I just shot 3 days in a ITEC conference (International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Lahti Finland) and most of the time I had to use ISO 800. Results were excellent, even without any noise reduction actions some have created for "randomizing" the noise more.
Here's something for you all who have doubts about how D30 copes with photojournalism and concert photography:
http://studio-on-the.net/itec/
It's a press photo gallery linked to full size JPEGs (which will be taken out in ca. 30 days because my server is too loaded). Most photos are ISO 200 to 800 (almost all concert hall live photos are ISO 800 with 70-200 f/2.8L). Trick getting smooth looking shots with ISO 800 is in perfect exposure: if the histogram is "full" the shot will look good and noise does not matter so much.
I used Manfrotto Carbon monopod most of the time in concert hall: shutter speed was about 1/20-1/40 with ISO 800 with full zoom (300mm@35mm equiv.), so getting tack sharp photos of the performers was sometimes nearly impossible. I did not want to use ISO 1600 as that IS too noisy for me.
Photos (all shot in RAW) have been color profiled and sharpened, in couple of shots I have done some retouching (e.g. in Heavy Tuba panorama I had to move the bass players basses neck to another place because photostich failed there!).
I used only three lenses there: 70-200 f/2.8L (most of the time), Canon 50 f/1.4 (indoors, when 2.8 and ISO 800 did not cope it) and Sigma 14mm (which was difficult to get sharp in 2.8, but performed very well with f8 (e.g. the sauna indoor shot) - 14mm had some slightly out of focus shots (like the second "Euphonium competition finalists" shot), so I started using manual focus with it which worked much more reliably.
D30 performed really well. Smooth and pro.
Only problem I had was in some flash shots (over-exposure happened easily when I forgot to use FE lock Cf.), but e.g. two flash use gave more reliable results (no overexposures, ever). One thing I learned: if I have a one chance to get a flash shot (closeup) I'll use P mode ISO 200 and internal flash - it's a safe way not to miss a shot because 550EX setup oddities.
I'll also have to get a 20mm lens: in many situations 14mm was too much and in low light 20mm gives better DoF and sharpness.
The press gallery is open for all, but I remind you all the photos are copyrighted and for specific use only (read the text on the page top). And please don't tell about this on the other digicamera sites, because my server can't really handle a big rush right now.
When I'll have my D30 gallery ready some day, I'm sure some of the photos from ITEC press gallery will be included.
All comments welcome!
