I have a 35 mm pentax k1000 it has been a very reliable film camera. I have used it for quite a few years now and it has always been Johnny on the spot as they say. In other words it has always reacted immediately and never failed, until recently. Although the problem is a simple lube job and I have no intention of selling the camera, it has added to my thoughts of starting in on the digital aspects of photography. But, first lets talk about film it has worked for so long so why change. Economics. I have been some time studying and weighing out the odds. And for me I don’t think it would be a bad move but not a switch. With a film slr you can do some awsome things freeze motion, create motion, perform time shots like star trails, panning, an infinite depth of field, zoom in at distances the subject will never know you are there, take close-ups of insects that you wouldn’t believe. But, now you can do all these things with a digital slr (I am open to reasons why you might think I am wrong.) My thoughts are if you can do the same thing and save money on your overhead expenses then why not. Film has been the only form of photography in some way or another ever since there has been a picture.

Why change something that has worked for so long? Lets say you have been doing photography for 15 years and it has always been film. You have made a good living at it you got a system and it works. So why change? Time and simplicity. The less time you are waiting on the film to be developed the more time you can be taking more pictures which is more revenue. How many trips have you made for film. How many times have you ran out of film just when that perfect shot came up. How many pockets do you need to hold all that film. How many trial shots have you made to get one shot that is acceptable. Fewer the shots to get what you want so you can move on. How many times have you wanted to experiment but didn’t want to use up all of that Agfa, Fuji, kodak what ever the brand of film you just couldn’t spare it. Last but not least is the learning curve. I think I can improve my photography by going digital.

You can immediately see what you have done and what you should have done. Now I must say all of my experience has been with 35 mm film. I have never become aquainted with a medium or large format camera the ultimate when it comes to film pictures. But, I have saw pictures taken with a relatively inexpensive digital slr that were larger than an 8 x 10 and the detail and quality were awsome. That was good enough for me because I won’t be marketing none of my pictures above a 16 x 20 anyway. As long as I can tell my story the way I have always told it with quality as good or better than before satisfying the eye of the most observant buyer is all I ask. I am my own worst critic so it would have to pass my eyes first. In the end it is you that has to make the decision digital or film, whichever it must be satisfying to you the boss, what is right for one may not be right for another. If film is where your heart is then by all means don’t you dare go to digital. You are definitely not alone I believe most pros still prefer film.

I have always thought there should be a manual way of getting things done. For this reason I will keep my k1000 for in a very cold prolonged time when the batteries die in the digital I can pick up my k1000 and keep going cause in it the battery only works the meter nothing else. And I want to keep it around for nostalgia reasons also. Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Olympus make some impressive digital single lens reflex (slr) cameras. Either way were all photographers out to tell our own story, it doesn’t matter how as long as we tell it.