Digicams are nice, convenient, and cheaper in the end, but it takes, I believe, 6 megapixels to recreate the resolution of a 35mm camera. You also lose a lot of the random analog effects that you have control of through the normal development process. To be honest, I think it's better to learn everything you can about the manual aspect of photography before you take up digital. I feel it will give you a better understanding of the medium.