Nature's Pencil: Medium
Film v. Digital
I choose ...... Film
The era of film seems to be ending. Some would say it is already over. The future of still photography appears to be digital. The practical conveniences of digital image capture have for the last several years made it the most convenient choice for most people, and for most photography.
In the old days, before digital image capture, Fuji Velvia for colour and Ilford HP5 for Black and White met almost all my needs in both 35mm and 6x7 formats and many years ago I learned to make my own prints the old fashioned way in a wet darkroom both in Black and White and in colour.
From the late 1990's onward my reasons for continuing to use film were not entirely rational! As a full time computer consultant I spent half my waking life at a computer keyboard. Making photographs, in the field or the darkroom, was a welcome change. If photography were to become nothing more than yet another branch of applied computing it would have held little interest for me.
Whatever your view on whether digital quality has matched or exceeded the quality of 35mm or medium format film (it has), there is no longer any doubt that digitally captured images are good enough for most uses to which photographs are put.
On the face of it the only real-life drawbacks of digital photography are: the horrors of digital image management; the rare need (say when travelling miles from civilisation) to be battery independent; and maybe a handful of specialist applications for which digital capture is unsuitable (though I confess I can no longer think of any!). In fact it is not that straightforward, and old-fashioned film, even in the smaller formats, is still a perfectly viable and respectable medium, whatever disparaging remarks some 'bloggers might make about it.
In 2004 I sold all my film cameras in favour of digital image capture. In 2007 I returned to using film. The images I made with a digital camera were, with few exceptions, forgettably mediocre. When I use film I make far fewer exposures, but get far more pictures that are worth looking at. I can't say for sure why that is. Being freed from all the clutter of extra batteries, chargers, and computers helps. So does the more careful and thoughtful approach. The simple and direct control of a Leica rangefinder camera is also an important factor. Also with film there is no temptation to review shots immediately after they have been taken. That may be useful for a beginner, but when you know what you are doing it is just one more distraction.
Most importantly, the very few really stunning images that I get from time to time still always come from those days that I spend with a manual camera, one lens, and a couple of rolls of film. And so I shall continue to use film for my photography for as long as I can still get hold of it.