Awesome and Brilliant Metrics

As we were alerted to via PetaPixel, there's an interesting and well-done post at a home products and review site called SimpleGhar (what's a ghar?) that breaks down, in all kinds of ways, the kinds of cameras in use on Flickr.

The graphics are awesome. British translation: brilliant. Whatever word you choose, they really are awesome and brilliant. As a former magazine editor, I can tell you I would have killed to be able to publish such detailed and well-presented graphics. Assuming it's good data, of course.

The only thing is, and I'm sure you're already aware of this, that Flickr probably isn't very representative of photographers today as a whole. I can't really summarize its reputation generally, because I'm not familiar with all the sharing sites or their content. But my sense is that it's relatively conservative, slanted toward users who care more than average about image quality in the presentation of the pictures, and, all things considered, small. The most interesting revelation concerns Apple: first, that it did so well on Flickr against dedicated ILCs (interchangeable-lens cameras), and secondly, that it so thoroughly dominated the smartphone category. I would expect it to, but maybe not by so much. The top 24 smartphones on Flickr are all Apple iPhones.

More globally, of course, in terms of numbers of pictures made, Apple would completely clobber all those cameramakers, even Canon, and not by anything like a small margin.

Still, data is always interesting, as the kind reader who sent me the link observed. Check it out.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Comments

[James Bullard]

Ghar means home or house.

[Ned Bunnell]

Mike,

The bubble chart showing “the most popular camera brands used to photograph the world” is great. I realize they can’t go back in time, but it would be interesting to have the same data for 10yrs ago, 5 yrs ago and then do this again 5yrs from now. Flickr has been around long enough to probably be the most accurate indicator of trends in our industry.

Also, I was a little surprised by the data for two of my favorite brands (based on my usage of them for over 50 years). I’m guessing a few folks would have expected that Leica’s number 1,909,544 would be significantly higher than Pentax’s 1,178,221. I have a theory about this, but I won’t bore you with it:)

[Nvm]

Ghar means house in Hindi.

[darlene]

SimpleGhar (what's a ghar?) = Simple Gear

[c.d.embrey]

My smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 plus 5G. I also have an Apple 14 Pro Max Ultra just for its camera. ILCs are so last year ;-)

[Wes Cosand]

This post is amusing to me. I had a negative reaction to the graphics and would so much prefer a spreadsheet, sortable if possible.

The Babylonians solved this problem in 650 BCE -- chuckle. Here is one of the oldest known cuneiform spreadsheets at my favorite museum.

https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/521677

[Moose]

"But my sense is that it's relatively conservative, slanted toward users who care more than average about image quality in the presentation of the pictures"

Interesting . . .

I tried Flickr and quit. It forced my photos into their standard sizes, in the process messing with my carefully calibrated post down sampling resharpening.

It's been a couple of years, so I don't know if that's still the case. Google Photos has it's own flaws, but doesn't mess up the images.

[R. Edelman]

"Ghar" is a Hindi word for home, so the website can be translated to "SimpleHome". From what I can tell, it is based in India.

[robert e]

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the duo of Canon and Nikon still dominate Flickr, even after giving up massive share to Apple.

Intrigued by the popularity of the EM1 MkII (among non-phone cameras) in S. Korea and Taiwan.

I notice that SLRs--and prominently models introduced 8, 10 or more years ago--are still the most popular type of dedicated camera on Flickr. Maybe that speaks to the conservative (and older?) skew of the Flickr crowd, and maybe many of us are still enjoying the service lives of the "golden age" of DSLRs, but on the other hand maybe new cameras are just too damn expensive and complex, especially when changing lens mounts is part of the cost/friction of upgrading.

So, as some of us age and put down our "big iron", perhaps that ever-ready and ever-more-competent smartphone in our pocket is more appealing than adopting and learning a whole new complicated system. In turn, our old kits are more affordable for newbies than current models, and still excellent.

Just a thought.

[John Abee]

I agree that data is interesting. When processed into information it becomes useful. I usually prefer useful to interesting.

[Pritam Singh]

Re "(what's a ghar?"... I think it means house or home in the mainstream Indian language Hindi.

[Darryl]

I don't think that the analysis stacks up. The numbers are based on photographs, not photographers and cameras. For each photo they should be checking the photographer and the camera model. There should be a simple filter to check if the photo being assessed is from a photographer that has already been assessed, and if it has the same camera model as previously assessed photos by the same photographer then it doesn't count as that stat has already been recorded. Photographers can use multiple cameras and one photo from each camera will be recorded against the total for each camera.

[Sroyon]

In Hindi and some other Indian languages, 'ghar', depending on context, means room, house or home.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I dunno about being representative of photographers, but I have found Flickr very useful in evaluating lenses. I can't count on it showing me definitively that a lens is bad, but if lots of people have produced a lot of technically good photos with a particular lens (and the top resolution available is often pretty high on Flickr) I can be pretty confident that it's adequate or better, not a dog. This produces safe choices rather than risky ones of course.

[Peter Croft]

Simple Ghar? Exploring the web site makes me think it's Indian. It has prose like: "If you drive a lot on daily basis, there are chances that you sitting poster while driving is not properly maintained." Their sub editing doesn't match the graphics.

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Ghar is a home in Hindi

[Chris Bertram]

Flickr is a rather disappointing place, though I've been on it since 2007. I still use it to showcase my photographs, but it often feels like sending them into a void where nobody sees them. Instagram and Facebook, though far inferior from a photographer's point of view, at least generates responses.

[Peter Cameron]

Interesting. I guess I must being doing this photography gear thing all wrong. Of the nearly 30k photos I have stored on Flickr, only two are phone shots. One was taken with a Huawei P30Pro and the other with an iPhone SE(2nd).

[August]

Ghar = House

[Jnny]

How far down the list de we need to go to find Pentax?

[Farhiz Karanjawala]

Ghar means home/house in Hindi.

[Rupak Roy]

In Hindi a 'ghar' is a house.

[Aashish Sharma]

'Ghar' is house or home in Hindi. Hope that helps.

[Navin U.]

Ghar is ‘house’ in Hindi (India) .. it seems like this is a review site for household items.