Digital cameras vs. traditional film cameras

When a person decides to get serious about photography, this means that they need to upgrade their equipment. This can mean hours of searching online for the best buy on cameras, which is almost always a confusing and mind-numbing process. However, before they even get to that step, there is one question that they need to resolve, one that is becoming one of the most difficult and frequently-asked in the photography world: digital or film?

For a long time, digital cameras were considered to be the providence of amateur photographers, offering quality more suited for taking pictures of your family at the beach than doing professional work. But over the years the quality of digital cameras has improved to the point that there really isn't a delta between the two - you can find high-quality, professional digital cameras just as easily as you can film cameras.

One of the major advantages of a digital camera is the ability to store footage. Through a memory card for a camera, a photographer can take hundreds of pictures without having to worry about changing film. It is also an incredibly portable option: once saved onto a memory card, the images can be shared any number of ways.

However, this doesn't mean that it's impossible to turn film into digital files. It's just as easy to convert a shot into a digital file through negative film scanners as it is by using a digital film scanner. And there are some instances where traditional photography is still the better option than digital photography. For example, in many nature images, the sheer size and scope of the picture would result in a digital image that would be too large and unwieldy for most cameras to handle. And in many cases, the top-end film cameras offer a level of clarity that cannot be matched. It really is a matter of personal preference if one chooses a traditional film camera or a digital camera when they decide to get serious about their photography.

Richard Manfredi has written for major newspapers and online news sites and has more than 10 years experience in the digital imaging world.