stolen camera finder
 

Stolen Camera Finder, A Site That Finds Photos Taken By Your Camera

By EDW Lynch on May 3, 2011

Stolen Camera Finder by Matt Burns is a simple website that can track down a lost or stolen camera by searching online for the camera’s serial number in the Exif data embedded in many digital photos. The site has a growing database of serial numbers mapped to photos posted online–more than one million cameras have been identified.

Every photo you take with your digital camera contains hidden information about both the image and the camera such as the make, model and date. This information, called exif data, can also include a unique serial number which identifies your camera. stolencamerafinder crawls the internet searching for photos, collecting the serial numbers of the cameras that took them. When you use the drag & drop feature, stolencamerafinder reads the unique serial number from the exif data of your photo and uses it to match against serial numbers it has stored.

via Chris Glass

worth bumping - here's a media story about how a stolen 5DII was recovered, years after it was stolen:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/c...229-1pdkw.html

Neat idea. Unfortunately, one that's quite easy to side-step since EXIF data is easily removed from a photo file. Indeed, it's often lost by any modification of the image in software. Of course, if someone doesn't know any better (i.e. most of "joe public") and uploads the original file, bingo! I guess it only takes one file, with the EXIF data intact, to work - so it can't be a bad thing.

Neat idea. Hope I never need it but will save site just in case.

Toast the miscreants who pinch cameras!!!!!

You could probably use this to see if your now second hand camera is getting up to anything cool too :)

Welp, it just happened to me. Had my D80 & lens stolen from my car at some point in the past week. While I'd love to get it back, I have little hope of ever seeing it again. Checked out the site linked here, and got no results (though it's early yet). :(

Interesting concept. I think people have also started "stolen camera" databases. Only catch is (at least in the USA) "innocent until proven guilty." The burden of proof is on the accuser/the prosecution. I wonder how these perps get nabbed (what's the full story?).

just got my rx100 stolen.... but its not supported on the website as it doesnt write any serial number info on the exif. major bummer :(