Advantages of a Digital Camera over a Film Camera

Over the years, I have owned six film cameras; two of which were APS.  Film cameras used to be the only option, but now a good digital camera costs as much as a good film camera.  I have owned two digital cameras.  My first digital camera I won in a contest back when digital cameras were just coming out, so it was less than 1.0 megapixel.  We finally decided to take that camera on a trip to Europe, and were so impressed with the ease and functionality that we decided to buy a more up-to-date digital camera.  We now own a 4.0 megapixel "point and shoot" digital camera, which allows us to do just about anything we could ever want (all pictures on our SpiceLife site were taken with that camera).  It also allows for (near)-photo-like quality of 8" x 10" prints.  A 5.0 MP camera gives photo-like quality up to 8" x 10".  A 7 MP camera will give you photo-like quality up to 11" x 17" and larger!!!

If you have a computer and color printer (or have access to one at work or school), you should also have a good digital camera.  If you don't have a computer and color printer, you should still think very hard about having a digital camera -- and buy a computer and color printer!  It's the 21st century, you know!!!

I find four main advantages of having a Digital Camera over a film camera:

Overall cost:

A really good "point & shoot" digital camera can be as inexpensive as $300; add a few accessories (larger memory card, maybe an extra battery, carrying case, etc.), and it may run you $400-600.  A hefty investment for some.  But remember that with a point & shoot film camera, you have to spend $200-300 to get a really good one anyhow, and if you take 100 pictures with it (four 24-exposure rolls of film), that's at least $50 for film and developing costs each time you get your pictures developed--something you don't necessarily have to do with a digital camera!  After taking and developing 300 pictures, the amount of money you save just on film is worth the purchase of a digital camera.

Rechargeable Battery:

Rather than buying new batteries every 3 or 4 or 7 rolls of film, simply plug in your camera before you go to bed, and the next morning, it's ready for a long day of picture taking!  You could also buy a second battery, just for a back-up or if you take A LOT of pictures, because by the time you take five or six hundred pictures, you have spent less for the extra rechargeable battery than the 5-10 packages of batteries you would have bought for the film camera (extra batteries are even cheaper on eBay, Amazon, and overstocks.com)!  Obviously, a battery that holds a long charge is invaluable, so make sure that the one you buy can hold one for at least a couple hundred pictures or so!

Editing Ability:

When I used a film camera, I would take multiple (sometimes ten or more) shots of the same thing, hopefully getting one "good" shot from those many.  When I got back home and developed the film, I threw away most of my pictures, only keeping the "good" ones.  Now, with a digital camera, every evening before going to bed, I simply look at the pictures I took that day, and delete the ones I don't like -- taking 10 pictures of the same thing is OK, because I can keep any or all of them!  Then I recharge the battery for the next day!

Ease of Sharing Pictures:

Rather than getting "doubles" of the photos to give to family and friends, I simply email them the ones I want them to see, or compile a picture CD at home (CD-R's cost less than $1 now, and your camera will come with the software to make a "photo album") and send to them.  Alternatively, you can take your memory card to a photo shop (Ritz, Wal-Mart, etc.) and they'll make a picture CD for not much more than it costs to develop a roll of film (and remember, you never have to buy another roll of film--ever!)  And, if I want to give the pictures to someone who doesn't have a computer, I can take my memory card or CD to a photo shop (Ritz, Wal-Mart, etc.), and they'll make prints for me--which costs about the same as regular prints (but I didn't have to buy the film!); I can also print them out at home on my own color printer!

Imagine having friends over to see your pictures of your trip to New Zealand and instead of looking through a book, you watch them on TV!  All you need is a DVD player (that can "play" images and CDs) or a Computer that can hook up to your TV.  If you're invited over to someone's house to show your pictures, you can always bring along your CD slide show!

That said, we bought the Canon PowerShot S400 Digital Elph when it first arrived on the market.  It's about the size of a deck of playing cards.  It came with a charger, long-lasting rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 32 MB card, photo software, strap, and all the adapters.  I splurged a bit, and also bought a Compact Flash (CF) Card USB reader ($14), a 256 MB CF card ($69) and a camera case ($10).  Total cost for everything: $489 and 48 cents!!  The S400 can be found for less than $300 now!!

The USB reader is a must in my opinion, because it makes for quick downloads, and doesn't drain the battery.  The 256 MB card stores over one thousand photos at the default setting (1024 x 768) and nearly 3000 at the lowest setting (640 x 480).  Even at the highest setting (2272 x 1704), it stores about 300 photos!  The camera case holds the extra CF card, an extra battery, and the charger.  The S400 has lots of features, a fast charge time, and a battery that holds its charge well.  The battery has never "died" on me while I've been on an excursion, and because we use the CF USB Reader to download pictures, we take literally hundreds of pictures before the battery needs recharging (especially if we don't "review" or delete the images along the way)!  Canon's PowerShot S410 and S500 (a 5.0 megapixel model) are now even more reasonably priced!  Move into the SD400 and SD500 (a 7.1 megapixel camera!) models and you have an EXTREMELY NICE camera for a few hundred dollars!!!

Main reasons we chose this camera:

• Small, compact, and thus, discreet--a necessity when traveling; it's the size of a pack of smokes!
• Manual Features
  • In "manual" mode, I can adjust the ISO setting, lighting, shutter speed, and even take pictures in Sepia (like the "old time Western" photographs), Black & White, and Tungsten (a blue hue); there is also a "vivid", two "florescent", and both "cloudy" and "sunny" settings!
• Long lasting battery
  • I can take more than 200 pictures before the battery needs recharging (lots more if I don't use the flash and/or don't view the pictures along the way!)--and that's with the LCD screen on!
  • You can purchase a car charger that runs off the cigarette lighter in your car, which makes your camera even more versatile when you travel!
• mpeg capability (video)
  • I can take (small) mpegs with decent sound; when traveling, I use one CF card for mpegs, and another for images; the mpegs are small resolution, but it is a picture camera, not a video camera; the mpegs are just a fun little extra feature!
  • The S500 model takes larger (and longer) mpegs than the S400 and S410, and the SD400 & SD500 are even more versatile!

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