*Value. A very good quality Japanese 35mm SLR film camera (Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Konica, Olympus, Mamiya, Fujica) with a fine lens can be purchased from a knowledgeable and reliable seller, with a guarantee, for less than $125 on Ebay. To get even close to equal quality in a digital SLR camera one has to pay nearly $1000 for a prosumer model with a fine lens (usually not the kit lens that comes with the camera). True, with a film camera you have to buy film and pay for prints, but with a digital camera if you want prints you have to pay for a printer, inks, and paper, not to mention the time it takes massaging the photo with software, and the wasted paper and ink when you are not satisfied.

*Image quality. Digital camera prints look good on screen, particularly closeups; but unless you spend $600 or more for a digital SLR with 8+ megapixels and manual controls, and another $750 for a high quality lens (such as in Canon's L series) it will be hard to get very good pictures (whether prints or on a computer screen) under adverse conditions (low light, sports, distant objects, etc.) SLR film cameras with fast lenses allow much more control and are capable of better photos under poor conditions. A single focal length, non-zoom lens on a film camera will exhibit higher resolution and better contrast than most digital zoom lenses--or a zoom lens for film cameras, for that matter.

*Reliability. All but the pro digital cameras are fragile; film SLR cameras, particularly those made before about 1990, are rugged.

And the 35mm film SLR is just the beginning. You can get just as good value, better image quality, and equal reliability with the good medium-format film cameras.