Digital cameras have come on leaps and bounds. So much so that film is effectively dead in our profession. I remember the first digital camera I reviewed for CiB. The 800,000 (0.8 megapixel) images were fuzzy, purple and noisy, but despite this I could see the potential.

Most of the first generation of digital cameras did not like low light. You could use flash and have noisy images, or you could use available light and have noisier images – your choice. But the latest high-end offering from Nikon has taken the concept of light sensitivity to new levels.

Before we go into detail, a quick lesson on photographic light sensitivity. Back in the dark ages we bought our film according to its ASA or ISO rating. ASA was the old American standard while ISO is the new international standard. They are in fact, identical.

If we were shooting in bright sunlight in the middle of June we bought 50 or 100 ISO material. If we were shooting action we bought 400 ISO.

Then 3M and Kodak moved the goalposts and introduced (deep breath) 1000 ISO and 1600 ISO film. Yikes!

This stuff had grain like golf balls and muted colours, bit if you needed to snap black cats in coal cellars it was just the job.

Even as digital cameras were being developed, those high-end ISO numbers were still achievable, but the quality was terrible with flecky red, green and blue noise where true blacks should have been.

But Nikon have now changed all that. Not so much moving the goalposts, but reviewing the entire game and doing way with them completely.

The 12 mega pixel Nikon D3 features a chip capable of shooting at 6400 ISO – and the quality at that level is absolutely superb. In fact, you can push it to 25600 ISO, although at those ridiculous speeds the quality does degrade.

So what does 6400 ISO actually mean? What can you do with it?

CiB member Stewart Foley of Caters Photographic and I worked together at the Berlin Airshow, producing the Flight Daily News publication.

Stewart lent me his D3 as I had to take a photograph of a Mars Rover in what was effectively a dark, moodily-lit exhibition hall. The light levels were about the same as a cinema with the lights out. With my own Nikon D80 I was getting an indicated shutter speed of about 1/4 of a second – serious tripod territory.

But with the D3 it was 1/90th of a second - more than fast enough to handhold. What was even better was that the images were noiseless with great colour rendition.

Stewart tells me that he is now routinely able to shoot indoors without flash, getting a shutter speed of at least 1/125th of a second with standard room lightning. This is revolutionising the way Stewart works and means that the lighting is now softer and his presence less off putting to the subject being snapped.

This means you can shoot at night without flash or tripod, shoot action whatever the weather and basically shot what you want, where you want without having to worry about camera shake.

While I don’t recommend that you go out and buy a Nikon D3 – at nearly £3,000 (body only) and 1.24kg (2.7lb.) before you put a lens on it the camera is a seriously expensive and weighty beast, but it does show where the industry is going. The brand new Nikon D700 also has the same sensor and costs less than £2,000 so we are getting there.

I imagine that we will start to see sensors routinely capable of 6400 ISO appearing on much cheaper cameras within the next two years and this is going to revolutionise the way we take photographs. I can’t wait.