The Journal News says that there is still an interest in traditional analog photography, and the ContraCosta Times writes that the Internet is helping people to access photographic supplies and discuss techniques. Personally, I still love analog SLR cameras. Especially a classic hard-body like the inexpensive but still high-quality Pentax K1000. It’s a great starter or backup camera.

I used to work with 2 Nikon cameras and a Pentax, plus a couple of inexpensive digitals (Olympus, Kodak). Aside from any environmental concerns, I love cutting my own rolls of film using a bulk loader, then working in the darkroom making magic. There’s just something – tactility, I guess – about handling glossy film paper. Slides and negatives still provide far higher resolution pictures than the digital. It’ll always be that way.

Sure, I could do without having to inhale photo-chemicals. But it isn’t just environmental issues that have made DSLR cameras so popular. Despite the lower resolution photos, they are sufficient for their primary destination: the Internet, or sometimes family photo albums. Neither destination needs the high resolution that slides or negs offer.

It’s also so much more convenient and speedier to work with digital cameras. I can snap off as many pics as my Flash card (or whatever) can hold, load them onto my laptop, then use Google Picasa or Adobe’s Lightroom (beta) to sort the wheat from the chaff and make minor adjustments fast, or undo them. For more elaborate editing, I can use JASC Paintshop Pro (now owned by Corel) or Adobe Photoshop or something similar. Definite ease of use.

Which type of photography is better? I’m still undecided, but as much as I love slide film, as an online publisher and writer, I’m leaning towards digital photography. The process is simple, quick, and easy. Film-based photos that might have been unpublishable are often easily corrected for lighting and contrasts in digital mode. It is an efficient means of communicating visual ideas.

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