stolencamerafinder.com



Stolencamerafinder.com uses the serial number stored in your digital photos to search the web for photos taken with the same camera. Very helpful if a camera has been stolen, obviously.

Bummer, the Canon PowerShot SD500 that was stolen from me a few years ago is not supported. See if yours is on the supported camera page.

(via Brandon)

7 Comments leave a comment below

  1. FYI, I just tried this for a camera of mine that was stolen and got 0 results.

    I find this odd, mostly because it didn’t find the thousand other photos on the web that I took with this camera before it got stolen. Most of them reside on flickr, which would seem to be an obvious source for a site like this to scour.

    Bummer.

    Theo
    May 6th, 2011 / 10:27 am

  2. Theo: I did the same. It is a great idea in theory, but it all depends on whether or not that that data is accessible. I lost my Panasonic LX3 (supported camera) in 2009 in Nice. No results also, but I have tons of photos from that camera on Flickr, and on my blog, but it also returned no results.

    Would love to just get the photos back from that trip!

    Tom
    May 6th, 2011 / 10:45 am

  3. Assuming this did work, what would you do once you got a hit? Of course the thief would just deny it… I wonder if something like this would stand up in the eyes of the law. Very interesting, nonetheless!

    Jenn
    May 6th, 2011 / 11:01 am

  4. If the EXIF data is stripped while uploading to the web, this may not work, right?

    Badri
    May 6th, 2011 / 11:44 pm

  5. I wondered the same thing as Jenn. An ethical person would return the camera – assuming they didn’t pay good money for the camera from a pawn shop or other source. Let’s say I buy a nice “used” camera for $US200 from ebay or craigslist. Then someone contacts me and tells me I have their stolen camera. How do I know when to believe them? What proof is needed to know this isn’t a scam by the auction site seller? In the meantime, the thief may be long gone, assuming they weren’t in on the deal.

    Maybe this site would be helpful for someone looking to buy a used camera or trying to find the owner of a lost camera. Still not sure how the logistics would work if a camera has legitimately changed hands a few times. Is there a title search, so to speak, like for a car or house?

    Pixie
    May 7th, 2011 / 7:55 am

  6. Right, you need the EXIF data. In my test, however, all my originals on Flickr retained their EXIF data.

    Resized images uploaded to the web lose it. Again, makes this tool even less useful.

    Theo
    May 7th, 2011 / 7:55 am