Most Popular Smartphone Camera on Flickr: iPhone 5

Flickr is one of the most popular image hosting services on the internet, and it’s what many professional and novice photographers use to show off their work. Therefore, Flickr is a decent platform for which you can see what the most popular cameras are that all your favorite photographers are using, and the iPhone absolutely dominates.

PetaPixel took a look at some of the most popular cameras that were over the past year, and while Canon comes out on top at 13.4% of all cameras used on Flickr (with the Canon 7D being the most popular DSLR on Flickr), Apple takes second place with 9.6%, followed by Nikon, Samsung and Sony.

If we narrow it down and just look at smartphones on Flickr, the iPhone 5 was the most popular smartphone for taking photos amongst Flickr users in 2014, with 10.6% of all smartphone photos being the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4s comes in second with 7%, the iPhone 4 in third (4.3%), the iPhone 5c in fourth (2.0%), and the Samsung Galaxy S3 rounds out the top five with 1.2%.

It’s fairly interesting that it’s mostly older devices that take the top spots on Flickr, and we’re surprised to not at least see the iPhone 5s in there somewhere, or even the Galaxy S4, but it could be that many Flickr users aren’t prone to upgrading their devices as often as others do. After all, the camera in the iPhone 5 is still very much worthy of taking excellent photographs, and it makes for a good backup option for photographers.

These stats shouldn’t be too surprising otherwise, as smartphones are being equipped with better and better cameras every year. Plus, with the iPhone having one of the best smartphone cameras on the market, it’s no wonder that people are taking a lot of photos with it, and many professional photographers are rocking an iPhone as a secondary or tertiary camera while on the go, simply because of its portability compared to a chunky DSLR that isn’t as easy to maneuver like an iPhone is.

As for the most popular camera brand on Flickr, Canon takes the cake, with Apple in second, Nikon in third, Samsung in fourth, and Sony rounding out the top five. Surprisingly enough, even with Sony’s growing selection of cameras and smartphones, the company slipped into fifth place from last year, with Samsung overtaking. Samsung also has growing line of point-and-shoot cameras, but its Galaxy S series of smartphones may have been the deciding factor for the boost.

Interestingly enough, the most popular smartphone brand after Apple Samsung, and Sony is HTC, with its One X, One X+, and its newest HTC One M8 models as the front runners.Nokia is also near the top with its Lumia series of phones, including the impressive Lumia 1020 with its 41-megapixel sensor.

At the end of the day, though, the iPhone is the camera that most people want to use, and with different accessories like the Olloclip, as well as a ton of third-party camera apps, users can take even better photos than what the stock experience offers, and that’s fantastic for photo enthusiasts of all levels.