6400 is not noisy. I shot this photo of local producer Dsan Powell at Space this past weekend, in the Techno Loft at the venue. True to the form and spirit of the techno scene, the room is very dimly lit, with Mike the LD mostly using deep blues and purples from the LED fixtures mounted on the ceiling. As I “came up” in an era where using your flash in a DJ booth is discouraged, I always try to max it out with my ISO and a fast lens. 

I understand and lust for the holy grail of butter-smooth images at ISO 6400 and above. But, we’ve come such a long way in the decade or so in which digital SLRs have been relatively affordable. My first DSLR, the 10D, did not even have the option of ISO 6400, and 3200 was discouraged by the simple expedient of making it inaccessible unless you specifically enabled it to be accessible. And on that, I regularly used ISO 1600, like on the image below. The noise was quite acceptable. 

It’s elementary physics with regards to noise. Until we develop more efficient sensors and software algorithms to deal with noise, use what you got and get shooting. The best camera is the one you have on you.