By Gavin Seim — Will the need for flash start to fade and noiseless high ISO cameras surface? Will sensors become so sensitive that they can actually make a scene clearer than what it is, such as removing fog when desired? Will they soon be able to see through objects, and interpret what’s on the other side?

We digital photographers live in an ISO sensitive world. It used to be that ISO 800 was high, 1600 was really noisy, and 3200… Well, could you even shoot that high?

The megapixel race is no longer a huge factor in a pro camera purchase, and now the attention has rightly turned to ISO and noise. In the early digital days a high ISO, or long exposure would quickly get filled with noise. Today we have two major brands. Canon, who though they are getting better noise to ISO ratio’s, their ISO settings have seriously fallen behind of their biggest competition Nikon.

With a Canon you can shoot at ISO 1600, and expand out to 3200, and on the 1D MK III you can go up to 6400. Nikon’s latest on the other hand goes to 6400 and well beyond. On the Nikon D3 there’s even an ISO 25,600. No that’s not a typo, and though there’s certainly a fair bit of noise at that level it’s clear that Nikon has taken a step ahead in terms of ISO. This article is really not about who’s better however since this is simply a race of brands that will ultimately benefit all consumers. The real item of note is these advancements could change the way we do photography.

Pretty soon we may not have to worry about noise, and we can start changing the ISO level to change exposure instead of shutter or aperture. Here’s an article comparing the noise on the 5d, and the D3. Also heres a post on beckers blog where he run the D3 through the paces.

Now the battle of brands will rage on, but the question is with noise getting lower and lower, and ISO getting higher and higher where is it all going? Noise levels are getting so high that the cameras have almost night vision capabilities! All I know is this. I love the flexibility of high ISO, and the fact that we have heavy competition in the field means we’ll be getting better technolighy sooner.

What do you think? Your comments below!