Yes Phil, very hasty PP... a crop, increase light,reduce noise and sharpen again.
It was actually ISO 5000
The original view in Jpeg ( I shoot RAW) is attached.
Not long ago I never went over ISO 400 on my Nikon D200,ISO 800 on the D300s and then when I went over to Canon my 1DMk1V I limited to 1600. Now , well I'm not sure really. I would like to stick to 1600 but it does depend on the light and situation. With a TC on you lose stops and with a long lens and FX camera you lose DOF too.
I seem to recall reading that you should have a shutter speed to equal your lens length but that is often nowhere near possible unless you push the ISO to the kind of high figures that really do show the noise.
PS Looking at this original again I really should have reduced the shutter speed a little but I didn't have a lot to of room to play with.
Dave
What amazes me is that we, our generation, remember the days when 400 came out on film and how 'grainy' it was. So these high ISO's are incredible and I appreciate the number of stops we can gain. This is especially important for us for many days between October and April with light limitations. So an image at 4000/5000 iso is incredible to me and its a question of balance, expectation and what one is happy with as an individual bearing in mind what size image we require. My size limit is A4 so I have plenty of scope there. So your image looks A Ok to me. Make sense?
Cheers
Phil