little Nikon Junior packs a hell of a punch in the sensor department.

[DarkShadow]

I picked up a Nikon D3300 refurb with a Kit lens 18-55 VRII with just 35 clicks.Not sure what Sensor is in it but its performance is really nice and locks focus in low light pretty quick.I bought this for video and stills as a beater and because my Pentax sucks for video. Few shots hand held with ISO up to 4000 at the train station.
1.
DSC_0161-1 by David Kammerer, on Flickr

2.
DSC_0156 by David Kammerer, on Flickr

3.
DSC_0157 by David Kammerer, on Flickr

 

[jaomul]

Ya, the d3300 has a similar sensor to the d7200/d5500 and likely the Pentax k3. With the cheaper cameras now you may have to do without certain bells and whistles, but image quality is not an issue

 

[DarkShadow]

Oops here is the one at 4000 iso.Noise reduction Off jpeg.
DSC_0155 by David Kammerer, on Flickr