Do You Prefer Film or Digital?

Most people have embraced digital photography with enthusiasm. The lower cost of printing and storage is a big factor in the popularity of digital photography, especially for amateurs. With digital photography you don’t have to pay for the printing of a snapshot that has turned out awful. You can view the shot as soon as you’ve taken it and if it’s not up to scratch, delete it from the memory card with a simple click. If you want to wait and look at it on your computer or on the printout machine in the store, you can do that too.

The low cost of taking a photo means that you can practice more and hone your skills without spending lots of money. The LCD window is there for checking the quality. You can take lots of photos before your memory card is full too. No counting to thirty or so photos and then having to change the film. What if you forgot to buy an extra one? You can easily miss that great snapshot just because your camera ran out of film. With a traditional film camera, you have to take the shot without knowing just how it will turn out. You send the film away to be developed and have to wait a week to get it back, depending on where you live. You have to pay for the whole film, no matter whether you’ve cut Uncle Joe’s head off, or one of the kids decided to poke out their tongue just as you clicked.

The storage capacity of your computer is almost unlimited. You don’t have to have a cupboard full of photo albums (or cardboard boxes full of old photos) that you never get around to updating. It can all go on the computer, and then be copied to a CD-R to back it up or take it with you. With a digital photo, you can crop out that stranger’s head or the rusty drum you didn’t notice. You can change the color from cold to warm and do all sorts of other fancy stuff to improve that snapshot you want to keep but is not perfect.

Another great thing about digital photography is the position. You can hold the camera at almost any angle to take a shot. With a traditional camera, you might have to lie on the ground to get the right focus for some difficult shots. And what happens if you’ve bought film suited for bright sun and it rains nearly all the time on your holiday? Wasted film equals wasted money. You can get distant shots and close up shots, shots on dull days or bright sunny days without changing the film or the setting if you use the auto feature.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there is now no use for the traditional film. Many professional photographers need to keep using their expensive film cameras for the types of shots they need to take. But technology will soon catch up to them, too. Digital cameras don’t last as long as traditional ones do, but they are a lot of fun for the amateur.