The problem with progress is it usually tramples all over things that were good in order to make them better. Like this:

Kodak, the American company that turned photography into a mass medium with the Brownie, is to halt production of traditional cameras in Europe and America.

Like typewriters, the gramophone and video recorders before it, photography is succumbing to the digital hegemony. Millions of consumers have turned their backs on fumbling with films in favour of the ease of use and instant results of digital cameras.

Yet we always keep our simple PHD* traditional camera handy too. Why? Because digital photos serve a purpose, and so do traditional film based photos. While the technology is getting better, this is case where reproduction of digital is inferior to analogue (film). The colours are clear, the pictures are crisper. I can put them up on my computer screen at work with a bit of sticky tape. I can pass them around. Digitals sit on a hard disk or in an email. I know you can get special digital photo printers but the photos are still better with film.

Most importantly is the fun that is to be had turning the pages of a photo album on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I want to hear JC saying "Look at Dad's daggy clothes" (shouldn't be hard to find those photos) or PB laughing at Mummy and Daddy's wedding album. Or pull out photos of a naked 2 year old JC to show to her boyfriend. Or compare how similar PB looks now to her Grandma at the same age.

You can't indulge nostalgia with digital photos.

_{* PHD = Press Here Dummy}