Conventional 35mm film cameras are like tape recorders — while people still use them, they are quickly gaining status as relics of a bygone era, along with eight-track players, Kodak Brownies and Polaroids.

While making the switch to digital might seem overwhelming, especially if you do not own a computer, with the wide range of digital cameras available on the market today, it need not be. We asked P-Tech’s electronics sales associate, Voorhees Joell to give us the low-down on digital: why switch, how it works and the different types of cameras on the market.

“Availability and flexibility. You have an unlimited number of images you can shoot if you have sufficient storage. That means if you don’t like the photo, just take another,” he says.

Digital also stands the test of time and the sometimes destructive forces of nature.

“Film deteriorates and fades while digital images don’t. A digital photo stored to disk will never fade, yellow, wrinkle or scratch. The disc might fail, but if you can recover it, it looks as good as the original. While with film, you only have one original. Every copy made from that original is just a copy, slightly inferior. With digital you never lose quality.”

Another good reason to switch to digital, Mr. Joell says, is speed and convenience: “You don’t have to develop digital images. Within minutes you can access that image for a Web page, printing or e-mailing. You can also preview your images on the LCD screen while still at that particular event.

“With digital photography you are in charge of your own darkroom,” he adds. “You can bring out highlights, adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, adjust the colour and crop your images, all from the convenience of a computer at home, or here at P-Tech.”

As for deciding what digital camera fits your needs, Mr. Joell says you need to identify what you want to do with your photographs and digital cameras can be broken down into four categories: entry-level, deluxe point-and-shoot, professional lite and professional.

“A basic digital camera has few features and limited image quality, a point-and-shoot offers more controls and produces better images, but printing is limited to 4x6 inches while professional lite has great features, quality and ease of use making the cameras ideal for many different jobs, ranging from graphic and Web design, to insurance and real estate,” he elaborates. “Professional digital cameras are the best and produce images that meet, or exceed the quality of film and these include the Nikon D200 which is literally flying off the shelves.”

For the novice photographer, Mr. Joell suggests the Pentax Optio S6, while for a child interested in photography, the Olympus FE 115 is the better choice. “Not too complicated to use, but offering great features,” he adds.

Professional lite cameras include the new Canon Rebel XT or the Olympus E330 while the advanced professional photographer will appreciate either the Canon 30D, Nikon D70S or Nikon D200.

What qualities make up a semi-professional camera?

Mr. Joell explains the major feature that separates this camera from a point-and-shoot camera is the amount of picture information it captures: “Inside every digital camera is a chip that captures the picture. In this group of cameras, the quality and size of that chip increases. These cameras have very accurate and detailed chips, some that even rival the quality of film and many of these cameras offer manual and automatic exposure control, and include an optical zoom lens, LCD screen and flash sync connection.”

For those new to digital who find words like “pixel” and “resolution” a little confusing, Mr. Joell explains: “Digital cameras store images as a collection of tiny dots called pixels. The more pixels, the better the resolution. Resolution refers to the number of pixels packed into a certain area. MegaPixel cameras capture one million pixels or more, while the resolution of consumer grade 35 mm film is estimated to be about six million pixels.

“As for storage, Mr. Joell states that cameras store images on memory cards: “These are small in size, but hold anywhere from 2MB to 2GB of data. Translated that means that a three MegaPixel camera size can store up to 2,048 photos onto a 2GB memory card. That’s more photos than the average person will ever take,” he chuckles.