Photography...Film or Digital?

[nobora]

I learned how to use different types of film cameras in 6 and 7 grade but to me its such a pain so i stick to digital ^_^

[Sangetsu]

I use both, but I have to say that digital is far easier. Digital allows you to see your images immediately after they are taken, and you can either keep them or dispose of them at that moment. You can tell immediately if your exposure, white balance, etc., are correct, and made adjustments as necessary.

With film you have no such freedom. You will not know what the results are until you receive your prints.

On the other hand, film still beats digital in image quality. You would need more than 20 megapixels to get the same resolution that film provides. Film is still the choice of photographers who need the ultimate in detail and resolution. I have a large-format film camera which takes incredible pictures which no DSLR can match. Not to mention that the ability to tilt, swing, or shift the lens position can give me an incredible variety of perspectives of the same object.

Many people love digital because they can edit their pictures on a computer. This is very convenient, but you can also edit your film pictures, all you have to do is ask your processor to give you a photo dvd along with your prints. This way you can share pictures taken with a film camera on the internet, or edit them as you like.

[Pexster]

I like both. Film and digital.

[coolforcats1]

I use both
Film has it's unique quality and contrast which is amazing. Plus negative will last forever, unless they are destroyed, which means no worry of being wiped off of your hard disk! lol

I see how digital can be better for it's own reasons, but it will never beat the excitement of the process of producing the images, and the quality of film for me.

[Troo]

Digital. I loathe fiddling with film, carrying multiple cameras with multiple film types for changeable English weather, paying over a fiver per reel for development only to find half your shots are worthless, and the extremely slow learning curve where you have to wait until your film is developed before you can see whether you've improved and how your technique fails.

Certainly even, say, the Canon 1Ds MKIII can't match the resolution of a large format camera, but you can already get digital backs for medium and large format cameras, which saves messing with plates. I don't see it being more than ten years before pro digital kit is widespread.

There will always be people who prefer film, but I do believe that digital will trump it in the end for all but the most specialised applications (polaroid transfer, for example). In a way that's a shame, because learning the slow, cumbersome way teaches a photographer to get it right in-camera and rely very little on post-processing.