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Film versus Digital
Dan Simon
Take the picture; see the results. The lure of digital cameras isn't very hard to understand. Instant gratification, coupled with being freed from the cost of buying and processing film every time you want to take pictures, is a very strong lure.
Less touted, but also important, is the environmental benefit of these cameras. Photographic film processing is a chemical-intensive process. Thanks to stricter environmental laws in many states, these chemicals are no longer poured down the drain as they once were. Still, this chemical waste needs to be disposed of somehow.
 Many
digital camera users also edit "in camera," deleting "rejects" long
before they ever get to the printer. As a result, fewer prints are
made and then thrown away.
More sophisticated digital photographers take this a step further, by leaving most of their images in digital form and only getting special images printed, further reducing the number of prints made, and as a result, the amount of chemical waste they generate.
Digital cameras are still more expensive than their film counterparts, but coming down in price every day. Once a camera shopper factors in the savings from not having to buy film and pay for its processing, the digital camera can become a better bargain even though its initial cost may be higher.
The big drawback in the digital versus film camera price issue comes when you start directly comparing 35 mm SLR cameras. Here the high cost of entering the digital market becomes a problem. An entry level DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera still costs close to $2,000 new, and that price doesn't include a lens. An entry-level film SLR can be had for just a few hundred dollars. At this point digital SLRs just aren't competitive with their film camera counterparts except with the most serious amateurs. Many pros have borne the expense, in part because the savings on film and processing are far more significant for someone who takes 30,000 images a year than for someone who only shoots several hundred.
Yet switching to digital (whether a high-end pro camera or a modestly priced point and shoot) still allows photographers to get good quality photographic prints when they need them.
Prints can be made at home by photo-quality inkjet printers (many
of which use cartridges that can be refilled or recycled) or uploaded
to internet printers such as www.ofoto.com
or www.ezprints.com.
It's not unusual to see local department or mall stores offering a
digital printing option either. The truly finicky can even find out
the specific type of photographic printer their local department store
is using and then download profiles (computer files with the specific
characteristics) of the printer and tweak their images on their home
computer for the most accurate results.
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