Quote Originally Posted by livin4lax09
it also depends on the exposure. the two shots that were posted are both very bright. a dark shot at ISO 1600 or 3200 will have pretty bad noise.
Not true. The Cardinal was shot at last light. It appears bright because the camera compensated to acheive proper exposure. It took that shot as I was packing it up for the day, and to just prove a point about high-iso. The camera has everything to do with how well it's handled. the 1DsMII used to be the top dog at high ISO. Now it's the 1D MIII.

BTW - The cardinal image has no PP other than cropping. That's how it came out of the camera (other than crop).