Digital Photography VS Film Photography: A debate

Digital photography and Film photography has been discussed against each other from the time when the first camera was invented which can use digital technique to capture images.

The basic reason behind the discussion of both the forms of photography is that the film photography is passionately carried by the professionals or the art lovers while the digital photography is supported by the amateurs who only know to click the button and smile. Being an amateur, I love to click the button, take multiple snaps, resize it, and change the background of the image making the image a better piece to look at. But whenever I am surrounded by some real geeks of this field, I feel a bit nervous because I don’t know anything other than clicking.

Digital photography and the film photography differ in many ways. In some cases digital photography is the best option while in some cases film photography can’t be neglected.

Comparisons of both
1. Cost:-
• In digital photography, one doesn’t need to buy films to capture images but in film photography one has to bear the cost in buying the film rolls.
• In digital photography there is no need to process the images and the images can be easily downloaded to the computer, thus saving the cost. The same is not possible with the film photography.
• The cost of the models of the digital camera are quite low as compared to the cost of the traditional film cameras in which there is always a need of a bigger lens to adjust to the scenic environment.

2. Artistry:-
• In recent times, the digital photography has impressed the professionals along with the amateurs by introducing SLR’s cameras which have made their way in this field.
• But the way the films are developed in the dark room after images captured from a traditional film camera, the artistry of the photography can be seen. Though it takes a lot of pain in capturing the best shots through a film camera yet the art which is made alive by the traditional photographers are worth having a look at.


3. Technical comparisons:-
• Films always had limited latitude so the problem can be solved by the digital camera which has wider latitude. You get more details in the lights and shadows if you have wider latitude like that of a digital camera.
• The resolution of both the films and digital cameras depend on many factors. The resolution of the film camera can be predicted upon the basis of the size of the film used. The size of the films is categorised into 35mm, medium format and large format. It also depends on the speed of the film used and on the quality of the lens fitted to the camera. While the resolution of a digital camera depends on the mega pixels and sensor size.
• There has always been a problem with the dust present on the digital sensors of the digital cameras. The former has been resolved through a dust removing device present with the digital cameras available in the recent products. Such kind of thing has never been an issue in the case of film cameras as each time a fresh piece of film is used to capture the images.
• Digital SLR’s can be considered as hybrids of digital and film photography. The reason behind this is that they use lens mounts which were originally designed for the film cameras. This makes the image quality of the hybrid camera better than the film ones.


After all these comparisons I can easily state that none of the form of photography has the right to take the place of another and both of them are good in their respective places.

Hey! I have decided that I will have both with me. Whenever I am at my friend’s place and am partying I just need to click on the button of the digital camera and when I am wandering in the Himalayas, I would love to adjust the lens of my traditional camera AS 10 kodachrome and would love to capture the views of nature.