The camera database appears to be the poor stepchild of this operation, but in theory, one can send a request to
cameras@pbase.com requesting something be added. That would seem to be the most obvious approach. My (limited) experience has been it may take more than one request and several weeks before anything happens. I was successful after two tries in getting the Canon G15 added a month or so back, but it took over a month.
I'm not sure if they search through Exif data from uploads looking for new cameras or not. I suppose they could, but that might run the risk of not everyone using a consistent identifier. The email I received acknowledging they added the G15 stated:
Images tagged with this camera will appear in
the random photos after the next system update.
but I read that as implying only after they added the camera to some magic list.
After about a month beyond that email, I saw nothing picked up, so I went through and updated from the Camera List pull-down where it did indeed show up. I'm afraid my understanding of what constitutes a "system update" is lacking. It could mean the next major rev of the operating code, or it could mean some sort of periodic scan of what's out here. From what I can see, even the update scans for hit counts are erratic as all get-out.
I like what's here, when it's working, but I tend to get the impression we're in the midst of a hobby project that was so successful it overwhelmed its originators!
DaveT