I recently did a very unscientific camera usage survey of my own photo library. Google's image editing tool Picasa will include the photo metadata in its (instantaneous) searches, so I ran a search on each of my digital cameras to see how many photos I have taken with each. As of September 14, 2008, here are the results (remember that I have photos from friends and family laying around, downloads from the web, etc...my total library numbers almost 52,000 photos):
Sony Cybershot: 2014 Canon Powershot A70: 8131 Canon Powershot SD400: 2361 Canon Powershot SD600: 7035 Canon EOS 10D: 17873
I find these results really interesting. The Sony Cybershot was Amanda's camera, and I now have most of her photos in my library. I also used that camera heavily before I got a digital camera of my own. The A70 was my first digital camera, used from about 6/03 to 9/05 (and then a good bit later on ski trips, rafting trips, etc, until I destroyed it). The SD400 I used from 9/05 until 7/06, when it met its early demise on my bachelor party canoe trip. The SD600 I bought in 7/06 and use still...although, after two years in my pocket and seven thousand images it is starting to show some serious wear. The SLR, however, is almost equal to the rest combined (purchased in 4/04). This is impressive, considering how much more face time I get with the pocket cameras than the SLR...but when I break out the big guns, I shoot a lot. Weddings turn in 500 photos, an afternoon at the zoo is 100 photos. I'm not replacing the 10D until Canon announces a x0D camera with a full frame sensor...it has a lot of life left.