I photographed the same scene with a Holga 120 N camera with film and with a DSLR with a prime lens. The 120 film (Illford SFX 200) with red filter was developed and scanned by The Darkroom in San Clemente.

For the two images below, one is film and the other is digital. I adjusted both the film negative scan and the DSLR file to have similar brightness, contrast, and grain. Can you tell the difference? What are the clues?

I don’t think you can do better than a 50/50 guess. If one was on photo paper from a darkroom process and one was a high quality inkjet print on quality paper, then a small percentage of people would have the ability to be sure without the use of a microscope.

What is the point of comparing film-based and digital images on a screen? It’s really to make it clear that a skilled editor can manipulate a digital image to appear the same as a film image. When the display media is a modern screen that emits light, even analog images are converted to digital files.

As a photographer, one of the most common questions I get asked is what kind of camera I use. The assumption is that I use digital cameras, and the question is about the brand. There are some reasons why this information can be relevant, but most of the time, it is similar to asking a painter what brand of paintbrush was used and the answer provides no insight.