Hi ISO (or ASA as we oldies call it)

There's been a lot work done on improving hi ISO in digital cameras, Cameras like the Nikon D3/D700 can now happily shoot away at 1600 iso with no real noise issues. Well guess what! they will go even further if you don't mind a bit of grain/noise.

If your from a film background you'll know that anything over 1600 iso gave a fair bit of grain, people spent large parts of their lives trying to find ways to suppress it, some claimed Perceptol developer gave a finer grain (but affected the speed) others plumped for Microphen and lived with the grain but gained a speed increase.

Heres a digital photo, taken in available light (at night) at 1/40 th of a second at F4.5 at 135mm, taken at 25.600 ISO... no thats not 2.600 but twenty five thousand six hundred ISO! Yes it's got noise/grain, but by heck it good for that ISO. That would have taken a whole two seconds exposure at 400 ISO, try handholding that!.

The Nikon D3 is the one to beat in my book. Wayne