It looks like it's been a tough year for Canon. Despite the results still showing profit, the general consensus is that they have been losing market share to the other big manufacturers. However, is this really the case?

Now, we know there a lies, damned lies and statistics, so take this with a pinch of salt, but if you look at the images uploaded on flickr and use their 'Camera Finder' tool, you'll see that 3 of the top 5 used cameras are Canons - the EOS 400D, EOS 450D and EOS 40D. Nikon have one showing in there (the D80) and it's currently in fourth place. The fifth entry, equal with the EOS 400D is the iPhone, which is not really surprising given how many have been sold. 

So what does that tell us? Well, Canon do seem to be doing quite well actually. There are more active users posting images to the biggest online sharing site than from any of the other manufacturers. Of course, it may also mean that Nikon users don't post their images on flickr....because they're ashamed they bought Nikon or because they know the picture quality isn't up to it! ;-) (Only kidding Nikon users reading this blog!) 

The really interesting part about the camera finder page though is the 'point and shoot' graph - 5 of the top 5 camera models used are Canons. That is quite astonishing actually as I never really though Canon had as much market as that at the compact camera level.

Of course, this could all mean nothing at all, but it's an interesting snapshot as it stands today. 

What do you think? Have you ever counted cameras while out to see what you see more of? Or am I a special kind of geek that does that? :-)