Agree with several aspects of this post.
The rapid feedback, in camera, is very useful to check compostion and to a much lesser extent exposure and focusing.
Obviously on the monitor, properly calibrated of course, exposure and focusing are easy to check.
To learn with rapid feedback such as is possible with digital capture allows for rapid improvement in ones technical and creative skills.
I do feel that as far as IQ goes digital capture forces significantly more attention to detail while shooting since digital sensors seem most unforgiving when it comes to issues such as movement blur, focusing, diffraction blurring, and chromatic abberation. Chromatic abberation is the only aspect of these issues that is really amenable to post-processing correction - and not necessarily perfectly either.
Before I learn't to take all of these things into account I often took shots that seemed brilliant as far as composition and exposure were concerned but then found that they were soft and mushy on the monitor. No amount of post-processing could fix these images.
Usual rules of thumb relating to minimum shutter speeds for particular focal lengths stemming from the film era for handheld capture are completely invalid in the digital era. Shutter speeds twice, thrice, or even five times those regarded as adequate for film are now required.
On a tripod, where one may be shooting with relatively slow shutter speeds vibration in general and more specifically related to mirror and shutter movement is a major issue. Mirror lock-up, or more ideally live view if possible, combined with remote shutter control is then critical to prevent reducing the effective resolution of one's 20 MP sensor to about 6 MP.
Diffraction limits aperture to between f8-11 on 35 mm sensors and less on smaller sensors. Obviously this raises isses where a large depth of field is concerned. Creative decisions then need to be made. Focus stacking may sometimes be a practical solution.
Despite all the performance envelopes alluded to digital capture really is magnificent in allowing experimentation and rapidly learning what works best for one's combinations of camera and lens.
As with the previous poster I shot film for some years, a complete exercise in mediocrity, but rapidly improved as a photographer in the digital era.
Regards
Tony Jay
