented on this website.[1]
It would be more useful to see how the figures have changed over time.
[1] For example, right now, five out of the top 10 best-selling cameras at B&H Photo & Video are mirrorless.
[+] [-] Jedd|9 years ago|reply
Consider DPReview's reader's awards for 2015[1] - Sony A7R II, Olympus E-M5 Mk II, Nikon D7200. Not suggesting this is a qualitatively better measure, given it's on a photography-centric web site, but it's significantly contradictory to the results in this article.
Anyway, it'd be nice to see what subset of these 11,000,000 images contained no EXIF data at all (the page doesn't include the string 'exif', and there doesn't appear to be a 'no information found' category).
Facebook reports ~300,000,000 new photos uploaded daily - obviously 99% of those are likely camera phones, but it does put this 11 million number in some perspective.
[1] https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2761741499/readers-choice-...
[+] [-] ekianjo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] no_protocol|9 years ago|reply
This lens is...not very good.
It's only popular because they're bundled.
I think this site is useful, however. It gives you a very quick way to navigate to a whole collection of photos of any body/lens combination. If you're in the market for a body/lens, this seems like a good source to go to. No side-by-side comparisons like an edited review, but at least an overview.
Do professionals actually post photos to the sites this scrapes from, or is it mostly amateurs using expensive gear?
[+] [-] itsjustjoe|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnarcoregrizz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brudgers|9 years ago|reply
By which I mean that because a 24-105mm zoom can be set to a suitable focal length for everything from landscape to portraiture to a bit of sport, in aggregate it will be used for more pictures than any of the prime lenses one would use in each of those situations.
To put it another way zooms that cover wide angle to telephoto get used because they're really useful. Particularly when taking pictures under uncertain conditions. Any lens suitable for one of those conditions will stay in the bag in other contexts.
[+] [-] ekianjo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vvanders|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_7|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobbles|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cag_ii|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrapdx3|9 years ago|reply
The number of photos taken using phones would no doubt dwarf the data used here, dedicated camera/lens combos are becoming something of a niche market, albeit still a sizeable one.
I use the Olympus EM-1, way down on the list. Nonetheless I found it interesting that the most commonly cited lenses used were the 12-40mm f/2.8, and the 40-150mm f/2.8. These are both excellent quality lenses, but relatively massive and quite expensive, at about $1000 and $1500 respectively.
Saying goes the merit of a photograph depends much more on the person using the camera than the camera being used.
[+] [-] seany|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lb1lf|9 years ago|reply
(Also, chances are they'd skew the lens numbers significantly - while kit lenses come and go, pro glass tend to live much longer before being upgraded. (The 24-70mm f/2.8 which you often see around single-digit Nikon bodies, for instance, was the standard zoom for 8-9 years before being given an upgrade last year)
[+] [-] ghaff|9 years ago|reply
[ADDED: It actually appears that this does align with Flickr stats--which is, of course, not what you'd find on Facebook or other more mass market sites.]
[+] [-] paulmd|9 years ago|reply
It's by no means entirely inaccurate, zoom lenses are very popular now, and there's still some merit in seeing which lenses are actually on cameras most of the time. Just bear in mind that slicing them in this way is inherently a little biased to certain lenses rather than slicing them based on some other dimension like focal length of the shot.
[+] [-] gaius|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghaff|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrapdx3|9 years ago|reply
Today the most popular "normals" are moderate, mid-range zooms, equivalent to 28-80mm or so on a 35mm equiv sensor.
[+] [-] jjp|9 years ago|reply
If you drill through to the camera/lens combination you actually get to see some of the photos that have been crawled, and then it will take you back to the original source.
[1] https://explorecams.com/blog/
[+] [-] Sanddancer|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djulius|9 years ago|reply
Didn't go further to investigate but this puts a serious doubt on the representativity of the data.
[+] [-] FireBeyond|9 years ago|reply
Too many people "blow their wad" on the body and then find themselves only able to afford a couple of hundred more for a lens, rather than investing in the glass and upgrading the body (which will get upgrades every few years).
So unfortunately, I can absolutely believe that.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ptaipale|9 years ago|reply
D3100 and D5000 go with the 18-55 kit lens (which is in fact a very good lens considering the price) and have a third of their pictures taken with these. D7000 and D90, being somewhat more advanced hobbyist models, go with their respective kit lens (18-105) with 20-30 % share.
Full-frame bodies (D600, D700, D800 etc) most often have the professional 24-70/2.8 lens, but the share is still smaller, indicating that a larger variety of different lenses is in use, as you would expect with pro/prosumer cameras.
[+] [-] cloudjacker|9 years ago|reply