Ah yes, the debate that's been going on for years in the photography community. Even more so now that film is making a comeback! I'm not here to say that one is better than the other. Beautiful art can be made with both mediums. Each to their own, but if you're trying to decide if you want to pick up film photography or invest in digital photography, there are a few things you should consider.
Price
I think one of the biggest factors in this decision is price. The way I see it, with digital photography you're paying a lot of money all at once, and with film, the expenses may be lower initially but they are ongoing. SLR cameras, the ones with interchangeable lenses that most professional photographers use, range in price from $300 to $4,000 or more with the camera bodies and lenses sold separately. Digital photography also requires storage, and the most common method is SD cards or hard drives. SD cards range from $9 to $80, the price depends on how much storage you want. Hard drives can range from $50 to $200 or more (Numbers are from electronics.costhelper.com) These prices can get pretty high, but you will be able to store thousands of images. With most digital photography equipment, you will pay a higher price upfront, but you will not have to replace your equipment for years if you care for it properly.
Film cameras range from less than $100 to $500 and buying used will drop the cost. A roll of color film will run from $2 to $15 for 12, 24, or 36 exposures. Film photography also comes with an additional processing fee, which ranges from $6 to $12 or more if you send it to a lab for processing. This will take at least 24 hours. If you intend to create a darkroom for developing film in your own home, be prepared to spend a couple hundred dollars on equipment, chemicals, paper, and other materials.
Difficulty
My opinion is that digital photography is easier than film. With most cameras nowadays, even cell phones, they have auto settings that take care of everything that you would have to do manually with a film camera. The process of taking photos, storing them, and printing them digitally is much more convenient. Digital cameras also have manual modes, and they generally have wider capabilities than older film cameras. Changing manual settings is easy as clicking a few buttons, but messing with manual settings means that you should have some knowledge of exposure, shutter speed, and aperture (AKA the exposure triangle).
On the other hand, film photography is not convenient, but some would argue that the extra effort put into film photography yields greater satisfaction. You will need a strong grasp on the exposure triangle because with the limited amount of exposures on a roll of film, you only have that many chances to get your shot. You won't want to be messing up settings and wasting exposures. Sending your film away to be developed is the easy choice, but developing film yourself is time intensive and difficult when you first start out. You also have to consider that black and white film is easier to develop yourself, while developing color film yourself is a much more difficult process.
Resolution
Resolution is the element that requires more nerdy camera information, so if you're really not that serious about photography, considering price and difficulty is enough. You can always go and do extra research as well.
Everyone loves a good, sharp photograph, and resolution is what makes that happen. Digital image sensors count the pixels, but film resolution is calculated another way. petapixel.com has an amazing article comparing film vs. digital, and their discussion of resolution concludes that digital cameras today generally beat out film resolution wise, unless you go for medium or large format film cameras, which is a whole other discussion. (Read their article here)
This is a pretty hot topic in the photography community, so for any die-hard film or digital fans, why are you using the medium you are and what would you recommend to a newbie? Comment and let me know!
Thanks for reading!
xx, Hannah
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