Technology: The Benefits of Digital Cameras

Instant Results

Film photography suffers from the drawback of a film developing taking a long time. The photographer must wait for the film developing to see if the images work. Even if the photographer develops the film personally, it can only happen after completing the entire photo shoot. Scott Bourne, professional photographer and author, reports the instant verification of composition and exposure as one of the benefits of digital cameras. This also allows the photographer to delete flawed images on the spot, saving time on image sorting.

Digital cameras memory cards, some with multi-gigabyte capacity, can potentially store thousands of images at a time. Rolls of film typically hold 24 or 36 images. After each roll, the photographer must stop and replace the film. One memory card effectively replaces dozens of rolls of film and reduces overall storage needs before, during and after a shoot. Unlike film, a photographer can also reuse a memory card over and over. The images a digital camera captures can be transferred to a computer without ever needing to be printed.

Digital cameras allow for easy sharing and distribution. The easy transfer of digital images from camera to computer, by memory card reader or direct USB, means the photographer can attach them to emails or upload them to a site directly from the hard drive. Many cellular phones can email images directly, making the sharing process even faster. For professional photographers, it allows them to deliver their work to their clients very quickly, either by Web or by burning to a CD or DVD. This is particularly advantageous in some areas of professional photography, such as advertising.

Editing film effectively requires both significant technical knowledge and self-developing of the negatives, though software can alter scanned versions of the develop images. Editing digital images presents fewer challenges. Photo editing programs allow users to make direct adjustments to the source image, such as cropping, color balance and contrast. Skilled users can take it a step further and remove unwanted elements entirely.