I agree with you 100%, bacon. ISO 1600 and the 3200 equiv are basically unusable in my experience. And I don’t think it’s cheap glass causing the problem. My 70-300mm is a $600 piece of glass. While it’s not a 70-200mm f/2.8G, it’s still a decent lens. The AF searches A LOT. And what’s worse, from time to time it’ll find it’s focus but not lock so it won’t take the shot. So I have to switch to full manual and hope the shot isn’t gone.
I’m kind of wishing I’d saved up for a new D300 after seeing one at a birthday party yesterday. Or maybe a D3 if I win the lottery.
The other thing to think about is what it actually looks like printed. I took #3 to Wallyworld and got it printed at 8×10 and there’s almost no noise in the printed version.
