Cody YorkBronica SQ-B medium format film camera on the left and a digital Canon EOS 1D Mark II on right. Choose your weapon.

Film versus digital is as controversial of a subject as print versus the Web. Some photographers believe film will be around for forever, because it has a unique look and a quality that's unachievable with digital. But others consider film outdated, slow and costly. There are legitimate arguments to both sides, but I've noticed that about half of our contributing photographers are still submitting film. Even though they may own a digital camera, they preferred shooting film. Meanwhile, those that shot mostly digital still owned a film camera.

So the assignment was simple: I asked all our contributing photographers to shoot a photo in the format they prefer, and then explain to us why. Then we'd let you guys be the judge as to which format you think looks better. So now that you know the ground rules, check out some amazing photos and tell us which you like better in the comments, film or digital?

Launch gallery »

Also, Keith Romanowski and Jeremy Pavia had some excellent opinions about the film vs. digital subject that I couldn't fit into the slideshow, so check them out after the jump.

"We live in a digital era where modern technology is more predominate than ever, and I find it very useless for someone to go out and purchase film camera in the time that we live in. It is like installing a floppy drive on your brand new Mac. When weighing the pros and cons, there is no debating that digital is much more advanced and efficient than film. The ability to shoot in RAW, have a histogram and being able to simply review your images immediately are just a few great features to have that film just doesn't. I can admit that film does a great job at color reproduction, but on the other hand, you can adjust an image's colors in Adobe Camera Raw with great accuracy. In addition to that, postproduction plays a tremendous role in photography today. Not only do you need to be talented behind the lens; you need to be talented behind the computer. You can only push a negative or slide so far; whereas with digital, you have much more creative freedom. Shooting film satisfies a need to connect with the past, while digital is in the now and future. Using old technology simply doesn't make sense." -Keith Romanowski

"This is always an interesting subject, and it can have a million different answers and opinions, which is why I am always down to discuss it in detail. For me, I started shooting film; all I knew was film and all that I studied in college was film. The first photos I had published in Freedom BMX Magazine were actually shot on some cheap expired film that I bought in bulk on eBay. Since then, my tastes have changed and my workflow has certainly contributed to how I shoot now, which is mainly all-digital. Working for a magazine makes it hard to shoot film because of deadlines, turn around time and cost of the actual film, processing and scanning. I'm not saying that is the only reason I shoot on memory cards, but I am making a point. I can't even really say that I like one more than the other. I am addicted to all kinds of cameras and love everything about them and as long as I am shooting; I am happy. I have a few old (1950-1970) Pentax cameras loaded up with some black and white T-Max film right now and a Canon A2E camera mid-roll as well. And even though I shoot 100% digital for the magazine, I don't have anything against film. And actually, I am going to be working on a project from now until sometime this winter, on a film-specific article for the mag. As you can tell, I submitted a seamless sequence, which I shot digitally. You can do the same thing with film after it is scanned into Photoshop but to me, that turns it into a digital image. In the darkroom, you edit your photo between cropping, burning, dodging, getting the perfect exposure and everything in between. So, whether you do it by hand, or with the click of a mouse, you are still editing a photograph. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter to me whether you shot a photo on a $30,000 medium format Hasselblad with a digital back or a $3.00 thrift store camera, with some film you found in the closet. If it is a good photograph then it is a good photograph." -Jeremy Pavia