For my purposes, convenience and ease of use I prefer to use a digital SLR camera like the one to the right for product photography. Below you will find a list of the advantages of using a digital camera over traditional film.

• Instant review of pictures, with no wait for the film to be developed: if there's a problem with a picture, I can immediately correct the problem and take another picture
• Minimal ongoing costs if I need to capture hundreds of photographs for digital use such as catalogs.
• Permanent storage on digital media is considerably cheaper than film
• Photos may be copied from one digital medium to another without any degradation
• Pictures do not need to be scanned before viewing them on a computer
• Ability to print photos using a computer and consumer-grade printer
• Ability to embed metadata within the image file, such as the time and date of the photograph, model of the camera, shutter speed, flash use, and other similar items, to aid in the reviewing and sorting of photographs. Film cameras have limited ability to handle metadata, though many film cameras can "imprint" a date over a picture by exposing the film to an internal LED array (or other device) which displays the date.
• Ability to capture and store hundreds of photographs on the same media device within the digital camera; by contrast, a film camera would require regular changing of film (typically after every 24 or 36 shots)
• Many digital cameras now include an AV-out connector (and cable) to allow the reviewing of photographs to an audience using a television
• Anti-shake functionality (increasingly common in inexpensive cameras) allow taking sharper hand-held pictures where previously a tripod was required
• Ability to change ISO speed settings more conveniently in the middle of shooting, for example when the weather changes from bright sunlight to cloudy. In film photography, film must be unloaded and new film with desired ISO speed loaded.
• Smaller sensor format, compared to 35mm film frame, allows for smaller lenses, wider zoom ranges, and greater depth of field.
• Ability to use the same device to capture video as well as still images.
• Ability to convert the same photo from color to sepia to black & white