D90 ISO question

I want to take some low light indoor show photos next month. Some of the scenes are going to be quite dark and I won't be able to use a flash. How high can I pump the ISO on a D90 before it starts to produce obvious noise?

I will have a tripod with me so that will offer some stability and I have a couple of fast lenses, either of which could work, depending where we are seated.

Here's my 2 cents - I think you should set your camera up on your tripod and run thru the ISO's and see what ISO is acceptable. Then take those ISO images and run them thru a noise reduction software and which are now acceptable. And depending upon your end use for the images, even the highest of ISO's could work for you. If you have Lightroom you can tether your camera to you computer making it a very simple experiment to run. And if you don't have Lightroom yet you can download the software for a 30 day free trial.

Hi Lee I have a D300 and hardly ever go beyond 800 ISO...I have been doing a ballet concert for a few years in low light...I usually try to get them at the pause between moves...
Shoot in raw...I wouldn't open the aperture any more then F2.8 And try for a minimum of 1/125 of a sec...ISO 800..

Noise ninja can help clean the images up..

Thanks guys. I may just stick to ISO 800 and see how it goes. I am going to be forced to shoot with a fairly wide aperture given the restrictions, which is going to compromise my options for depth of field but I'll just have to be creative :-D

Thanks for the editing info Mojo Fstop. I don't have Lightroom. I do have an old Elements software (I think it's Elements 7) which remains unused (I know, the shame!) Photo editing is one big thing on my to-do list but so far it's been a case of get it right, learn something or just keep trying.

Depending on how large you will want to print, you will have to make some choices. With the D90 I would go as high as 1600. It all depends on what your subject is. Will there be rapid movements? Is it a concert? The main difficulty you might have will be the metering. Usually in shows the background is almost black and it wants to fool the metering. So I normally do a few test shots and then go manual. This way, if the light doesn't change that much you'll end up with well exposed shots.

Good luck and post your results.

I have a D90 fast glass and lightroom. I would say 1000 to 1200 would be the max. That would be my guess. It would be a great idea if you could get a few test shots before hand. You could a few around the house and see what works