In order to evaluate the properties of a cone beam (CB) collimator and three-dimensional filtered backprojection algorithm, the noise characteristics of this collimator configuration were determined and comparisons with a parallel hole (PH) collimator were made. Noise characteristics were evaluated using two approaches: the first consisted of assessing the magnitude of local random fluctuations in the reconstructed images, and the second consisted of assessing the noise texture in these images in the frequency domain by evaluating the noise power spectrum. Data used for these measurements were simulated using Monte Carlo models of SPECT systems equipped with cone beam and parallel hole collimators. Finally, to compare experimentally a specially designed high resolution CB collimator with a high resolution (HRES) PH collimator, measurements of a physical phantom were performed. Results of our studies show better noise magnitude for CB collimators; however, for CB collimators with short focal lengths (40-60 cm) the shape of %RMS noise distributions differs from slice to slice.