Digital or film photography?

Ok so my film camera (Nikon FA) just broke - the shutter is all messed up and i figured I could just buy a new film camera for the price it would cost to fix the shutter. It was second hand from a relative (who hadn't used it in 20 years) and i had only used 2 rolls of film (haven't processed yet tho.) now, i was wondering if i should just go digital and buy a beginner DSLR or purchase another film camera? I already have a 50mm Nikkor (i don't know how to spell it) lens, so would it be compatible with any other Nikon camera? Or should i just buy a beginner DSLR which is compatible with the lens i already have and buy one of those lomography cameras to mess around with using film?

I was into photography decades ago and I spent a lot of time in the darkroom. If you are really going to master the process you need to develop and print your own photos.

Digital has the advantage that you have a computer program instead of a darkroom. Photoshop is really expensive, but even Photoshop is cheaper than setting up a darkroom, plus MUCH MUCH easier and faster to learn, to master the process.

Also, digital pics cost virtually nothing, at least until you print them. So you don't find yourself peering through the viewfinder and asking yourself 'Is this worth 25 cents?' 80 years ago 35mm cameras came out and the advantage of them was that you could take 100 or 150 pics instead of 5 4x5 negatives. With digital you could take a thousand pics!

There are still probably a few old hold-outs that still prefer film to digital, but they'd be in their 60s and 70s today. 8^)

I don't know if any digital camera could use the lens. Which is too bad, because it's an excellent lens! You might sell it on EBay or Craigslist.

I thought you wanted to get your SLR shutter repaired. That's the basis I replied to your similar question under "cameras"!

SONY is the best.

Forget a lomo camera. Expensive rubbish.

I suggest the best of both worlds.

Look out for a replacement film Nikon (something like an FM2) and also see if you can pick up a used Nikon DSLR - I'd recommend a D50.

The lens you have is compatible with all Nikon cameras (film and digital) but it may not auto focus with some modern entry level DSLR' s.

While film is popular at this web site, the facts are that film is fast vanishing as compared with electronic imaging. The price of film and the apparatus needed to develop and print chemical based images, is based on economy of scale. As film sales erode, the cost to make film and the chemicals and printing paper heighten. Just look at the movie industry, the fate of movie film forecasts film availability. I think you should hitch your wagon to the digital star. I predict that in a few years, you will be visiting film and the apparatus of film developing at the museum at the boot adjacent to the war of 1812 field medical kits. Get serious and put your money into digital equipment. Yes there will be"hanger-on" but it will be expensive and they will find it difficult to compete with digital whizzes.