Like lots of people, I've relied on a simple film camera for years. I write about digital cameras, and have used them frequently, but have never taken the step of replacing my film camera with a digital camera. And I've wondered — how different would it feel to use a digital camera as a matter of course?

On a recent vacation, I got the chance to find out. I brought my older Olympus Stylus Zoom and the new Olympus Stylus 300 digital camera with me. I wanted to rate how they felt on the fly, then compare shots when I got home and see which camera captured the same scenes better. So here it is — a hands-on comparison of two largely automatic cameras (one film, one digital) during a 10-day trip to Europe.

In some ways, it wasn't a fair comparison. I was comparing a nearly ten-year-old film camera with a brand-new digital camera. The older, film-based model has a focal length of 35-70mm. The new Stylus 300 has an approximate focal length of 35-105mm. As a result, the digital camera has a more powerful zoom. (I also suspect the "approximate focal length" spec is very conservative, since the digital Stylus consistently captured a slightly wider shot than the film Stylus could manage.)

But it's this kind of comparison that a first-time digital camera buyer has to face, too. So here it is.

Weatherproof and pocket-friendly
Both Stylus cams withstood the weather and the hazards of travel superbly. The Stylus line is famous for being sturdy and weatherproof, and these cameras held their own. Germany was unusually cold for April — in fact, it snowed almost every day while we were there — and we hit Iceland for a few days as well. However, the cameras were unfazed by the damp conditions and low temperatures (-7° Celsius in Berlin one day, which translates to 19.4° Fahrenheit). Plus, they were hurriedly thrust into pockets, backpacks and purses, and subsequently banged against subway floors, airplane seats, and train luggage racks, without any apparent damage — even the older one with the plastic body. Nice job, Olympus.

Size-wise, they also did well. They were both small enough to fit in a coat pocket. The new Stylus 300 would fit in most pants or shirt pockets as well. The size issue is really of key importance for most people, who don't want to walk around with a pound or two of photographic equipment dangling from their neck in a sizeable protective case.

Charging up: Different approaches to battery power
The older film Stylus takes a non-rechargeable lithium ion battery that you can find anywhere you buy film. It's somewhat expensive, but has a reasonable lifetime. No problem there.

The digital Stylus 300, on the other hand, had me worried. It comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery and a charger. Digital cameras, in part because of their LCDs, are notorious for having low battery life, and if it ran down in Europe, I wasn't sure I'd be able to recharge it. I called Olympus customer service to find out if the included adapter was capable of handling the higher voltage of the European electrical system — if so, I would have just added a plug adapter to my luggage. The representative thought it wasn't.

I left for my trip with the included battery fully charged, and my fingers crossed. It turned out the customer service rep underpromised — the included charger is rated for 100-240 volts, perfectly suitable for European systems once you've added a plug adapter — but it didn't matter. The supplied Stylus 300 battery did just fine with the nearly 100 photos I took.