[Paul Shields]

I think Mr Pickles and others got it right. Once you print you really don't see the noise unless printing really big. Pixelpeeping will make you go blind, and end up clearing out your wallet. I shoot with the noisiest digital camera format in the world (according to some zealots) and yet I never see noise when printing (currently up to A4), and the images are nice and sharp edge to edge. There is more to photography than low-noise high-ISO. I'd still love to have the cleanliness of the Canon 5D/20D at that ISO, but it's more to satisfy my pixelpeeping rather than to help with printing (where colour rendition and image sharpness are more important in my book).