Gone are the days of the 35 mm camera with the hundreds of attachments. Gone are the bags full of film in those annoying little black cases.

The digital age of cameras is here. Although they are more costly than 35 mm cameras, they offer some wonderful new options for the novice or even the professional photographer.

One of these professional photographers, Rob Fleming, owner of Fleming Photography thinks that digital cameras are the way of the future, but he also thinks that some people just aren’t ready for it yet.

Some of the major benefits of using digital cameras over regular 35 mm cameras are the fact that film is no longer needed, because digital cameras use flash cards that store your pictures like film use too.

Another benefit is that once you’ve taken a picture you have the ability to send the picture via the Internet to another one or where in the world with a click of the mouse.

Also, there is no more waiting days and days for your pictures to be developed in order to see whether any of them came out ok. With digital cameras, you can look at the LCD, liquid crystal display right after taking a picture and decide whether or not to keep it or trash it.

Some of the negatives of using digital cameras include the cost to purchase one. Digital cameras can cost anywhere from $20-$6,000. An average digital camera will cost about $300 with the professional models selling in upwards of $6,000.

On the business side of using digital cameras, two area businesses have seen an impact to their businesses because the use of digital cameras has increased.

Dan Wilson, owner of Colony Office Products has seen a dramatic increase in his business due to digital cameras.

Wilson thinks that more and more businesses are making the switch to digital cameras because of the ease and the limitless options they can have with digital.

Fleming Photography is another business that has been affected by digital cameras, but they still use regular film cameras also.

The cost of digital is a major factor for Flemings because the market is always changing. They just recently took a major step towards the digital age with the purchase of the Fuji Frontier 370.

They still use regular film and chemicals for their portrait work because the quality is still better than digital, but not for long.