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, Panasonic S1 has a
24.0MP Full frame (35.6 x 23.8 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Panasonic S1'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 S1 sensor size comparison.
Canon 5D MIII and Panasonic S1 have almost the same sensor size, so neither of them has any significant advantage over the other in terms of providing control over depth of field when used with the 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 Panasonic S1 sensors have been tested by DxO and the results show that S1 has a better overall score of 95, 14 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 |
Panasonic S1 |
95 |
25.2 bits |
14.5 Evs |
3333 ISO |