Possible to distinguish digital camera, scanner, smartphone?

[Dan Lewis]

I have a large collection of JPG files and would like to identify if the device that was used to capture an image was a digital camera, a scanner, or a smartphone. I am already checking for the strings "camera" and "scan" within the Model tag, but this only identifies a small percentage of the cameras and scanners. I could also check for "iPhone" and "Pixel" to identify those smartphones, but a lengthy list of smartphone makes and models doesn't seem to be a practical way to identify smartphones.

I realize that there may likely always be devices that cannot be identified, but are there any tags that are unique to a digital camera, scanner, or smartphone?

Thanks!
Dan

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Dan,

Except for a few manufacturers like Sony that make both cameras and phones, you should be able to identify the device type by the Make tag.  See this page for an example list of camera make/model values.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

but are there any tags that are unique to a digital camera, scanner, or smartphone?

A single tag that would identify the source? No.  As Phil says, Make (and Model?) would be the best bet.  The other option would be to check for the existence of hundreds of tag such as those in the MakerNotes.