I think if you go digital and don't want to do/learn software editing you will be quite disappointed with the results. The looks that film used to do for you chemically, combined with darkroom techniques, you now need to know how to do on your own in a RAW program. If you don't your photos will look boring, washed out, and devoid of character (you see a lot of that nowadays). On the other hand, if you master the editing you can get results that far surpass what you can get with traditional film, at least with the same amount of effort, not to mention cost. If you do go for digital I'd try to afford a digital back, especially since you'll be comparing it to 4x5 film. If you're sticking with film but want something more convenient than large format either stick with your hassy or get something bigger like 6x7 or 6x9. JMHO based on years of shooting film and then transitioning to digital.
This has been discussed a great deal and if you shoot in volume for commerce, digital is much more expensive than film, probably 2 to 1, minimum. Factor in computers, software, many many hard drives, and many hours on the various learning curves and then add it up.
Including the cost of the cameras. It's almost funny that the world goes ga ga over a $3,000 5d2 (which is actually a great price) but back in the film days $3,000 would buy one hell of a an amazing 35mm camera.
There are things you can do with digital that are more difficult with film, but nothing in the digital world, at least at the higher levels is easy.
If you are going to go digital before you put your hard earned money down test all of the cameras in real world conditions. Don't go into a dealer showroom and shoot a mfdb file on a tripod with 10,000 watts of strobe and compare it to a Canon or a Nikon, unless you shoot that way in real life.
Take all of the cameras out in your particular envrionment and shoot the hell out of them because a noisy, blurred or out of focus 50mp camera file will not look as good as a 10mpx file that is in focus and expsoed without massive noise.
Also if you shoot 100 images a day with film, with digital factor that to 200 because everyone shoots digital almost always 2 to 1, (sually more) I guess because we can. Once you have your 40, 400, or 4000 files then set down with the manufacturer's software and try to process them. This is where the rubber meets the road.
Don't write the check till you do the test, for any of these cameras, because once you open the digital door, your not only buying hardware, cameras, lenses, computers, drives, your also going to walk into that black hole of time where days, weeks months get sucked away, calibrating monitors, learning a half dozen convertors, becoming a semi photoshop master and understanding that DAM isn't a word you use when you stub your toe.
Be clear that the moment you buy into any digital system it's just like buying a new car. You turn the key and the price drops a 1/3 in value. You drive it around town for a few months and it drops to 1/2.
If your prepared for this then go for it but test in REAL WORLD conditions first and never look at the glossy camera brochures. Never.
And also be careful of any information you get of any forum, because forums have more agendas than a Senate sub committee.
