The digital camera market has thrived over the past few years, turning a novelty item into a commonly-owned commodity.
Many students have embraced the new technology, while others prefer to stick with traditional film cameras.
So, which is better?
First-year Engineering student Ryan Gilbert said he is strictly digital, primarily because he likes the ability a digital camera gives him to manipulate his photographs.
Using the computer, "I can touch up the photo, change the colors, change brightness and saturation all myself, and then I can take it to a professional printer," Gilbert said. "If I just turned in film, it would be a lot harder for me to control some of those things."
Second-year College student Sandra Babilya said she views the situation from a different perspective.
"I completely dislike digital cameras," Babilya said. "I feel like I have more control when I have a manual."
Students said they also have found contrasting sources of convenience in digital and film cameras. You could say it comes down to which is the best way to show off pictures.
Some students enjoy the ease of connecting the camera into the computer and, fast as a snapshot, posting their photographs in online albums, so that others can marvel at their fun-filled Kodak moments. Others prefer the decorative frame-on-the-desk approach.
Second-year College student Christina Myers isn't as partial as Gilbert or Babilya, but she said she currently uses a digital camera and enjoys it for the electronic convenience.
"For a regular camera, you need the film, and someplace to develop the film once you're done with it," Myers said. "With digital, you take pictures, plug the camera in the computer and you're done."
Gilbert, always the digital advocate, agreed.
"I do like e-mailing pictures and having them on the desktop or as screensavers," he said.
Babilya doesn't place much value on this convenience, however, because she rarely puts her pictures on the computer. And even when she does have the sudden urge to display photographs electronically, she has another solution.
"I can find other people's pictures of the exact same thing," Babilya said. "If there's something I want, I'll just steal someone else's pictures."
In other words, she relies on people like Myers.
"Occasionally I'll take pictures of something my friends are doing, and they're like, 'Can I have that picture?' and I don't have to make copies, I just e-mail it to them," Myers said.
Babilya believes hard copies are more important than electronic copies --which is why she sees her choice of camera as more convenient.
With digital cameras, "You can put them on the computer really easily, but then printing them out is a hassle," she said. "It's better to get a better quality picture out of a regular camera and just have it developed."
Gilbert emphasized, though, that film is more expensive.
"If you're doing everyday photography, it's cheaper [with digital] to take pictures, look at them and delete the crappy ones," Gilbert said.
So what lies ahead for digital and film cameras?
Both Gilbert and Myers said they expect to see digital cameras replace film cameras for recreational use, though they noted that professional photography is an entirely different matter.
And digital cameras have no future with Babilya.
"I'll never be digitalized," she said. "People have tried, and I don't like it."
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