Hey guys I really love photography and I was wondering if you guys thought of digital photography. While it is a convenience I feel that using digital cameras are a waste of money given that my friend told me that hers even though the pixel number was high the quality of the picture wasn't as good as the old compact or SLR (single Lens Reflex) cameras. I don't personally have a compact digital camera, but I have seen them and I noticed that after the picture was taken that the image wasn't exactly as good as that of a picture taken by film though I'm sure that the digital SLRs are better in that lenses can be changed and all, but what do you guys think?

I have a digital, and it's been really useful. The quality is not the same as regular film, but with a good camera, it's close enough that it generally doesn't matter. I have a 4 megapixel camera now, and the pictures we print are as good as film. (We print using picture stations in grocery stores and pharmacies and such.)

The thing about digital is that it's a lot more flexible. You can upload the pics to your comp, move them around anywhere, email them, etc. You can also adjust brightness, contrast, and all sorts of things yourself, not to mention being able to zoom and crop before you print.

Oh, and of course, when you're using a digital camera, you can see the shot you've just taken. So, if for any reason it didn't come out, you know to take a new one. Not to mention that digital cameras also allow you to store a lot more pictures (mine has 512meg of memory), and some can also take (low-quality) video.

So, sure... you lose a bit in the image quality department, but not that much, and, to me, it's definitely worth it.

Paul

I am an avid amateur photographer. Right now I'm still using film. I bought a digital camera in 1999 but I'm waiting for further improvements in the whole digital world before I invest in a digital camera. I would buy a digital SLR that would take my Nikon lenses.

While you can see your shots right away so you know if you got it - viewing them eats up battery life. Also people have had the memory cards fail and loose all there shots. You should have several memory cards for this reason. All the professional photograhers suggest having backup memory cards for your camera so if it is getting close to full you can change it at a convient time not when it is full. Also if you have a card failure your in trouble if you don't have a backup.

Long time storage is a problem. If you store film properly it will last virtually forever. With digital you have to store it several ways. What I mean if you have them on your harddrive you better make sure you back them up to CD or DVD or Zip. And you should make 2 copies of the backup. I have burned digital pictures to CD and then found the CD unreadable either for 1 or 2 pictures or totally unreadable.

I guess my main suggestion for people is depending on how computer saavy you are depends on whether you should go totally digital. There are all sorts of photo editing software but you have to learn to use it because so far I have not yet read a review for any digital camera that says your colors come out true. There is usually a bit of adjustment that needs to be done.

If you want to email pictures you can always scan a picture into your computer. Adjust the file size and email.

Right now if you buy a point in shoot camera you will get a better camera for less money in film. Plus if you want to make enlargements since they have really improved a lot of the film you can go pretty big with out much graininess. Whereas there are several factors that make it harder to go as large in a print in digital without having noise or pixelation showing up.

I read a lot on both film and digital cameras. I get PC World, PC Photo, Outdoor Photography and Digital Photo and Imaging. If you want information on digital cameras most of these have web sites that post reviews of cameras. Just ignore digital zoom. That is nothing it just crops the picture in the camera. In digital cameras the only true zoom is Optical. Most info on digital cameras will tell you what its Optical Zoom is equivalent to in a 35mm camera.

I suppose it depends on what you want to do with your pictures. For me, I have to be able to snap photos and have access to them on the spot for my artwork. So I love having my digital camera. I can take a bunch of photos at whatever location I'm doing an ad for and immediately throw the pictures into my computer and start playing around with them. They're not always of perfect quality...but that's why I have Photoshop.

One day, though, I do want to learn about film and developing my own pictures...all that jazz my friends have enjoyed doing.

JD

I second all the 'pros' that Paul mentioned and add that I discovered how much fun photography can be from a digital camera.

I just bought my second camera that is one step below the SLRs (it can be manually adjusted in some modes, just not quite a full manual like an SLR) just so I can play with taking pictures at different apertures and shutter speeds.

~Liz

My next camera will be digital, because all I do is take holiday snaps and family pictures which don't require high quality reproduction. I'm looking forward to being able to email my pics to friends without having to scan them first and also to be able to post them on an online photo album. I'm also looking forward to having a small video capability for those hard-to-capture scenes and moments. And if I lose everything I won't be devastated, so the storage problem isn't a big issue for me.

Yvonne

JD I did film processing and developing in high school and while processing the film is tedious as it involves pitch black darkrooms to remove the film from the canister and also development times of film involves temperature as well the results are fun. Enlargers mean that you can virtually make any sized photo you want and it's is a whole lot of fun. I got a real kick out of it because the fact that you did all the processing by yourself makes it so much more sastifying. By the way I should mention that I did black and white photography as a subject and not colour.

I have a digital camera.
The quality is not perfect but is close to it, is 5 Megapixeles and is a great camera.
I love film cameras too but I use the digital because I have to see if my daughter was lloking at me or ignoring me at the minute I took the picture.

Karla