A Wider Angle

Film/Digital – Which is Better?

Robin Russell recently drew my attention to a letter he found in a magazine relating to the film/digital debate. Here are my two cents.

The author of that letter mentioned an international 'Digital Dilemma Report'. This report claims that film is the only reliable archive medium and the author mentioned a second report stating the view that the mechanical parts of a film camera will always outlast the circuit boards and electronics of a digicam.  He felt that those were good reasons to stay loyal to film.

I got my first film SLR 32 years ago.  I still have it and it works perfectly.  I shot mainly slide film over the years and still have, with no deterioration in quality, the first frames from that first SLR.  On the other hand my first DSLR is 3 years old and is very temperamental.  Error messages pop up now and then.  The noise is bad above ISO800 and my digital image collection is made up of electrical charges on a magnet.  The author of the letter surely has a fair point you might think?

Well yes he does but time moves on.  For me, the flexibility, convenience, speed and output quality of a modern camera - DSLR, compact or I-Phone (Google "I Phone Photography" and see what I mean) - outweighs any sentiment I might have for the good old days or concern over reliability.  A basic camera is inexpensive, memory and storage are as cheap as chips; backup is easy as long as you think it through (how safe are your negatives/prints in the event of a fire or burglary?); printing is economical and excellent quality.  As we found at our Noel Leeming night, the technology in a modern camera is amazing and will, I am sure, become ever more reliable.

In the end though it doesn’t matter whether you are in the digital or film camp, photography is not about the camera.  It’s about seeing, observing and using your senses and then capturing your vision.  Waikato Photographic Society is here to help inspire your vision and give you the technical knowledge to do this.

Finally, we will shortly be saying goodbye to Jody Bosgra who is moving to Hastings at the end of this month to take up a new job.  We wish him well for the future and I’d like to thank Jody on behalf of the Society for all the work he has done over the years on the Committee and being our Chief Projectionist and IT Consultant.

Geoff

October 2009