That is true what your brother says, however, there are differences between both technologies, concenring contrasts for example, focussing on horizons, and reliability of autofocus, and these you do not learn by analogue photography when you want to do digital. As I said, I have both types of cameras, and I needed to relearn some things for the small digital camera.
And a good place for reviews and information is this (used it myself back then):
http://www.steves-digicams.com/