Both cameras were set to ISO1600 in order to test the noise. In-camera sharpening to off (lowest possible), contrast and saturation to normal, no postprocessing done except for cropping. Shot as RAW, Canon pic converted using Canon Digital Photo Professional v1.6.1, Nikon pic converted using Nikon Capture Editor v4.2.0. Both programs set to default, except for sharpening that was set to off. Small pic in the middle shows the focusing point and full frame. Both crops are from 100% size pic, no resizing done (hence the different scale due to 6/8 MP difference. Along with noise, this comparison shows an interesting (anti)aliasing issue with EOS350D visible on the red lamp edge. D70 shows slightly more noise in dark areas, but much smoother red areas. D70 shows step transition in brightest areas, probably due to bad RAW compression scheme.