Digital v. Film Photography |
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Last Updated: December 28, 2007
Up Front Costs
Digital cameras have a lot of up front costs. Good cameras start around $150. You'll need one or two sets of rechargeable batteries and a recharger for $40. You'll want a larger memory card for $30. Although the camera came with photo editing software, you'll want something better for $85. To organize the photos, you'll want photo album software from free to $50. That is a total of $305-$355 for a $150 camera. You can buy a 35mm film camera, one roll of film, and a photo album under $200. Both cameras will produce similar quality 4×6 inch photos.
Comparing Apples and Oranges
If you are looking to buy a new camera and can't decide if you should buy a digital camera or a 35mm film camera, then at least make equal comparisons. For years, I was comparing a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) 35mm camera with detachable lenses to a digital camera with a non-removable lens just because they both cost the same. Even if the digital camera costs twice as much, the SLR camera always had better capability and quality. Compare 35mm SLRs to digital SLRs. Compare 35mm point and shoot cameras with digital point and shoot cameras. You will have to double or triple the price of the digital camera to match a comparable 35mm camera. At that point, you'll be comparing equal cameras in terms of features and quality with unequal prices.
How Many Photos Do You Really Use?
When you get your double prints of a 24 exposure roll of film, how many of them do NOT get filed into a shoe box? How many go into a photo album? How many are given away? If you are like me, 4 or 5 will make it to the pile of photos that will eventually be put into a photo album, and we'll give away 2 or 4 to the grandparents. So out of 48 photos (double prints of 24), we use 6 to 9 photos.
Digital Might Be Cheaper in the Long Run
If you calculate a break even analysis, you'll discover that it will take years for the digital camera to pay for itself since you'll only be printing the best pictures and not all of the pictures. That's true if you think you'll still take the same number of digital photos as you did with 35mm film. In reality, people will take 3 to 6 times the number of photos they used to with a digital camera because the photos are free. I've taken almost 5,000 photos this year. This makes digital photography much cheaper in the long run.
The Benefits of Taking Free Photos With Digital
With 35mm film, it costs about $0.60 every time I took a picture. If our kids were having fun playing, I'd take 3 or 4 pictures and hope that I got a good photo. With a digital camera, I can take 15 or 20 candid shots and not have to worry about the cost. I can also practice taking better pictures and get immediate results. I can take several pictures of the same thing, such as a sunset, using different angles or different exposures until I get the one I want. I don't have to worry about wasting $5 in film processing to get one great picture.
Reasons to Go Digital
- Take more candid shots and improve your photography skills because the photos are free.
- Immediately verify the photos meets your expectations.
- Immediately e-mail photos to friends and family.
- Take 15 photos of the same thing (e.g. sunset) and choose the best one.
- Don't have to wait until the entire roll of film is used to see your photos.
- Digital prints cost the same as film prints at local stores.
- Pick and choose the best 24 digital pictures to print rather than printing all of the photos.
- Five to 20 rolls of film can fit on a single memory card.
- Upload the best pictures for free to Shutterfly or Kodak Gallery and have friends and family order their own pictures. It saves your time and printing costs.
- Create photo albums that look like yearbooks at Shutterfly.
- On cameras that allow manual controls, you can choose the ISO setting on a per picture basis. This means you can switch from indoor ISO 400 to sunny outdoor ISO 100. A roll of film is only one ISO.
- Digital SLRs have a 1.5 magnification issue. You pay a lower price for a 200mm telephoto lens, but you get the pricier 300mm magnification for free. This is not the case for cameras with non-removable lenses.
- You don't have boxes full of unused photos and negatives. Instead, you have a few DVD backups.
- A fire, flood, or other natural disaster may destroy your home. Having a second backup of your digital photos stored in another location increases your chances of keeping your photos.
Reasons to Stay With 35mm Film
- You don't need a computer, so it can be less expensive.
- Negatives will survive for decades, but the ever changing photo file format will not. Photos will need to be converted from one file format to another every 10 years.
- 35mm film is about 8 megapixels. High Definition 35mm film is about 12 megapixels. Digital cameras are working their way up to 12 megapixels.
- Film cameras can handle harsh climates such as below freezing or 90% humidity, whereas digital cameras will get damaged.
- Everyone will have a hard drive crash, virus, accidental deletion, or some other way were some digital photos that are not backed up will be lost forever.
- A digital photo album isn't always the most convenient way to share photos.