+ Digital VS. Film

By:Paul KimRoxy MarashiDemi EncinaICS 5 – Group 9

+ Pre-Consumption:What is camera film made out of?

Black & White Film: Cellulose Acetate base Emulsion containing silver halide

salts/crystals bonded by gelatin

Color Film: The same thing + three compounds that

change color when exposed to non-white light

+ Pre-Consumption:What are digital images made out

of?Pixels

CCD chips

+ Pre-Consumption:How are digital cameras made? In Micro Technology plants Dust particles and proper clothing Machinery – furnace tubes and washing machines Assembly process – CCD, metal plate, static free tape,

stycast epoxy, camera body, probe, lens mount, green boards, card drives, interconnecting cables, cleaned and polished, packed and shipped.

+ Pre-Consumption:WARNING!!!

Toxic chemicals and gases

Special plumbing

+ Pre-Consumption:Film cameras are made up of…

An optical element (the lens)A chemical element (the film)A mechanical element (the camera

body itself)

+ Pre-Consumption:Professor Interviews

Professors Camera usage rate

Limit chemical exposure

Cost effectiveness Environmentally friendly

Photographic quality

Liz Cane 1/month Recycle batteries and e-equipment

Prefer digital (they are cheaper and more available)

Prefer film, there are no chemicals within the camera itself

Prefer film, its older/archaic but captures better. Digital cameras are catching up

Eyal Amiran Every week + a lot during trips and excursions

None(I use digital)

Prefer digital Prefer digital Prefer film, but the gap in quality isn’t great

Kristen Hatch 1 or 2/year for research purposes

None(I use digital)

Prefer digital (it’s easy)

No answer No answer

Fatimah Tobing Rony

3-4/week Recycle Prefer digital Either Prefer film

Mark Poster Rarely, if ever None Digital No answer No answer

Conclusions:o All professors own and prefer digital cameras, one professor still caries a film camerao All professors prefer digital cameras because they are cheaper and thought to be more

environmentally friendly

+ Pre-Consumption:M-Turk

“couple time a year”

“I’m always using it”

“About ten times a year”

“I usually take about 100 pictures a year”

“Daily I take at least 10 pictures of my family members”

“I use it at home and it is digital”

“I use it all the time to take pictures of inside and outside happenings. My flower gardens, my dogs, my daughter. I use it all the time.”

“do not take steps”

“Be careful with the film, keep it enclosed, try to not use the camera a lot”

“I have never taken any steps or even considered the chemical exposure from my traditional camera”

“I open the film very carefully in dark place, I open slowly make sure no light enters”

“I do recycle batteries, I usually pass it down to the kids to use, or resell. I don’t throw out my cameras.”

“I no longer use film cameras”

“Companies who producted them should recycle them”

“Make sure they are disposed of in a proper way”

“no”

+ Pre-Consumption:M-Turk

“Kodak, Kodak, Kodak”

“Digital camera cost is the only reason, environmentally would have to be the digital, I like the traditional for the look but with practice you can do the same with digital”

“Digital camera, digital camera, digital camera”

“Canon A100 PowerShot, N/A, Canon 30D”

“Digital camera, Digital camera, Traditional film camera”

“Digital, Digital, Digital is fine”

“Digital, Olympus, Olympus”

“I choose digital for end cost of no film. I choose digital for no disposable parts. I choose digital for the editing qualities.”

In Conclusion, many M-turk respondents preferred digital cameras instead of film in terms of cost effectiveness, environmental friendliness, and photographic quality.

Many did not consider, look into, or seem to worry about taking steps to limit chemical exposure to the environment; they would just give it to photo developing shops and let them “worry” about it.

More M-turk respondents had a higher camera usage rate than those with a lower camera usage rate.

+ ConsumptionThe typical digital point-and-shoot camera

roughly has a lifespan of 3-5 years and 15000 to 25000 shots depending on the rate of usage and utilization of the flash module.

SLR (single lens reflex), the typical professional-type cameras do last much longer given their more durable parts, but comes at a much higher price.

+ Consumption: Old School

In the pre-digital age, consumers printed film pictures at electricity-gobbling photo labs that used huge amounts of water to rinse film and paper prints from silver halide and other chemicals used in printing pictures, causing extensive and unheard of levels of chemical runoff.

+Consumption: Today, the photo

lab of yesteryear has been reduced to an electronic box found at your local Target, Costco, and CVS, among other stores without the chemical penalties.

+ Consumption:Storage

Flash storage (SD Card, MMC, CF) are the main storage devices in today’s popular consumer electronics such as cameras, camcorders, and cell phones.

Manufacturing costs continue to slide and now high-capacity storage flash chips can be bought for very cheap. >$10

Of course, to view and store pictures digitally requires a computer which has additional environmental start-up costs similar to a digital camera, but our project is focusing more on the camera itself.

+ Consumption:

The typical consumer spends $180 a year on ink. Much of that ink comes in plastic cartridges, copper contacts, and of course the paper packaging.

Ink: Environmental Harm?

+ Consumption:Tidbits of Ink Factoids

In 2006, Small and Medium Businesses spent about $3.5 billion on printers and $3 billion on supplies (ink, toner, paper) in the United States.

The energy industry devotes nearly 10% of its resources in producing and manufacturing paper, which most likely is fueled by coal-based power plants.

+ Consumption:Professor Interviews

Professors # of Cameras Owned Print Pictures at home or away?

Rate of Ink, photo paper purchase?

Target, Costco lessen environmental impact of printing?

