1. No film costs or processing fees.
< No , you'll have to by a memory card ~$100 + (I get my film at $4 a roll)
2. No cost for numerous wasted rolls of film and processing while learning to photograph underwater
< Yes,you are still wasting your dive time which costs way more than your camera once you figure in your total trip cost !
3. See the results immediately underwater so as to take another photo if necessary.
< How many subjects sit still for the time it takes for a review ,and what you see in the LCD is NOT!! what you'll see in you're computer at full scale, ask anyone ! You'll still have to shoot as many shots as filmmer to make sure you got a keeper !
4. Obtain prints commercially, or at home, at low cost.
, Common fallacy- Same price ~ as commercial prints, Figure in ink ,paper, your computer,imaging software to make the most of your shots is reallly $$$$ !
5. Ability to take more than 36 photos (roll of film) on a single dive.
<Unless your snapping on everything you see; I usually get 2 dives/36 exp. roll. I've only wished for more than 36 shots on one dive as long as I've been shooting ! Learn to be a photographer before you start to dive ! You'll save yourself a lot of deleted fishbutts and the same crap you'd have come home with shooting film !
6. Ease of touching up photos to your liking with a computer software program.
No brainer-scan your shots in at 4X the resolution of digital (I know, extra cost, but if you want "Quality" than a scanned slide blows away any "Normal" digicam)
7. Ease of putting the photos on the internet or e mail.
Click of a botton in Photoshop or any imaging software once you've scanned your image
8. Good quality cameras and housings are low in price.
Define quality .... My Nik N90s w/Ike housing was ~$800 eBay + strobes
9. Spending money on low end/low quality cameras results in the same picture results and is money wasted.
See above
10. Not having to find a processing lab that can properly develop underwater photos.
There's no difference between land and sea shots (common fallacy 2) It's all in the lighting and as everyone on the digital side already knows, there's a fix for most every flaw that most digital shooters have !
It all boils down to how much to you believe in your art. In the long run digital is lots cheaper than film, I won't even argue that. But at the present state of technology, a scanned slide will still blow away even the best housed digital SLR image like it or not. That said, it's only a matter of time,(and $) before digital can compete with the current films !
