Yes, there is a certain amount of nostalgic pride in seeing and using older cameras versus digital but the thing that often bugs me about people who use digital cameras is the "Good Enough" mentality that they have. (I often get it too.)
When shooting film, I take my time. I double check my work. I put effort into composing and/or setting up a shot. I do my best to make a good photograph and the finished product shows it.
When I'm shooting digital... "Snap! Snap! Snap! That's good enough." and I'm done with it. If I get a good shot I save it. If I don't I delete it. I have shot more than 15,000 digital exposures with a digicam. I know because the serial numbers on the pictures only go up to 10,000 and I'm on 4,900. This does not include all the shots I have done for work. Out of those several thousand exposures I have shot with a digicam over my life, I probably have only a few hundred or maybe 1,000 that I have kept.
Modern (digital) products play into a "throw away" or "good enough for now" mentality where older (film) products play toward a "craftsmanship" or long term preservation mentality. Maybe it has to do with the way our consumer economy has shifted toward a "throw away" mentality of planned obsolescence.
Regardless of whether you embrace our current style of consumer economy, I still believe that there is room for craftsmanship and preservation of traditional methods and I believe it can and should exist alongside modern production.
Okay, story time...
I was watching a tractor pull at the local County Fair, years ago. They had all these super-modified big engine tractors making all sorts of noise and smoke. There were turbocharged engines. There were multi-engine tractors. They even had a couple of turbine engines. They spun their wheels and shot black smoke and blew tongues of fire into the air. Barely any of them could pull the weight sled more than half way down the 100 foot track.
So, at the end of the day, winners were declared, trophies were awarded and there was celebration all around. Then, right as everybody was about to go home, this guy chugs in on a vintage steam engine tractor. I suspect this was a setup because the announcer grabbed the microphone and started saying, "Look what we have here! Let's see what this *OLD* tractor can do!"
Everybody sort of chuckled and played along but there were a few subtle, knowing smiles in the crowd.
They hooked up the tractor to the sled and the referee waived the flag. The steam tractor started off slowly but finally gained speed. It made the end of the 100 foot run in, probably, the same amount of time that the other tractors did. Maybe a little longer. But when the referee blew the whistle and waived the checkered flag, the tractor kept going... and going... and going! He didn't stop until he had gone almost half way around the oval dirt track. The referee and all the judges were shouting, "No! STOP!" and they were waving their arms frantically. They acted like the pulling sled was going to break.
The "farmer," dressed in his flannel shirt, stopped the steam tractor, unhitched the sled and chugged off the track. He left the sled there for the gasoline tractors to pull back to the starting line. Those who weren't laughing or standing there with their chins on the ground were cheering and applauding.
As I said, I'm sure this was a setup but I think it illustrates my point that old technology can be superior to modern technology and it shows why we should keep old technology around and available for use if and when needed.
As far as I know, there is no gasoline or diesel engine that can put out more power than a triple expansion steam engine. The problem is that steam engines aren't exactly fuel efficient nor are they easy to operate. On the other hand, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier is essentially a steam engine driven ship. Isn't it? (Steam turbine. Right?) A perfect example of old and new technology existing side by side.
