There are many differences between film and digital photography. To most amateur photographers they do not matter much. They prefer the convenience, ease of use and lower cost of digital cameras and are not going to revert to the film age. Any way comprehension the differences can help taking even good photos and can also help when debating with friends about the future of film.
Following is a list of differences that are prominent to understand. The differences are listed in no singular order.
The sensor: The most determined inequity between film and digital is the sensor used to take the photo. With film cameras a film sensitive to light is placed behind the lens. When a photo is taken the shutter opens for a predetermined duration of time and light hits the film. The effect is a photo "printed" on the film. To take a new photo the film has to be rolled and a fresh "clean" film is place behind the lens. With digital cameras a fixed electronic sensor (sometimes known as Ccd) is situated behind the lens. The sensor is built from tiny light sensitive sensors each representing a pixel. When the shutter opens light hits the sensor and each pixel gets its "value". Put together all the pixels contain one photo. To take a new photo the photo is saved on a digital media and the Ccd is electronically emptied.
What does a distinct sensor mean? The main inequity is in the Depth of Field. Since digital sensors are smaller in size than a 35mm film the depth of field will be much higher and in fact in most contract digital cameras practically infinite. The effect is that blur backgrounds can not be created.
The cost of a photo: Photos taken with a digital camera of course cost nothing. The photos are kept in erasable memory and thus can all the time be discarded at no cost. Also the photos you would like to keep can be copied to digital media such as a computer's hard disk. With warehouse prices going down the cost of rescue a photo on disk is practically zero. Film does cost money. With a film camera you have to pay for the roll of film, for developing the negative and for printing the photo. Every time you press the shutter button you spend money.
The capacity: With ever growing warehouse capacities digital cameras today can hold hundreds and sometimes thousands of photos on a singular media. You can all the time have a few more in your pocket and changing is very fast. The effect is that a digital camera has practically infinite capacity. You can shoot as many photos as you want and at the end of the day just dump them on your computer's disk. Film cameras' capacity is very limited. A roll of 36 photos can only hold 36 photos. After a roll is used changing to a new roll can take time and is not easy to do in scenarios such as darkness or a harsh environment. For that infer many professional journalists carry a few cameras on them and instead of changing rolls they turn and use someone else camera just so that they do not miss a shooting opportunity.
The feedback: One of the most prominent features of the digital camera is instant feedback. practically all digital cameras contain a small Lcd screen. Once a photo is shot you can go back and watch it on that screen. The quality to see how the photo looks like results in good photos. If the photo is not good you can take someone else one. Being able to see the photos on the spot results in an educated decision how to fix a photo or how to good establish it. It takes a lot of the guessing away from photography. With film cameras there is no way to know how the photo on the film will look like when printed.
New shooting angles: Just a few days ago I took a great photo with my digital camera that I would have never taken with my film one. I shot a cat that was resting on itsybitsy rock. I held the camera in my hand and positioned it down where it practically touched the ground and I started shooting. I probably took 50 or more photos. I immediately looked at the camera's Lcd to review my photos and make sure they were focused and had the cat in them. The effect was one great photo looking at the cat from the ground. I can not fantasize myself just lying down on the dirty ground with a film camera looking through the viewfinder and perfecting that one shot.
With digital cameras you can of course take photos without having your eye glued to the viewfinder. Overhead shots where you raise the camera over your head are much easier to do since you can still see what the camera is shooting by just looking up at its Lcd screen.
Correcting photos: With digital cameras photos can be corrected using photo editing software. Some revising abilities are built-in to the cameras but many more are ready as software packages for your Pc. With film cameras what you get is what you get. After the film is developed it is very hard to make any corrections. Regularly if corrections are of course needed the negative or the printed photo will be scanned (i.e. Converted to digital) corrected and then printed again (in a long and costly process).
Changing conditions: Every roll of film is designed for best results in a specific environment. For example there are indoor and outdoor films or films with distinct light sensitivity. If conditions change rapidly a film camera user will have to whether shoot with the wrong film, change the roll (and Regularly lose photos that were not used in the current roll) or use someone else camera with a distinct film in it. The results of shooting with the wrong film can be distorted colors (reddish photos for example), a grainy photo and more.
With digital cameras the characteristics of the sensor can be changed at once for each photo taken. With a click of a button the camera can be put in an indoor or outdoor mode, low light, night photography etc. Some cameras will automatically sense the scenario and set the sensor mode accordingly.
The myth of quality: While it is true that film photography has its advantages the claim for superior quality is no longer true. As digital camera evolved the quality of high end digital Slr cameras is superb and in many ways even good than film. When considering quality you should also reconsider the quality in terms of mixture and the scenario caught in the photo. With digital cameras' high capacity, zero photo cost and instant adaptability to changing conditions photographers can yield good compositions and experiment more to get the best photo possible.
Longevity: We have also paged through old photo albums of our grandparents. The photo looked a a bit yellow, scratched and just plain "old". warehouse of printed film photos or even negatives results in quality deterioration. Digital photos on the other hand never lose their quality. A digital photo will be same today and 500 years from now. As long as we remember to refresh the digital media every now and then and to back it up our photos can of course list forever and not lose their quality.
