I have used professional 35mm camera equipment for years and was generally
pretty happy with the results. Some of the images you will find on this
site were made using 35mm film. I still use the same professional camera
equipment as I always have but we now use digital image capture rather than
film.
So why change? The reasons I made the change to digital are simple - control and consistency.
Not having an in-house lab, and not really wanting one due to the expense and the risks with small children in the home, I was at the mercy of processing labs for the quality of all my prints. Too often prints would would come back that varied considerably from one run to the next. One run might have a red cast while the next would have a yellow tint.
By converting using a digital imaging process, I have control over the image from start to finish. Every print will look exactly as it looked when the buyer saw the proof - with no surprises.
Also, modern printing technology also allows me to create prints that last as long or longer without fading than prints made using conventional photographic processing.
Some film-based photographers talk about digital image capture as if it is a lesser art or not art at all. They imply or make outright claims that film requires a greater skill or talent. Little could be further from the truth. A bad picture is a bad picture and there is little that can change that.
The processes used by digital photographers are identical to those used by film photographers for generations, even using the same terminology. For example, a film-based photographer chooses the particular film he or she uses to capture images based on the lighting in a scene or to change the appearance of colors; crops the picture; uses filters over the lens to change the natural colors, blur or otherwise change the image; double exposes images; and manipulates the exposure of the photographic paper to emphasize certain details over others. A digital photographer does exactly the same things things just with a different set of tools.