Choosing a Photo Booth - Film Or Digital?

Customers looking to rent a photo booth often ask which is better: digital or old-fashioned film. The answer is really up to the person. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages.

The classic, vintage style of a film booth gives them a high "cool" factor, and their photos always look great. Unfortunately, due to the rise of digital photo booths, film booths are becoming harder and harder to find. If you do manage to find a film photo booth for your event, there are some other factors you should be aware of before you make your final decision.

Film booths are slower to print than digital booths; it takes them about 3 minutes to develop a photo. They are also more expensive to operate and, weighing up to 900 lbs, more expensive to transport and difficult to bring inside some buildings. These added costs make film booths more expensive to rent than a digital booth.

When you take a picture in a film photo booth, the resulting photo strip is one-of-a-kind. Film booths are unable to store a copy of the images.photo booths for sale Because the process is completely mechanical, there are no stored files and no negatives. Each strip that is developed is unique; there will never be another copy. This is part of what makes the film booth experience special, but it can have its drawbacks if you are trying to put together a scrapbook of your event. If you use a film booth and your guests do not leave you a copy for scrapbook, then you will never see their pictures.

These days the digital photo booth is king. The lower cost to operate makes rentals a lot more affordable. Guests only have to wait about 10 seconds to receive their photo strip, and you can even get a CD at the end of the night with all of the crazy pictures you and your friends took. Make sure to rent a photo booth that prints two strips of photos so your guests can share or leave you a copy.

Digital photo booths are sometimes thought to have poor image quality, but this reputation is undeserved. It is true that most of the booths that you find at malls and amusement parks these days have cheap, tacky designs and grainy photo quality. Some manufacturers seem to have lost touch with the essence of the photo booth.

The good news is that a digital photo booth doesn't have to compromise quality or style. There are a few companies emerging around the country that have honored the nostalgic quality of the classic photo booth, but combined that with the features that people love in a digital photobooth. These digital booths always produce great pictures, and may look even more classic than some of the "classic" film photo booths.