Analogue V Digital

I fail to understand the big deal of digital photography replacing analogue photography. It is usually perceived as two completely different things, when they are not. Just like most things in this world, photography has evolved into a digital form. For example, music - the days where cassettes get stuck in tape players are long gone! Like different lenses have different uses, analog and digital photography have their respective places. Both have their pros and cons to the individual photographer and I do not think that one is better than the other by any stretch of the imagination.

Analogue Photography
The term analogue refers to cameras, which use film as the printing medium for photographs. They are then produced in analogue, using a chemical process.

Film cameras have the advantage of being quite cheap as compared to digital cameras of the same quality, but on the other hand, buying film and developing rolls can get expensive (as I have realized through my time as a photographer!). Analogue cameras have 35 mm film; hence the light covers a bigger area than digital cameras.

The main disadvantage of an analogue camera is for beginners; they would need to note down the camera settings, before actually taking pictures. Different effects on pictures, which result from developing, also need to be looked at.

The most important advantage of an analogue camera, the reason why most photographers choose it, is the picture quality. The picture quality that can be achieved with a film camera is incredibly high and the images turn out extremely sharp and precise. The reason behind this is the chemical reaction which takes place when light from the shutter touches the film, and as a result an exact representation of the object is created. This is not possible with a digital camera. 

For me personally, I find that analogue photography is much more rewarding that digital. Yes, it does take a lot of work and precision, but when you walk out of that dark room with a perfect print, nothing else matters.

Digital Photography
Digital photography is no different from film photography, as matter of fact the style and technique used is actually same, except for just one aspect. The distinction between digital and analogue photography is that traditional film is replaced by a charged coupled device, 'which contains tiny grids containing millions of photosensitive elements.'

Where digital cameras are concerned, there’s no clumsy process to put any film in, no fear of film exposure and no worry about wasting frames. Digital cameras store the images they capture on storage cards so you can view your pictures immediately - you could keep an image if you liked it you or else just delete it, simple! 

Beginners should be advised to start with the digital photography, and improve their mistakes in the shots. The cycle of improvement is so important to photography. Additionally, analogue is inconvenient if the photographer's knowledge is limited, and it also winds up being pretty expensive.

There are other functions in digital cameras, like 'anti-shake' which helps to take sharper imagers without a tripod. It is possible to change the ISO speed settings easily in the middle of shooting, and there is no need to worry about weather changes. On other hand, analogue photography means having new film where the ISO speed has to be loaded. It is possible to take a picture in different formats, like black and white, or sepia with or without photoshop. It is possible to just plug in a camera and shoot.

So, personally I do not have a preference, as there are pros and cons to both the style of camera. I think that to me, there are times that I can use both cameras, and times when it is not relevant to use a particular style of camera. I think that taking a quick-shot fashion shoot would require a digital camera, but for a more meaningful landscape shoot, for example, an analogue camera would be more relevant. It totally depends on the photographer and the shoot - but neither are 'better' than the other.