I use the MK II primarily for birds and in low light to get a high shutter speed the ISO is up very high. And I don’t think that the raw image noise is irrelevant, because after post processing yes noise reduction software does reduce the noise but the finished image might not look bad maybe up to a 10X8 but go to A3 and to me it looks dull. Also I thought that the higher megapixel meant less noise in the raw image, although maybe I am mistaken. However I am really pleased with the MK II, I just love pin sharp nature pics so I will have to take them in the sunshine or wait for Canon to bring out a noise free camera.