Lead-free or not?

European RoHS directive (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) was introduced in 2002, and has been in full effect for about 10 years. In electronics side this primarily affects solder; old tin/lead solder can no longer be used (although I think exceptions may still be in effect in military, aerospace and/or medical fields - I'm not exactly sure since I don't deal with those directly.)

When RoHS was introduces many veterans absolutely refused to even touch lead-free solder (when doing hand assembly/repair). Reasons were various; risk of tin whiskers, lead-free is harder to work with, solder joints are less pretty and more brittle and what not. Even now some refuse to use it.

Not me. I prefer to do most of the initial prototyping and most repairs with lead-free solder.

The reason is (and has always been) very simple: it is more difficult to work with. So when I do typical, relatively simple stuff (and some more difficult things too, like 0.5mm-pitch TQFPs) with lead-free solder, I have gotten used to it and it's relatively easy (for me) now.

Now, when I have to work with hard stuff - primarily repairs and rework with small-pitch packages and tight spacing - I can switch to leaded solder and it's almost like a cheat mode - so easy to work with that even difficult stuff is a breeze.

Really, what other reasons do you need?