Krdytkyu

I have a Canon AE-1 but I’m new to photography. I mean it’s always interesting me but I never did anything until now when I found this camera in my grandma's attic. It works pretty well. I mean I haven’t gotten the film developed to see what the picture look like, but I’m not sure if they're gonna be bad because of the camera or because of me. It would probably be me, because I don’t quite understand the aperture and stuff like that. I mean I kinda do / kinda don’t. I just need to get familiar, but I was wondering if I should continue to learn on a film camera or should I use a digital camera. What would be best for me?

If you're interested in film photography in particular, it's fine to continue using the film camera. People managed without digital for centuries. However, film isn't cheap. You can get an old digital camera that would be reasonable to use while learning for the price of a couple weekends of heavy shooting with film.

The benefit of digital is rapid feedback. When you feel you've advanced enough to know what camera you want or need. Otherwise, only god knows what is "best" for you.

The advantages to learning exposure with digital are that it doesn't cost you any more to make more exposures (no film/development costs) and immediate feedback. You can instantly see the effect of setting change when you take the image (or if you're using a camera where you compose on the LCD or through an electronic viewfinder in liveview, before you take the shot with exposure simulation). In addition, each image you take will have embedded metadata that will let you check later on what iso, aperture, and shutter speed settings you used. Film doesn't dot that, and you have to keep notes, which can be awkward while you're shooting.

But on the flip side, film will give you shot discipline in mental editing quite a bit harder before you mash that button that digital spray'n'prayers may never learn. :) The main problem here with your AE-1 is that you may not know if it's working correctly or needs to be service as well as your skillset not yet being able to figure out where you might have gone wrong if the exposure isn't right.

But you don't necessarily have to use a digital camera if the film camera works fine (no light leaks, broken parts, etc.) it might be worth it for you to put a light metering app on your smartphone. Some of them do exposure simulation and if they match your AE-1's exposure, then maybe it's a way to have a preview first before you shoot.

Many of us grizzled old-timers like to boast about how we started with film in the era before autofocus existed and how it forced us to learn how to be real photographers.¹ But the reason we did so was because it was the only way to start back then.

Now that you have a choice, though, starting with film is probably not the best way to get where you want to go - even if your ultimate goal is to shoot your most important work on film.

• The overwhelming advantage of digital is that it allows one to experiment and learn without the per-shot expense of film. Your initial cost to start is less with film, but by the time you've shot your first 1,000 frames the cost of film and developing will have overtaken the cost of an entry level DSLR. By the time you've shot your first 10,000 frames² just the film and processing could have bought a nice lower end pro-level digital system.


• There's also much to be said about the instant feedback of viewing a histogram on the back of the camera immediately following the shot. In the film era some of the best photographers in the world would use a polaroid back to test their lighting setup before loading the film and shooting.


• Digital allows you to set the ISO and white balance of each shot individually, just as a century ago with the use of sheet negatives. Roll film, on the other hand, locks you into a specific sensitivity and color balance for an entire roll of film.


• While there is much to be said about the lessons learned from processing your own B&W film in the darkroom there are just as many lessons that can be learned from developing your raw digital files on the desktop. You can also learn a lot about exposure, contrast, white balance and color, composition, etc. by processing your photos critically with the digital equivalent of a darkroom - your computer.


• Digital cameras record information with each frame that tells you what aperture, shutter speed, ISO, metering pattern, AF point, etc. you used. This is extremely helpful when reviewing your images to see what did and, perhaps more importantly, what did not work. In the film days a student would need to stop and write all of those things down for each shot.

If your budget is extremely limited you have other options besides a new DSLR or a used film camera. You can also find used digital cameras that are 2-3 generations older than the current models for very modest prices. They'll still take good photos, even if they are not on the cutting edge of today's technology. You don't need an SLR or DSLR to start learning, either. A good used bridge camera or compact that has the ability to manually control shutter speed, aperture, and sensitivity (ISO) will allow you to get started learning the basics of exposure, composition, and post-processing (much of which can carry over to the darkroom - almost everything we do in digital post-processing has a corresponding antecedent in the chemical darkroom). It will also give you the flexibility of shot to shot customization that was once only the domain of those who used sheet film rather than roll film.

Even if you decide you want to ultimately shoot with film, shooting with a slightly older used digital camera is a faster and more economical way to learn many of the fundamentals of exposure, composition, technique, and how using different focal lengths, apertures, shutter times, etc. will affect the resulting image than starting out with a film camera would be. This is particularly the case when you're not sure if any problems you might see in your earliest images are the result of user error or of camera malfunction.

_{¹ The ranks of those who learned in the era before auto exposure are much thinner than they were just a decade or so ago. There are very few, if any, shooters left who started before most cameras had built-in light meters!
² Henri Cartier-Bresson is oft-quoted as having said, "Your first 10,000 frames are always your worst." He was perhaps the greatest street photographer of the 20th Century and is certainly one of if not the most well-known. In photographic circles, the initials HCB are enough to positively identify him.}

If you’re looking to learn how to use film, develop it, print it in a darkroom...then there is no substitute to shooting with film.

If you’re looking to learn literally anything else in photography: exposure, depth of field, color balance, using filters, focal lengths, mixed lighting, studio lighting, etc. then learn on digital.

The one doesn’t necessarily preclude the other. You can both start learning exposure using a digital camera while also taking out the AE-1 here and there to shoot and develop a roll.