Digital vs Film for Shooting Underwater Photography

Digital vs Film for Shooting Underwater Photography The Great Debate Continues....Or Does It?

Although the Film vs. Digital debate has begun to loose some of its initial passion, there are still many photographers who hold loyal to shooting underwater photography with film as opposed to digital. Let’s take a look at a list of attributes and talk about the comparison between the two.

Image Quality – In the early days of digital, this was a no-brainer. When it came to comparing the quality between film and digital, film was the winner by a ton. Then there was a period of time that the quality of digital cameras were improving to the point that they could rival that of film, but the equipment was so expensive it was unaffordable for all but the top professional underwater photographers. Well times have changed, and rapidly at that. With the release of such cameras as the Nikon D200 and more recently the Nikon D80, top quality digital SLR photography is affordable even to the serious amateur underwater photographer. Even point and shoot cameras have increase in quality dramatically with features such as RAW and greatly reduced shutter lag times. They also have come down greatly in price since the early days and are excellent options for someone looking to get started shooting pictures underwater.

Housing Choices – Another rapidly changing attribute is the availability of housings offered for digital vs. film cameras. Early on housings for digital cameras were few and very expensive, while they were plentiful for film cameras. Now that seems to be reversed as fewer and fewer film cameras are being introduces so declines their housing choices. These days manufacturers race to produce housings for the digital cameras as soon as they are announced.

Crop Factor – Here is where film shooters may still have the advantage over digital shooters particularly with wide angle. While the crop factor introduced by the sensor size of all but the most expensive SLR cameras works well for macro and fish portraiture, it is a huge disadvantage for wide angle shooting. With the 1.5 crop factor of the Nikon D200 for example, you need to shoot with a 10mm lens in order to capture the same angle of coverage as a 15mm lens on a film camera.

Learning Curve – Perhaps the biggest advantage of Digital over Film is the reduced time spent learning due to the ability to review your photos as you are taking them. This allows you to make corrections to exposure, composition, focus, etc while you are on your dive.