If you read the current photo magazines and look at the ads, you might think there was no choice left - the world has gone digital.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Kodak and Fuji have not been bringing out new films lately, but they have not stopped improving their current product lines.  There is no question that digital imaging has some serious advantages over film, but some of these advantages turn out to be expensive and not for everyone.  There are places for film photography and there are places for digital.  The question is: which is right for you?  There are several categories of photographer and each will have to make the choice based on his or her own needs.

Snapshooters:  If you take photos primarily for the family album or trips and rarely have anything larger than a 4" x 6" image in mind, then a small, 3-4 megapixel digital that fits in your shirt pocket is perfect.  We took a trip to France with a Canon A40 and were shipping digital images back to the folks back home through Yahoo Photos on a daily basis.  When we returned, we had prints made by identifying the photos on Yahoo and picking them up an hour later at Target.  The prints are great album quality and just what we have been posting in our albums for decades.

You might think that printing the images on your own printer might be cheaper and quicker, but it is neither.  Good photo print paper is worth about $0.50 a 4" x 6" sheet and it takes time unless you have a really expensive printer.  Taking them to the local photo store on a CD will get you prints for under $0.20 much quicker.  Further, they will be printed through a different process and will last considerably longer than ink jet prints.

Pros:  The professional photographers have already gone mostly digital because they can afford the investment, and they don't need this guide!

Serious amateurs who already own film cameras:  I put myself into this category and I have to admit the digital revolution has been mildly infuriating.  I was required to own a decent film camera for my work beginning in the 80's, so I bought a Nikon  2020AF for about $500.  Since then, I have added a number of accessories, such as additional lenses and a bellows.  Just about the time I was retiring and hoping to put the kit to good use taking nature photos and maybe selling a few in craft shows, everything changed.  My lenses would work with a digital with the attendant focal length penalty, but the bellows probably will not.  Should I now cough up another $600 for a hobby that might or might not return anything on the investment?  Worse, if I expect  be able to print and manipulate images, the software will be another $400 - $500.

My choice was fairly clear and I think any other hobbyist in my position would feel the same.  If I want to have digital images, I certainly can have them by getting a photo CD every time I develop a roll.  Now, I have the best of both worlds - the digital images to manipulate and email, along with the negatives for enlargements.  The one advantage of digital that I give up is the ability to assess my images on the spot and decide whether or not to take more.  The pros in the film era always pointed out that film is cheap and it still is.  I'll take lots of photos, bracket the exposures, and throw out the ones I don't want.

Serious amateurs who don't own a camera:  This choice is harder.  If you want  get into photography and think you might like to try selling a few here and there, should you start right off with a $600 digital SLR or look for a good used film camera?  eBay is loaded with excellent film cameras from folks who went digital.  You can get a Nikon F-body camera today for a fourth of what it cost new and it has been the premier film camera for decades.  If you do, use the good guides in this section on buying film cameras.  There are several.

If you decide to go digital right out of the gate, you might try the smaller single lens camera first to see whether or not you want to step up to an expensive digital SLR.  If you are going to do any serious photography, you will eventually want a SLR with the interchangeable lenses and accessories.  There are also good eBay guides on buying new and used digital cameras.

Whatever choice you make, enjoy the challenging and rewarding hobby of photography.