I think Rob and Duncan have summed it up quite nicely for me.
I think the differences may fall in the personal rather than competition use. Comercial work I think lives in its own world where anything goes.
For competitions I would guess there has to be a level playing field between those using film processed through a lab like Colab, film home processors, digital novices and digital wizz kids. Not being a member of a Photograhic Club ( other than WPF
) I do not know if they set boundaries for competitions or not. As a regular viewer of BBC Countryfile the rule for digital entries follows.
BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition 2006 – Rules
Rule 4 : Images may be digitally enhanced to remove spots or scratches, but not manipulated. Entrants can enhance the picture to make it brighter, clearer etc, but not manipulate the content. BBC Countryfile and the judges reserve the right to exclude any image they believe may have been excessively treated so as to alter its authenticity.
Don