Both Canon 400D and Leica M8 have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Canon 400D's sensor is APS-C (22.2 x 14.8 mm ) and Leica M8's sensor is APS-H (27 x 18 mm ).
Since Leica M8'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 400D.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Leica M8'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 400D and M8 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Leica M8 has a 1.5x Larger sensor area than Canon 400D. 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
Both Canon 400D and Leica M8 sensors have been tested by DxoMark. DxoMark 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. Of the two cameras that we are comparing, 400D has scored 62, 3 points higher than M8.
Model |
Overall |
Color Depth |
Dynamic Range |
Low-light ISO |
Canon 400D |
62 |
22.1 bits |
11.0 Evs |
664 ISO |
Leica M8 |
59 |
21.1 bits |
11.3 Evs |
663 ISO |