Higher-end cameras can go to ISO 3200, as well. The problem is, just like you get more grain in high-ISO films, you get more noise in high-ISO digital shots. And people tend to find digital noise less appealing than film grain, alas! Things like NoiseNinja can help with that, but they can also have drawbacks.
A lot of it comes down to what you want to do at night. For my part, I try to work the contrast of light/dark into all my nighttime shots. I love photographing lamps, streetlights, lights through windows, neon lights outside of bars and so on.
I also do at least three quarters of my nighttime shooting with my "nifty fifty" at a very high aperture; while shallow DoF doesn't work for everything, you can still work with it and the wider aperture -- and thus, higher available light -- can make a huge difference.
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