Blog Post 62

Is the camera more important than the photograph?

When people hear that I am “into photography”, the first question usually is, “what kind of camera do you have?”. Now I don’t know at this point whether they would know the difference between a Leica and a Lomo but I always give a polite answer. I think a more informative angle would be “what kind of pictures do you take?”. It’s like someone talking to you about the painters Picasso or Hockney. If you didn’t know who they were your first question wouldn’t be, “what type of brushes do they use?”.

This got me thinking as I had just read an article on a study carried out by the photo-hosting website “Flickr” into what the most popular cameras are, based on some 470 million images that were uploaded to is servers.

It may or may not come as a surprise to you but the most popularly used camera is not a camera at all it’s a phone, and in particular the Apple iPhone 11. So beating all the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras we currently have on the market, the iPhone 11, which is now four years old, has been tagged over 13 million times. In the US, the most popular camera is another Apple product, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, so it’s no wonder we’ve been seeing a drop in actual camera sales. 

The main caveat to these statements however is that this is only data taken from “Flickr”, but it is an indication as to where the market is strongest. It is reckoned that one in three photos are taken on an iPhone and another study (Magisto), states that Apple iPhone users take 65% more photos than on Android devices.

The graphic also shows us that the big two of Canon and Nikon are still way out ahead of the pack on usage by “Flickr” users. My own preferred camera system, Fujifilm, was way down the popularity ladder.

I don’t think I could ever class my iPhone 11 as my main camera. I would always prefer the convenience of grab and shoot over faffing about with apps and limited flexibilities of camera phones. That said, don’t forget the old saying, that “your best camera is the one you have with you and taking the photo with.” No point in having a top of the range camera sitting on the shelf at home. If you see a shot and all you have is your phone, go for it. People will be interested in the photo, not the camera.

A wee trip doon “The Barras”

I was back up in Glasgow recently for the Zine Fair at The Glasgow Gallery of Photography and took the opportunity to pay a visit to my happy place, The Barras market. Although I visited on the Sunday I was please to see it a good bit bussier than I had seen it in the past. Here are a few of the shots I took whilst meandering around. I thought I would try a bit of colour this time, away from my preferred black and white presentation.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.

Pete