Digital Photography

Current digital camera technology has both advantages and disadvantages compared to film photography. Choosing which to shoot involves weighing the options and picking the best one for the type of photography to be done.

Disadvantages

• Initial Cost - It cost more to get set up to do digital photos. Other than the higher cost of digital cameras, there is the need for a computer, a printer, software, film cards, and batteries. Some of these expenses can be mitigated by things like using a printing service or buying rechargeable batteries.
• Resolution - Currently, a low-end film camera still has far better resolution than a low-end or even midrange digital camera. The more resolution there is, the more the photo can be enlarged. For typical personal uses, which result in the size of photo that would be framed and put on a desktop or mantle, most digital cameras are fine. A very expensive high-end digital camera would be needed for photos that would be hung over a sofa or made into a billboard.
• Noise - Digital cameras suffer from varying degrees of noise or colored speckles in the darker parts of an image. Noise is easiest to see in large areas of flat color, such as skies, and particularly a problem in low light due to the fact that longer exposures are more susceptible to noise. This is acerbated by the fact that many digital cameras are less sensitive to light than film, requiring longer exposures.
• Speed - Digital cameras have a noticeable wait between the press of the shutter button and the recording of the image. There is another lag after the image is recorded while it is written to the memory card. The second delay can be ameliorated by using faster memory cards, but there isn't much that can be done about the first one other than learning to anticipate the moment and press the shutter early.

Advantages

• Overall Cost - Overall it costs less to use a digital camera because there is no need to buy film or film processing.
• Convenience - A digital photo can be shot, downloaded, edited, and printed in a couple of minutes. There is no need to set up a darkroom, take the roll of film somewhere else to be developed, or even to finish up a roll of film before making a print. The photographer gets to develop the prints without dealing with chemicals and to print only chosen photos instead of the whole roll.
• Flexibility - Digital cameras offer the ability to try shots that normally would be passed by out of a desire to not waste film. If the shot doesn't work, it can be deleted without paying for processing. In addition, digital cameras allow the photographer to see immediately that there is a problem with a shot in time for it to be retaken at once.
• Permanency - While any given print will degrade over time (including film-based photos), digital photos can theoretically last forever as long as they are transferred to modern storage mediums. Whenever one print degrades, another can be made. In addition, digital photos contain extra information (date, time, etc.) in their EXIF information, which is stored along with the photo.

Digital or Film

Currently, film is still the best choice for situations involving fast action, very low light, and large prints. Digital cameras are particularly suited for inexpensive macro photography, stitched panoramas, and photos requiring a short amount of time from image capture to print.