B&H Photo is my mail order source for photography equipment. I do NOT trust the others.
No - Film is NOT dead. I have heard that some photographers are returning to film because its archival characteristics are preferred over archival potential for digital images. It is amazing how many photographers still use film, how many places process film, and how many film cameras are available. I am the primary administrator for a film only sub-group of a local photography club. Only three or four members of the main group expressed an interest in forming a film only group. Now that the group is up and running, the film only group has 12 members participating in discussions about film and film cameras as well as sharing photographs made on film. It is interesting that Polaroid is back in business. There are a few photographers who are using Tintype and other early photographic processes today.
As for digital photography, I expect that it will continue to develop. A holographic imager similar to the one used by the doctor on Star Trek USS Voyager will probably be in common use 15 to 20 years from today.
I am currently using both film and digital cameras. Most of my photographs are digital, but I enjoy using my film cameras. My film cameras include: Nikon N2020 (35 mm single-lens reflex), Fujifilm GF670 (120 roll film folding rangefinder), and Mamiya RB67 (120 roll film single-lens reflex). My digital camera is a Nikon D750 (full-frame digital single-lens reflex). My film is processed in a local commercial laboratory, and I scan my film into digital images files myself.
Anybody interested in film photography might want to follow or join the discussions in the North Texas Film Photography group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NorthTexasFilmPhotography/. NO - this is NOT the group that I administer. NTxFP is a much larger group; it has 514 members.
Photography has been one of my hobbies for more than 50 years. About seven or eight years ago I began practicing digital rather than film photography with a consumer grade Kodak digital camera that I wore out. With a desire to expand my photography above consumer grade, I purchased a Nikon D750 what Nikon calls an enthusiast digital single-lens reflex. I wanted the full-frame digital sensor and the D750 was on sale. I am contemplating the possibility of selling some of my photographic work.
Shortly after getting the consumer grade Kodak digital camera, I began using Picasa. This served my purpose for two or three years until I was introduced to ACDSee Pro 7. The additional functionality and ease of use of ACDSee Pro 7 helped expand my photography. I have upgraded to ACDSee Pro 8 and currenty have ACDSee Pro 9. https://www.acdsee.com/en/index This software is frequently available on sale, and I just noticed that they offer a plan to compete with Adobe Creative Cloud.
When I began using my Nikon D750, I captured images in jpg format while learning my new camera. I captured images in both jpg and RAW formats for a brief period of time. Now I capture images in RAW format only because I can export from RAW format to jpg after post processing is complete.
About a year or so ago, I began subscribing to Adobe Creative Cloud / Photography. Yes there is a fairly steep learning curve even though I worked with computers in the high-tech electronics industry for more than 30 years. I finished an Adobe Lightroom continuing education course (five class periods each three hours long) at a local two-year college a couple of weeks ago. This coming week I begin an Adobe Photoshop continuing education course (seven class periods each three hours long) at the same college. I am just beginning to get comfortable using Lightroom and Photoshop.
ACDSee Pro provides a significant level of functionality that is easy for an amateur photographer to use. I still use ACDSee Pro because it feels much easier to enter additional data such as keywords, copyright notices, etc. into the metadata. Verify that your computer exceeds the minimum requirements for this software.
I began with Picasa for FREE. Then, upgraded to ACDSee Pro. Now I am learning Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC.
https://picasa.google.com/
http://www.acdsee.com/