2. Digital V Film
When deciding whether to buy a digital camera or to stick with film is to consider how many photographs you are going to take. If you are going to take thousands, digital may be a very good idea.
If you're going to take 25 shots this year and then leave the camera until next year, your existing film camera may seem to be the better choice. However, with digital cameras, you don't have to pay for the film, whereas with film cameras you have continually purchase new films.
However, with the current trend of ever decreasing prices of digital cameras, the average snapper may find it more convenient to buy one of the entry level digital compact models anyway.
The resolution of 35mm film is about 6 mega pixels and it has a higher dynamic light-intensity range than current digital imaging systems. However, there are now several digital cameras boasting over 12 mega pixels, the professional models even more! Even the advanced amateur digital cameras like the Canon EOS 350D boasts an 8 mega pixel performance.
But a word of caution on these much vaunted mega pixel claims. A digital camera may well achieve the quoted mega pixel performance - in black and white. But in colour, the image sensor has to capture red, green and blue pixels. With current sensors, each pixel on the sensor captures one of these colours. If we assume we have a 3 million mega pixel camera and the colours are distributed evenly, you actually have 3 - one mega pixel sensors.
In reality the colours are not evenly distributed in this simplistic way. Our eyes are more sensitive to green light, sensors usually divide the pixel to capture 50% green and 25% each red and blue. I don’t intend to discuss this topic in more detail but there is plenty of further information in specialist books if you wish to