Canon 5D MIII has a
22.0MP Full frame (36 x 24 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Digic 5+ processor. On the other hand, Pentax 645D has a
40.0MP Medium format (44 x 33 mm ) sized CCD sensor and features Prime II processor.
Pentax 645D's sensor provides 18MP more than Canon 5D MIII's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Pentax 645D's sensor doesn't have an anti-alias (Low-Pass) filter. Removing anti-alias filter increases the sharpness and level of detail but at the same time, it increases the chance of moiré occurring in certain scenes.
Below you can see the 5D MIII and 645D sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Pentax 645D has a 1.7x Larger sensor area than Canon 5D MIII. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.
DxOMark Sensor Scores
DxOMark is a benchmark that scientifically assesses image quality of camera sensors. It scores camera sensors for color depth (DXO Portrait), dynamic range (DXO Landscape) and low-light sensitivity (DXO Sports), and also gives them an overall score. Canon 5D MIII and Pentax 645D sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that 645D has a better overall score of 82, 1 points higher compared to 5D MIII's score of 81.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon 5D MIII |
81 |
24.0 bits |
11.7 Evs |
2293 ISO |
Pentax 645D |
82 |
24.6 bits |
12.6 Evs |
1262 ISO |