The Bad News:

• Digital cameras will not match film until resolution gets to 10 Megapixels or higher. Currently, such quality is availalbe only to those who buy the top professional gear, which runs in the range of $4000-20,000.
• A 2 MP camera will provide a photo quality 4x6 print, and a reasonable 5x7. A 3 MP camera will provide a photo quality 5x7, and a marginal 8x10 print. To get a full 300 ppi "film quality" 8x10 print, you will need a camera that has at least 7.2 MP (and something with 10 MP would be preferred to allow for cropping). A 5 MP camera will provide only an acceptable 200 ppi 8x10 print, not a full photo quality print. A 2 MP or less camera will not provide a good quality 8x10 print, no matter what the salesman tries to tell you! To get a "photo quality" 11x14 or larger print, you will need at least 10 MP.
• Digital photography is expensive! For the cost of a mid-level digital camera ($600), you could buy a quality film point and shoot for $200 and have 26 rolls of film processed. And keep in mind, this is just comparing the cost of the digital camera to film. Additional items, such as memory cards, computer upgrades, new printers, or special "photo quality" inkjet paper increase the cost of digital, and you may find that the difference is more like a good P&S camera with 40+ rolls of film wiht developing. Also, to print an 8x10 on your inkjet will cost you about $4, including paper and ink. Compare this to a minilab which charges $5-7 for an 8x10 print from film. The savings isn't that great, particularly since you have to do all the work yourself (and your time is worth something, isn't it?).
• Digital photography is not that simple! You need to have a good basic understanding of computers and software, because editing tools can be tricky and time-consuming to learn. You will also have to deal with calibrating your system, so that what appears on your monitor matches what your printer produces (not an easy task, and can take weeks or months of testing to get right).
• Digital photography is time consuming. You are the photo lab! This means that you must download the images, edit them, and print them out. It often takes an hour or more to get a digital image the way you want it, fixing color balance, cropping, and so on. Even if you do things quickly and don't worry about making things perfect, expect to spend at least 10 minutes on each image you wish to download and print. If you do want things to be perfect, keep in mind that some photographers spend days working on just one digital image. For busy people like most Americans, finding time to deal with digital photography isn't always possible, where film shooters just drop it off at a lab and pick the photos up later.
• To do photo quality digital photography, many professionals start with a film negative. They then scan it on a 2700 or 4000 dpi scanner, which results in a 10-18 Megapixel equivilent file. This can provide photo quality results, but the cost is high. A good scanner costs $700-1500, a good printer $500-1000, and a top notch computer system can easily be $1500-2500 when you include the cost of Photoshop and a professional system calibration tool.
• Archival issues are not solved with digital. Saving images to CD creates a pile of CD's, which is just as troublesome as the old box of photos. Inkjet printers are not yet providing inks that have archival lives that match film, and there are issues where "archival" inks do not last unless you print on the correct paper.

The Good News:

• Digital photography offers ultimate control over the image. Film can't even come close. You can take the image, put it into a photo editor, and do virtually anything you want. Fix any problems. Add or delete elements. You name it, you can do it. This has tremendous potential for both the consumer and the digital artist.
• Digital offers a way to restore and replace damaged film or prints. This can breathe new life into something that would have been lost, particularly for treasured family photos.
• A digital image file never degrades. Properly stored and transfered as required, the digital file will stay the same as you shot it. In addition, copies of digital images are exactly the same as the original, with no degredation. This is a tremendous advantage over film, in both cost savings and maintaining quality.
• Digital photography prices are dropping, and sometime in the next 5-10 years the cost of digital photography will be comparable to film.
• Digital photography is the way of the future. Period. No question. It will never completely replace film, but it will be the dominant form of photography for the next 100 years.
• Learning digital can be fun and inexpensive, particularly if you buy a flatbed scanner for $100 and scan your prints. This lets you learn about digital photography without the need to spend $400 or more for a good digital camera.
• There is no faster way to get instant results, and to distrubute them quickly (which is why the majority of news services now shoot almost exclusively with digital cameras). Film can not match the ability of a digital camera to capture a moment (such as the birth of a grandchild) and e-mail it to all your friends and family in a very short amount of time.