Film or Digital?

Film versus digital is currently a big debate in the photographic world. Some professionals are strictly film users but others prefer to use mixed media, digital and film. With todays modern technology, and the rate of DSLR production, it is indeed becoming more convenient to shoot digitally. Universities are also training their graduates for a mostly digital-based career, as it is their vision that in the near future film and wet processing will die out completely. But Which is truly better? i cant make up your mind for you, but here are a few Pro's and Con's of each method. Feel free to add your own at the bottom of the post.

Film Pro's (based on 35mm black and white film).

• More rewarding to develop your own film and prints.
• More exciting as the outcome cannot always be predicted.
• Lasts longer. (Digital files can easily be deleted from the camera/computer by accident).
• Better contrast.
• Better representation of tone, depth and texture when shooting in black and white.

Film Con's

• Can take a long time to get that perfect print without streaky chemical marks.
• COST of both paper, chemicals and film.
• Negatives can be easily scratched.
• You would need your own darkroom (unless you use one at College / Uni / School)
• Easy to over or under expose.
• Can't see the image straight after taking it, so you may waste a whole roll of film by not achieving the result you wanted.

Digital Pro's

• Photoshop manipulation.
• Easy to store on a computer.
• Fast.
• Cheap.
• Instant review of photographs.

Digital Con's

• Complex in-camera menu's to navigate around.
• Can be easy to set the camera up wrongly.
• Photos can be easily lost if a problem occurs with the computer. (Always back up files!)
• If shooting in the wrong mode a computer may not read your image format.