You can be forgiven for thinking that using a camera, and all the associated activities, is much harder these days. Everything is digitally-related and computer based. Unless you are a techno wizard, you are going to have trouble getting decent images. Yes?

No.

Emphatically no.

Whilst it is true that cameras are different now to what they used to be, they still perform the same basic function of recording images. And, yes, there is some tricky jargon to get to grips with and some different features on modern equipment.

But, if you can press a shutter button (and most of us used to be able to perform this simple function in film days) then you will find photography more simple now than ever before.

Most of you will remember the old sequence of events. Purchase a film (which one and from where?). Spend half a day undoing the canister and loading the film into the camera (how DOES the back open?). Take 24 or 36 pictures (how DID that image turn out?) then rewind the film and take it out of the camera.

Then, send it away for processing (where and how much will it cost?) or take it to the local photo lab (ditto). Wait a few days, a week, several days longer than this and look at the results - overexposed and underexposed pictures that need retaking - only the image-taking opportunity is lost forever.

And where do you put your images when they are printed? How do you share them with friends far away? How do you enter them into competitions and where on earth did you put that replacement 36 exposure film that is now needed for the camera?

I know aficionados of film will castigate me for these words. And I know that the situation is just not that simple. And, believe me, I like film too.

But what I want to point out is that, although the transition for film to digital may seem a huge leap of faith, you really will find that the skills needed are far less than using film and that the equipment is not only simple to learn and use but also very forgiving.

Try it if you haven't already.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com.

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