The illumination may look better in some ways on the A900 file but this is deceptive - the conditions are actually much darker than those applying to the Nikon shot. I picked these examples because they have some similarities (tungsten light, low light, certain types of tone and detail). The lens used here is the 17-35mm Konica Minolta D at f5.6 and 30mm. It does not have anything like the same optical reputation as the new Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 used at f5.6! But, judge for yourself.

I feel that the Alpha 900, working from raw files through ACR (or Lightroom and other processors in future) will prove to have in absolute terms - files scaled to exactly the same output size - smaller granularity, lower noise and higher levels of detail sharpness than the Nikon D3 and D700.

I do not think that extreme ISO performance will be challenged - 6400, 12800 and 25600 - but the Alpha 900 will prove a very competent tool at 1600 and 3200.