Noise in a digital camera’s image is amazingly similar to film grain in a film camera. At high ISO levels (film speed) the grain/noise becomes more evident in the final picture. Although film ISO levels can be lower than digital ISO levels (25 and 50 in that order), digital settings can be changed rapidly according to requirements, while film must be physically replaced and sheltered from all light during this replacement. Also, image noise reduction methods can be used to remove noise from digital images and film grain is fixed. From a creative and artistic point viewpoint, film grain and image noise may be sought-after when creating a particular mood for an image. Modern digital cameras have similar noise/grain at the same ISO as film cameras. Some digital cameras however, do display a pattern in the digital noise which is not found on film.

Digital cameras in past had a longer start-up delay compared to film cameras. This is the delay from when they are turned on until they are ready to take the first shot. This is no longer the case for modern digital cameras. Likewise, the amount of time needed to write the data for a digital picture to the memory card is now similar to the amount of time it takes to wind the film on a film camera, at least with modern digital cameras and modern fast memory cards. Both digital cameras and film cameras have a small delay between when the shutter button is pressed and when the picture is taken. This time is required to autofocus the lens and to compute and set the exposure. This shutter delay is practically zero for SLR and DSLR cameras.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark III can take still photographs at 10 frames per second; the fastest film SLR could shoot 10 frames per second. The Nikon F5 is limited to 36 continuous frames (the length of the film) while the Canon EOS-1D Mark III is able to take about 110 high definition JPEG images before its buffer must be cleared and the remaining space on the storage media can be used.