Popular camera reviews

17 comments on Popular camera reviews
2 minutes
Yashica MG-1
Popular on this site

A major feature of this blog is reviews of old film cameras. I’ve reviewed 146 cameras so far! See the entire list here.

Thanks to Internet search, camera reviews drive a great deal of traffic to this site. It’s interesting to track the reviews that have gotten the most views here over the years. Here are the top five most viewed reviews since this blog’s inception:

The most visited reviews so far in 2021 is a very different list, however:

When I look back at 2015, the list is:

I’m curious to understand how these cameras end up ranked as they are. I know some things about it. For example, the Nikon Nikkormat EL couldn’t possibly have made the 2015 list, as I didn’t review it until 2016.

Also, my Yashica MG-1 review, which is from 2010, was very likely the only review of this camera on the Internet for many years. But since then, several other photobloggers have reviewed this camera, giving it competition. Moreover, search engines prefer newer articles — my 11-year-old article is positively ancient.

I’d love to say that a growing interest in 35mm point-and-shoot cameras is what’s pushing my reviews of the Pentax IQZoom cameras and the Nikon Zoom Touch up the rankings. This could play a role; the Nikon Zoom Touch review is from 2014 but has only recently started to get this much activity. But my other popular point-and-shoot reviews are all from the last couple of years. A review can’t rank if it hasn’t been written yet!

None of the cameras I use most — the Pentax ME, the Nikon F3, the Olympus XA, the Yashica-12 — make even the top twenty in any given year. I believe it’s because so many others have reviewed them. When you search for “Pentax ME” on Google today, the number one result is Ken Rockwell’s review. My little site is always going to have trouble competing with Ken Rockwell’s well-known and popular site!

So if there’s one lesson to learn from my stats, it’s to review cameras that have few or no other reviews yet!

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Comments

17 responses to “Popular camera reviews”

  1. Katie Yang Avatar

    I always enjoy your reviews enormously and many times while doing independent researching your site comes up and I find myself going back to the posts repeatedly while I agonize over buying a particular camera or lens. Thanks for doing them!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thank you! When I started collecting again in 2005-6, I found a few key sites with lots of reviews, and they helped me similarly as I tried to figure out what to buy. I wanted to be one of those sites!

  2. Greg Clawson Avatar
    Greg Clawson

    Jim, your camera reviews first lead me to your blog, but your stories are what keep me around. Keep up the good work!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks for staying around, Greg!

  3. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    Lots of love out there for the Minolta Hi-Matic line of cameras, and those other 35mm high quality, one lens rangefinders that were sort of the precursor to the auto-focus 35mm point-and-shoots so popular right before cell phone cameras started taking over. I think someone could have a viable web-site just covering those!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      When I restarted my collection in 2005-6, I intended to focus on fixed-lens rangefinders and folding cameras. But then my aunt Maxine gave me her old Minolta X-700 and that sent me down the SLR rabbit hole!

  4. arhphotographic Avatar

    Thank you for your post. Like you I’ve been wondering why I have recently had a lot of interest in a post about the Cosina PM1. We all like the big name cameras but as I’m finding out there is definitely in interest in the under dogs of the camera world.
    Andrew

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I think the key to a popular photo blog is reviews of quirky cameras!

  5. arhphotographic Avatar

    On a slightly tangent note , how are you getting on with the Df? Any possibility of a review from your film users perspective?
    Andrew

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’m still learning the Df’s ways. I might do an impressions post maybe this fall. Full on review maybe next year, after I’ve mastered it.

  6. arhphotographic Avatar

    I think I understand whay you mean. I had the D500 for a couple of months before I started back down the film route. It is definitely feeling lonely and forgotten recently.
    Andrew

  7. Sam Avatar

    Some great reviews! Thanks Jim for all the years of inspiration and hard work.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks Sam!

  8. Ted Kappes Avatar

    I had the same experience with the camera reviews on my old blog. I just looked and the most popular ones lately are the Argus dual 35 and the Vivitar TEC 45. Some of those things still get a lot of views even through I haven’t made a new post for several years. I sure respect how you have been able to keep going for all these years.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks Ted — I’m not sure sometimes why I keep doing this. Comments, I suppose. It’s gratifying that this stuff that comes out of my head, people keep coming back to see.

  9. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    My favorite film SLR-because it was my first-was the Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL. Simple, rugged, it used cheap and good Pentax screw mount lenses. My least favorite was the Russian Zenit B. Used the same lenses and was cheap but incredibly crude and clumsy. The shutter speed dial spun when the shutter released and could easily be slowed by an misplaced fingertip. The latch that kept the back closed caught on everything, flipping the back open and ruining an entire roll of film.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I had a 500 DTL for a while – broken. I’ve been halfheartedly looking for another one that works. It seemed like a sturdy machine.

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