Nikon and Canon have engaged themselves in an iso war that has left the other players completely in the dust. Now Ryan Brenizer presents images taken with the D3s  at iso 12.800 that appear fully usable! Of course when you shoot in almost complete darkness the focusing part of the camera must also be up to the task, and the D3s appears to be: "Not only are the photos less noisy, but because the sensor is handling the light coming in more efficiently, you maintain more dynamic range and truer color. What it means in practice is that the things that you used to need a prime lens for on the D3, you can now use an f/2.8 zoom lens for (important, since Nikon's prime lineup has huge gaps in it). Or, of course, you can use a fast prime lens and truly see in the dark. The photo below was taken at ISO 12,800 at 1/30th of a second on a 135mm f/2 lens -- it was DARK! My hands are steady, which is how I could take this at 1/30th, but if I had to shoot it at 1/10th of a second to get the same quality on the D3, then it most likely would be blurry."   Link