An appreciation of the potential of silver halide as an image capture material for digital applications can benefit from an understanding of the characteristics and potential of silicon-based imagers. Here, we compare the imaging characteristics of contemporaneous silicon and AgX imagers on a common basis. Sensitometric and image structure comparisons of first generation Kodak Advantix 400 AgX color film and contemporary (1997–1998) Kodak Professional digital camera system (DCS) color imagers at 393 K, 1.6 M, and 6.3 M pixel sensor resolution are presented. The imagers compared have similar useful color imaging exposure thresholds. In speed-grain terms, the 6.3 M sensor DCS provides similar speed-grain in the lower scale and superior speed-grain in the upper scale when compared to the AgX film. The smaller sensors appear less capable in this regard. The sensors all provide shorter exposure latitude than the film. Further, within the context of pictorial imaging, it appears that the silicon array as employed in the DCS is close to its fundamental imaging efficiency limits.