Comparing Digital and Analog Video Equipment

What are the advantages of using a digital camera or camcorder?

To illustrate the advantages of a digital camera, let's compare two people who both go to the same event (an airshow) to take still pictures and motion video.

Bob takes his analog camera and camcorder. He also carries extra tapes, camera film, and an extra camcorder battery or two. He uses the camcorder to record the fly-overs, and then switches to the camera for stills. For important shots, he makes sure to take multiple pictures (to be sure it comes out), and he goes through a couple of rolls of film. After the airshow, he takes the pictures to his favorite one-hour processing center. An hour later, he goes back to the center and pays for the prints. Looking through the prints, he pulls out the unusable pictures -- shots with part of the image cut off, blurred shots or people with their eyes closed or with red-eye, etc. The pictures with red-eye may be able to be touched-up by hand, but the rest are unusable. Having promised to send some pictures to his out-of-state relatives, he goes through the negatives, notes which ones he needs, and goes back to the processing center to pay for additional copies, which he then sends by mail. When done, he puts the prints and negatives in a photo album and stores it on the shelf with the others.

Fred, on the other hand, takes his digital camera and camcorder. He carries extra DV (digital video) tapes, extra storage (memory card or stick), and batteries. If the still pictures are intended for electronic use only (computer or television), he could carry only the camcorder. Because the digital camcorder can also take low-resolution still images, he would be able to easily switch back and forth between taking either video or still pictures. Additionally, the digital camcorder is significantly smaller and light than an analog camcorder. Because most digital camcorders and cameras have a built-in view-screen, he can look at the picture or video he just took and retake any pictures that don't look right. He also takes a lot of pictures, which are stored on the digital video tape inside the camcorder and on the memory storage in his camera. When the airshow is over, he goes home and connects the camera and camcorder to his computer. He downloads the images and uses digital editing software to view and modify the pictures. When done, he is ready to save the pictures and send out copies.

If he wants to share the pictures with a person who has a computer and Internet access, he can either send the pictures by e-mail or post them to the Internet and just send the location of the pictures by e-mail. If the person has a computer, but no Internet, Fred can copy the pictures to a recordable CD-R disc (CD-R stands for Compact Disc - Recordable) and mail out the CD.

For his relatives without computers, he has two options. He can create prints using an inkjet or photo printer and photo paper and mail them himself, or he can use a print processing service to create the prints. Print processing of digital images has the advantage that you only pay for the prints you want, rather than paying for the whole roll.

If our subjects were only taking still pictures, Fred could have taken either the camcorder or a digital camera, which stores the images on a memory card or memory stick. Otherwise, the process is the same. As you can see, for a consumer who is taking casual pictures, a digital camera or camcorder has significant advantages in convenience and time. Presently, the primary advantage of an analog camera is the initial cost, as digital cameras can be more expensive. However, the savings from not paying for film, bulk processing and re-prints will balance this out over time.