What can I say, I’m a little bit of a purist when it comes to photography. The image at left will give you a comparison of  the image capture area on a couple of very fine, high-end ($7500 + without lens) digital cameras compared with 4×5 film. With so much more area to capture the same image on, 4×5 film is going to give a lot more detail and clarity.

Also, I like the whole process of shooting with 4×5. It is much more of a Zen experience. You set up the tripod, set up the camera, manually focus it, meter the scene with a hand-held light meter, and then set the aperture and shutter speed manually. No point and shoot. This means you need to be a lot more thoughtful in selecting your shots especially when you look at the costs involved. For film and processing it is going to average about $10 per sheet (with shipping both ways). Then after you decide on which ones you want scanned and printed, you have to send them off again and each scan is going to cost between $25 and $40 depending on resolution. So you make every shot count.

The one thing you have to keep in mind though, is that it is much more about the experience of being out in nature and seeing all the wonderful places. If you take 5 shots and none of them turn out to be great, then so be it. You had the experience, and that can never be taken away.

I shoot digital as well, but not when I want to best possible results.