I'm a newly born photographer. Started a few years ago with a Fuji S7000. That was my first quality digital camera. I fell in love. The big issue I had with film is that you have no idea if anything you are doing is right. Digital drastically sped up the learning curve. About a year and a half ago I went out on a limb and bought a Cannon 20D. I was hoping to pay for it by doing photography professionally. So far that hasn't happened yet. But it will eventually. In the mean time I just do what I can to learn more and get better.