Highest usable ISO on the D300?

[purplepaul]

Hi guys i did a search for this question but i could not find a difinative answer.
What do you feel the highest usable ISO is on the D300?

Paul

[kingbling11]

About 1600 at a push i find

[Raikiri]

There isn't really a definitive answer, it depends entirely on the application. For small prints and small web images ISO6400 seems very usable, for large prints not so much.

Here's a ISO6400 shot I got from PhotographyReview.com:

http://i28.tinypic.com/ztu8vm.jpg

I ran it through Noise Ninja default settings, resized and applied some USM and it looks fine for on the web. OK, it's not brilliant but it's usable.
For professional use, such as weddings I would probably try and stick to 3200 absolute max.