For most things, yes, and I converted to digital myself. But it still lacks a lot of the full tonal range for Black & White photography. I miss my B&W darkroom... oh, I don't miss being locked in the dark and inhaling toxic fumes, just the challenge and the much better results of the fruits of my labor. Often things that come at the highest effort are those that we value the results most. My Archival prints will also be around for hundreds of years... can't say that for anything off of my color laser or inkjet.
In this country, as a whole, consumerism has lead to huge downfall in quality, all at the beckoning call of convenience, price and being on the bleeding edge. Digital cameras give instant gratification. Kodak and the film industry couldn't keep up and a legacy is dying. No more slide projectors, Kodachrome, and most films are gone except pro stuff and some really cheap consumer stuff. But, what's the market on used Digital camera's? It's not worth what you paid for it 5 minutes after you have bought it, and you are constantly on the upgrade train. My old Nikon F3, even with film dying today, used still brings nearly what I paid for it 25 years ago. What's a 25 year old VGA 640x480 Nikon digital SLR worth that cost $10K new? Maybe $100 to a collector? How about a 10 or even a 5 year old digital worth today?
Its not just photography though...Take a new refrigerator, air conditioner, or just about any other house hold appliance. You used to be able to get 20 years out of a fridge. Your lucky to get 5 to 10 now but there isn't the same pressure as with a camera to have the latest gizmos and most people are not happy to have to replace it. Sure, they are better on electricity (a little) and have new gizmo's. But our land fills are filling up with cheap, short lived, poorly manufactured JUNK. And we've done it to ourselves. We vote with our wallets every time we make a purchase. Every time we go for the cheapo disposable item over the well made item that costs a couple bucks more, we are putting the better companies out of business.
Oh well, not sure what the heck this has to do with electric. Sorry for the rant... sometimes I just go off on a tangent and my fingers seem to do their own thing on the keyboard.
Congrats Crist!
<snip> Look how fast electronics took over photography. Right now film is hard to find and expensive and besides digital photography works!