staff:

We decided to organize some camera statistics from photos uploaded to Tumblr, and it revealed some interesting data:

One of the most surprising results is the dominance of photos taken with Apple’s Photo Booth application, which snaps photos from the built-in webcams in most Macs.

Entry-level SLRs are extremely popular among Tumblr photographers, especially Canon’s Digital Rebel series. The Digital Rebel XTi/400D is our most popular standalone camera. It’s a well-deserved position: the XTi is a great camera for a great price that introduced many people — myself included — to the world of high-quality photography.

Most Canon SLRs also record the Canon lens model used to take each photo:

The first and second are the new and old (respectively) “kit” lenses bundled with most Canon SLRs. The third-place lens, the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, is frequently sold as part of a premium bundle for a few hundred dollars more than the standard kit.

The inexpensive 50mm primes are cumulatively the most popular non-kit lenses. This is also well-deserved: these lenses provide excellent optical quality for very little money.

Many people take photos with their mobile phones. Here’s how the top modern smartphone types break down:

Beyond the expected dominance of iPhone OS and BlackBerry devices, Palm’s webOS (Pre, Pixi) isn’t very popular among Tumblr users, but Android devices are gaining popularity.

But the real surprise was Apple’s role, including Photo Booth, in overall camera brands:

The popularity of Macs and iPhones is powerful enough to make Apple almost as popular as Nikon for Tumblr photography.