Film might not be dead, but it has been relegated to a niche category. In its place has risen the digital camera, a product so successful that it has set the popularity of amateur photography on fire in a way not seen since George Eastman launched his mass-market Brownie.
It’s not hard to see why. While it can be argued (and I have tried) that film cameras still have some advantages, the modern digicam is better in so many ways that the demise of film is no surprise at all. Here’s a list of five ways the digicam wins.
Cost
This is the biggest. While the actual camera itself might cost more than an equivalent analog box, once you have it, the running costs are almost zero. No trips to the chemist or lab to have film developed– heck, no film to buy. And although you have to recharge the batteries once in a while, the price is negligible.
This alone is good enough to get more people out snapping, but the close-to-zero running costs are probably the biggest factor in the modern surge in photography as a hobby. You can shoot as much as you like. No more rolls of film with Christmas at both ends and a few birthdays in the middle — today we can shoot 100 frames, keep the best and throw the others away. No wonder amateurs are getting better.
