Advantages Of Digital

ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

The two formats (film and digital) have different cost emphases. With digital photography, cameras tend to be significantly more expensive than film ones, comparing like for like. This is offset by the fact that taking photographs is effectively cost-free. Photographs can be taken freely and copies distributed over the Internet almost free of charge.

With film photography, good-quality cameras tend to be less complicated and, therefore, less expensive, but at the expense of ongoing film and processing costs. In particular, film cameras offer no chance to review photographs immediately after they are shot, and all photos taken must be processed before knowing anything about the quality of the final photograph.

However, there are additional costs associated with digital photography. Digital cameras make heavy use of batteries, some of which are proprietary and expensive. Whilst rechargeable, they degrade over time and must be periodically replaced. Although there is no film in digital cameras, they must store the images on memory cards or microdrives, which also have limited life. Additionally, some provision for long-term storage of the digital image must be made. This may be either an optical disc produced by a shop or photofinisher, or on the photographer's computer system.

With many photographers switching to digital, many film cameras (and associated equipment like lenses) are now available on the second-hand market (especially online auction sites like eBay) at often very reduced prices. This has allowed people on a budget to own a quality film camera when they might not have been able to afford the digital equivalent. Or alternatively, they are able to purchase more equipment (e.g lenses, filters, etc) than they could have with a digital camera.

The price differential between the two formats is often dictated by the intent of the photographer and the purpose of the work.

Film has advantages over digital, at least with current technology. One main advantages is exposure latitude, or the ability to produce a good image from over- or underexposed negatives. Slightly overexposed digital images can lose all data in the highlights, and underexposed images will lose significant shadow detail. Photographers can over- or underexpose film, especially black and white film, and still produce normal images.

Dust on the image plane is a constant issue for photographers. Digital cameras are especially prone to dust problems because the sensor is static, and for digital SLRs dust is difficult to rectify. Some digital SLRs however, have systems that remove dust from the sensor by vibrating or knocking the sensor. Some cameras do this in conjunction with software that remembers where dust is located on the sensor and removes dust-affected pixels from images.

Archiving

When choosing between film and digital formats, it is necessary to consider the suitability of each as an archival medium.

Films and prints processed and stored in ideal conditions have demonstrated an ability to remain substantially unchanged for more than 100 years. Gold or platinum toned prints probably have a lifespan limited only by the lifespan of the base material, probably many hundreds of years.

The archival potential of digital photographs is less well understood since digital media have existed for only the last 50 years. There exist three problems which must be overcome for archival usage: physical stability of the recording medium, future readability of the storage medium and future readability of the file formats used for storage.

Many digital media are not capable of storing data for prolonged periods of time. For example, magnetic disks and tapes may lose their data after twenty years, flash memory cards even less. Good quality optical media may be the most durable storage media for digital data.

It is important to consider the future readability of storage media. Assuming the storage media can continue to hold data for prolonged periods of time, the short lifespan of digital technologies often causes the drives to read media to become unavailable. For example, the first 5¼-inch Floppy disks were first made available in 1976. However, the drives to read them are already extremely rare just 30 years later.

It must also be considered whether there still exists software which can decode the data. For example, many modern digital cameras save photographs in JPEG format. This format has existed for only around 15 years. Whether it will still be readable in a century is unknown, although the huge number of JPEG files currently being produced will surely influence this issue.

Most professional cameras can save in a RAW image format, the future of which is much more uncertain. Some of these formats contain proprietary data which is encrypted or protected by patents, and could be abandoned by their makers at any time for simple economic reasons. This could make it difficult to read these 'raw' files in the future, unless the camera makers were to release information on the file formats.

However, digital archives have several methods of overcoming such obstacles. In order to counteract the file format problems, many organizations prefer to choose an open and popular file format. Doing so increases the chance that software will exist to decode the file in the future.

Additionally many organizations take an active approach to archiving rather than relying on formats being readable decades later. This takes advantage of the ability to make perfect copies of digital media. So, for example, rather than leaving data on a format which may potentially become unreadable or unsupported, the information can typically be copied to newer media without loss of quality. This is only possible with digital media.

And, of course, the digital images can always be printed out and saved like traditional photographs although there are few , if any, commercial services available producing true silver halide prints from digital sources. All dye based prints, as noted above, have only limited permanence.