Canon 70D has a
20.0MP APS-C (22.5 x 15 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Digic 5+ processor. On the other hand, Pentax K-1 has a
36.0MP Full frame (35.9 x 24 mm ) sized CMOS sensor .
Pentax K-1's sensor provides 16MP more than Canon 70D'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 K-1'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 70D and K-1 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Pentax K-1 has a 2.6x Larger sensor area than Canon 70D. 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 70D and Pentax K-1 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that K-1 has a better overall score of 96, 28 points higher compared to 70D's score of 68.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon 70D |
68 |
22.5 bits |
11.6 Evs |
926 ISO |
Pentax K-1 |
96 |
25.4 bits |
14.6 Evs |
3280 ISO |