The Image Numbers Add Up Differently Today

Some Wolf Pack action from the 90's.

If you start to go through a lot of film negatives to decide what you want to digitize you may find there is a lot less to choose from than we have in the digital age. Let's take a basketball game for example.

At most games it's not unusual to shoot 500 to 700 images per game some even shoot 1,000 or more and out of that around 50 or so may get posted onto a website and around 150 or 200 will get archived.

When I worked as a photojournalist using film I'd shoot about two rolls per game. That's 2x36 or 72 exposures for the entire game. For two games I'd shoot four rolls or 144 frames. Why you ask? Well when you went back to the paper you could dunk four rolls of film in a tank and be done. If you shot more than that it required a second film run and there wasn't time on deadline.

Also, unlike today,  there was a cost with shooting more images. Compact Flash and SD cards have a one time cost but after that you can use the same cards for years if you treat them well. Just remember things were a lot different not that long ago.