Both Sony A65 and Canon SL2 have 24.0 MP resolution sensors but Sony A65's sensor is APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm ) and Canon SL2's sensor is APS-C (22.3 x 14.9 mm ).
Since Sony A65's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Canon SL2.
Below you can see the A65 and SL2 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Sony A65 has a 1.1x Larger sensor area than Canon SL2. 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. Sony A65 and Canon SL2 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that SL2 has a better overall score of 79, 5 points higher compared to A65's score of 74.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Sony A65 |
74 |
23.4 bits |
12.6 Evs |
717 ISO |
Canon SL2 |
79 |
23.6 bits |
13.4 Evs |
1041 ISO |