I’ll echo that only the most basic digital SLR cameras don’t easily allow for the “two settings” setup. I have a Nikon D90, which was an upgrade from an old Nikon D70. Both were purchased used after having been on the market for around 4 years, so they were quite cheap in the scheme of things. The D70 still takes nice pictures on sunny days, but that’s no different from most people’s experience with film cameras.
Film cameras still had a 3rd option, ISO, which is why we still call it ISO. You just had to take 6-32 shots all at the same ISO. With digital, you can set your own ISO, or you can do what a lot of photographers I know do and set an “upper bound” for variable ISO. This isn’t hard to do, and in the cameras I’ve looked at it’s clearly labeled. You set a minimum shutter speed, for example 1/40, and the camera will adjust the ISO setting so that the shutter speed is at 1/40 or better. If possible, it will try to use the fastest ISO. This is, in practice, a faster way compared to taking a light meter to a shot, then selecting the appropriate film to match the light settings you need.
You can set up a digital camera to be fully manual, and SLRs that are a step above the basics will offer two dials. However, I shoot almost exclusively in aperture priority, which only needs one dial. That’s because I’m primarily interested in depth of field. I can then adjust my aperture to get the shutter speed that I need, but if I’m working at an aperture that needs just a little more shutter speed for the light conditions on the shot, then as noted above, my camera just makes the ISO adjustments itself so I don’t get a blurry shot.
There’s a lot of things to like about film from an aesthetic viewpoint, but at its heart photography is the same. I’m not old, but I grew up using a Nikkormat FT that my dad had. I don’t see the act of taking photographs as any different on the newer cameras, other than I can see what I took after taking it to see if I need to take it again.