Liz Cane 3 digital cameras -Takes photos to get printed but not that often, once every 6 months

N/A (since she gets pictures printed instead)

Yes for film cameras because you (personally) wouldn’t have to dispose of the chemicals No for digital cameras because the harm lies within the camera itself

Eyal Amiran 2 digital, one of which is his cell phone camera

Rarely, if ever. Posts instead online or hard drive

None Thinks box stores are a social problem

Kristen Hatch 1 digital camera Doesn’t ever print None No answer

Fatimah Tobing Rony 1 digital camera Few times a year None No answer

Mark Poster 1 digital camera Hardly, if ever None No answer

Conclusions•All professors already gravitated for digital cameras for every purpose except for the rare instances in where film cameras are absolutely required.•The rate of printing at home is nearly nonexistent with the hassle of photo paper and ink.

+ Consumption:M-Turk

Nearly most of the M-Turk respondents during the Consumption section used digital cameras mainly for the course of work or action.

The majority of respondents either never printed or took their prints to Target/Walgreens, with only a few printing at home

Respondents agreed they threw batteries and ink in the trash, but claimed they had no better options

+ Post-Consumption:Where can I get rid of it?

Disposal of non-digital/film cameras: These cameras are not hazardous and may be safely

disposed in the trash Disposal of digital cameras

Since they contain dangerous chemicals these cameras must be properly disposed of

The disposal of digital cameras is more harmful to the environment than the disposal of film cameras

+ Post-Consumption:Film Cameras

Film cameras actually do not have any chemicals or hazardous materials within itself

Waste that comes from using a film camera, occurs during the manufacturing and developing processes

The chemicals used during development have to be properly disposed of and cannot just be poured down the drain. To do this, you can:

Dump the chemicals into a septic tank Contact your local county waste disposal or recycling for disposal instructions

+ Post-ConsumptionDigital Cameras

Since digital cameras contain hazardous materials in them, if they are not properly disposed of, it creates e-waste E-waste is known to contain chemicals such as led,

cadmium, mercury, and others that have known toxicological effects that range from brain damage to kidney disease to mutations, cancers

How can you get rid of your digital camera? Sell – You can sell your old digital camera on craigslist or

eBay Donate – There are many different charities you can give

it to including Kid Camera Project and Picture Tomorrow Recycle – Some manufacturers provide a recycling service

like Canon and Sony, others sponsor recycling events like Panasonic and Kodak The Electronic Industries Alliance provides state-by-

state listings of collection sites and offers guidance on other recycling options. http://www.eiae.org/

+

Professors Where does e-waste end up? Do you recycle at the end of the equipment’s usage life?

More inclined to recycle through tax subsidy or monetary solutions?

Liz Cane In landfills, yes Yes, monetary solutionsEyal Amiran I recycle batteries. I have not

thrown out old laptops so far but have donated them to Goodwill. I think broken down cameras end in the

landfill

No, I think ease of recycling is the key.

Kristen Hatch donate old computers to Out of the Closet and hang on to other e-waste until I can figure out what to do with it

Financial incentives are unlikely to change my behavior

Fatimah Tobing Rony Either recycle or keep the old model

Yes, either

Mark Poster No idea, but he sells on Ebay Recycle through low-cost Ebay

Post-Consumption:Professor Interviews

Conclusion: All of the professors care about where their electronic equipment ends up, and recycle them at the end of its

usage life Half of the professors felt that an incentive would not change their behavior towards recycling, and half of them

said that it would affect it.

+ Post-Consumption:M-Turk

Most of the M-Turk respondents thought that their e-waste ends up in domestic landfills. There were only a few who recycled their batteries or gave it away to proper disposal facilities.

Most of them also said they would be more inclined to recycling their electronic equipment if their were a tax subsidy or some kind of monetary solution.

+Video Interview:Mark Poster and Brendan

+

+ Conclusion

And the winner for the most environmentally friendly camera is….

+ References Chen, J. (2008). What to do with your old digital camera- reduce, reuse, recycle!. Zdnet.

Retrieved on June 1, 2009, from http://blogs.zdnet.com/digitalcameras/?p=193

Photo.net (http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00DhxM)

(2009). Earth Day tip: Don’t trash that digital camera!.Consumer Reports. Retrieved on June 1, 2009, from http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2009/04/earth-day-tip-dont-trash-that-digital-camera.html

Yahoo answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080313031120AAEYcaT)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_film)

eHow (http://www.ehow.com/facts_4895708_what-camera-film-made.html)

photo.net (http://photo.net/equipment/digital/basics/)

Henshall, J. (1999). How to make a professional digital camera. Epi-centre. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.epi-centre.com/reports/dcs.html

Hawkinsk, R. (2009). Environmental Footprint of Information Technology Much Higher than Expected, Researcher Finds. Science Daily. Retrieved on June 1, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090224133147.htm

Harris, T. How Instant Film Works. How stuff works. Retrieved on June 1, 2009, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/instant-film.htm

+More References!

No author. (July 2007). The True Cost of Printing. Processor Magazine. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Fp2929%2F32p29%2F32p29.asp 

No author. (October 2007). Educational Signs to Encourage Double-sided Printing and Copying. Environmental Defense Fund. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?ContentID=3542

Rowley, L. (March 2009). How to save in every room of your home (Blog). Money & Happiness. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.moneyandhappiness.com/blog/?p=164

Mearian, L. (June 2008). Flash memory prices continue to slide (Blog). Computer World. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://blogs.computerworld.com/flash_memory_prices_continue_to_slide

Kerr, J. (November 2006). The Environmental Impact of Digital Photography. Marcel Gagne. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.marcelgagne.com/node/433

Adams, M. (February 2005). Digital cameras are good for the environment. Natural News. Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://www.naturalnews.com/001464.html

Carlsen, R. (April 2006). Estimated Camera Lifespan (Blog Post). Appraisers Forum.net Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=104074