The Digital Camera Advantage; Zero Film and Processing Cost:
November 21, 2006: The last few years that I used my Mamiya 645, I shot professional color negative film and had it processed and scanned to a medium resolution TIFF or JPEG file on CD. The last year that I used my medium format camera, I spent about $4000 on film, processing and digitizing. My first year with a digital camera, I shot over 10,000 frames. I calculate that if I had shot that much film, I would have spent over $15,000 on film, processing and scanning.
The difference between the $4000 figure and the $15,000 figure is partly a result of how much more efficient and productive I've become. I now carry 4 lenses instead of a dozen, and the 2 lenses I use the most have Image Stabilization, so I don't use the tripod as much as I used to. Also, all 4 current lenses are zooms, so I spend a lot less time changing lenses.
September 13, 2009: In the 3 years since I wrote the above paragraphs, so much has changed. While what I wrote then is still as true as it was 3 years ago, many films have since disappeared from the market and film processing labs are becoming scarcer.
I've also come to realize that there is a hidden expense to the freedom from film and processing costs - time. A week ago I shot about 700 shots of one set of wind turbines at a wind farm, trying to get a certain alignment of a dozen sets of blades. I wouldn't have done that with film because of the cost. On the other hand, it took hours of my time to go through those 700 frames looking for the best images.
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