Panasonic LX100 has a
13.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor. On the other hand, Nikon D3200 has a
24.0MP APS-C (23.2 x 15.4 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Expeed 3 processor.
Nikon D3200's sensor provides 11MP more than Panasonic LX100'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.
Below you can see the LX100 and D3200 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Nikon D3200 has a 1.6x Larger sensor area than Panasonic LX100. 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. Panasonic LX100 and Nikon D3200 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that D3200 has a better overall score of 81, 14 points higher compared to LX100's score of 67.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Panasonic LX100 |
67 |
22.3 bits |
12.5 Evs |
553 ISO |
Nikon D3200 |
81 |
24.1 bits |
13.2 Evs |
1131 ISO |