Originally posted by Ex Finn. edit: I have been thinking about getting one, now, not sure.
Got mine (K3) last week, returned it on Tuesday... As Nornhead said, anything past 400 was very noisy. Unacceptably noisy, worst than my 12 year old, 1 megapixel HP point and shoot with a microscopic sensor. I'm still debating whether I'll be asking for a replacement or a refund. I didn't make a fuss about it because something had to be wrong with the camera (shit happens). Lots of people posted pictures at 12,800 and 25,600 with less noise than I was getting at 800, even after going through Dfine (NR plugin).
I'm getting the feeling that the Sony sensors may not be consistent in quality. Because as I read the post here and elsewhere, either the people can't believe how good it is (noise wise) or find the camera to be very bad with noise.