The iPhone 4 is gaining on the Nikon D90.

The camera in Apple's iPhone 4 is a popular option for Flickr users, a graph on the Yahoo-owned company's site shows.

According to the graph, the Nikon D90 continues to be the top choice among Flickr users. However, the iPhone 4 has been gaining ground quite steadily and could overtake the D90 in short order. The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, and the Canon EOS Rebel T1i are the other top cameras on the site.

The popularity of the iPhone 4's 5-megapixel camera on the photo-sharing site doesn't necessarily mean that high-end cameras, like the digital SLRs included in the Flickr listing, are in trouble. However, it does speak to the iPhone 4's influence. It also highlights how point-and-shoot cameras are increasingly competing with smartphones.

In fact, another Flickr graph shows that the percentage of Flickr members using point-and-shoot cameras is declining at a rapid rate. Several Canon models, including the PowerShot G10 and G11, are seeing their popularity among Flickr users plummet to extremely low numbers. It becomes all the more sobering for those devices when one considers that Flickr itself says that camera phones are "under-represented" in its tallies, since it is often times difficult to automatically detect when a camera phone was used to snap a photo.

The iPhone 4 camera's capabilities are boosted by backside illumination, known as BSI, which helps improve low-light performance, thus creating an nicer pictures.

CNET photographer James Martin last year said the smartphone's camera "is approaching point-and-shoot quality." Just after the iPhone 4's release, he tested out the camera and put together this slideshow.

(Via The New York Times)