The Difference between Film and Digital Cameras

Now the big question what's the difference between a film camera and a digital camera?
Well, the prime differences in how the pictures formed. As we know when using film the
light reflected from the subject through a lens strikes the film, which is a material tube
with a chemical solution that reacts to light in reversed tones. This we know as the
negative. The picture stored in the film canister to the roll is finished. Once the film is
dropped off at the lab, the technician opens the canister in complete darkness and puts the
film through a series of chemical processes that first bring up the negative image and then
fix these images permanently.

The negatives are now put into an enlarger which projects the image onto a light sensitive
piece of paper where the image is formed, which in turn again is chemically treated to
preserve the image and now we have what is known as a photo. Now with digital
photography the prime difference is that the process no longer uses chemicals but rather a
series of tiny receptors behind the lens which convert the light reflected from the subject
to electronic bits of information known as pixels which in turn are stored on what is
known as a memory card. The information is then transferred into your computer and
then created on a home printer or taken to your local camera store, supermarket or
pharmacy where the photos are both printed and then stored on the disk which replaces
the negatives.

This is a technological difference between film and digital cameras. Remember digital
photography in one big respect is the same as film. We are looking at a subject through a
view finder, through a lens using light to record that subject. But what makes digital
photography so accessible to both the amateur and the professional is that the read out
screen on even the most inexpensive cameras allows you to see right off whether or not
the photo you just took is one you want to keep.

For whatever reason the image maybe blurry or you accidentally put your finger in front
of the lens, you can now press the delete button and get rid of that wasted image. As a
professional and guess this even happens to us, I’ve heard a nightmare stories of wrong
exposures or cameras accidentally open and film fogged. In the past, as a professional
one of my considerations when billing a client for a job was how great my film expense
would be. I haven’t used film in two years and now I passed the savings onto my clients.

Now on purchasing digital camera you may want to start with an inexpensive point and
shoot just in case photography is something in the end you like to leave to someone else.
But consider this with digital photography, you never have to buy film and pay for
processing again. Nor get stuck with images that are no use to you. In the given year
there are birthdays, holidays, graduations and vacations. Consider that the few hundred
dollars saved on film and processing might go to a better and more professional camera.
Now you can really focus in on some great pictures.